Distinct Disciples - Luke 17:1 10

He came to die, God, in the form of Christ, as a sacrifice to appease God's wrath and make us right, so the judge can freely justify and be just.

Well, good morning and welcome to Faith Bible Church. We're glad you are here on this beautiful... Maybe we're going to start spring again after a few days of cool and cold. Our Hawaiian friends are just over here glowing like this, but we're glad you're all here this morning.

For announcements, just a few prayer meeting this evening at 6, Missionary of the Month. You can read more about Darcy Berglin and Ethnos 360 with Bible translators there in Indonesia. I know family went back there for a couple weeks in Jakarta and predominantly Muslim.

It's almost entirely Muslim out there, and so it's a difficult ministry. We can be praying for them and understanding more about their ministry would bless them. Bible study will be Wednesday, April 17, at 5 .30, praying with Paul.

Women's Bible study is Saturday, the 20th, at 10 a .m., and so ladies, take a note of that. Why don't we open up our service in prayer? Lord God, we thank you, Father, that you have brought us here today.

Lord, that you have purposed each one of us to be here. Lord, according to your ways, Lord, I pray that we would honor you with all that we do as we worship you and bring our prayers to you, bring our songs to you, Father.

Bring a message to you, Father, that Pastor is going to share with each one of us, Father. God, we are just put this entire service in your care, Lord. We pray for those that are home, that are sick, that are away, that are traveling, Father.

May your presence be evident to them. May they take time just to worship you in their hearts, Lord, as we can do every day of the week, every moment of our lives, Father. But it is a special blessing to gather corporately in this body to share with one another and to rejoice in your goodness and your grace, Father.

Lord, we have so much to be thankful for, and, Lord, may we just express that today as we have a sacrifice of praise in honor of you, Lord. So, God, you are the center of our attention today, Jesus Christ, and we thank you for all that you have done in giving us hope eternal.

So, God, bless our time, and we commit our time to your care. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand together. Our first song is going to be Trust and Obey. It's a simple message. Sometimes, even as believers, it's sometimes hard to do.

We're not very trusting of a trustworthy God, and are we always obedient? Not always. But should we? Yes, we should be. So, trust and obey. There is no other way. So let's sing that together.

I'm going to be reading from Matthew chapter 18, verses 6 through 9.

That's Matthew chapter 18, verses 6 through 9. But whoever causes one of these little ones, he's talking about the children, who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he was drowned in the depth of the sea.

Woe to the world because for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire.

And if your eyes cause you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hellfire. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of these words.

Well, our next song, it's entitled, He Came to Die. I asked this young man to come up and join me, and he kind of was hearing headlights for a moment, and he took it in, and he said, Harold really needs some help.

So I appreciate his mercy. This is an excellent song. It's written around Romans 3, 21 through 31, and it's by Solace, and they do a lot of just straight-up scripture. It's very true to God's Word. So this one's entitled, He Came to Die.

He came to die, God, in the form of Christ, as a sacrifice to appease God's wrath and make us right, so the judge can freely justify and be judged. As a sacrifice to appease God's wrath and make us right, so the judge can freely justify and be judged.

Sacrifice to appease God's wrath and make us right, so the judge can freely justify and be judged. It was God who.

Please turn with me to Luke chapter 17, verses 1 through 10. Luke chapter 17, verses 1 through 10. Then he said to the disciples, it is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. And the apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith. So the Lord said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

And which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and sit down to eat? But will he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?

Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise, you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded saying, we are unprofitable servants, we have done what was our duty to do.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful that you take care of us in so many ways. Thank you for protecting us and providing for us in every way possible. We pray that today we would live in a manner worthy of our calling in Jesus Christ.

Help us to live in our identity as your children and help us to look forward to the coming of Jesus. Help us to never forget what is truly valuable and help us to never forget what Jesus had done for us on the cross, that he would suffer for our sin and rise again from the dead.

May your spirit work in all of our hearts to listen to your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Luke chapter 16 was mainly for the Pharisees. And last week, a great theme was, what then do we do with our wealth?

And of course, the importance is the eternal perspective. What's eternally valuable? That's where we commit to. Now, from his teaching on wealth to the Pharisees, Jesus here teaches his disciples how to live as Christ followers.

The audience changes from the Pharisees to the disciples. And of course, the change in the audience and the change in the teaching shows that there is a difference between Christians and the Pharisees.

Christians need to be different than the Pharisees. They also need to be different than the world. And we live in a country where many Christians look awfully too similar to the world. They enjoy the same filth.

They use the same swear words. They live in the same debauchery. On the other hand, Christians, in fact, let the world define what we ought to be, right? The world tells us Christians that we need to accept and welcome their sin.

The world tells us, the church, that we're too judgmental. And that's the unfortunate outcome of letting the world define the disciples of Christ. Unfortunately, Christians have bought into it. We often let the outsiders define the church more so than how our Savior defines his people.

Today, this passage sets the record straight because we will hear from the Savior, the Master himself, how his followers ought to be. The main point of this text is that what are the characteristics of Christ's disciples?

What are the characteristics of Christ's disciples? First, Christians take sin seriously, yet are abundantly merciful to the repentant. Christians take sin seriously, yet are abundantly merciful to the repentant.

After addressing the religious establishment, Jesus turns his attention to his followers. It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come. Here, the literal word for offense is stumbling block, a block in which you trip over.

Think of traps, entrapment. And Jesus warns his disciples that it is impossible to avoid entrapment of sin. You can't live a perfect life as a Christian on this side of the redemptive history. So, what type of entrapment is Jesus warning against?

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. In this context, the offender is someone who causes these little ones to stumble.

So, the type of sin in mind is some sort of false teaching or a type of sin that would lead Christians away from Christ. This could even be not a theological thing, but rather by practice. It's both false teaching and false practice.

Think about abuses. Many people have turned away from Christ because their abusers have abused them in the church.

Right?

Think about those who manipulate and dehumanize other people in the church, and those people are genuinely not saved. Now, what will happen to those who cause these little ones to stumble? It would be more profitable for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he's thrown into the sea.

A millstone was a heavy stone object that was used to grind up grain and mill. This is rather a graphic way of describing a sure certain death. After all, a heavy millstone around one's neck would guarantee drowning in the sea.

Millstones sink, and it will sink with whatever it's tied to. And for most of us, we have never seen a millstone, so a modern illustration might be it would be a better deal for the false teacher or abuser to have a Ford F -150 around his neck and the truck driven into the sea rather than to face God's wrath for the abuse or apostasy that he's caused.

Here, Christians are called these little ones. And in Matthew's passage that Richard read, in that context, the little ones are children because Matthew shows that Jesus is receiving little children. In Luke, because he's speaking to the disciples, the little ones are just any Christian.

And what that means is Christ views all of his followers in this tender and loving way as little children. That's how Jesus views each one of you. You are precious little ones in his eyes, no matter how old you are.

And he is furious against those who attempt to drive you away from him. Right? I think that imagery plays out well. Just as a mother would be protective of her little child, or a father be protective of his little child, Christ is protective of you.

Now, if you have experienced any form of abuse in the church, spiritual, verbal, emotional, relational, sexually, physical, what this means is you have someone on your side who did not miss a single thing.

Maybe your former pastor or church leader swept it under the rug. It's like, oh, thank you for sharing, but nothing happened to the abuser. I think that's even worse than not believing. At least if they don't believe you, it makes sense why they didn't act.

But if they believed you and didn't act, that's just manipulation. Maybe no one really believed you, and they just carried it on, business as usual. However, Jesus tells us that he will stand by what happened.

He will stand by the truth. Although the perpetrator may continue to fake his faith and harm other innocent believers, there will be a day in which they have to face God's wrath, and no number of people standing by his side will help him on that day.

Jesus tells us it would have been better for them to die an unavoidable, painful death than to have an exit interview with him. All that is to say, Jesus will make the perpetrator pay even if the earthly justice fails, even if church discipline is absent.

On that day, those perpetrators, abusers, false teachers, would wish for death rather than to face Jesus. Although the first two verses here show how seriously sin needs to be taken, the next two verses show how mercifully we ought to be with one another.

If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. Sin is not something we tolerate among Christians. If sin is ever swept under the rug, it festers the community. It rots the core.

Hence, Jesus commands us to correct one another, rebuke, correct. If someone wrongs you, correct him. What does that mean? First, it means correction or rebuke must be based upon a real sin. Oftentimes, people try to correct another person based upon preferences, man's standard.

Oh, no, no.

You can't be sending your kid to that school.

Oh, no, no, no.

You can't be doing this, right? Man's standard, right? You have to do this at least three times a week. Man's standard. But sin must be according to God's standard. That's the first premise of correction.

The rebuke has to be based upon real sin, which means if someone corrects you and they can't tell you where in Scripture they are getting this, then that's not a great correction. That's actually a false correction.

Second, Christians are a community that's committed to sanctification. Christians are a community that's committed to becoming holier. We desire to see each other conform to the image of Christ. We want to see brothers and sisters we see here become more like Christ.

In that sense, the correction is not some busybodies do just to, because they have nothing else to do, but it's a committed activity in which we want to focus on the other person's best. I want you to be more like Christ.

Not a way to put you down, but a way to build you up. That's biblical correction. And that's because we pursue God's best for one another. We want God's best for you. Not just mediocre until he comes back.

Now, after correction and he repents, Jesus commands us to forgive him. Let me clarify, saying sorry is not repentance. That also means saying I'm really sorry is also not repentance. Repentance is a complete turning away in life's trajectory.

It's turning away from sin, and it's turning toward God. It's not just, oh, I won't do it again.

It has to show.

It has to show. Repentance is motivated by our remorse of first offending God, because when we sin, we are primarily offending God. We've sinned against God. And then, feeling the remorse of offending others.

It's not motivated by the negative consequences that we will face. Behavioral modification because you may go to jail is not repentance. Behavioral modification because someone's angry at you is not repentance.

It has to come from the heart. It has to change from the heart. The desire to turn away from sin and turn to God, because you've just offended the holy God and wronged a person made in God's image.

That's repentance,.

Which means repentance is evidential. There are evidences of the changed life. It means actions, attitude, and words are different in a repentant person. Now, when such a sinner repents, we forgive him.

The caveat is that the sinner truly repents, not just the word of mouth, but with his whole life. Not just for one day, but he has changed the trajectory of his life. This does not mean perfection now.

It means he's walking away from what he used to be living in. Of course, one may wonder, what is the extent of our forgiveness? Verse 4 says, And if he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him.

Jesus uses this figurative language here to portray the amount of mercy we dispense unto each other. If a person sins against you seven times a day and repents seven times, we must forgive him. The point here is not that seven is the standard.

It's not like, okay, you just reached eight.

It's like, oops.

And also, the point here, what's happening here is that when someone sins against another person seven times in a day, that is excessive. But that's precisely the point. It's what we call a hyperbole, an exaggeration, to emphasize the abundance of mercy that we have for one another.

When our brother or sister sins against us and then genuinely repents, right, not just, I'm sorry, but genuinely repents, reconciles, makes it right, restores what he has wronged, we need to receive them back.

The key concept is genuine repentance. That's how merciful the church has to be. When there's genuine repentance, no matter how uncomfortable it is, we receive them back. It does not mean we receive the abuser back without seeing the external evidence of repentance.

In fact, it is extremely dangerous to bring back the abuser to abuse again. They have a track record of abuse. Well, we need to start seeing a track record of kindness. Not just a week, but a longer period.

But we just have to be wise about this to discern whether it's genuine repentance or not. Now, Jesus shows us that Christianity is neither antinomianism nor moralism. Hard word here. Antinomianism means lawlessness.

Anti, we understand anti means. Anti means against, right? Namas means law. So against the law. So against the law. And in fact, that is the tune of our culture. You can't tell me what to do. You don't have authority over me.

Laws are stupid. Laws do not apply to me. From top to bottom, that's the tune of the culture, right? From the highest political offices to people who are homeless. That's the tune of our culture. Lawlessness.

However, when it comes to this church, when it comes to sin in the church, we ought to take it seriously. Especially when it harms other believers. Especially when it drives away other believers. And the reason why we take it seriously is because Jesus takes it seriously.

Jesus does not count abuse as trivial. Jesus does not count false teaching as trivial. In fact, it's so serious that it would be better for the offender to die than to meet Jesus during his exit interview.

And this church will take sin against other believers seriously. We will listen to the abused, the offended. And we will get to the truth of the matter. And we will make sure the law is followed. Now, if we end here, the question is, well, then, are Christians moralistic?

They care about sin so much, they're so judgmental.

Right?

Are they legalistic? Moralism teaches that you're saved by good deeds.

Right?

You can't see that. You can't be doing that. Don't touch that. You must do this instead.

Right?

All these steps that you have to follow. At the core of moralism, there is no mercy. There's no grace. If that's what you're saved by, one false step, you fall from your salvation. When you fall, you're out.

Yet Jesus shows us that Christians ought to receive a repentant sinner back. Not just the first couple of times, but every single time. Well, what if he sins the same way again? Well, if he's truly turning away from sin, you must receive your brother back.

What if I was really hurt by that? If he has truly repented, we have to welcome him back. And that's because Christianity operates on grace, yet does not cheapen grace. Christianity operates on grace, but does not cheapen grace.

We're gracious to each other because God is first gracious to us. After all, God saved us from our sin through Jesus' death on the cross for free. Jesus faced God's judgment for your sin, not because you were going to pay him back.

And that's what grace is. And if it's hard to remember grace, we talked about this during the prayer Bible study. I like the acronym G-R-A-C-E, right? Spells out grace. Great riches at Christ's expense.

Great riches at Christ's expense. What that means is you don't pay for it. It's not your expense. The great riches of salvation, justification, sanctification, glorification, adoption, providence, protection, you name it.

All the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm are yours. Not because you paid for it. Not because you paid even 1 for that. It's given to you at Christ's expense.

That's grace.

Yet, this grace is not cheap grace. Just because you don't contribute to your salvation, it does not mean it is a license to sin. God's grace in Jesus Christ is not so that you live however you want.

Right?

You shipwreck everything you have. You shipwreck your faith and you say, well, Christ will take care of that later. That's not grace. That's cheap grace. That's fake grace. God's grace is rather a transformative grace so that you are no longer the sinner that you once were.

You are graciously given a new identity in Christ. You are saved, adopted children of God. And through His grace, you get to live as one. That's why Paul tells us in Romans 6, well, then do we sin so that grace may abound?

By no means. How can those who have been saved from sin continue to live in it? How can we live in our past identity that we have been saved from? We got to live in our new identity in Christ. And because your identity is changed by His grace, you no longer live in your former sinful identity.

You get to live as children of God. Now, how must we live as Christ's disciples? Christians can accomplish a great deal with only a little faith. Christians can accomplish a great deal with only a little faith.

After hearing such a hard teaching, the apostles do make a request. And the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.

Right?

I mean, the first four verses of this chapter are, they're difficult. You're strict with the sin, but you're merciful like no other. They want Jesus to add to their already existing faith. And I think it's in response to what Jesus had just preached.

I don't know about you, the previous four verses were pretty hard to even receive. Instead of an affirmative action, yes I will, Jesus turns it into a teaching moment. If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

This verse is full of botanical figurative language. So I will define what these plant meanings mean. First, a mustard seed in the Middle East is famously known as being the smallest seeds.

Right?

In the Middle East, mustard seeds are extremely small. And what it's saying is, if you have a faith of a mustard seed, even the presence of the itty-bitty faith, that will be sufficient. Not the quantity.

You don't need a lot of faith in order to live faithfully. You just need a little. Now what's the result? You can tell a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted into the sea, and it will happen. A mulberry tree is known for its extensive root system.

Right?

Very complicated and, you know, fibrous.

Right?

Very stuck to the soil. So hard to uproot. And what Jesus is saying, even if you have the smallest amount of faith, you can tell a deeply rooted tree to be uprooted and thrown into the sea, and it will happen.

Now, we must not interpret this verse as how to start a tree removal service.

Right?

That's what happens when you take literally what's said figuratively.

Right?

This is not to say that, ah, yes, now Faith Bible Church can remove trees for Sacramento, and praise be to God that we have so many trees. No, it's figurative. This means Christians can accomplish great things even with the smallest amount of faith.

Just a small faith leads to a surprising outcome. That's what it is. Just a small amount of faith leads to a surprising outcome. One of my students asked me about a similar verse in Matthew this week.

In Matthew, it's rather than a mulberry tree, it's bigger, it's a mountain. You can tell a mountain, and it will be removed and thrown into the sea. And she actually said, you know, Mr. Cho, I would get car sick when we go on family vacation because the mountain roads are so windy.

So before we get to the mountains, I would pray that the mountain would be moved to the sea so we wouldn't have to go through the mountains. I told her, it's not meant to be taken literally, but it illustrates what great things and faith in God can do.

And I shared a story. In the 1800s, there was a faithful Christian minister named George Miller. Some of you may have heard of him. I have a book of his biography if anyone wants to borrow it. It's extremely encouraging.

If you're ever going through a hard season spiritually. George Miller in his lifetime cared for 10 ,000 orphans without asking for money from a single person. He just believed that God would provide for every penny and God showed himself to be faithful.

One morning, Miller and his orphans gathered around the breakfast table. In this one, you don't even have to read a book. It's actually found on his Wikipedia page. Even the secular source finds it credible.

As they sat around the breakfast table, Miller gave thanks to the Lord for the food they were about to eat. However, what was missing on the table was their breakfast. They had just run out of food, but there were still orphans to feed.

Yet, Miller prayed, thanking God for the food. Just as he finished praying, there was a knock on the door. It was the milkman. Back then, they delivered milk to you. He shared that just now the cart had broken down in front of their house and the milk would obviously spoil by the time the cart gets fixed.

So, the milkman asked, are there any people who might enjoy all of this milk? Of course, there were. A lot more than maybe the milkman thought. Shortly after, the local baker knocks and he shares that he got up early in the morning and the Lord had put in his heart to bake a lot of bread for the orphans.

What once was an empty breakfast table was now filled, and George Miller knew that God would never abandon his orphans. George Miller knew that God would never let his orphans starve because he trusted in God's providence and his faithfulness.

After this, I asked my student, what do you think is a greater act of faith, having a mountain moved or feeding orphans? She said, the latter. Now, you don't need to be George Miller to do what he did.

You can do great things that God has called you to do with just a little faith in him who strengthens you. A lot of the times, new believers, they're so hesitant to serve in ministry that they know, they want to.

They want to serve a certain type of people, but they're scared. They say, I don't know. I don't have enough faith. But what Jesus tells us is that you don't need a lot of faith. You just need a little.

You just need to place the faith in the right person. And that, through that, God will work wonders. Now, what is the posture of Christ's disciples? Christians serve God with a humble and dutiful posture, lest we start getting puffed up with pride of what we can do.

Jesus shares a parable to illustrate what our posture ought to be. And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and sit down to eat?

Now, we get to see the parable from the master's point of view.

Right?

The rhetorical question here is, if you're the master, how would you treat your servant when the servant comes back from his daytime chore? Another question is, is it the master's job to prepare the meal for the servant?

And the obvious answer is, of course not.

Right?

Back then, masters did not prepare the meal for the servants. That was not culturally acceptable. Hence, in verse 8, it says, but will he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?

What it shows is, the master's wishes come first. The master's needs are prioritized first. And verse 9 further develops the result of this service. Does he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded him?

And the answer, of course, is no. The servant's service is not praised because that's what is his duty. Serving the master is the servant's responsibility. And for us, serving Jesus is our responsibility.

Remember, this parable is not a lesson on politeness, but rather how our posture needs to be when we serve God. When we serve God, we place the needs of the masters first. We place the will of the master first, rather.

That's better. It's not that God has needs. But we serve the will of the master first. We prioritize his plan and his tasks first. And even after serving our master, we are not entitled to praises. Christians are not supposed to be the master.

When we serve God, there's no guarantee that you will get any recognition.

And that's okay.

That must be our posture. Hence, verse 10 drives the point home. So likewise, you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.

Read unprofitable as undeserving servants. It's functional, right, rather than identity. When we minister, our posture is that of humble, unentitled, dutiful servants. And this is important because oftentimes, when you share the gospel with the world, people often say, well, what do I get?

Right?

What do I get? And unfortunately, some Christians have started promising things that the master never did. Right, you'll be wealthy. You'll be healthy. The world will love you. No, that is the opposite of what these verses show us.

When Christians serve, our posture must be humble and dutiful. Serving Christ in this world is difficult and unpopular. Serving other Christians can be even hard and painful. Ministry normally does not come with praises and honor from people around you.

And for those of you who have served here in various functions, you know that. Most people don't thank you. They just take it for granted that you'll do it again next week. They call you up, and they expect you to be there, and it's costly.

And what Jesus tells us is, don't expect anything else. That's not the purpose of Christian ministry. The only focus is dutifully prioritizing the master's plan and will. For Christians, we minister as servants, not as celebrities.

We serve because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, not for any recognition. We serve when no one else is looking. We serve when there's no camera rolling. And the reason is, the focus is on the master.

In fact, beware of Christians who draw attention to themselves. Beware of ministers who boast of their accomplishments, those who boast about various celebrity Christians they encounter on a daily basis.

In fact, entering into ministry for the recognition and fame is what we call idolatry. It's no longer the master who is served. It's no longer Jesus who is served. It's you. It's the fame for you. You're the one that's recognized, not Jesus.

And that's because Christianity is not about us, but it's about Christ. And really, the best example of a minister who served to the uttermost is Christ himself. It's, in fact, the master himself. As Christians, we actually serve the master who came to serve.

Philippians 2 verses 5 through 8 tell us, you ought to have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men.

And by sharing in human nature, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Jesus is the suffering servant who died for our sin. When he didn't have to. He died, not just any form of execution, but the most humiliating kind, the crucifixion.

When you see what kind of person Jesus is, the divine son of God, and what he had to become in order to accomplish God's will, we see a portrait of humility. Ultimately, you cannot serve the master who humbled himself to die a humiliating death when you seek personal recognition and fame.

I will end with one interview I think I've shared before. Dr. Carl F. H. Henry was one of the most famous evangelicals of the last century. He advised U .S. presidents. He published books that are still read today.

He was so intelligent that when I talked to some of the students who are still living, students who took Carl F. H. Henry's classes, said, his lectures just went beyond our understanding. He founded Christianity Today, which seems like apostasy today now without him.

Now, there are centers and institutions still named after Carl F. H. Henry. If you find any Henry centers out there in seminaries and Bible schools, it's named after Carl F. H. Henry. Now, this type of man, who was a giant in the evangelical world, did not draw any attention to himself.

And the fact that you may not be familiar with his name is precisely that result. He didn't have a talk show. He didn't have a TV show. He was not a televangelist. He didn't have a megachurch. So much so that in his later years, I think it was in his 80s, an interviewer asked him, how do you stay humble in ministry, having your kind of resume, having your kind of accomplishments?

Carl Henry concisely answered, how can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross? May our posture reflect that of our master who suffered as a servant when we minister. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful for your word, and we're grateful that your spirit works through your word so that we may understand how we ought to live.

Give us the ability and the endurance to live according to how you have taught us to live. Please protect us from the world's influence as to how the church ought to be, but rather may we focus on our master, Jesus Christ, to know how the church ought to live.