The Ordination of Mark Carley (Part 1)

Ordination, Church Government, and the Weight of the Ministry

Brian, let's give it about one minute and we'll close the door, okay? Welcome, ladies and gentlemen and members of Ascension Presbyterian Church. I have a couple of announcements and explanations that will help you for the evening.

The ordination of gospel ministers, elders, in our form of church government is conducted by presbytery. In our spring presbytery, Mark Carley was presented as a candidate. He completed an exhaustive written exam, endured and passed a challenging oral exam before our Candidates and Credentials Committee, and sustained the approbation of the presbytery as a whole after completing the floor exam before the whole presbytery.

At that presbytery, I was charged with forming a commission to act on behalf of presbytery to complete the ordination. With the presence and participation of the Reverend Keith Bradshaw of Heritage Church, Centerville, Tennessee, Dr. Tom Penning of Jubilee Church, Valley Center, Kansas, and Reverend Michael Ware of Holly Ridge Presbyterian in South Carolina, we have a quorum.

This is an important day in the life of Mark Carley and for Ascension Presbyterian Church. For Mark, this is the culmination of 20 years of preparation. Since his conversion, God has been growing, maturing, and sanctifying his life that he might shoulder the heavy responsibility of providing shepherding oversight in Christ's Church.

He is now under a stricter judgment. He is now a target for the enemy. He will now be engaged in a fiercer battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. He's even going to draw a friendly fire from the covenant people of God.

The false sons within our pale will despise him. The mantle of responsibility for elders is heavy. He will have to give an account for the souls entrusted to his care, but on the flip side, he will also enjoy peculiar benefits.

He will get to preside over the corporate worship of our great God. His preaching will have real authority. He will invoke God's presence. He will administer the sacraments, and he will even pronounce God's own blessing upon the people.

He will carry a rod and a staff, and gently and lovingly directing the sheep to safety, directing them to health, and he will even be required to fend off the lions and bears that seek to destroy them.

It is a profoundly amazing thing for God to take a man and make him a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mark Carley, may the Lord's blessing and the filling of his Holy Spirit be upon you and remain upon you all the days of your life.

Let's take a couple moments and reflect upon these things, and our brother Keith will come and call us to worship. Let's take just a moment. Please stand now for the call to worship.

Worshiping at Mount Zion in the Presence of Christ

What a true honor and great privilege it is to gather as the people of God to worship him, and so as we gather this evening, we come in awe and expectant joy, and we come in holy reverence for, as the scriptures tell us, when we gather to worship the Lord our God, we have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Therefore, O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God, and we are his people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, we lay hold of the precious promises that God has taken us to be his own in Christ.

He is our God, and we are his people. He is the good shepherd, and we are his sheep. He has united us to himself in Christ. Come now, let us worship him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength as we worship him in spirit and truth.

Join me now in prayer. Our gracious Father, we are eternally thankful that in your mercy and kindness, you were pleased to meet with us in worship and to declare your forgiveness as we confess our sins.

And you hear our prayers, and you minister grace as we open wide our mouths to the preaching of your holy word, and you fill us with life-giving truth. Blessed now we pray in your abundant mercy, this our reasonable worship, as we come presenting ourselves living sacrifices, and to behold what a great thing you have done in calling our brother Mark and in setting him apart to serve in your kingdom as a minister of the gospel and as an under-shepherd of your sheep.

May the name of our God be ever praised, for this we pray in the victorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Let us now pray and call out to God our Father that he might be present and pour out his spirit upon this time of worship.

Our Father in heaven, we have come to worship and bow down and kneel before you, the Lord our maker, for you are our God, and we are the people of your pasture, the sheep of your hand. We come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He is our advocate with the Father. He is the only mediator between God and man. He always lives to make intercession for us. Through him, we boldly come to your throne of grace. In his name, we earnestly seek you.

O Lord, our souls thirst for you. Our flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Bow your heavens and come down. Inhabit the praises of your people. Remember your promise, O Spirit of Christ, to be present in the midst of your worshiping people when two or more have gathered in your name.

Condescend to us. Grant us the joy of your fellowship. Speak to us through your word, and be blessed by our praise and adoration, for we come in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Amen.

Please, Neil. Let us join together in confessing our sins. Almighty God, we confess that we are unworthy of the least of your mercies. You have made us for yourself, but we have gone on our way to do our own pleasure.

We have not loved you with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength, and with all our minds. We have been sinfully intent on our own advancement and have passed our neighbor by on the other side of the road.

In mercy and for Christ's sake, forgive our sins.

Glory.

Turn us on our unworthy ways to walk in the ways of your blood. Grant us your grace to deny ourselves and to encourage and bless others ahead of ourselves. Cause us to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as you in Christ have forgiven us.

Amen.

Please rise for the assurance of pardon. For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We are singing a cappella this evening. I'm gonna ask you to turn in the hymnal to number 441. Jesus shall reign. The name of our church is Ascension Presbyterian Church, and today happens to be Ascension Day, the actual day commemorating the ascension of our Lord to the right hand of his father in heaven.

Let us sing with this in mind, number 441, and DJ's going to start us on the note.

The Ascension of Christ and the Church's Praise

As you remain standing, let us turn to the Lord our God in prayer. Our gracious, all-wise, all-knowing, most loving Father in heaven, it is to you alone all glory and praise and honor are due. And how true it is that the risen Lord Jesus Christ reigns and rules in power and glory at your right hand.

And by him, those bound in sin leap to loose their chains, the weary find eternal rest, and all who suffer want are blessed. As we live our lives in the light of the gospel of grace, we humbly confess with thankful hearts that apart from the presence of your Holy Spirit having been poured out in power upon the church, we would be so easily discomforted by fear and frailty and confusion.

We give you thanks, trying God, for enfolding us in your perfect love and leading us before the throne of grace in humble boldness and hopeful confidence. As we gather in worship for this special ordination service, we are thankful that you have heard our prayers and called and equips Mark to come alongside Christopher and to serve as an elder to the bride of Christ.

We're thankful that he has studied well to show himself approved, that you have given him spiritual gifts to build up and edify the church, that you have given him a shepherd's heart and equipped him to teach and preach your word.

We're thankful that this congregation has given their approbation and affirmed his calling to the office of elder, and we therefore ask you, O Lord, to bless him as he serves you in faith and labors in word and prayer.

May he ever exalt you in the midst of your people, offer spiritual sacrifices to you and boldly proclaim the gospel of salvation and rightly administer the sacraments of the new covenant. Make him a faithful pastor, a patient teacher, and a wise counselor, grant that in all things he may serve you without reproach so that your people may be strengthened in your name, glorified by all who bear witness to his service.

O Father, as the good shepherd, go before him, lead him in the plain path to do your will and to do it courageously. Keep him from sin and in his success, prevent him from becoming proud and protect him by the mighty hand of God.

We pray for this congregation that you would grant them honor and respect for Mark as pastor, that they would be patient with him in the years to come, knowing the weight of responsibility he bears and make them eager to encourage him in the ministry with ready words of both affirmation and comfort.

And O Lord, grant grace to his dear wife, Sheila, that she may be a constant support and help in time of need and a wise counselor and trusted companion as together they look to Jesus, never ceasing from seeking you and your kingdom.

And to be with you and your children.

Until it vanishes into sight. This we pray with confidence and joy in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Amen.

Qualifications and Duties of Elders in 1 Timothy 3 and 1 Peter 5

1 Timothy chapter three, verses one through seven. Now let us hear the word of God. This is a fateful saying. If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.

For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the house of God? Not a novice, less being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Now, 1 Peter five, one through seven. Let us now hear the word of God. The elders who are among you, I exhort. I, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you. Thus far, the reading of God's word.

At Ascension on Sunday, we confess our faith through the singing of the Apostles' Creed. And we're gonna sing that together. DJ, if you'd start us, please. The church is one foundation. We have honored our distinguished guests.

We are giving honor to our brother, Mark Carley, but all glory, lot and honor belongs to Christ, our Redeemer and King. Christ builds his church. We are under shepherds, we are mere men, but Christ is the church's one foundation.

Let's exalt the glorious name of Christ with all of our hearts. Let's sing the church's one foundation. DJ.

Prayer for the Church, the Needy, and the Next Generation

Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being, we, your beloved children, offer to you our humble praises for having preserved us from the beginning of our lives to this day.

Especially do we praise you for having delivered us from the dangers and uncertainties of this past week. For these mercies, we bless and magnify your glorious name, humbly beseeching you to accept this, our morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

For this sake, who laid down in the grave and rose again for us, your son, our savior, Jesus Christ, fulfilling now, oh Lord, our desires and petitions as we be blessed by us, granting us this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come, life everlasting.

Amen.

I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for our denomination, for this church, and for all ministers and missionaries. Pray for the church.

Lord.

There will be great growth of your.

I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the bereaved, the burdened, and for the widows, orphans, and prisoners. Pray for those in any need or trouble.

Kindness and mercy to them, we do it unto you. And press this upon our hearts as we go about our neighborhoods, as we go about the local church and our jobs. We pray specifically, Lord, for those who are in need in our local context.

We think of Daria as she has continued to ask for prayers. We pray that you have mercy upon her and heal her. We pray, Lord, for Chanel's mother, that you would have mercy upon her and that you would heal her, give her the medication that she needs and the support from her family and from the church.

We pray, God, for anybody in this local body who is sick. We pray that your mercy would be upon them and that the church would come alongside them. And Lord, we pray for our local communities, that all those who are in prison, who are sick, that you would have mercy on them and comfort them and that you would use us to be ministers.

Of the gospel of Jesus to them.

For all this in Christ's name, amen.

I ask your prayers for those who do not know Christ and for those who seek a deeper knowledge of him. Pray that they may find and be found by him.

Lord, hear our prayers.

And we pray, yet come you, we pray, Father, that you would bring them to yourself, that you would cause them to see the folly of their sin and that they would turn away from it, repent of it, and seek to follow you in all things.

We pray, Father, for those who have already come to you. We pray, Father, that you would bless them, bless us, help us all to seek after you and your righteousness all the days of our lives. And equip us, Father, to, as you've managed to do, to go out into all the world and seek out the lost and bring them to you.

I ask your prayers for our children and future generations which will be born to them. Pray that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth through them.

Lord, hear our prayers.

Pray that we would be.

Sharpening our arrows day and day as parents. So when the time comes that we may deploy them into the world, shoot them with the light of the gospel, with the glorious name of the reign of Christ into the dark world.

That is, pass them away, fill your time with consolation. We pray that you would, by your grace, give us this, according to your spirit, to be after you.

Pray that we may have grace to glorify Christ in our own day.

Lord, hear our prayers. Our gracious heavenly Father, when your son, our savior, Jesus Christ, was in his earthly ministry, he commanded us to let our light so shine before men that they would see our good works, to give you the glory.

We pray, Father, that you would give us the grace to carry out this command, and we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen. Amen.

Psalm 63 and the Shepherd's Call to Feed, Oversee, and Exemplify

Please stand and take the full sheet of paper that says, Oh Lord, my God, most earnestly. This was a Psalm of the month for us a few months ago. We are striving earnestly to be a Psalm-singing church, and the Psalm was a great blessing to our congregation.

This is from Psalm 63. DJ, when you're ready. Because we have already read the passage of scripture, I would like you to go ahead and take your seats. It's going to be the shortest message I probably have ever preached, because a lot of the most important things our dear brother, Dr. Penning, will be bringing to us in the charge.

But I've been very struck by this passage for a number of years, particularly when I started into ministry, and I have a couple of things I'd like us to consider. We're gonna look again, if you have your Bibles, to 1 Peter in chapter five.

1 Peter chapter five. One of the first things that I am struck by in this text is Peter's self-description. He points out, he is exhorting the elders who are hearing his epistle, and he says, the elders who are among you, I exhort.

Now, it shouldn't surprise us as an apostle that Peter would have an exhortation. This is one of the three. This is the chief spokesman of Christ's church. This is the apostle to the Jews. But Peter puts himself on another level, and this is one of the beauties of our form of church government, the idea of presbyters and elders.

He says, I who am a fellow elder, Peter, the preacher at Pentecost. The second one to the empty tomb of the apostles. He says, brothers, I'm one of you. The apostle Peter saw himself as one of many elders serving in Christ's church, under shepherds, under the great shepherd.

This is very helpful for us if the great one, Peter, mighty in faith, brash in words and actions, nearing the end of his life, he says, I'm one of the elders. I'm just one of the presbyters in Christ's church.

He's a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. There are three things that Peter says in this section that are duties, that are commands to the elder, and I hope that Mark will pay close attention and that we will joyfully enter into this conversation to elders, that we might be better churchmen and women and children, and for us who are elders, that we would be better elders.

The first is to shepherd the flock. Shepherd the flock of God. Peter calls the elders of the churches to care for the flock, to feed them, to preach to them the food that they need, the unvarnished, pure word of God, to feed them out of their own hands his sacrament, to care for them as a nursing mother cares for her children.

Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you. Rule them with such clarity, discipline as the word of God prescribes. Feed the flock of God. When I was thinking about this, and I'm so thankful for the recovery of expositional preaching in the churches, where men would take a portion of scripture and make that the theme of the message.

What a glorious time to live in. It wasn't so long ago that guys didn't do that very much in the church. But there's something about a feeding. We could feed a prisoner. We could callously give someone who is starving bread to eat and relieve a temporal need of a growling belly or starvation.

But this idea of feeding is nourishing and nurturing and caring for the flock. It's filled with love and concern. The elders of Christ's church have to genuinely love the sheep of Christ's fold. Second, the pastors in verse two, the elders are to be overseers.

That's where we get the word bishop or episcopal in our ideas of government. But they are the ones who are called to take spiritual oversight over the people of God. And they do this, again, with personal care and extreme vigilance, knowing that there are dangers to the sheep that are resident within and from without.

The elders of Christ's church have to watch over God's flock because they have been committed to this charge, but we must never forget, Mark, that these are not your sheep or my sheep or the covenant Presbyterian sheep.

These are the sheep whom the shepherd loves. These are the sheep who belong to Christ. And finally, maybe fallen out of fashion the most, we are called to be examples. In verse three, it says, we're not going to be lords over them.

That's how the pagan rulers rule. They rule with iron fists and they rule with tyranny and they rule with injustice, but we rule with the love of Christ and the sword of the spirit and the staff of the loving shepherd.

But we're called to live lives that are worthy of emulation. One of the most powerful factors in the life of any elder is his own personal walk and devotion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark, you must be, ever increasingly so, a good example to the flock.

There's a lot of hard things that come with being an elder, but verse four tells us that we get something really good. It says, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

I think there are rewards in heaven for faithful ministers of Christ's gospel that other people don't get to get. And I hope, Mark, that you will labor to pursue that crown of glory, for the glory of Christ and the good of his church.

Please pray with me. Oh Lord, we thank you for your servant, Peter, a colossal failure in some respects, but redeemed, restored, renewed. We ask, oh Lord, that the session of Ascension Presbyterian Church and all the sessions of the Covenant Presbyterian Church denomination would exhibit and demonstrate these key characteristics and attributes of faithful shepherds.

Oh Lord, cause us to feed and nourish your flock. Help us to give proper oversight without transgressing bounds that are not ours. Help us to have such love and personal care for the people of God that we would do everything in our power to restrain any evil that would come against them, and that they would walk in holiness and joy and thanksgiving and the love of Christ.

And oh Lord, I ask that you would make Mark and the elders of our denomination great examples to the flock, that they would practice holiness, mortification of their sin, that they would deny themselves and seek the glory of Christ and the good of the sheep, the church, his bride above all of their own interests, and that the doctrine that they preach and recommend and commend to the people would be the doctrine that they live.

And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm gonna ask Dr. Penning now to come and lead us in the important business we have come here for.

Jesus Christ and Him Crucified as the Center of Ministry

I really like my church and my family. And this summer has been a summer for me of traveling. Primarily it seems for two reasons. Reason number one is I've been able to officiate at a number of weddings.

I love weddings. The other thing that I get to do is I get to officiate at Mark's ordination. And sometimes as I lay in bed at night contemplating things, trying to go to sleep, I wonder if I'm almost becoming a Roman Catholic.

Relax.

I haven't. But these two things, marriage and what I'm gonna call in Catholic terms holy orders, have become precious to me the older I get. They are not sacraments. They are not something that God has set aside that is an actual manifestation of God's grace.

But they are two things that point us to God's grace. My wife that I see every day, or talk to her on the phone when I should be talking to friends. And your pastor, your elders, are this example of grace.

And so when I told the Jubilites, that's what we call ourselves at Jubilee, that I was coming on another presbytery trip and I began to see the eyes roll when they found out it was an ordination. They joined me in rejoicing.

And so practically speaking, humanly speaking, that's why I'm here. And the particular thing that I get to do now is I get to charge you. Now, this is not a sermon, but it's gonna sound almost like an exegesis of the word charge.

Because what is it? What am I supposed to do here? In your bulletins it says, charge the elder, and then I get to charge the congregation. And again, as I laid in my bed thinking about what possibly this phrase could mean, I thought about and built a charge on the idea of electricity, electricity.

Charging you with this Holy Spirit's power, but I didn't like that. And then I thought about the credit card in your pocket that you charge. And I almost went with that. And by the way, you see what I'm doing?

I'm cheating. I'm getting all the things that I didn't decide to do by telling you that I didn't do them because I think they're all facets of this word charge. I thought about how the life of a Christian charges things to our Savior.

And then I thought about charging as an instruction. We charge each other to do a particular thing. And that's certainly what Elder Breno preached on, and that is a part of it. But in the end, I decided to speak about a charge in military terms.

I love British history. I love Cavalry history. It's a real word, look it up. And my mind caught on that and led me to read this verse. I'm gonna ask that you stand. Not that this passage of scripture is any more holy than any other passage of scripture that we have read tonight, or we'll be reading later tonight, but in a representative way, this is the focus of the charge.

And I'm about to say, I'm actually gonna do something a little strange. We're gonna memorize this verse together. It's only like nine sentences. Okay, I'm gonna read it first, and then we're gonna do it phrase by phrase.

This is the charge right here. Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians 2, verse two. And he writes, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

See if we can put it all together. You're bright people. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Please be seated and pray with me. My Lord and my God, I hear, we hear Paul's charge to hear and see and know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. May it be so. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. You see, the reason we need to hear this is that there are so many distractions.

Elder Breno correctly said, what a time to live. You can turn on any radio station or go in so many churches, not enough, but so many churches and hear not just a sermon, but the word of God preached.

And it is rich. And we have so many opportunities to find this truth and love it, and this truth and love it, and this truth and love it, and this truth and love it. But I fear that in doing so, sometimes we forget the simple truth that Paul urges his readers, us, and you today to keep in the forefront of our mind.

Many years ago, I was an associate pastor at a church, and I would get in arguments with one of our hippie members. Do you have hip, don't, don't, don't look. Hippie members are, they were like, they were the Jesus people of the seventies who now are, they're wonderful Christians, but he would, I would come into his office.

He was an artist who did glasswork, beautiful things I still have in my home. And he would display these things and talk about his feelings. And I would say, well, what you have to understand is that there are wonderful points of doctrine that you omit in your feelings.

And I would lecture him on infralapsarianism and superlapsarianism and all of these things. I really did. And he would look me in the eye and he'd say, Tom, all that matters is Jesus. And I'd say, yeah, but you know, this other thing and this other thing.

And boy, we have these things that we love and they're dear and they're true. But Paul reminds us, and think of who this is. This is the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, who wrote all the hard parts of the New Testament.

Pagans look at and say, this is the guy who invented Christianity. He did not invent Christianity, but he's the guy who wrote about it clearly with every inroad and tiny bit of doctrine that you can possibly wanna know about.

Read his epistles and you will find them. And what does he say here? He says, let me know nothing but the five points of Calvinism. Let me know nothing than the Westminster Confession of Faith. He says, no, let me know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and his crucified friction.

That's his charge to you. So it's not just Paul who says this. This shouldn't surprise us. It's Jesus himself who says this. The Pharisees come to him and say, tell us all about the law. So what did he do?

He recited the entire book of Deuteronomy to them. I guess first he would have recited the book of Exodus to them, and then Deuteronomy, because it's the second law, right? He recited all, no, what did he suffer?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor. See what he's doing? He's saying there's a key point. There's something you need to get your head around that you must not remove your head from.

Don't be distracted by these other things. And this is where the idea of the charge came to me. So we're gonna look at that idea of the charge. So you know what a charge is, right? It's a military thing, and it was the cavalry, which is the best part of the old 19th century armed forces moving across Europe.

This is Napoleon, this is Wellington, this is all that kind of stuff. It's the war between the states, has these kind of things too, and there's a charge. And a charge was not just a random event. It had particular profound things that the more I thought about it, the more I found amazingly richly in Paul's message here.

So first, this is not a military history class, but it's very similar to it. A charge gives you direction. The cavalrymen knew where to go when the charge happened. Imagine what it would be if you had this focus group of cavalry officers on their great steeds with their swords, their sabers, and their things, and then they all just said, all right, ready, set, go, and they'd all just go any old direction.

It might be effective, sort of, maybe, if they were British, because the British always win. But no, you have to go in the right direction. It wasn't just charge, it was charge there. And they all knew where, because the officer who called the charge, who said to the bugler, blow the charge, did it while the officer was headed that way.

I want, please answer, if the bugle charges when the officer's facing that way, which way will they go? That way, and that way is to Jesus Christ and him crucified. And Mark, while this is you, this is not yet charge in the congregation, but it's not just your sermons.

Every word you utter, every statement you make, every sermon you preach, every lesson you teach should have one goal, one aim, one direction, Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I hear you thinking, your brains are loud.

You're saying, well, yeah, of course. We always talk about Jesus. No, we do not. One of the things that has grieved me the last year and a half is I've been listening to exegetical sermons, and I find them to be great theological treatises sometimes, but they're not aimed at Jesus.

One of my seminary professors was a man named Dr. Simon Kistemacher, and he has written some commentaries, and I had the honor to be his assistant and help him write the commentaries. I'm saying that with my tongue in my cheek, which is why I stumbled over the words, because I, you know, yes, Dr. K, I will put a comma there where you tell me to put, but I got to do it with him.

It was my job that allowed me to have a scholarship. And Dr. Kistemacher wrote one particular commentary while I was in seminary on the book of Galatians. He signed my book of Galatians commentary, Tom, thank you for your work in this.

He didn't give me credit in the book itself, but nonetheless, after I graduated from seminary, I ended up serving in a church in Australia, and Dr. Kistemacher and I stayed in touch, and one time he came out to visit me in Australia.

While I was preaching through the book of Galatians. And I thought about it, on the Sunday he was there, I said, well, maybe it's time instead to preach that sermon on the book of Genesis, chapter 16.

But instead, I said, I'm just gonna keep going with it, I'm just gonna preach the next one, so I will admit in a confessional way that I spent more time preparing that sermon than the sermons I just gave to my congregation, because this was Dr. K coming to my house, coming to my church, and I preached that sermon.

Had dinner at my house afterwards, and I'm eating very shakily, wondering what's he gonna say, what's Dr. K gonna say about my sermon, and he didn't say anything. The week went on, nothing. Four or five days later, I couldn't stand it anymore.

I said, Dr. K, please, you've said nothing about the sermon. Can you comment on the sermon this last Lord's Day? And he said, and this is a great imitation of him, by the way, Tom, your exegesis was excellent.

Your hermeneutical, he pronounced it right, hermeneutical skills were on display for all to see. Your application spoke to the heart. You clearly understand this chapter of the book of Galatians and he looked me in the eye and he said, but where was Jesus?

I was shattered and it changed my preaching. The last question I still ask myself in every sermon prep is where's Jesus? And if I don't do that, I'm ignoring his charge. The charge to you is always to ask, what does this have to do with Jesus?