Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc: Welcome. The following message is a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is known for ministries such as the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, as well as nationally syndicated radio programs like The Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Our purpose is to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Thank you for listening.

Guest (Male): Would you take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew and the 16th chapter. It's been a wonderful privilege to be with you. I hope to be able to talk to some of you at lunch and tell you again what a blessing it's been to get to know many of you, listen to you, and converse with you, and to benefit from the various speakers.

I have been grateful for that and for the fellowship. I'm thankful for the Alliance and for P&R and all their work in putting this on at Harvey Cedars. What a great blessing it is to facilitate something like this. In terms of our Embers to a Flame, if you're interested in the information on the conference, just give Lynn Downing your information and contact, and he'll get it to you. Some of you had asked about the CD series on Christian Manhood. If you'll give him that, he'll make sure you can get a copy of the six CDs on that.

Now, having said that, one other thing I wanted to say was I forgot what it was. There is a sign-up sheet out here in case you'd like to know when and where our conference is going to be. Yeah, maybe that's what I was supposed to remember. Maybe that was it.

Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful for these moments to conclude our days together. I thank You for the re-establishment of friendships and fellowships, the renewing of friendships and fellowships, and all of those things that were able to be accomplished and much, much more. The respite to get away and think, to be stimulated, and to consider how You would work in and through our lives.

We want to give You the praise. Thank You for saving us. Thank You for calling us unimaginably to care for the bride of Your Son. Father, thank You also that You not only use us, but You use us beyond any expectation of what we would anticipate. In fact, it'll take eternity for us to find out how You've used us and look forward to eternity to finding those things out.

Now, Father, we want to be good stewards of the calling that You've granted to us. Father, You've put before us not only our vocation but the location where we are. We want to serve You well right there. We want to grow where we're planted. So now, guide us with Your word by Your Holy Spirit, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I was trying to think of just one more little tidbit to give you to take back in case you guys are ever out speaking somewhere. The purpose of a joke is to get you and the people you're speaking to together. You don't need them in your church because they already know you and they showed up anyway. One that Kennedy Smartt shared with me was something that maybe most of you have encountered in your ministry. I want to give medals of honor to everybody that teaches the fifth-grade boys' Sunday school class. What a great challenge that is.

If you've ever taught children, what do you know? No matter what you ask them, they have one answer. What is it? Jesus. They know you will never tell them that's wrong. Who built the ark? Jesus. Yes, Johnny, Jesus did, but who did Jesus build it through? They know that. Supposedly, according to Kennedy Smartt, there was this pastor that brought the kids forward. The church did a children's sermon, and he worked hard on the illustration. He sat there and he said, "Now, what's gray? It's got a long tail, it picks up nuts, and it lives up in a tree."

They all sat there, and after a while, Johnny raised his hand. The pastor said, "Okay, Johnny, what's the answer?" He said, "Well, I know the answer's Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me." So what I'm thinking about is I know our confidence is in Christ. As I said earlier, the point of our ministry is the Trinitarian glory of God through the preeminence of Christ as creator, redeemer, and sustainer.

Don't you love that moment when Jesus cleansed the temple twice? Don't you love the moment when he cleanses the temple and they look at him and they say, "By what authority do you do this?" And he says, "This is my Father's house, and it shall be called a house of prayer." Now, all of us go immediately to the call to intercessory prayer for all the nations, but I love that moment. This is my Father's house. In other words, by what authority? I own it. This is ours.

Well, the fulfillment of that shadow, the temple, of course, is Jesus. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, templed among us, tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Not the measured glory in the Holy of Holies, but the glory of the Lord Jesus that is without measure but gratefully veiled in human flesh so that we're not destroyed.

Then, of course, it's fulfilled in the universal church. The Lord calls the church universal the temple of God that he has built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets and indwelt by his Spirit. Then he calls the local church the temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. In 1st Corinthians 3, when he says, "Do you not know that," again, you need a Southern American Standard Translation, "Do you not know that y'all are a temple of the Holy Spirit?"

He's not talking about the individual Christian, which he will in 1st Corinthians 6, but in 1st Corinthians 3, he's talking about that Corinthian church, the local church. I know that the Lord Jesus is our hope. I know that he is our everything. I know that's what we focus upon, so the answer to our ministries is Jesus. But Jesus, I think, has not left us without direction as to how to go about ministry.

It has been my purpose and my assignment to deal with this issue of church revitalization, or embers, a church that once was aflame for Christ and now has embers. How are those embers brought back together and the Lord God fan them into a flame? How does that happen? What I've attempted to do is just go through God's word with you. We've noticed, number one, first day, that church revitalization is not simply a practical necessity.

It is a biblical strategy apostolically designed and delivered in the book of Acts as they strengthen the churches. You've got case studies like the churches in Crete where Titus goes back to revitalize them, or the church at Ephesus where Timothy revitalized. Later, John is the one through whom he gives us the roadmap of revitalization: Remember, Repent, and Recover the first things.

Having looked at that, we then began to trace out Remember, Repent, and Recover. Last night, I did something for the first and last time in my entire life, and that is I tried to cover the ten strategies in one talk. That is the very first time and the very last time I will ever try to do that again. But those ten strategies, if hopefully you were able to enumerate them and work your way through them, because the ten are absolutely crucial.

This is not only because of the fact that they're biblical, but the chronology that I attempted to give you. Where do you start in church revitalization? You go backwards in order to go forward to celebrate, investigate, and then implement what the Lord has done in the past, not to live in the past but to learn from the past, to honor what the Lord has done in the midst of these people and move it into the future.

That will uncover sin that we need to repent of. Now we are on the track of first things, and the first of the first things I delivered to you of first importance is the gospel. So the first of the first things, or strategy number three, is Christ-centered and gospel-driven. Well, then you have to bring the gospel to your own life, so the fourth strategy is personal spiritual formation.

That then leads you to begin to lead your church. The two conduits that God has established that are consistently emphasized in the scripture are the ministry of prayer and the word. God speaks to us through His word; we speak back to God in prayer. So there is to be the Christ-centered, gospel-saturated preaching of God's word, and then, of course, united to protracted revival prayer and persistent intercessory prayer.

We looked at those aspects last night. I didn't obviously get a chance to talk about it, but I am a full believer in expository preaching. I had a guy come to the church one time, and he came up afterwards and he had this big smile. He said, "I am so excited about coming here." I said, "Well, I'm excited about you coming." He said, "I've been listening to you on the radio. I just thought you were from California like everybody else on the radio."

I said, "Oh no, the Lord has not called me there." He said, "Well, I'm just glad you're here." He said, "I've been looking all over for a supposatory preacher." Well, I've got some elders that'll agree with that. So you've got the ministry of prayer, the fifth strategy being the ministry of preaching the word, the primacy of preaching the word of God throughout scripture.

I have a great burden that young men will again capture the primacy of preaching, not the exclusivity of preaching as the means of grace, but the primacy of preaching. I think Spurgeon was right when he said the pulpit is the Thermopylae of Christianity. I am absolutely convinced that whenever God moves, He raises up preachers of the word of God and that the Lord will use that.

But that means you've got to give time to it. That means a church has to be structured right so pastors have the time to do what they need to do to get into the word of God so that it actually is God's word coming through them, not just a talk that they've got that they're able to spit the words from the paper back out to the people.

That leads us now to be ready for strategy number seven, which is mission and vision. Mission's what you do; vision is what you want to be when God's called you to do it. Mission is outlined in God's word, the various passages of scripture, what the church is called to be. I don't care if it's New Jersey or Alabama, Kansas or Kenya; this is what the church is.

Jesus did not ask for architects. He didn't ask for engineers. He called for laborers of the church. We've got an architect; God has designed the church. So don't start with contextualization; start with biblical conformity to what the church is. Then contextualize it into your life and ministry. Then you land it in the context that God's called you, your own generation.

So you've got your vocation of what the church is supposed to be, then the location as it lands. Then you move from mission and vision to leadership multiplication and mobilization. The guy that challenged me that led to the book that I wrote about leadership dynamic, the church becoming a leadership factory where we're actually taking leaders and developing them and putting them into the world, was here for this conference.

His name was Tom Hawkes. Tom was actually a member at Briarwood at Christ Covenant and went out to plant one of our churches. But before that, he was over the church planting of the MNA under Terry Gyger in the Presbyterian Church in America. I'm sorry for the acronyms, those of you that aren't there, but that's the way we Presbyterians are. We've got BPs and OPs and split peas. We've got all kinds of acronyms out there.

So he was over the church planting and said, "Harry, I want you to come talk on leadership multiplication and mobilization." I said, "Tom, I don't have the slightest idea what that talk's supposed to be." He said, "Well, you come on down and meet with me because we're going to figure it out because you're doing it and you need to find out what you're doing."

That's kind of how it helped. I'll never forget when I got the curriculum for leadership development: Character, Content, and Competency. I'll never forget when I got that curriculum. It actually came at an anointing moment. I was at my favorite Scots-Irish restaurant, McDonald's. As I was eating a double cheeseburger, Big Mac, or whatever it is, I can get an anointing right there in a heartbeat.

As I was reading it, that great verse that we all hear at ordination services came to me: "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and consider the outcome of their life. Imitate their faith." So I said, "But that's a followership verse, not a leadership verse." But then I realized the followership is to remember those who led you.

You've got the three points, good Presbyterian verse: Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, consider the outcome of their life, and imitate. So there's your three points: Remember, consider, imitate. But then it struck me. Wait, there's three assumptions about leaders. Remember those who led you. They must have leadership skills, competency.

Who spoke the word of God to you? You can't tell people what you don't know, content. And then they've got to have character worthy of imitation. You go to 1st Timothy 3, seventeen qualifications for a leader. Fifteen of them deal with character. Only two deal with competency. Almost all of our leadership training goes directly to competency.

So I'm actually afraid to teach competencies because I know competencies work. I know they work. But if you put them in the hands of people with the wrong character, then instead of motivation, you've got manipulation. Now, I have one prejudice in my life. I'm about to exercise my prejudice at 3:30 this afternoon. I've got one I know. Do not write me an email; I'm not going to repent of it.

I've got it; this is it. I'm trusting if it's sin, it's covered. And that's when I get on an airplane. This is the only prejudice I know I've got. I get on an airplane, and I look to the left in the cockpit. When I look, I want to see no hair or gray hair. I do not want to look and say, "Do you have a driver's license?" I do not.

Whoever's taking me up at 36,000 feet, I don't want this to be their first rodeo. I want to know, you know, "Have you flown a plane?" "No, but I stayed in a Holiday Inn last night." No, I want to know they've done that. They've done that. So when that guy took off in New York and both engines went out, he said, "Engines are out."

They said, "Land over here." There was a place in New Jersey where they were going to land him, and he said, "Pick me up in a river." He had one minute and 28 seconds to make a decision. You have no idea. Just talk to somebody who's a pilot. You have no idea what that guy did to put that down actually between two ferries.

So when Captain Sully walked out of that plane and I looked and I saw no hair and a little bit of gray hair, it didn't surprise me. That did not surprise me. And by the way, you know something else didn't surprise me? He was the last one out. Because that not only takes competency, it takes character and moral courage to provide that kind of leadership.

There are a lot of people with physical courage and no moral courage. I know a lot of pastors that can out-preach a lot of others and they know theology, but every church they go to, they split. They kill it. And the problem is not their competency nor their content. The problem is their heart and where they need to get in order to occupy that position.

So, character, content, and competency. Leadership, you develop God's people in small group disciple-making, strategy nine. And then finally, the great commitment. In order to give, you have to live. In order to live, you have to give. So that's what we covered. Now I want to just finish up today. This is pretty much, in fact, I want to do a little exercise at the end of this.

I'm not sure whether this will fit in and everything, but I want to do a little thing with you about how you can get started from here. I just wanted to give you a couple of thoughts, and then we will finish. But before I do, I thought you might like to see this video of what I am praying when you go home you don't do. All right? You don't do.

Guest (Male): Imagine a church where every member is passionately, wholeheartedly, and recklessly calling the shots.

Guest (Female): I have a busy work week. By the time Sunday rolls around, I'm tired. So how about a church service that starts when I get there?

Guest (Male): Can do. When you arrive, we begin.

Guest (Male): This guy, he plays by his own rules. We want to find a church where if he starts screaming, we're not the bad guys, right?

Guest (Male): Say no more. If your baby's screaming, you stay seated. The others around you can leave.

Guest (Female): You know, financially, Sherry and I don't give a lot to the church, but we'd sure like to know who does.

Guest (Male): All right, if you join now, you'll know what every person gives in detail.

Guest (Female): When I'm in the church service, can my car get a buff and a wax?

Guest (Male): Not just that, but an oil change and a tune-up.

Guest (Male): Hey, how about tickets to the Super Bowl?

Guest (Male): That's asking too much. I'm serious. If I'm going to join, I want tickets to the big game. All right, you join now, and we'll get you there.

Guest (Child): I'd like a pony.

Guest (Male): Look in your backyard. Me Church, where it's all about you.

Guest (Male): When I saw that, obviously I couldn't help but think about because one of the things that we're doing today is we go to the business world. There's one business book on leadership that I do recommend people to read. It's by Jim Collins, but I don't recommend many because I really don't think the church is a business. We don't produce a product. We are giving away something that's already been purchased, that's given away free, but that people must come and embrace and own.

We have a free gift that costs you everything. So we because we start using these business models and pastors become CEOs and pastors' studies now have become pastors' offices, because all of those things are taking place, I think that is contributing to the lack of the saltiness of the church and the lack of its ability to shine the light as clearly and as God has called us to do.

Then we wonder, why don't our people volunteer freely? Why don't they sacrifice? Well, let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever rented a car? Can I see your hands? Okay. How many of you washed the car before you took it back? There's usually one. I wish Ed Welch was here because you need counseling. There's usually one obsessive-compulsive person that washed a rental car.

Don't try to tell me the reason. There is no reason to wash a rental car. How many of you go down to your grocery store and volunteer to clean the bathrooms? You see, we treat our people as if they're customers, and then we wonder why they treat us as if we're a specialty store. I think that we have got to get back to the biblical concept of what a church is.

I really appreciated what Bob did the other day when he took that great hymn of the church's one foundation, at the appropriate places, made the point: we are the church. And while God has got this church to grow us, He's got us in it to become a part of it. Well, how does God do that through what kind of leaders does He do?

If you'll jot down this first thing, you must have a foundational ministry that has absolute confidence in the victory of Christ on the cross. You must have a ministry, your ministry, everything that you do must have an absolute confidence of the triumph of Christ's work on the cross. I like to tell people, I love the other week I did the word of pardon when we began worship, and I said, "I want to give you all the word of pardon. You're saved by works."

Everybody looked at me. Saved by works? What kind of word of pardon is that? He who began a good work in you will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. It is God's work where the Father sends His Son, the Son gives His life gloriously and triumphantly, and now sends the Holy Spirit into your life. Do you want to know what a Spirit-filled church is? Do you want to know a Spirit-filled church?

It's not any particular gift. The Spirit-filled church is identified where Jesus is being exalted. That's how you know a Spirit-filled church, because the, I like the way J.I. Packer says it, "The Holy Spirit is the shy Spirit." He did not come to call attention to Himself. Jesus said, "When I send to you the other helper, he will what? Bear witness of me."

You remember what we read in Acts chapter one? Go back up to the upper room and pray, and the Holy Spirit will fall upon you. And when he comes, he will give you power, and you will be my witnesses. So you want to know where the Holy Spirit is working? They're making much of Jesus. And the center point of Christ's life, the virgin birth was to get Him to the cross.

The resurrection was the acclamation that the cross had been the victorious work of redemption. And the ascension was to arrive back into glory. He who humbled Himself is now exalted, leading captive a host of captives. And when He comes again, He'll consummate the victory of the cross. So that's where, so when you preach and teach and lead, it is with absolute confidence in the glorious victory and triumph of Christ at the cross where He came to do three things.

This is where I really get encouraged as a pastor. Number one, why did Jesus go to the cross? Gospel of Matthew tells us, "You will call his name Yeshua. You shall call his name Jesus." Why? "He will save his people from their sins." He came to go to the cross to save His people from their sins. Secondly, 1st John chapter three, "Jesus appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the evil one."

Christ went to the cross to defeat His and our enemies. He defeated Satan, sin, death, hell, and the grave. Now, He has not yet destroyed them. He destroys them when He comes. The first time He came, He didn't come to bring judgment; He came to bear our judgment. The next time He came, He'll bring judgment. And when He brings judgment, one of the things that He will do is destroy the enemies that He defeated at the cross.

The last enemy to be destroyed will be death itself, cast into the hell of fire. So Christ won the victory at the cross. So you and I are not allowed in our ministry, we are not allowed to flee Satan. Have you ever noticed how we just mess this thing up so much in our Christian lives that here's, at least I do. What will I do? I will exalt myself and then I pray for humility.

Humility is not given as a prayer request in the Bible. It's given as a life application. Now, you can pray for humility and then duck. But actually the Bible calls us to what? Humble yourself by God's strength and with His grace and mercy. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you.

See, we exalt ourselves and then ask God to humble us. God says, "You humble yourself and I will exalt you at the right time." Here's another one we do. We resist temptation and flee Satan. We resist temptation and we flee Satan. When actually the Bible says the exact opposite. What do you do with temptation? Flee it. What do you do with Satan?

Resist him, and he, don't you love James where it says, "Draw near to God, he'll draw near to you. Resist Satan, he will flee you." Why? Greater is He that's in you than He that's in the world. And the gospel bids darkness to flee, and Christ has won the victory. I saw Satan fall like lightning. He has bound the strong man. Now we're supposed to plunder the house that the strong man had usurped.

That's what God has called us to do. And so we go boldly into that ministry. And I think Martin Luther was right, and I think you need to gird up your loins and get ready. And some of you up here have had it. It's been in front of you, and it's coming to where I am. I'm kind of in a bubble in Alabama in some ways. But wherever Satan, like I told our people in Birmingham, Briarwood, I said, "Do you not think where we live and everybody thinks of Birmingham, they think of fire hoses?"

Do you not think we ought to do something in the name of the gospel into the stupidity of racism? I mean, do you not think we ought to do something? We may not be effective, but don't you think we're at a place and a location where that ought to be? Has not Satan brought this here for us to confront that, in reality, we need to teach people there's only one race?

It's called human. And we're not going to fall for the Darwinian mythology of multiple races. And then secondly, because Christ has done the work that He's done, we're of another race, and that is Adam's chosen race, the second Adam's chosen race. And that we love one another because, a) creation, we're made in the image of God, and b) Jesus saves people from every tribe and nation and has broken down all of those barriers.

By the way, all racism is built upon slander in a judgmental heart because you cannot, you cannot control people and diminish people if you haven't in your heart already brought judgment upon them because of your supposed moral superiority, or maybe your moral inferiority and you feel intimidated. Do we not all need to do that? In other words, I'm trying to tell you is when you get somewhere, Satan has already called a battle line.

And Martin Luther said this, "Any place that he called for the battle and we retreat or are silent, whatever else we're doing is mere cowardice." So right now, the very foundations of a culture. It's interesting. All of our forebears in Africa and Europe were rooted in paganism. It was exhibited in sexual anarchy, familial anarchy, and marital anarchy. Now you're in a nation that had been rescued from that paganism now willingly going back to it.

Now, where will you and I be with the work of the gospel when the very foundations are being shaken? Will we be silent, or will we, with humble courage, I love the way our vows say this, in humble reliance upon divine grace, I will endeavor? I love the way the synergy of the Christian life comes into play for life and ministry in the confidence of Christ and the victory that He has won on the cross that we might meet it with the truth of the gospel.

For we have a great and glorious God. Number three thing that happens at the cross is that Jesus purchased His church with His own blood, triumphant. He purchased the church with His own blood, triumphant. So let me ask you a question. The Bible says this, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her." In Acts chapter 20, "Shepherd the flock of God which he has made you overseers, the church which he purchased with his own blood."

So let me ask you a question. When you minister to people and you tell them about the cross and where Jesus died for their sins, do you tell them that Jesus has won the victory over their sins? Do you tell them that? This is not a trick question. Do you tell them when people commit their life to Christ, that if you've put your trust in Christ, Jesus has won the victory over all of your sins for all of eternity? Do you tell them that?

Well, I do. Praise the Lord. Let me ask you a second question. If you want, if you think He succeeded at point one to save His people from all their sins, do you believe He defeated Satan? Well, let me ask you a third question. Do you think that He has won the victory for His church? And He will deliver His church triumphant into glory? So you see folks, we're kind of like the battle of Iwo Jima. They raised the flag on the third day, battle won.

Then they had to go foxhole by foxhole, trench by trench, and cave by cave for two months and another 12,000 deaths. Or D-Day. When those boys got up on top of Normandy, war's over. When they got up on those cliffs, war was done. But then they had to go hedgerow by hedgerow by hedgerow. Well, when Jesus came out of that tomb, the war was won. The victory was won. Now He sends us nation by nation by nation by nation to gather His people in.

And there's only two things left until Jesus comes again. One, the gospel will be preached to all the nations. And number two, all of the elect will have been gathered. You know whenever I pray with someone who commits, I know y'all probably think I'm very simple, but whenever I pray with someone who I've had the opportunity to lead to Christ, you know what comes in my mind? This could be it. This could be the last one.

There is a last one out there. This could be it. So you see my confidence when I go home to pastor Briarwood and you go back, is while I've got all of this stuff that Jesus taught me about church revitalization, my confidence is in the cross for the salvation of people, for the resistance and overcoming of Satan's schemes and snares and his servants, and then for the glorious triumph of the church locally manifested to the glory of God.

Well, what kind of how would I then lead this well church? Remember, our objective is not church growth. It's what? Church health. A well church: worship with authenticity. That's our ministry to God. Evangelize with intentionality. That's our ministry to the world. Love one another. That's our ministry to one another. Learn. That's our ministry to ourselves so that we can worship, evangelize, and love one another. A well church.

Well, how do we get there through your leadership? This is where I'm going to end now. Just jot down these five things of multiplication, mobilization, effective leaders. Number one is this: an effective leader, an effective leader, when you go home to be an effective leader, what does an effective leader look like who would lead the church with the confidence of Christ through the roadmap He has designed, implementing these ten biblical strategies?

What do you look like? Number one, the leader must be a learner. You've got to be a learner. If you quit learning, please leave leadership no matter where it is. Leaders are not people that know it all; they're people that want to know it all. So you want to know it all. Don't know it all. I need to learn. I'm like a child. Listen, you want to be a fool, then think you know everything. That's a fool.

It is the wise person that says, "I need to learn." If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask. You ask of the Lord in prayer, and He grants it as you get into His word, and His word goes with you into life. You want to be a learner. I followed a wonderful man of a 40-year ministry at Briarwood. His name was Frank Barker. He's now 84 years old. When I get off the plane, when I get into the office, or the administrative wing tomorrow, I will walk by his where he periodically shows up.

He's ministry, he's pastor emeritus. I'm pastor de-meritus there. As I go by his turn and talk to him, I promise you Frank will either be reading a book or he'll ask me, "Well, Harry, how's it going? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, Harry." Then he'll say, "What are you reading? What, give me a book I need to be reading." He's amazing. He just, he is a verbivore. He's just eating things alive. And he's 84 years old.

So he just keeps learning, keeps learning, keeps learning. Secondly, learners seize their learning moments. As I look through the scripture, I notice that learners seize and history and study of leaders, I notice that leaders are learners and leaders seize their learning moments. Now, when is a learning moment? When is a learning moment? My goodness, I think the last talk gave us a good insight into this. When should be your learning moment?

Failure, adversity, challenge. Whenever I interview someone for a position on staff, I always ask them, "Tell me three times you failed and tell me the one thing you learned from each failure. Tell me at least one thing you learned from each failure." Well, number one, if they don't have any failures, I don't hire them. Because I know they're not leaders. Every leader I know failed.

I know they're playing safe, so they're not a leader. Leaders are the ones that get the arrows in their back and their chest. They get them both places. And so I know and then but what I want to know is what did you do? Did you die in a pile of self-pity? "Count it all joy, my brethren, when," not if, "when you encounter various trials, knowing that the trying of your faith produces endurance and endurance character and character hope."

Here's the simple truth: you live in a Genesis 3 world. You do not live in a Genesis 1 world. That means everything that can happen to an unbeliever except for God's condemning judgment can and likely will happen to you. Now, when the trials of life come, God just rung the schoolbell. They're tests. Tests always do three things. They show you what you know, show you what you need to know.

God, here's the wisdom I've got. Here's the wisdom I need. I lack. And it will uncover any pockets of idolatry that have rooted in our hearts. That's what the trials will do. So when two people, if I may quote James, when two people walk in, Mr. Goldfinger with the rings on his finger and Mr. Poorly Dressed, and you gravitate to Mr. Goldfinger, what did that just uncover? That you think the glory of the dust of this world is more important than the glory of God that's revealed in a man.

That's what that just uncovered. So what we trials of life are moments that show us things, and will we seize our learning moment? Or do we just go die in a pile? "God, I just don't understand why this is happening to me." Look, I know it's tough, believe me. Oh, believe me. So I'm going, here, I'll cut you some slack. Go over there, find a corner, die in a pile for 90 seconds.

Then get back up and say, "Okay, Lord, would You put the gospel big boy pants on me? And would You allow me now to learn from this? I need to learn something." And remember, trials in life are not interruptions. It's life. The absence of trials are God-given interruptions. Or as we used to say at Covenant when we would get a break from the trials of classrooms, we would go to the blink. God gives you a blink every once in a while.

The other times he's growing you. He's framing you because you don't grow in ease. You don't grow in prosperity. I just want as a pastor to get people to hold on when things are going well. You grow in adversity. That's when God is growing you. Number three: great leaders, effective leaders, are not only learners, they not only seize their learning moments, they are unstoppable coaches. They're always giving it away.

They're always coaching. If you come down to North Carolina where I'm from, and you'll see the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball and you'll take a look at Mike Krzyzewski next year, just look sitting next to Mike Krzyzewski. You know what I love about Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski is not how many people they put in the pros, but what happened to the young men that played for them.

And secondly, go see how many coaches are in junior high, high school, college, and the pros that came through their program. And take a look at that bench beside Mike Krzyzewski. It used to be the same thing with Dean Smith. Look at those six guys that are sitting there all in those blue suits, all with a Duke degree that could get them six figures just walking out the front door, and they're there for about 40, 50 thousand dollars a year because they know what they're going to get from that guy.

They know what they're going to learn from him. Watch him. I don't care if they're 40 points ahead or 40 points behind or a one-point game; he's always coaching. Always giving it away. He's always you put people on your hip pocket and then you keep giving it away. You know I never go to a hospital by yourself. You never, you absolutely never do a ministry opportunity by yourself.

You always have leaders with you and you're coaching them and giving it away to them. Then number four, the people you're coaching, you help them seize their learning moments. You help them seize their learning moments. Now, by the way, when are your learning moments? When did I say they were? Adversity, challenge, failure. So the people that you're developing, when is it going to be their learning moments? Adversity, challenge, and failure.

So in your ministry, do you give room for people to fail? Or do they have to play safe? And when they do fail, what do you do? I'm going to give you a business illustration. Jack Welch, General Electric. He had a vice president that had an initiative and it failed, 1.25 million dollars it cost GE, his failure. The next Monday he comes in, he puts a paper on the right in front of Jack Welch and he says, "Here is my resignation."

Welch looked at it and he handed it back to him and said, "Now, what is this for?" He said, "Well, I know you heard about the failure. You do not have to fire me, sir. I'm in here to do what I'm supposed to do. I resign. It's my fault." And he said, "Son," he said, "you take that piece of paper home, you throw it away. You pull out another piece of paper, you come back here tomorrow morning, and I want on that piece of paper everything you learned from this failure. I've got 1.25 million dollars invested in your education right now. And I want to know exactly what it is."

So here's the expectation that you're going to be effective, but when they failed, they said, "Okay, make this thing a learning moment." I tell people the ministry, and leadership in the ministry, trying to bring others along in general and leaders in particular, is a lot like a walk with my daddy. I used to love to would you mind if I do something with you? This and please do not get mad at me, just come on up here just for a minute.

I'm going to illustrate this. I used to love to walk with my daddy and we'd go out, my daddy put his arm around me. Man, nothing, nothing could touch me. And then as we're walking along, the most amazing thing would happen. My daddy would kick me in the rear end. I did not mean that. Randy told me to do that. Okay, I want you to know. So they, I he would kick me in the rear. I couldn't wait to become a daddy. Put your arm around your son and your knee goes out of joint and you can kick them in the rear end.

And I one day I was thinking, I told a group of young pastors, "That's the ministry." And people get hurt in this broken world. And as they're getting hurt, you gotta go in and hug them up. And you want to hug them up, so hug them up. And then kick them in the rear end. What in the world is God teaching you here? Don't waste this moment. Let's find out what's happening here. Let's learn from it.

And now you can go die and say, "God, I can't believe it. I just given them my whole life and and these elders, I've you know I've done this, I've done that. I can't believe what they've done." And okay, do that for about two minutes and then get to okay, God, what are You teaching me here? This is the moment. I'm forgiven in all my sins.

You have called me here. And if You've called me here, then this is here to either send me somewhere else or more than likely, 90 percent of it is what You're doing is, it's not stirring up the nest, You're stirring up me. There's something I need to learn here. Maybe the lesson is not being well delivered through the disgruntled person you're talking to, but you by God's grace have the security in Christ to start taking and learning: what is it that I need to learn from this moment?

That requires the humility and the brokenness. And then number five is great leaders put things in memorable, teachable maxims. People are able to hang on to them. You know, aphorisms. I think preachers and leaders ought to be either repeating or creating maxims for life and aphorisms to help people hang hang on to things. And let me ask y'all a question. I set you up for this earlier.

Who is the most effective leader for multiplication and mobilization who has ever lived? Jesus. Very good. Not a squirrel. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the most effective leader who has ever lived. If those five things I just gave you are not true about Jesus, then don't take them home. If they are, take them to heart. One, was Jesus a learner? The son of man grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God and favor with man.

Number two, did Jesus seize His learning moments? Hebrews four and five: "The Son of Man learned obedience in his suffering." Number three, did Jesus coach continually? Now, where did He spend most of His time? I mean, you've got three years to turn the world upside down. What would you do? Well, I'd get a I'd go rent the Roman Colosseum. I'd get Bryce to publish my book. I'd get Ron to collect endorsements. I'd get Julia to make me a a brochure and I'd just get as many people in there as I could.

Twelve, three. Jesus' focus, right there. If I could go back and up in I would want in my ministry, I'm preaching. I have five things I do. Number one: prayer, word, and sacrament. Number two is number two is model the great commission and the great commandment. Number three is leadership is vision initiation and being a vision initiator and keeper. Number four is leadership multiplication and mobilization. And then number five is a pastor MBWA.

I one of the times I was in Uganda, I put those five things up and the Ugandan pastors, when I put number five MBWA, capital M, capital B, what I mean by that is ministry by walking around. Just show up. You just gotta show up and be accessible. When I put MBWA, all the Ugandan pastors started, what I didn't know is in Lugandan, MBWA is actually a word: imbwa. That's a word. It means a wild dog walking through the camp.

And I said, "That that fits. That fits. That's what that's what I'm talking about." So I would elevate leadership. I would elevate learning, multiplying, and mobilizing leaders if I could go back. I'd want to preach better and pray better, but I would want to elevate the priority of leadership multiplication and mobilization if I could go back and do anything over again.

Well, I look at what Jesus did as He focused 70, 12, 3. And I look through the Bible. When Moses went to heaven, was there a vacuum? Joshua and Caleb, elders. When Elijah went to heaven, was there a vacuum? Elisha and the school of the prophets. You want to go see what Calvin did in Geneva? When Paul went to heaven, vacuum? Silas, Luke, Timothy, Titus, leading women.

When Jesus went to heaven, vacuum? Mm-mm. Look at those leading women: last at the cross, lingered at the tomb, first at the tomb. Look at look at the disciples that they didn't realize yet what God had put into them that He was about to put into them. So you focus on leadership development. That means that means Jesus was a learner, Jesus seized His learning moments, He learned His suffering. Jesus was constantly coaching and giving it away.

Number four, did Jesus put things in teachable maxims? Yeah, anybody heard the parables? Number five, number five, did Jesus help His disciples that He was developing seize their learning moments? Let me just take one: Peter. The walking illustration book for preachers. Peter was just an interesting guy. So let me just walk you through this and then we'll close.

I here's Peter, and the Lord says that Peter's out there on the boat. See, whenever the Lord is developing someone, He breaks them and He makes them. Doesn't just break them; He breaks them and He makes them. They He takes them through learning moments and then He makes them for the moment that He has assigned to them. So I don't think circumstances I think circumstances do not dictate your character; they reveal it and then become the opportunity to refine it when we falter.

So here is Peter. He's got the twelve, and they're out there fishing. "Children, children, have you caught anything?" "Uh, Jesus, we've been fishing all night. We've caught nothing." "Put your nets on the other side." Now, let me and they say, "At your command, Master." And you know what happened. They put the nets in and boom, all the fish come, fill it up. Gotta bring other boats out and everything.

What? Now, by the way, can I explain to you what's really happening there? This is speculation. Here's what's happening. "Children, have you caught anything?" "No. We've been fishing all night. We've caught nothing." "Put your nets on the other side." "Master, at your command." And let me tell you what really is being said there. "We, professional fishermen, have been fishing all night. We, professional fishermen, have caught nothing. But at your command, son of a carpenter, we will put the nets on the other side."

And all these fish come. Well, what did what'd Peter do? "Praise the Lord! I mean, name it and claim it, confess it and possess it, believe it, receive it!" What's the next thing he did? Boom. "Lord, depart from me. I'm an unclean man." Learning moment. Caesarea. "Who do people say that I am?" Well, your Caesarea Philippi. "Who do people say that I am?" "Uh, you're John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets."

I mean, you're a great preacher. I mean, you're ranking with all of them. They're all talking about you. You're a rock star. Downloading your sermons is everything. I mean, the MP3s are just going like crazy. Well, who do you say that I am? Well, wonderful Peter, self-appointed spokesman for the twelve, says, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." And this is that Matthew 16 text. "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father is my Father has revealed this to you from heaven. And I say to you that you're Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Now, that Matthew 16 text tells you what? The Jesus who died for your sins, you'll be forgiven. The Jesus who came to defeat Satan has defeated him because he knocked down the gates of hell and he pulled the keys out. And then the Jesus who has done that has purchased His church. I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And we get the privilege to work on that church. We're not the architects. The church he's building, he's building through us. Now, Lord, what does Your church look like? How does it land here? And my confidence is in You. And Peter makes that acclamation in Matthew 16. And then the Lord says you're Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. Then Jesus says how he's going to build it. Next verse.

"I am going to Jerusalem. There I will be put to death by the scribes, the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees. And on the third day I'll rise again." And the newly appointed pope then speaks up and says what? "God forbid!" He brings a malediction. "God forbid that this should happen to you." And what does Jesus say to him? "Get behind me, Satan."

See, Satan has been trying to stop me from getting to that cross since I got here. And you just got in league with him. Get thee behind me, Satan, for you have set your mind upon man's interest, man-centered view of life, me-centered view of life, not upon God's interest. God's interest was me coming to that cross to defeat the enemies, to win my people, and to establish my triumphant church. And he breaks him again.

And then they're on the sea. "Is that you, Jesus, in the midst?" "Yes, me." "Then command me to come out, and I'll come out to you." And so he came out. He says, "Come out, Peter," and Peter comes out, and he looks at the winds, he looks at the waves. Next thing he knows, he starts going down. What does Jesus say? "Good try." It's not even a hug up. It's a kick in the pants. "Where's your faith, Peter? Where's your faith?"

It's another learning moment. Jesus has them and he's instituting the Lord's Supper. And as he's instituting the Lord's Supper, he's instructing them, he tells them they're all going to flee him. And Peter says, "Not me, Lord. Though they all flee, not me. I'm with you. Remember, thick and thin to the end, I'm your friend. Count on me." "Simon, Simon, before the cock crows, you'll deny me three times."

And then they Jesus is taken away. Peter protesting that that'll never happen, but Jesus is taken away and into and then when the they're there at the outside Caiaphas's place. And there's a place that's pretty sure where this is, and because there's a Roman road right there that's been uncovered. I've stood there and thought through this on thirteen occasions, every thirteen times I've been there taking folks there.

And as I think about that moment when Peter denies him: soldier, bystander, even a little girl. And when he finally finishes, he starts back to his cursing and oaths: "I don't know him, I don't know him, I don't know that man," and he denies him three times. And the last time he's weeping. There they are beside Caiaphas's house, and there's a charcoal fire, and these rapid denials of knowing Jesus take place, three of them. And then he catches Jesus' eye.

Now, Jesus goes to the cross, into the tomb, rises victorious. And when the when the women come to the tomb, they're instructed, "Go back and tell the disciples, and tell Peter." And then Jesus told Peter personally. There are 15 appearances of Christ after the resurrection. Four of them are personal. One of them was Peter. Paul tells us that in 1st Corinthians 15, that he appeared to Cephas, appeared to James, appeared to Mary Magdalene, and he had these four personal: Peter, James, Mary Magdalene, and Paul on the road to Damascus.

And so here is this glorious work of Christ. He's remaking Peter. Don't you love that? He's just denied him. "Go tell Peter. Go tell Peter." Then he goes and tells Peter. And then he takes them back up to the Sea of Galilee. And while they're waiting on him, they're out fishing again. And they're from the seaside comes a "Children, have you caught anything?" "No. We've been fishing all night. We haven't caught anything."

"Put your nets on the other side." And 153 fish. Now, there's a sermon there, 153. You go find it. I don't have the slight I've been looking for it for 30 years now. 153 fish come in there. Don't you love the way John describes the next thing that happened? Next thing that happens: "It's the Lord!" I mean, been here, done this, got the T-shirt. We've done this one before. "It's the Lord!" And then he puts on his coat and dives in the water.

Now, I when I dive in the water, I don't put my coat on. I usually take it off. But he put it on, dove in the water, swam up to Jesus, and he comes up to Jesus. And there's Jesus by the seashore with a charcoal fire. "Peter, do you love me more than these?" "Lord, you know I love you." "Tend my lambs." Second time, "Peter, do you love me more than these?" "Lord, you know I love you." "Feed my sheep."

"Peter, do you love me more than these?" And Peter wept and was grieved because the Lord had said to him the third time. Peter knows what the Lord's doing. He's remaking him. His confessions are matching. His repentance is appropriate to what the Lord's doing in his life. The last time he was beside a charcoal fire, he had denied him three times. This time, he confesses him.

Now, I know all of you have done the Greek work, *agape*, *phileo*. And there's a sermon there too. That's a great sermon. Of course, Jesus was probably speaking Aramaic, but it's okay. That's a good sermon, and go for it. But I think what he's doing is he's remaking him. The next time Peter opens his mouth, 3,000 are coming to Christ. Peter has been brought up by the Lord through his learning moments. And the Lord has put him into place in ministry. Now Peter becomes a multiplication leader and a mobilizing leader.

So here's how we're going to finish. Lynn Downing had an invitation to come to the Embers to a Flame conference in Birmingham, but he didn't come. He loves Jesus, but he didn't come. Harry Reeder knew he was in trouble, so he went to try to learn about revitalization. Now I want to show you what happens to Lynn's church, and I want to show you what happens to my church when I happen to go and I happen to learn something about what the Bible says and what leadership is in mobilizing and multiplication and discipling and giving it away.

So here's how we're going to end it. Lynn is going to come out and he's going to do a ministry. It's going to be symbolized: when he touches you, he just evangelized you. And the Holy Spirit gave you a new heart. So you'll get up and you'll come with Lynn, right here. Okay, you can sit back down. Don't join him yet. So you'll come with Lynn. Then Lynn's going to go get somebody else.

I am going to come and get you, and fully aware of all my limitations, I am going to get you. Come here, young lady. I have been wanting to see you saved for so long. And so she she gets converted. And then while I'm here, I will tap her on the shoulder a second time, symbolizing I've discipled her. I have been equipping her.

So now, guess what? I'm going to go back out. But not only am I going to go back out, guess what? She's going to go back out. And she's going to get somebody. And I am going to get somebody. And then I'm going to come on. This is called resistible grace right here. And so and so I will bring him up here and what just happened we starting? Oh, and I get him. Okay.

So that's the way we're going to do it. All right? All right. So now, when you get converted, get up here to church, all right? And then you go back in that way. All right? You ready? All right. Let's go. Okay. Come on, guys. You've been trained. Let's go. All right. Come on. Bring you up here. All right. Hey, you need to be a little bit more enthusiasm here. All right? This is a we're this is a growing and going church. All right. Let's go. All right. Okay.

Who are we going to get? I want to get somebody. Let's see. Oh, I bet you're in that lost OPC church. Come on in here, buddy. Come on up here. All right. Now, me and you are going to go get this guy. This guy needs converting, okay? Go get Gary. Go get Randy. He needs saving. All right. Now, we believe in multiculturalism. Come on here, buddy. Come on up here. All right. All right. Let's go, y'all. Come on. Come on. Praise the Lord. Come on. There we go. Okay. Should have taken some chairs out of here.

All right. Come on. Let's go. We got to get somebody. Here, we're going to let's go back up here. Come on, Joan. Come on, Joan. You got to get somebody. Come on. Here we go. Come on, buddy. Lord bless you. I got you. This guy needs you too. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Come on. All right. Come on. Come on. Let's go, right over here.

All right. All right. Everybody come on up here that's been touched. We're going to leave some gleanings in the field. All right. Come on up. Come on up. We're going to have a worship service here. Let's assemble. Come on up. All right.

Now, I want to ask you a question. Did I work harder than him? Did he work hard? That was not the problem. The problem is is that he had a ministry focus that everything just worked through him. And therefore, given the providence of God and God's decrees, his ministry by and large is going to be the span of what he's able to control. But when you begin to multiply disciples and leaders, you begin then to extend the kingdom and deepen it at the same time. You're actually deepening it as well as expanding it at the same time.

And then watch what the Lord does. When I went to Charlotte, North Carolina, there were the four families, and we were called to put in a flagship church, and we were meeting in a modular unit, which is a double-wide trailer with the wheels covered up. And the Lord blessed, and as Tom mentioned now, there's now two Presbyteries, and we've got the first church started and it began to plant churches. We planted churches. Now there's two Presbyteries.

There was a crucial moment. I want to give you a crucial moment. That crucial moment was when a lady that came to the modular unit, one of the first people, came to me and said, "Pastor, I'm going to have to divorce my husband. He has left me five times. And I've got four little boys we're trying to raise. I can't keep bringing him back. I'm teaching these kids something that's even worse than and without him having repentance."

So she had biblical grounds. We walked through the divorce, and I said, "Marty," I have permission to use her name. I said, "Marty, I'm going to work with you, but I want to tell you something. I'm going after Steve. Is that all right with you?" She said, "Sure." So I met with Steve one day. I took him to the to the to this restaurant, to the Chateau restaurant on Morehead Street. We sat down, and I pulled out a napkin.

I asked him two questions, and I said, "Steve, can I share something with you?" He said, "Yeah." And I wrote down your situation, God's solution, and our salvation, and what and then walked him through that. Then I said, "Steve, do you understand what I just shared with you?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Is there any reason why you shouldn't receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" He said, "No, I think so." So Steve committed his life to Christ.

The Lord began to work in his life. He came back to me and said, "Do you think I could court Marty?" I said, "Absolutely, I think you can court Marty. Y'all come on up here to church, would you? Don't sit out there. I said you can you can court Marty." Go ahead. So so so he said, "I want to court her." And I said, "Well, why don't you? She's not under obligation to marry you, but why don't you court her?"

So he did, and they got remarried. And it was a great now we're out of the modular unit. We're now in a metal gymnasium, and we've got these chairs that we call the widow makers. You know, donated chairs for a church plant. And so the chairs literally would disappear if someone was at a certain poundage. It would just they would just go right, I thought people were getting slain in the Spirit. It was actually in my preaching, they were just going down.

So Steve was a vice president in the financial industry, way up there in Charlotte. And I said, "Y'all want to rent a church building for your wedding?" And they said and they said, "No, we worship here, we'll invite them." So sitting out there in these chairs and I'm praying nobody's going to get hurt are CEOs and CFOs and COOs and UFOs and there's everything out there.

And so Steve gave his testimony, Marty gave her testimony, those four little boys were standing up there like stair steps and and it was just a glorious by the way, I've had the chance to do two of those. One of them was my dad and mom. Remarried them after they had been divorced 14 years, which was interesting. I mean, how you do that? "Dad, would you take Mom to be your wife?" I didn't know any other way to do it.

So anyway, I get a phone call the next day. It's a guy named Harvey. And Harvey said, "Harry, I work with Steve, and he's been telling me about Jesus. And I and he's I visited the church, and I and he's been telling me about Jesus. I went to that wedding. I never seen a wedding like that before." He said, "Can I talk to you about it?" I said, "Sure, meet me at the Chateau restaurant."

So we met at the Chateau restaurant, and I pulled out a napkin, I asked him two questions, I wrote down three things, I said, "Do you understand?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Is there any reason why you shouldn't receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" He said, "No, I need to become a Christian." So Harvey became a believer, committed to Christ. He went back, he had an arrangement. We used to call it living without the benefit of clergy.

And he went to Beth and he said, "You're going to have to move out, I'm a Christian." She said, "What kind of cult are you in?" And so she came and that next week she comes to that hot gymnasium of the metal the collapsing chairs and she's got this red hair and red face, I tell she's mad the whole time. What's happened to this Harvey? And so when she's it was only one way out so she comes out, I talk to her, I got this lady named Miriam to talk with her.

Well, long story short, Beth becomes Christian. And so Harvey and Beth start courting and dating, and then they get married. So we have the another wedding, and all of those same CEOs and everybody's back again. And so Harvey gives his testimony, Beth gives hers, and they and they united in marriage. Now I get a phone call, it's a guy by the name of Dan. He says, "Harry, I work with Steve and Harvey, and they've been telling me about Jesus. And I visited the church and and those weddings, I've never seen weddings like that before. Can I talk to you about it?"

I said, "Sure. Meet me at the Chateau restaurant." So I said, "Meet me at the Chateau restaurant." I pulled out a napkin, I asked him two questions, wrote three things, asked, "Do you understand?" He said, "Yes. Any reason why you shouldn't receive? No, I I need to become a Christian." So Dan became a Christian. And and his wife had left him. She didn't come back, but God gave him this wonderful lady by the name of Chris, and we married them.

I get a phone call. It's a guy by the name of Joe. And Joe says to me, he says, "Harry, I work with Dan and Harvey and Steve, and they've been talking to me about Jesus. And I've been to the church and and well, you know, I went to those weddings. I've never seen weddings like that before. Can I talk to you about it?" I said, "Sure. Meet me at the Chateau restaurant." And I said, "Bring a napkin, I think they're out."

And so he I wrote down a you know went through the whole thing and he became a Christian and he went home and his wife Betty became a Christian. Well, and this is where I'll just turn it over now, but but here's what I want you to know. Steve and the Lord grew the church and made it a pretty good-sized church. We were able to plant churches and start the Presbytery.

But that was kind of one of those key moments, just like at Pinelands, I gave you that key moment where the Lord honors the work of the gospel as you faithfully deliver it and then you multiply it as other people are giving it away in discipleship and evangelism and leadership development, multiplication, and mobilization. Joe became the president of our Men of the Covenant. Betty became the president of our Women of the Covenant.

Harvey became an elder over our evangelism ministry. Beth became a wonderful women's Bible study discipler. Then Chris and Dan helped us plant our one of our first daughter churches and then helped us bring in the Bethany Adoption Agency and adopted four girls from Russia. Steve and Marty, Marty became the superintendent of Covenant Day School, over a thousand students. Steve is now the vice president of Reformed Theological Seminary.

Remember the four boys? One of them is right over here at Princeton, the youngest tenured professor on their faculty. And one of them now just became president of Covenant College, Derek Halverson. You get the idea of what the Lord does? And it's the gospel at work, and you are at the epicenter: His church.

Father, thank You for the time I've had to spend with my brothers and sisters and what You're doing in their lives and the privilege we've had to fellowship and enjoy one another. I pray for them as they return with this holy vocation, that You will build Your church through them and their location. Give them steadfastness.

Lord, very seldom, we all want to think that radical Christianity is unexplainable numerical growth, which You can do at times and have done at times. But most of the time, it's Your people loving Jesus, showing up, doing the right things in the right way, for the right reasons, at the right time, with an utter reliance upon You. For if the Lord does not build the house, we labor in vain. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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