Let me invite you to take your Bibles, please, and go to 1 Timothy 3, please, 1 Timothy 3. Tried to make the case yesterday that the pastor, for the pastor as theologian, that we have both a necessary qualification and an obligation of function. If we're not theologically sound, we are not qualified. If we're not able, to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict were not qualified. And that we're called on to do that because that's God's provision for an orderly assembly and to promote and protect the health of the church. And so in some ways, what we did yesterday was look at it from the divine requirement side. It needs to be so because God has said this is to be so. Really, it sort of settles it when that's the case. What I'd like to do today is actually sort of look at it from the other side, which is the congregation and the importance of theology to the assembly. which calls on those who serve as its shepherds to be equipped and engaging in the defense and promotion of the faith. 1 Timothy 3, I'd like to read verses 14 to 16, please. I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. No doubt, and I think I alluded to this yesterday, the last part of verse 15, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. That's really the part of the text that is most obvious for our connection of it, but I think it's something that we need to think through. So what I'd like to do is, Just sort of walk through the text, then pull together threads at the end, and then talk about implications, right? So first aspect of it, I want to just start with those words at the beginning of verse 14, I am writing these things. So here's what I'd like us to recognize and think about, that this is really the basis for the regulation of the church. Paul is writing for us the instructions that are to govern us. We're at the transition, end of the transitional period, as the apostles are beginning to fade from the scene, God's authority is moving more directly and explicitly to the written revelation left to instruct us. That's what all those letters were doing. The gospel spread, and then God was using his instruments to leave a lasting rule of life for us in the scriptures. Paul is writing to churches, number of the epistles, but in these three books, 1st, 2nd Timothy and Titus, he's writing to men who are in an influential position in the lives of churches, and he's supplying for us what we now would say is an authoritative and inspired rule of life for the church. that the governing authority in the church is the revelation of God. I'm assuming we'd all agree with that. But the danger when we just sort of start to treat that like as an assumption is that we can practically start to move away from it, right? We just, well, yeah, yeah, that's true. But then all of our thinking and planning and operating isn't explicitly tied to the written instructions that we've received. So we need to not treat it as an assumption, but to actually treat it as an operating principle for us. And we imagine in this kind of a group, there's no argument about the fact that we face an increasing danger of displacing the centrality of God's word for the life of believers and churches, that there are rival authorities that have come up It's like even we talked this morning, I was talking about our counseling ministry. You know, it's been 50, 60 years of a battle there as to what's going to be the authority for how we view human functioning and how to help people do what is best in the eyes of God. Is it where it started in the middle of the 20th century? Essentially boxing off pastors from the issues that have to do with the psuche, right? So yeah, we deal spirit, we could do that part of it, but when it comes to psychology, that's an aspect of human life that requires specialists in that. And then the battle began, thankfully, to try and reclaim the authority of scripture. But, and this was just my observation, in many ways, all that did was make that argument more sophisticated, right? So people claiming the authority of the Bible while effectively reinterpreting the Bible from the other paradigm. right, taking their concepts and shoehorning them in under ideas of the relative equality of special revelation and general revelation as equal voices speaking to these issues. And that battle still rages. I mean, a part of the reason so many of you were interested in going to the workshop having to do with all of the issues of gender and sexuality is because we know looking across the landscape that not all answers being given by professing believers are really coming from a paradigm of the word of God being the control center. There's ways of trying to integrate and accommodate. And so we need to articulate it clearly. I mean, we could offer, I think, a load of examples of how the word of God is being marginalized in order to achieve acceptability to a secular world or to accommodate the kind of we can still use this word, I hope, worldliness that has infected the church, right? That we are almost, it's almost common to expect the Bible to yield to the thoughts and preferences of modern man, to stand up and say unapologetically, no, the scriptures say that's wrong. is to be viewed dispositionally as some kind of bigoted, arrogant position, instead of convictional about the truth of God. So we need to make certain that we're not giving it away. And just to be clear, I don't think traditional impulses are necessarily healthy either. I'm not. I believe in tradition. I don't think we should be traditionalists. That's the authority for us. I consider myself conservative, which means I believe in absolutes and transcendent ideas and giving some ear to my predecessors because they've thought about stuff. You know, the old line about before you remove the fence, figure out why it was there. Right? So I tilt that way, but I see no point in defending traditions that don't have biblical basis simply because that's the way we all used to do it. Right? It's got to be the scriptures, the authority of God's word for us. It must have active, functional control over the church. Active means we're not treating the Bible like a screen that just sort of filters out stuff as it comes to us. And whatever happens to make it through the filter is okay. That would be a passive approach. We should be approaching it actively and saying, is there biblical warrant for what we're talking about? Can we substantiate this from the scriptures? that this is what we ought to be doing, that this is the way we should be functioning. And so we need to guard because none of us have a filter or a screen that doesn't have gaps. We've got people in the room who know the Bible very well, but not perfectly. And so if you're thinking your filter has no holes in it, you need to take a dose of humility. So it would be better to put the burden on the positive identification of what the scriptures say and how we can put them into practice than to assume we know the Bible so well we would never miss something. All right, that's a pretty presumptuous position. So it has to have active control and functional. Our beliefs are being translated into appropriate behaviors. Just jump over to 110 for a moment because I meant to make this point yesterday and I didn't, from Titus chapter two and verse one. Remember what Titus two, one says, teach the things that are consistent with sound doctrine, So, and then Titus 2 talks about older men, older women, younger men, younger women, right? Very life-related applications of sound doctrine. So we can't limit our theological issues to just matters of belief. The same thing, if you look at the end of verse 10, All right, it lists a bunch of sins in verse 10, and then he says, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. So when we're talking about the functional control of God's word over the church, it's not just saying that we have a good doctrinal statement. Right, we have an orthodox creed, so we've given the Bible control of the church. but actually how we would move into doing the thing the church has been called to do has to be actively and functionally under the control of God's word. Because if you've been in ministry for long at all, you know people will come and propose that the church ought to do this or ought to do that. And in some ways, American Christianity is subject to whatever is the latest interesting fad of ministry available. Because, I don't know if I can say this gently or nice, hopefully graciously, but it's because sometimes pastors have been unwilling to say no. Right? Because how do you argue it? Well, the Lord, you know, I know the Lord wants me to do this. What do you say? Oh, you can say, I don't think so. Right? You can do that. Or you can say, well, the Lord may want you to do that, but he doesn't want us to do that. Because what you want to do doesn't become the mission of the church. The mission of the church is what Jesus told us in his word were to do. But too often, it's like, well, how do we argue with God? And I would say, well, how do you know they're actually telling you what God said? I mean, the only way I know is like right here. It's not privatized into that. And so we need to be clear about what we believe the scriptures teach as the church's nature and function, and that has to be derived from what was written. We don't get to make it up. We actually have to follow God's instructions. I am writing these things to you. And so we have to, if we're gonna be, functioning properly as pastor theologians, a part of that task is having a robust, biblically-informed ecclesiology so that we can actually help lead the church according to the instructions that the head of the church has given us. and not have our functioning ecclesiology given to us by people who either have no ecclesiology, they're operating from some parachurch ministry that's just promoting programs, or have a defective ecclesiology because it works. and they don't have to justify it. I mean, God's blessing it, how can you argue with that? We need to be careful to step back and say, what has been written for us to guide the people of Christ identified as an assembly of his followers? All right, the regulation of it has to come from the word. Notice what he says in verse 14 in terms of how that carries an obligation for us. I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long, then in verse 15, but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and support of the truth. So there's a way in which we are to conduct ourselves. And that conduct, if you're thinking of this letter, because that's what he's written, that conduct touches every area of life, not just when the Church is together. He provides instruction about believers in their homes, about personal relationships, about work relationships, about leaders in their homes and in their relationships. It has a wide range of things that it covers. And that conduct, as you see it unfolded in these letters, is consistent with the character and function of the church. That is, each individual part of the assembly is to operate in a way that's consistent with the character and function of the church. Personal conduct affects the health of the assembly. Men, women, leaders care for the needy. Right, because he says in verse five of chapter one that the goal of our instruction is a certain kind of life. The goal of instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. So he's moving toward believers in every area. So men, beginning of chapter two. Women, end of chapter two. Leaders, chapter three. The conduct of the life of the church, chapter four. Caring for widows, chapter five. Dealing with conflicts among the various members of the assembly in chapter five. What to do with the accountability and appointment of ministry leaders. He covers that in chapter five. Who should be honored? And how should you handle accusations? And when you're going to lay hands on somebody, what should govern and control that? All of that's addressed as conduct within the assembly of God's people, that it's an obligation of the church to regulate those things. They're supposed to be regulated by what the Word of God says, even what we do in worship. right, giving attention to reading and to exhortation and teaching. So this written revelation that brings an obligation for us to conduct ourselves in certain ways. But in the midst of that, he also piles up a lot of things that help motivate us toward this, right? Look at what he says about the church in verse 15. He reminds us of whose it is. It is the household of God, which is the assembly of the living God, right? It's God's church. The living God is the one to whom these people belong, this entity belongs. And not just whose it is, God, but what it is. It's called a household of God and a congregation of the living God. So it's God's family. We've been brought into a relationship with God so that we are now members of his household. And that had probably even more particular significance if you think of where Timothy is. in Ephesus and what the letter to the Ephesians says in Ephesians chapter two about these people, that they were once cut off from God, aliens from the covenant, without God in the world, but now they have been brought near. They've been made a part of God's household. They have this relationship with God that's been given to them by virtue of the work of Christ. They are a gathering of God's people among whom he dwells, the household of God, the assembly of the living God. And I think that emphasis on the living God would also echo Ephesians 2, that we have become a dwelling place for him by the Spirit. that the assembly of God's people is where God meets in a special way with them, right? Because God is omnipresent, which I could give you a really technical definition for, but I told you yesterday you probably shouldn't mess with those, right? He's everywhere. So it must be actually an accommodation to our limit of thinking to talk about God being somewhere. because there's actually no place he's not. But he says, draw near to me and I will draw near to you. So there's a relational element to that. When we're the assembly of the living God, it's saying we're his dwelling place or his temple. God has promised to meet with his people in a unique way. versus his just attribute of presence, right? He draws near, and that's what we're supposed to be. And too often, we can lower that to just the getting together of a group of people and and treating it as if it's sort of a given, again, assumption God's here because God's everywhere. When we've been called to a unique privilege for the living God to live among us, That's what I believe 2 Corinthians 6 is wrapped up in the promise of us. That's why we'd be separate from Belial, separate from false worship, because he's promised to walk among us, to be ours, to dwell in his temple. And so that means we should treat it like a very precious thing. I mean, I, Most of us are on the side of where we would experience this, but sometimes, unfortunately, pastors are the ones that cause it. But I've thought to myself often, well, I would not wanna be on the side of causing harm and division to the church of Jesus Christ. Because that's 1 Corinthians 3 is the warning of it. It's like this is, don't you know you're the temple of God? And if you destroy the temple, God will destroy you. I mean, the church is a holy, precious thing purchased by the blood of Christ. How could we ever treat it as our own possession to manipulate it in whatever way we want to to accomplish our agenda, right? InterCity Baptist Church is not my church. It's the church of Jesus Christ. he's the head, he's the Lord, he purchased it. That's why I must make certain that I listen to what he has written and align my conduct with it because it's his, not mine. It's his church. Look at what it's to do at the end of verse 15, the pillar and support of the truth. These are architectural terms that indicate a solid foundation and steadiness. The local assembly is the center of God's activity in this era between the first and second comings of Christ. And I'm gonna unpack this a little bit at the end as it ties to our theme, but I'll just note here that that means this is the responsibility of the congregation, not just some specialized group, right? Because he says it's the household of God, the congregation of the living God, which is the pillar and support of the truth. He doesn't say, The elders are the household of God and the congregation of the living God and the pillar and support of the truth. And so the church has this obligation And since we know, and I alluded to yesterday, Ephesians 4, the pastor teachers are given to the congregation to equip the congregation so that they might come to a kind of maturity that's marked by their unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God. that they would be conformed to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so unity and conformity, and that they'd be no more children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and by the cunning craftiness of deceitful men. Stability. So the congregation, if it's mature, growing up, that's what Ephesians 4 says, If it's mature, then it will have a kind of unity, which is a theological unity, unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, a kind of conformity to the character of Christ that's exhibited in the reflection of that Christlikeness, and a stability that keeps it from being blown by every wind of doctrine and being susceptible to the deceitful cunning craftiness of teachers. So I think one of the things that's good for us is to constantly step back and go, when the winds blow through, how much of our congregation is being affected by it? Because that's probably a better gauge for the maturity of the congregation than how long they've been members. because, and no hands raised, but have you ever visited that senior saint shut-in who has every study Bible from every goofball teacher on, you know, TBN? Right, they may have been saved for six decades, but they're still getting blown around. Doesn't really, doesn't really tie to how long you've been saved. necessarily. If you haven't been equipped, if you haven't been taught, if you haven't been prepared, do not blow with that. How many of churches that gave the appearance of being healthy, mature churches, which were mainly only beehives of activity, had their immaturity exposed during COVID? when everybody had to stop running around, and all of a sudden you found out there wasn't a whole lot of unity, there wasn't a whole lot of stability, and there wasn't a lot of conformity, because we had confused activity with maturity. We had confused keeping people busy with actually equipping them for the kind of thing that Ephesians 4 talks about. So we have to see this as a part of the congregational growth is the kind of edification that produces the maturity that doesn't blow with every popular social media teacher or everybody who can throw something up on YouTube and gain a hearing. Are we aiming at a better, more stable kind of congregation so that the congregation can serve as the pillar and support of the truth? And it's not a chicken and egg debate, really, but it's that kind of tension. Because 2 Timothy 4 would say congregations potentially get the kind of preacher they want. Right? They're looking, they're not enduring sound doctrine, they're looking for people who will scratch their ear. And so we might, and rightly so, put all of the blame on the false teacher. But the reason there's an ear for false teachers is because there's an appetite for false teaching. And we have to fight against that. I just love the kind of ironic answer. There's gonna be a time when people don't want sound doctrine. So Timothy, here's the answer. Preach the word. Don't give them what they want. Give them what you've been entrusted with. And so it is a tension, right? We have to realize the congregational responsibility to be the pillar and support of the truth. And congregations, I think, are accountable to God for that. I mean, you see in the, you know, in the fundamentalist modernist debates and then the emerging New Evangelical question, you had some of the formal objections of the New Evangelicals to the separatism of the fundamentalist was that as long as the church's creed was solid, then you can't say it's not a true church. Right, so all these apostate denominations that if you pulled up their doctrinal statement, it was like, you know, it was solid. So how can you say that you have to turn away from that? Well, I think the answer is pretty simple, right? If the congregation is letting apostasy be preached from the pulpit, then it really isn't, the creed isn't really controlling the church. They don't really believe that. It's just a piece of paper, right? So the reality of it is that's the tension that you and I have to live within is that hopefully when we have finished our ministry at a particular church, the thought of them listening to preaching that is heterodox would be completely objectionable. No matter how winsome it sounds, that they would have the theological strength to be the pillar and support of the truth. And if someone's coming trying to undercut that support or chop down those pillars, they would go, no, that is not going to be in our congregation because the congregation has that responsibility. And we need to teach that. We need to equip that. We need to be what we should be as pastor theologians to prepare them to be what God requires them to be. Right? Because if the only thing keeping this from creeping into your church is your presence, I don't think you should be puffing out your chest about that. That means you haven't done your job. If you're the lone stop, or you and a couple people are the lone stop, then have you actually taught them and equipped them to be what God wants them to be? It's not just a top-down thing. It's permeating the whole assembly to be able to stand as this text says to. And then verse 16 talks about what it should guard. The character of that, I think, is it's confessional by common confession. And it's rooted in revelation. Great is the mystery of godliness. I don't take that as like the hiddenness of it as much as the revelation of God's mystery in Christ. And it is transformational. It's a mystery of godliness. The content deals with Christ's incarnation revealed in the flesh. I take it as his resurrection vindicated by the Spirit, his triumph seen by angels, his mission proclaimed among the nations believed on in the world so that mission has a responsibility to proclaim this message and it calls for a response of faith and it also addresses his exaltation taken up to glory. We could probably spend a lot of time unpacking all of that. I'm just trying to capture the heart of this, if I could put it this way, sort of this God in Christ reality that the church is to be the pillar and support of. So, if I'm gonna try and put it into a statement of a big idea, conducting God's household must be governed by God's word and controlled by the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. So, let me press in on this a little bit, all right? When we talk about this issue and we see that this is the center of what God is doing in this dispensation, the time between the first and second comings of Christ, I think sometimes a way to describe that, which I feel comfortable with, is the primacy of the local church. that when we think about the task we have to be the pillar and support of the truth in the assembly, and I should have said this, this is clearly the local church, because he says, I'm writing to you about how you should conduct yourself, and what has he just written about? Prayer, the role of women in the church, qualification of the overseer, qualifications of the deacons, Those are local assembly issues. Those aren't the overseers of the universal church or the deacons of the universal church or a prayer meeting of the universal church or women in the universal church. It's about the assembly. And he says, it's the assembly that is the pillar and support of the truth. Right, so, and I don't wanna assume that you are, that's clicking with you because I think, unfortunately, a lot of people in our day use the word church and they just mean Christians. Come on, church, let's do this. And what they mean is like, Christians, let's go do this. They're not thinking, come on, identifiable local assembly of people. who are joined together in some covenant, meet regularly, carrying out the work of Christ and submitting to his instructions and carrying out his ordinances. They're just sort of like the church. And it's not the church that's the pillars or the truth. It's the local assembly. That's why pastors function there, to equip them to do what they're supposed to do. And I would suggest to you that that means no other ministries can replace the local church or should even challenge its rightful place in our commitments. It is, and I know this could just sound like soundbite toss outs, but it means that schools, colleges, camps, seminaries, all actually serve local churches because the local church has been given the great commission. None of them have. If they have any role in it, it is to help the local church do the work entrusted to it. That's why if you look in the book of Acts, the Great Commission is carried out in the planting of churches, sending out of missionaries from the church to plant churches, reporting back to local churches. It's local church from start to finish. That's what God's will is for this dispensation. And so we need to think that way about the church, that the church isn't a cluster of ministries, right? So, you know, think about ours, like we're intercity Baptist ministries. You know, we've got a church, we've got a school, we've got a seminary, we've got a mission agency, and we're all just like these entities under an umbrella. No, we're a church. that has chosen to engage in some specialized ministries that can serve the broader Christian community, but they are not actually like parallel to the church. They're under the church. They're a ministry of the local church. And that's what we should be thinking. And that really should be the way that we operate. We need to be careful in our churches not letting any program become a rival for loyalty to the church. Right? People shouldn't be picking churches because it has their pet program. They should be committed to a church because they're committed to that assembly of believers. not chasing after wherever the hottest program is, and if we decide not to do that, we're gonna go find someone that does. So their commitment is above the local church. And we shouldn't promote ministries that try and draw that. I remember years ago, I had a guy show up who was, I mean, so I think I've said this before, but one of the badges that I wear with just a sort of borderline smugness, Bill Gothard called me at one point a stronghold of resistance to his ministry in the Detroit area. And I was like, I thought I should put that on a button or put it in my resume, right? I mean, he viewed me as a stronghold of resistance. And part of it was because that ministry, not only did it like sometimes mangle God's word, sometimes might be a little charitable there, but also built loyalty to itself. I remember one, I was preaching away, and there was a guy sitting over here, and he was just thrilled with my sermon. We're standing in the parlor afterward, and he's going, we just left the church because there were some problems with the pastor, and we're looking for a church where they'll have expositional preaching, and they'll support the institutes, which that's the code for Gothard. And I still remember my wife was standing right next to me, and I looked right at him, I said, well, by God's grace, we'll always be the first. but we will never be the second. And this guy's face just dropped and my wife's face dropped. I was like, here's this guy's first time in our service. And I'm just like, if that's what you're looking for, that's not us. Because what was clear, this guy had left his church because the pastor wouldn't support the institutes. So it wasn't a commitment to the assembly. It was a commitment to somebody being committed to my agenda. And lots of ministries build loyalty to themselves that actually put people in conflict with their primary loyalty, which is to their local church. And that's wrong. That's wrong. And we need to make certain we create a culture through the teaching of God's word that sees our commitment to the assembly as the chief commitment, right? No other ministries And really nothing outside of the local church can control the local church, but actually are operated best when they are under the ministry of a church or a group of churches, but under the authority of the church. because you could do your own research project on it. But we talk about all of the things that go wrong with these entities and almost always, it seems to me, it's because when you start something that exists off of these constituencies and it grows, you need a bigger constituency. And so you're constantly going lowest common doctrinal denominator to build that constituency. Right, because we have to have more and more people. And then you're dodging convictional statements because those might irritate people. So let's sort of be as bland as we can so that we can appeal to as wide a base as we can. And that blandness starts to wage war against conviction. And then people within those parachurch ministries who are the magnets for drawing people, if they do anything wrong, we can't afford to lose the magnet. So we start to tolerate stuff and it's all because we've transcended the local church and we've broken away from the process of guarding the church and we need to not let that happen. All right, it's the local assembly. So let me just encourage us, right? Because here's what I would think can happen. You're in your church trying to do the work of God to carry these things out, and there's all of these external voices, external influences. People in your church have an affinity for these parachurch things that are going on. And honestly, you could feel the pressure of that, right? I'm not really comfortable with where they're going, but do I really wanna have that fight? Do I really wanna do that? And I completely, I am not saying that's not an issue. And I'm not saying you should have every fight you can possibly have. What I would be saying is, Let's get out in front of it. Let's restore the role of pastor-teacher to the place of pastor-theologian and let's restore the local assembly to the place of the pillar and support of the truth and begin to just weave that into the life of our assembly, into the life of our discipleship. and to the life of our leadership development. That yes, we're a part of a bigger thing that Christ is doing, right? He has lots of churches. And it's completely good for us to cooperate and work with like-minded churches to accomplish the thing that we believe Jesus has called us to do. Absolutely. I'm not arguing for some kind of like we're the only people on the planet faithful to Jesus. But let's also recognize that inside of American culture of Christianity is, I think, a perverse thought. that only big things are doing the work of Christ. that if you're really doing what Jesus wants you to do, you're gonna have this massive influence and this gigantic cooperation. And it shows up for guys like us by, and this has nothing to do with our conference, but the fact is that so many people think what's really happening in our day is in gigantic conferences. And they're good, they're great. I enjoy going to conferences. But do we believe in our heart of hearts that what's gonna happen in your assembly this Sunday morning when you gather as the Church of Jesus Christ is more eternally significant than 5,000 people in an auditorium singing and listening to some well-known guy preach? It's good, but it is not the pillar and support of the truth. It is not the household of the living God and the church of the living God. That's what you're doing on Sunday. Jesus has said he will build that. Jesus said he will be in your midst in that. That is the thing that must be what we prize more than anything else. Because if we treat that like, yeah, you know, we got Sonny coming, oh man, I'm getting to go do this. It'll carry over into the hearts of your people and they'll start to think, boy, where the action is, is where that's happening. And that's not where the action is. You know, there's gonna be angels watching you worship Sunday. That's how important it is. It's gonna be the work of God. So let's do our part as pastor theologians to help the church be and do what Jesus wants it to be and do, and take the long look at it. Right, because you're not gonna reverse the flow of interdenominational, celebrity-oriented American Christianity in two messages. It's not gonna happen. You're gonna have to strap yourself in and go for the long ride. Teach, disciple, teach, disciple, lead, because you love the thing Jesus loves. And you want Jesus to be loved in that place. And just do what God wants us to do and trust him to do what only he can do. Let's pray. Father, please help us to love the church in clarity, not an idea of the church, which is all of our own making, but one that is thoroughly biblically informed, theologically robust. We love it, so we want to learn about it. We want to think about it, meditate on what that means, and slowly, patiently shepherd, teach, shape what that assembly is like according to your word with that as the blueprint, so to speak. And to do that, Lord, we're going to have to be committed to your approval above anybody else's. That one day we're going to stand before our Savior and our love for him and his bride has to matter more to us than any love for the approval of people, any desire to be recognized and applauded as an innovator, as a mover and shaker in this world. Help us to understand and be committed to a kind of steadfast obedience in the right direction. Thank you for these men. Thank you for their churches. Lord, we need your work to bring the spiritual renewal that we long for, to raise up healthy churches committed to the mission of Jesus Christ. Would you do that, Lord, for your glory for the good of your people and the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.