Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 21. The title of the message this morning
is a question that I want each of us to consider carefully. Do you love Christ? I want to
put the same question to each of us that our Lord put to Peter. Do you love Christ? That's a
very important question. You think about Peter's life. You think about just those three
years from the time he first met the Lord Jesus. Peter had
many experiences, hadn't he? Some of us have too. You live
long enough, you'll have a few experiences. But that's not the
question. The question is, do you love
Christ? Peter had many special revelations. In some sense, many
of us have too. By God's grace, he's revealed
himself to us through the preaching of the word, but that's not the
question. The question is, do you love
Christ? Peter had said many good things.
There are many things recorded that Peter said that are very
good things, things I wish I'd said. And occasionally, something
may roll out accidentally that sounds good, you know, but that's
not the question. The question is, do you love
Christ? And bless his heart, Peter said many bad things too,
didn't he? We have to, but that's not the question. The question
is, do you love Christ? Over the years, this congregation
has heard a lot of good preaching. I mean, good preaching. We've
known and respected many good preachers, many of God's choice
serpents, but that's not the question. The question is, did
you hear what they were saying? Do you love Christ? We may have
all of our doctrinal ducks in a row. We may know and love a
lot of good doctrine, be able to just set everybody straight,
but that's not the question. The question is, do you love
Christ? And conversely, we may not know a lot of doctrine. We
may not be able to explain very much about what we really believe
and know it is true. But that's not the question either.
The question is not how much you know. The question is, do
you love Christ? The question is not, do you understand
God? Do you understand everything it is and be found in God's word?
The question is this, do you love Christ? Everybody got the
question? That's the question. Look at
verse 15. Let's read these verses again.
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto
him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto
him, feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, yea,
Lord, Thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed
my sheep. He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved, because
he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he saith
unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that
I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my
sheep. Now here's my first point. Why? Did the Lord ask three times,
Peter, do you love me? It was not, contrary to what
we think, it was not primarily to remind Peter he denied the
Lord. Peter remembered that. I have
no doubt as they sat around this fire, Peter thought about another
fire of coals he'd sat around recently, where he'd made three
other statements. And it's good for us. Now we
ought not forget who we are, where we've come from, who we
are. We need to be reminded of those things all the time so
that we will keep depending upon Christ. So the Savior really
didn't ask Peter this to remind him. He asked Peter three times,
do you love me? Out of his compassion for his
people. This was compassion from the
Savior. Peter had denied the Lord three times. And Peter was
humiliated from the time the Lord arose. I'm confident this
Peter wanted time alone with the Lord to set this matter straight.
Now he was humiliated. And in compassion for this. Beloved
brother who'd made this mistake. Our Savior gave Peter three opportunities
to tell what was really in his heart. Love for Christ. The Lord already knew Peter loved
him. He knew that. The Lord's the one who put that
love in his heart in the first place. He knows all things. The
Savior asked this question for Peter's benefit, so that Peter
would know, despite it all, yeah, I really do love the Lord. There's
a lesson for us here. People who truly love Christ
will often do and say awful things. Now, there's no excuse for that.
There's no excuse for the many things we say and do. But that,
when we do those things, that does not change the truth of
what's in our heart. What's in the heart of every
believer is love for Christ. And sometimes people watch us
and they can't tell we love the Lord. Sometimes the only one
who knows is the Lord. The only one who knows we really
do truly love him because he sees the heart. And second, The
Savior asked Peter three times, do you love me? And after each
answer, he told Peter, feed my sheep. He did that to show Peter
and to show these six other witnesses sitting around the fire with
him that Peter was forgiven. Yes, Peter had sinned. Yes, Peter
should not have done that. There's no making it right, what
Peter did. But Peter was forgiven in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And our Lord made that so obvious. And Peter was restored
to full fellowship with the Savior. Brethren, our standing with God,
our fellowship with Christ, is not based upon what we do or
we don't do. It's based upon the doing of
Christ alone. Salvation is a work done in the
heart. Salvation is the giving of a
new heart. It's the birth of a new man. and the holiness of
that new man, and the acceptance that that new man has with God
is never based on what the old man does. It's always based on
Christ, who he is, what he's done for us, and what he's done
in us. Now, that is never an excuse to sin, never. But you
know what? If you love Christ, I don't need
to tell you that. If you love Christ, you're not looking for
an excuse to sin. And if you look at this and say,
well, that just means I can sin and not worry about it, then
you don't love Christ. Because if you love him, you're not looking
for an excuse to sin. You will sin, but you're not
looking for an excuse for it. The Savior showed everyone who's
listening and he recorded it in his word so we'd know it.
That Peter was restored. I don't know if you ever not,
I guess you The word used is restored, but he's still an apostle,
just as much as he ever was before. Peter is still in this business.
He's given this job to preach Christ. Now all God's preachers
are flawed, sinful men who have been forgiven much, just like
Peter. And who better to go preach the
gospel to sinners than Peter? Who better to preach the gospel
to flawed, sinful men and women than me, a flawed, sinful man,
forgiven of my sin in the blood of Christ. Our Savior, treating
Peter with such compassion, made him love the Lord even more,
don't you reckon? See, this was done, the Lord didn't do it to,
he wasn't really rebuking Peter, it was in compassion for Peter.
Now second, there is a word here to God's pastors. to his preachers
and elders, and this is the word, feed God's sheep. That's your
job, feed God's sheep. Now, I know scripture gives us
a list of several different qualifications for a man in the ministry, but
the two all-important qualifications for the ministry are these, love
for Christ and faith in Christ, faithfulness. First, love. You cannot preach Christ unless
you love Him. You can't. You might be able
to talk about Him, you might be able to talk about some doctrine,
but you can't preach Christ unless you love Christ. And you cannot
take care of God's sheep unless you love Christ. Now, our Lord
was not asking Peter, Peter, do you love me more than these
other disciples? You parents would never ask your children
that. Do you love me more than your brother? Do you love me
more than your sister? He wouldn't ask us that. What the Lord was
asking Peter is, Peter, do you love me more than those boats
and more than those nets? You just caught an enormous haul
of fish. Do you love me more than catching
all those fish? Do you love me more than the profits you can
make from selling all those fish? You better, because you're gonna
have to leave all those things. You have to turn your back on
them if you're gonna be a fisher of men. God's servant, must love
Christ more than the things of this world. That doesn't mean
he doesn't need the things of this world. He's got a fleshly
body, you know, he's got to eat and things, but God's servant
must love Christ more than having things of this world. Because
if you're going to serve Christ, you can't have two masters. Now
you're only going to love one of them. Peter, which is it?
Do you love me more than these things? The second qualification
of God's servant is faithfulness. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4,
moreover, it is required of a steward that a man be found what? Faithful. A man who loves will be faithful. Love and faith always go hand
in hand. A husband who truly loves his
wife will be faithful to her. Isn't that right? The same thing's
true of God's preachers. The man who truly loves Christ
will be faithful to the cause of Christ and will be faithful
to God's sheep. Now it's so important that a
pastor love Christ. The charge that our Lord gives
to Peter and to all his servants is feed my lambs. Feed those
little ones who can't take care of themselves. You mothers, what
is physically the hardest time of your life? When that baby's
little and about on a two or three hour feeding schedule,
it's hard. You better love that kid. You
better love her. That baby's a star if you don't
love that baby. Same thing true of God's preachers.
Feed my lambs. Take those little ones that can't
feed themselves and love them. Feed them. Then he says, feed
my sheep. Those sheep of all different
ages, of all different backgrounds, of all different personalities
and abilities and strength. Peter, boy, you think, well,
they got a lot of different needs. No, they got one. Peter, feed
them. Feed my sheep. I want you to
notice, whose sheep are these? They belong to Christ. They're
my sheep, aren't they? They belong to Christ because the Father
gave them to Christ as a gift in divine election. He gave,
chose those people gave them to his son. I've got something, one or two
things. They were a gift to me from my
father. I cherish him. What do you think Christ thinks
of his sheep? They're a gift from his father. He cherishes
them. Look in Acts chapter 20, I'll
show you another reason that these sheep are precious to Christ.
Because he bought them. And he paid a high price to get
them. I think you can tell how precious something is by what
you're willing to pay for it. Look in Acts chapter 20 verse
28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves. This is Paul speaking
to these under shepherds, these people just like Peter. Take
heed therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church
of God. which he hath purchased with
his own blood." Christ gave his life for these sheep. They're
precious to him, aren't they? And Christ, the great shepherd
of the sheep, has given the charge of his precious lambs to under
shepherds. And those under shepherds are
to feed the flock. They're to feed the lambs, Christ,
the sincere milk of the word. They're to feed the flock by
leading them throughout the green pastures, just going throughout
the green pastures of God's Word, showing them Christ. Here he
is, here he is, just constantly showing them Christ. We're to
feed the flock by leading them beside the still waters, leading
them beside Christ, the water of life, and causing them to
drink deeply. We're to feed the flock the Word
of God. Because that's how the sheep
are born again, through the seed of the Word of God. We're to
feed the flock the Word of God. Just go verse by verse through
God's Word, because that's how the sheep receive faith. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We're to
feed the flock the Word of God, because this is how they grow
in grace, how they flourish, by being fed the Word of God.
And in verse 15 and verse 17 of our text, that's what the
Lord means. The word he uses there, feed, it means to graze
or to pasture. Peter, give my people something
to eat. Give them the right things to
eat. But he uses a different word for feed in verse 16. That
word means to tend to. Peter, do all the work of a shepherd. Protect the sheep from wolves.
Those wolves, Paul called them grievous wolves. They're gonna
come in. You better protect the sheep from them. He told the
Ephesian elders, even among your own selves, grievous wolves are
going to come in. Now they're going to be there.
You've got to protect the sheep from them because sheep have
no defense. We're to protect the sheep from themselves. My
goodness, sheep are dumb animals. I mean to tell you, we will do
anything. We must be protected from ourselves. Peter and all you under shepherds,
You do all the work of a shepherd. You wash the sheep. You show
the sheep affection. They need affection. They can't
just be out there on their own. They need somebody to give them
some affection. They need to be fed. Hand feed them if you
need to. Tend to them while they're sick.
Now that's hard work. I'm just telling you, that's
hard work. Who is going to be willing to jump between the sheep
and the wolf that's coming? Who? Only the man who loves Christ
who owns a sheep. That's the only one. The only
man who's gonna jump between the sheep and the wolf is the
man who loves the sheep because they belong to Christ. You parents. You're walking down the street
and there's some mugger with a big old knife. Without even
thinking, just instinctively, you jump between that mugger
and your children. You'd be pushing your children
behind you. Why would you do that? love. That's what motivates you. And
the same thing's true of God's pastors. It's hard work to feed
the sheep. You've got to do a lot of searching
the scriptures. This, this is all just one giant
green pasture. Where's the green pasture? God
have his feet as his sheep feed today. Right now, where is it?
You got to go find it. You got to find that pasture.
It's hard work to to study the scriptures, to find the meaning
of the scriptures, to find the truth of it, to find Christ in
it and then expound it. Well, who's willing to do that?
Who's willing and disciplined enough to spend hours in the
study, in prayer and study of the scriptures and who'd want
to do that? Only the man who loves Christ.
That's the man I want to hear preach. I want to hear a man
preach who loves Christ. You know why? Because the man
who loves Christ will always put Christ in the best light.
You know, I've grown up in what we call church. I've grown up
in it. I can never remember not being
in it. And I've heard a lot of preaching. I've heard men preach. I mean to tell you, That man's
gifted. I mean, you just, anybody can
listen to him preaching. He's gifted. He's gifted in language. He can turn a phrase. He knows
words and how to put them all together. He, my, he knows Greek
and Hebrew, English and Greek and Hebrew. And I mean, the doctrine,
I mean, this guy just read Guilford backwards. I mean, wow. The guy
never, ever, ever stumbles over his notes. He never got to look
at his wife to get, what's the word I'm looking for? He never
does that, never. I'm so jealous. He never searches
for the word. He just, he's so smooth and powerful
in his delivery. I never got a blessing. Why? Then I've heard, man, this is
the kind of guy I like to be. Seems like he's got trouble putting
two sentences together back to back, you know. He's not too
educated. He's not too good with English
and punctuation. It's just not that smooth, you
know. But I get a rich blessing from
hearing him preach because he loves the one he's preaching.
He loves Christ. I remember one time one of our
ladies was singing a special and she got choked up. singing of the love of Christ,
his compassion, his mercy. And she's a little embarrassed.
And that's tough. I'm telling you, once it starts,
it's hard to shut off, you know. And Janet, I remember her saying
after the service, don't be embarrassed. I love to hear someone sing who
loves who she's singing about. That's who I want to hear sing.
I'll wait until you get control of your emotions because I want
to hear the person sing. I want to hear the person preach
who loves who he's preaching about. That's who I want to hear
preach. And the sheep will only be fed, they'll only be blessed,
they'll only be encouraged, they'll only be pointed to Christ alone
if a man loves preaching Christ. Your own agenda can't enter into
it. Your own desires can't enter into it. The Lord didn't say,
Peter fleeced the sheep. He said, Peter, feed them. If
you feed the sheep, you don't need to fleece them. The Lord's
given them a willing heart to give. You don't need to fleece
them. They'll give. Your job's to feed them. The
Lord didn't tell Peter, go out and make sheep. He didn't say,
Peter, go out and talk people into decisions and make a goad
of sheep. He didn't say that. He said, Peter, feed the sheep.
I'll call them out. The Lord didn't tell Peter, weed
out the goats. He didn't say shoot at all the
goats. He said, Peter, feed my sheep. And if a man loves Christ,
that's exactly what he'll do. He'll feed God's sheep. But our message this morning
follows a very similar pattern to our lesson in the Bible class.
This commandment of our Lord to feed the sheep does not only
apply to pastors and elders and teachers. This commandment that
we're reading doesn't just apply to those who teach in the Bible
school, Dale and Eric and me. It doesn't just, it applies to
every child of God. This is my third point. Every
child of God can say with Peter, Lord, you know I love you. You know it because you put a
heart of love in me. Now there are times someone can
ask you, are you one of God's elect? I don't see any evidence of that.
I've never seen the Lance Book of Life, but I can tell you this,
I know I love Christ. There are times someone can ask
you, are you justified? Well, all I see about me is sin,
I don't know. But I can tell you this, I know
I love Christ. There are times someone asks
you, are you born again? And to my shame, I'd say, I don't
know. I don't see much evidence of it. But I can tell you this,
I love Christ. Now, it's not how I wish it was. It's weak and feeble. But I can
tell you, I love Christ. And every believer say the same
thing. We've got different levels of growth in grace. We've got
different levels of experience. We've got different levels of
knowledge. You know, how can one of these
little ones know what you older folks know? You have more time
to learn. We've got different levels of, we've got different
jobs in the kingdom of God. But every believer, wherever
you find them, loves Christ. And we won't turn to a lot of
these scriptures for time's sake. We'll turn to a few of them,
but I want to give you some scripture to back up what I'm saying. Love
is the evidence that you know God. I mean, it just stands to
reason, of course you love God if you know him, but 1 John 4,
7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone
that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Love's the evidence
that you know God. And love is also the evidence
God knows you. 1 Corinthians 8, 3. If any man
love God, the same is known of him. Love is the evidence that
God knows you. And you're lost and you'll be
damned if you don't love Christ. First Corinthians 16, 22. If
any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Let him be damned when Christ
returns. I want you to turn to this one. First Thessalonians
chapter one. Love is the evidence of your
election. Excuse me, is the evidence of
your election of God. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4. Knowing brethren, beloved, your
election of God. Now how did Paul know that? When
he went to the third heaven, did he see the Lamb's book of
life and scroll through it? No. How did he know that? Verse 3. remembering without
ceasing your work of faith and your labor of love and patience
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father.
Love is the evidence of your election. Love is the evidence
your sin is forgiven. In Luke 7, verse 47, our Lord
said, I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven,
for she loved much. But whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 1. Love is the evidence that you
have obtained mercy from God. 1 Timothy 1 verse 12. And I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that He counted
me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Who was before
a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious? But I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is
in Christ Jesus. Love is the evidence you've obtained
mercy. Love is the evidence you've been
born again. First Peter 1.22. Seeing you've purified your souls
and obeying the truth through the Spirit, and unfeigned love
of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. First John 3, 14, we know we've
passed from death unto life. We know that I was born dead
and I've been born again. Now I have life. How? Because
we love the brethren. Love is the evidence of the new
birth. Love is the evidence that God, the Holy Spirit, dwells
in us. Paul said in Galatians 5.22 that the fruit of the Spirit
is love. If you love, it's because the
Holy Spirit dwells in you. It's the Spirit's fruit. Now,
just like the pastor's motivation is love for Christ, every believer
has the exact same motivation. It's love for Christ. Just like
the pastor feeds the sheep because he loves Christ, he loves the
sheep, Every believer ministers to the flock, helps the flock,
because you love Christ. Now let me tell you where the
key to this love is found. The key to our love is found in Christ's
love for His people. We love Him, why? Because He
first loved us. That's the key. And if He loved
us, if He loved us first, we will love Him and we'll love
His sheep. Christ loved His people. so much, he was willing to humiliate
himself and become a man, to set aside his glory as a son
of God and become a man in the limitations of human flesh. And
then he agreed to go further than that. He agreed to be made
sin for his people and suffer and die as a substitute for his
people. Now we love him who loved us
and we were unlovable. We love Him who died for us and
put our sin away. How can you not? Of course you
love Him if He first loved you. Now look at Matthew chapter 22. Christ's love for us and our
love for Christ will motivate us to do some things. For the
believer, it will motivate him to do everything that we do.
In Matthew 22 verse 35, Then one of them, which was a
lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master,
which is the great commandment of the law? I can't keep them
all, so just pick out one. What's the great commandment?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law, and the prophets. James calls this the royal law
of love. The whole law hangs on these
two commandments. Now, we know that in Christ,
a believer has no relationship to the law, but the life of a
believer, the life of obedience that a believer lives is summed
up in this, love for Christ. Look at John chapter 15. Our
Lord said, if you love me, You'll keep my commandments. You know
which child loves his parent? The one that's obedient. Isn't
that right? If you love me, you'll keep my
commandments. Well, what commandment is he talking about? John 15,
verse 12. This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. He said it again,
verse 17. These things I command you, that
you love one another. Now look in Romans chapter 13. Every motivation a believer has
for obedience to Christ is love for him. Our motivation to serve
one another is love for Christ and love for God's sheep. Romans
13 verse 8. Owe no man anything but to love
one another. For he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law, hath fulfilled God's royal law of love. You
see, our love is motivation for everything in a believer's life.
If you love Christ, I don't have to come up with some ingenious,
tricky way to get you to come to worship service. I don't have
to beat you up if you're not here. If you love Christ, you'll
come to the worship service. You know why? You love to hear
about the one you love. You love to praise the one that
you love. Love is the motivation for us
to witness to others. Don't you love to talk about
those that you love? You parents and grandparents
know it's true. You love to talk about your children. You love to talk about your grandchildren
because you love them. They're the best thing since
sliced bread. If you love Christ, you love
to talk about Him. Love is the motivation to work.
Don't work trying to please God or earn a better spot in heaven
or anything like that at all. We're not working trying to get
a reward. Your motivation for what you do in the service of
God is love for Christ. The love of Christ constraineth
us. The love of Christ is what motivates
us. I'll use you mothers as an example
again. A mother's got the hardest job in this world. What motivates
you to keep doing it? Julie loves being a mother. She
just loves it. What motivates you? It's love
for those babies. Love them, just love them. Whatever
it is you do in the service of Christ our King, do it in love. Tomorrow morning, unless you're
retired, you got a job to go to. Go to it. I mean, work hard in it. Be the
best employee there. Be an employee the month, every
month. So you support your family. You support those that you love.
And you give to the ministry for the furtherance of the gospel.
And do it, not because you gotta pay a tithe. The law tithes. Love gives. You never have to
ask love to give. Love just gives. Do it because
you love Christ. If you teach a class, If you
fill the pulpit, if you come up here and read the scriptures
or you lead in prayer, don't do it for recognition. Do it
out of love for Christ. Do it out of love for His sheep.
When you sing songs, do it for love of Christ. She sang that
song of love for her master. Sing it from love. If you clean
the building, if you cut the grass, if you, whatever, do it
out of love for Christ. Be kind one to another. Don't
just think it in your mind. Go tell them. Use your words.
Janet would always say that to our girls when they were little,
you know, and they were just whining around. Use your words. Use your words. Give people some kind words.
Give them some encouraging words. Help them out. Be sweet to one
another. What's our motivation to forgive
one another? Whether we mean to or not, we're going to do
something wrong. We're going to wrong our brother,
wrong our sister, and we're going to need forgiveness. I need forgiveness
every moment. What's our motivation to forgive
one another? Ephesians 4.32, it's love. Forgiving one another,
even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. How did he
forgive you? In love, freely. Love like that
will cover a multitude of sins, won't it? Look at Philippians
chapter two. Love is the motivation for us
to strive to keep the unity of the brethren. Philippians 2 verse
1, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels
and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that you be like minded, have
unity, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Love for Christ is the motivation
for us to walk uprightly, for us to walk honestly before men.
Ephesians 5.1, be you therefore followers of God as dear children
and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself
for us. Wayne, do you need any more motivation
than that? None. That's it, isn't it? It's
love for Christ that motivates us to have Christ-centered homes.
Ephesians 5.25, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church and gave himself for it. Husbands, you set the
tone and you'll have a home of love. Look at Titus chapter two. Titus two, verse three. that the aged women likewise,
that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may
teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, and to
love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good,
obedient to their own husbands, that the word of the Lord be
not blaspheme. You women, why do you teach these
young women all these things to be sober, to love their husbands,
to love their children? Why do you do that? Because you
love Christ. That the word of God, the gospel
we preach, be not blasphemed. You see, the key to following
Christ and serving Christ is love. What you do is the motivation
is more important really than what you do. And when a person
leaves the worship service, when they leave, they don't come back
anymore. They leave the fellowship of God's people. It's not a doctrine
problem. I mean, they can blame it on
that, but that's not the problem. It's a heart problem. It's a
love problem. If you love Christ, you can't
leave where he's preached. You can't leave the fellowship
of his people. So here's my question. Do you love Christ? I'm asking
myself this question. Do you love Christ? May by God's
grace we be able to say with Peter, Lord, you know, all things,
you know, I love you and let's cultivate that love. Cultivate
that love in Christ by worshiping together, being in his word. Now. see if I can do this without
stumbling over my words. We're going to have a time of
fellowship after service. I hope all of you can stay. Can't
do it. We're going to honor Charity
Collins this morning. I remember when Charity was born.
Charity, I remember the first time you came to Sunday school
and she came in there willing to learn. Her mama and daddy
taught her what she was there for, and you've been nothing
but a joy to us ever since. And I hope we've been faithful
to you. I hope we have. So after we sing
a song, Charity will lead us through line. We've got some
food, and let's have a time of enjoyment. We're just so proud
of Charity. She's going to Moorhead to study
nursing and on a scholarship for soccer. We're just busting
her buttons. We're so proud of her and thankful,
thankful for her. So let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we pray, then your
goodness and your mercy to your people that you bless your word
has been preached this morning. Bless your word to the hearts
of your sheep. It'll feed your sheep. It'll strengthen and encourage
your sheep to cause us to look again, feed upon our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, how we thank you and
your goodness to your people that you've preserved your gospel,
that you've preserved your word all these years, and that you've
given it to faithful men, men that you've made faithful, men
that you've given some understanding, to preach Christ to your people.
Father, we pray that you'd bless it. Bless it for your namesake.
You promised your word would not return unto you void, and
we pray that you'd cause it to go and accomplish the purpose
that you've sent it to. Father, we thank you for this
food that we're about to eat, the bounty of your table, the
bounty of your world that you've given to your people to enjoy.
We thank you. And we do thank you for charity,
Father. We thank you that you've given her to us, and thankful
for all the things that you've enabled her to accomplish. And
we pray, Father, that you'd bless her in a very special way. She
continues to grow and step out into the world,
Father. Go with her. Bless her always
in every step she takes, we pray. It's in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. For his glory, we pray.