Would you turn back to Acts chapter
20? If you were here last week, you
will remember that we considered what the church is when Paul
said, feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own
blood. And this evening, we're going
to look at Paul's charge to the elders. that were at the churches
in Ephesus. He's writing to the elders in
verse 17, and from Miletus, he's sent to the Ephesus and called
for the elders of the church. Now, does that mean that a church
had a number of elders? No, Ephesus was a very big place,
and there were churches all over the place, and he called for
the elders in Ephesus. Now I was thinking about this,
I don't even know whether I ought to say this by way of introduction,
but I love preaching, studying the scriptures. Every morning
when I wake up, I'm excited about the day. I have it a lot easier
than many of you do. You're all going out to jobs
and I'm reading the Bible a lot easier. I am thankful for that. blessing. And I'm thankful. I
love what I do. And I'm thankful for you. Love
you and appreciate your prayers, your encouragement to me. When I look at a passage like
this, I wish I wasn't a preacher anymore. I think I would like
to take a break, let somebody else do the preaching and just
listen and not have the responsibility that Paul is speaking of in this
passage of scripture, in Paul's message to the elders. Now hold your finger there in
Acts chapter 20 and turn with me for a moment to 1 Peter chapter
5. That's important for you to understand
what the responsibility of an elder or a pastor or a bishop
is. The scripture spells it out very
clearly. And I know this, even when I'm
dealing with this, I better preach the gospel tonight. Any message
where the gospel is not preached is a message that should not
have been preached. Look here what Peter says in
1 Peter 5, beginning in verse one, the elders, which are among
you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Here's what the elder is to do. Feed the flock of God, which
is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, not
because you're forced to, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
not for a paycheck, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords
over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."
Now this is what Peter has to say to the elders. Now go back
to Acts chapter 20. Now in the New Testament, we read of elders,
shepherds or pastor, the same thing, and bishop. And it is a God-appointed office. Did you notice when Paul was
speaking to the Ephesian elders, he said, take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseer. Now, if I put myself in this,
I'm in trouble. If I'm a true preacher, a true
pastor. God, the Holy Spirit has made
me one. This is not a man appointed office. No man takes this honor on himself. And I've seen so many men over
the years that I believe to put themselves in the ministry. I
don't want to be somebody like that. I want to be somebody that
the Lord has put in to the ministry. Now, The word elder has to do
with spiritual maturity, not a novice. The word bishop is
an overseer. The Old Testament word is watchman.
And the pastor is the shepherd feeding the flock. And in our text, the church is
called the flock of God, a shepherd. Now Christ is the chief shepherd,
we realize that, but I think it's so interesting that the
church is compared to a flock of sheep. Now sheep, they're
dumb, they're dirty, they're defenseless, they don't have
any way of defending themselves. They don't have claws, they don't
have fangs, they can't run fast to get away from the animals
that would be after them, and it's so interesting the Lord
compares us to sheep, isn't it? sheep. I'm a sheep. A dumb sheep
so easily led astray, so defenseless. How dependent we are on our shepherd. How dependent is a sheep on a
shepherd? You know, some people say, well,
I don't need a shepherd. Well, you know, okay, but you
know, I've seen a lot of people try to pastor themselves. Nobody
does a very good job at it. You can just write that down.
No man makes a good pastor to himself. And Christ is the chief
shepherd, and every God-appointed pastor is an under-shepherd,
called by Christ in Revelation 1, the angels of the church,
or the messengers of the church. Now look in verse 28, here's
the charge Paul gives to the Ephesian elders. He says, take
heed therefore unto, what comes first? Yourselves. take heed to yourselves and to
the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Now, why this exhortation to
these elders to take heed to yourselves? I don't have a hard
time answering that question because every pastor is a sinful,
fallible man, just like anybody else. And that's why he first
says, take heed to yourselves. Like any other man, we can easily
get off track in a way that's destructive. Paul said to Timothy
in 1 Timothy 4, 16, take heed unto yourself and unto the doctrine. But first he says, take heed
to yourself. and under the doctrine continue in them. For in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Now
the implication is if I don't take heed to myself and if I
don't continue in the doctrine of Christ, I won't be saved and
neither will my hearers. That's why he says, take heed
to yourself and to the doctrine over which the Holy Ghost has
made you overseer. Now, take heed to the flock over
which the Holy Ghost has made you overseer. Now, the church
is compared to a flock of sheep. A flock of sheep. Turn with me for a moment to
Hebrews chapter 13. Verse seven, Hebrews 13 verse seven, remember
them which have the rule over you. And that doesn't mean that
the man who's the pastor is the ruler and he tells people what
to do. Here's what you need to do, here's
what, no, not at all. That word ruler means them which
are your guides. And that's what a shepherd is.
The shepherd goes out in front of the sheep. Remember them,
which are your guides, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow. Look in verse 17. Obey them that
have the rule over you. And that word obey is be persuaded. Be persuaded. Now, they're not
real churches. They're religious organizations,
but where the pastor tells everybody what to do. how to spend their
money, where they can go, where they can't go, what they can
do. That's not what this is saying in any way. And a man that does
that is not a pastor. Whatever else he is, he's not
a pastor. He's some kind of religious fanatic. He's some kind of cult
leader, but he's not a pastor. This is not talking about, you
need to do what I say. You need to be obedient to me.
No, the word is literally be persuaded. by them that are your
gods. Be persuaded. For they watch
for your souls as they that must give an account that they may
do it with joy and not with grief. For that's unprofitable for you. Now, a shepherd has three purposes. I don't know a lot about literal shepherds and sheep and
so on, but I know this. A shepherd has three purposes.
First, he's to lead the flock. Now, goats have to be driven,
sheep follow. And a shepherd is to lead the
flock. He's to feed the flock with the
gospel. That's the sheep food. It's the
gospel. And he is to protect from wolves. And look what he says about these
wolves in verse 29, for I know this, that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them. Now he says, take heed to yourself. Now, if a man does not do that,
he has no business being a preacher. Take heed to yourself. And this isn't something I did
a long time ago. This is something I better be
doing every day. Take heed to yourself. Watch out over yourself.
Be suspicious of yourself. Be suspect of yourself. Be in
the word to find out the truth. Take heed to yourself. Now this
is constant and ongoing because I have this sinful nature that
I'm carrying around with me. And look what he says in the
context of this. Here's what this means. Take heed to yourself. Look in verse 18. And when they
were coming to him, he said unto them, you know, from the first
day that I came into Asia, after what manner I've been with you
at all seasons. And he tells us what that is.
Serving the Lord. Not myself, I'm serving the Lord. If I'm a true pastor, I'm serving
the Lord. Now, all of God's people are servants of the Lord. I really
don't like it when preachers talk about themselves as being
a servant of the Lord, and like they're somebody different than
the rest of the congregation. That's not what I mean at all.
But I am, if I'm truly a pastor, I'm serving the Lord. Not myself,
not men, but the Lord. And how is the Lord to be served?
With all humility. of mind. Me and you both have every reason
to be humble, don't we? Pride is so ugly. Oh, it has
no business in the pulpit. It has no business as a pastor
taking the lowest seat in the house. Humility is a just estimate
of yourself. I've got to just estimate of
myself if I see that I'm nothing but a sinner saved by the sovereign
grace of God. Humility, serving the Lord with
all humility. Look what he says next, with
many tears. I like what Scott Richardson
said. He said, we're in the heart business. Tears of sorrow over
my sin, tears of joy. with many tears. Now I'm not,
you probably figured this out, I'm not a real demonstrative
person. I don't cry in front of people. I do it on my own,
and the Lord knows whether that's true. I can tell you that. The
Lord knows whether I'm telling the truth. I cry on my own all
the time. But as far as in front of people, I can't. But the thing
of it is, this is a thing of heart. It's a thing of emotions. It's not just cut and dry. with many tears and temptations
which befell me in the lying way to the Jews. Now, if I'm
getting along with the religious world, we got problems, don't
we? He's talking about the many tears and temptations which befell
me by the lying way to the Jews. If the religious world likes
me, I'm not preaching the gospel. It's that simple. I'm not doing
what I'm supposed to do. And then he says, In verse 20,
how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but
have showed you and taught you publicly and from house to house.
Now this is something that I, this overwhelms me. I don't want
to willingly keep back anything. Scares me. Obviously I can't
preach everything I know in one time, but if I hold back on something
purposely to keep from offending someone, to keep people happy,
I've left the truth, and that's what he's saying. I've kept back
nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and
have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying
both to the Jews and the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's a summary of the message.
And understand this, repentance and faith are really not separate
acts. When preachers present, Well,
you need to repent, and then you need to believe. They preach
neither. Repent, well, you need to repent
of your sins, then you need to believe on Christ. That is foolishness. That's all that is. You repent
when you believe. You believe when you repent.
It's the inhale and the exhale of the breath of life. You breathe
in, that's faith. You exhale, that which is poisonous,
that's repentance. Repentance and faith, repentance
toward God, a change of mind toward God, faith toward the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is our message. And if that
is confounded, the gospel's not preached. Faith and repentance. That summarizes gospel preaching. Faith toward Christ. Now let
me remind you, faith in Christ is not believing you have faith
in Christ. Faith in Christ is believing that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the living God. It's not what you believe about
yourself. You can just scratch that out because it's useless.
It's what you believe about the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is toward
Christ. Repentance is toward God. It's a change of mind concerning
your false views of God. These two always go together. Testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. I want to do that. I don't want
to give my own thoughts. Scares me to death. Scares me
to death to stand up giving my own thoughts rather than what
God actually says in his word. I want to be faithful in that
sense. The flock, this is sheep food,
is what we're talking about. This is what the sheep eat, the
gospel. Every time we meet, the gospel
must be preached. If I'm talking about the elders,
the gospel must be preached. Whatever I'm preaching on, the
gospel must be preached. That's what the sheep feed on. Now look what he says in verse
22, and now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there, say that the
holy ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
abide me. I can't give into that. Well, I'm afraid what'll happen? Well, Paul said, I know wherever
I go, I'm gonna be persecuted for what I preach. Verse 24,
but none of these things move me, Neither count I my life dear
unto myself. I can say this with, the key
to being happy is not trying to be happy. Not counting your
life dear to yourself. As long as you're gonna count
your life dear to yourself, you're gonna be miserable, and you're
gonna make everybody else miserable. He said, I don't count my life
dear to myself. How come that I'm not finished
my course with joy in the ministry, which I've received of the Lord
Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. I'm to take
heed that that's what I'm doing. And now behold, I know that all
among you whom I've gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see
my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Now that is the responsibility
of the elder. Now take heed to yourself with
regard to all these things. Take heed to yourself. yourself and all the flock over the which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Now, do you remember that passage
of scripture we read in Hebrews chapter 13, verse seven, where
it says, remember them that have the rule over you, they're your
guides. You know what it says next? Whose
faith follow. Whose faith follow. Now listen to me. I'm looking to Christ only as
all I have. I'm not looking anywhere else.
I'm looking to the righteousness and merits of Christ as the only
righteousness I have. My dependence is completely on
His grace. I'm not looking for anything
else. I'm not looking for anything else but simply to be found in
Him. Follow me in that. Follow me
in that. Whose faith follow. considering
the end of their conversation. Here's the end of my conversation.
Here's my only hope that Jesus Christ is the same. Yesterday,
today, and forever. That's the end of my conversation.
That's the end of my preaching, to preach Christ. He's the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. I look to Christ only. He's all
I have. He's all I need. He's all I want. And that's the end of my conversation. Follow me as I follow Christ,
Paul said. Now, notice he also says in verse
28, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed
the church of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.
Now, what does it mean to take heed to the flock? He said, take
heed to yourself, watch out over yourself and watch out over the
flock. which the Holy Ghost has made
you overseers. Now what does that mean? What
does it mean for a pastor to be the overseer or look out over
the flock? Now does that mean? Does that
mean I'm to look at you guys and examine you and see how you're
living? And when I see things that are contrary to the gospel,
I point them out. When I see inconsistencies in your life,
I point them out and I get on you about how you're living.
You ought not live like this. You ought to be living like that.
This is wrong what you're doing. Is that what he means? Let me
assure you it's not. Let me assure you. I say to my own shame, I have
said things to people like that, and every time I've done it,
I've horribly regretted it. It was wrong. I love the way
you read Luke chapter six, about until I've got the beams out
of my eye, I can't help you with the splinters. And that's not
what I'm supposed to do anyway. It's not for me to look out over
you and say, these people are living wrong. They need to live
this way. They need to start doing this way. Here's how you
need to give. Here's how you need to spend
your money. Here's where you need to go, where you don't go. No,
that's not looking over the flock. Looking over the flock is preaching
the gospel. That is the feeding of the flock,
the preaching of the gospel. I have no ability. to expose
your splinters because I've got beams in my own eyes and that's
a never, you know, I remember one time somebody says, is there
ever a time when you get the beams out of your eyes? I remember
hearing a preacher saying, the reason so many Christians are
hesitant to confront other believers about sin in their lives is because
they've got so many beams in their own eyes. Kind of like,
I don't have the beams and therefore I'm able to confront Christians
with sin in their lives. I don't know of any time anybody
doesn't have beams in their eyes. And as long as that's the case,
I don't have any business trying to deal with your splinters.
Preachers have a tendency to want to get in people's business.
I remember one time Henry Mahan said, if you want to preach to
15 people, tell everybody how to live. have a church where the Lord
blesses it, just preach the gospel. Stay out of people's business.
So when we're talking about taking heed to the flock, we're not
talking about getting in people's business at all. It's just to
preach the gospel. If I'm true to my calling, every
time you're here, you will be fed with the gospel. The preaching
of the gospel is mealtime. You hear the gospel, you're comforted. You hear the gospel, you rejoice.
You hear the gospel, you rest. Now here's a scripture that ought
to be placard in front of my mind and in front of your mind
every time we hear, every time I preach. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and tell her that her warfare is accomplished. You know all
the war that goes on in your mind? War's over. You know all
the war that goes on in your heart? It's over. Christ said
it is finished. Does that comfort you? That everything
God requires of you, he looks to Christ for? That's comforting
to me. I rejoice in that. I rest in
that. Tell her that her iniquity is
pardoned. Don't say, pardon is offered
to you if you straighten up or if you do this. No, tell her
her iniquity is pardoned. It's gone. It's blotted out.
Now that's the preaching of the gospel. That's sheep's food. That's the children's bread.
That's Christ, the bread of life. That's Christ, the water of life.
The preaching of the gospel. That's what the elder is to do.
He's to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own
blood. And you know, as far as that
goes, it's the preaching of the gospel that's the discipline of the
church. Now, we don't, many of you that have, some of you have,
but some of you have grown up in churches with always wanting
to discipline people. They're not living right, let's discipline
them, let's excommunicate them, let's hold the Lord's table,
some kind of discipline going on. Let's vote them out of the
church and all that kind of foolishness, and that's all it is, is foolishness.
You're not gonna find anything like that in the scripture, this
thing of discipline. I never will forget, I came up
to this one pastor and I said, oh, how's old so-and-so? And
he said, he's under discipline right now, but understand, it's
not punitive, it's restorative. I said, oh, how do you respond
to that? The discipline of the church
is not stuff like that. The discipline of this church
is the Lord takes the preaching of the gospel, and he speaks
to his people, and he corrects his people, and he disciplines
his people through the preaching of the gospel. That is the discipline
of the church. I've had many people over the
years visit here and want to know, what do y'all do about
discipline? And I've just, one of these days, I'm going
to say, a weed eater on the back of the legs. And maybe they'll
want to leave then. I don't want to be around here.
It's that the discipline of the church is the preaching of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That takes care of everything. One pill for every ill. What
would you do if you knew of a pill that would cure everything? Can
you imagine how you could market that thing? Well, we got it,
the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ takes care of everything. Take heed that they're hearing
the gospel or you're being unfaithful to their souls. Take the oversight
thereof. Now, I think of what the Lord
said to Peter. How many times did Peter deny
the Lord? Three times. How many times did
the Lord say to Peter, Peter, do you love me? Three times. And what did Peter say? Yes,
Lord. Lord, you know all things. You
know that I love you. You know, we can appeal to the
very omniscience of Jesus Christ. Lord, you know everything. You
know how sinful I am. You know how contradictory I
am. You know how inconsistent I am. You know how weak I am.
Let's just go on and on and on. But you know that I love and
adore your person. So what did the Lord say? Feed
my sheep. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Nothing less than that demonstrates
a love to the person of Christ. Here's a good meal. The church
of God is the church he purchased with his own blood. Isn't that
good? That's a good meal. My debts are paid for. My sins
have been paid for. I stand before God without guilt
because of what Christ did. He purchased. Jesus didn't pay
a half. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. What a good meal. feed the church
of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Verse 29, for
I know this, that after my departing, he didn't say this might happen.
He said, I know this, I know this for sure. And after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. Now turn with me to Matthew chapter
seven. Matthew chapter seven. Now the
job of the shepherd is to lead the flock. Follow me as I follow
Christ, whose faith follow. The job of the shepherd is to
feed the flock with the gospel. And the job of the shepherd is
to protect from wolves. And he points this out. Look
what the Lord says. Enter ye in, verse 13. Enter ye in. I'm thankful for
that commandment, aren't you? Enter ye in. Doesn't say stay
out. He says come in right now. Enter
in at the straight gate, the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad
is the way. that leads to destruction, and
many there be which go in there, but straight is the gate, and
narrow is the way which leads to life, and few there be that
find it. Now, I love to think of this
narrow gate. This gate is so narrow that if
you have anything other than Christ alone, you can't get in. That's simple enough, isn't it?
If you have any works, if you have any experience, if you have
any growth that you try to bring with you, you can't get in. This
gate is so narrow, so straight, that if you have anything other
than Christ alone, you can't get through. And you know what's
interesting about this road? The road's the same way. You
can't walk along the road if you have anything other than
Christ. It's a very narrow road. Now
I can get you all the way to the Father, Now, broad is the
road that leads to destruction. Wide is the gate that leads to
destruction. You can bring all kinds of stuff
with you there, but it won't get you into heaven. Straight
is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life. Few there
be that find it. Now, what's the first thing he
says? Beware of false prophets. First thing he says, this is
the Lord speaking. Beware of false prophets which
come to you in sheep's clothing. They look like sheep, but inwardly
they're ravenous wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Now, the Lord says you'll know,
and you'll know them by their fruit. Real briefly, that means
three things. First of all, you'll know them
by their doctrine. Now, that's what comes first.
you'll know them by their doctrine. Hold your finger there and turn
to 1 John chapter four. You can measure everything by
this. Verse one, beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they have God, because
many false prophets are gone into the world Hereby know ye
the Spirit of God. Every spirit confesseth that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God and is that spirit of Antichrist. Where have you
heard that it should come? And even now already it's in
the world. Now I love the simplicity of
this. Anybody that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. Now what's that mean? First of
all, you're saying by that that he was before he came. You're
confessing that he is eternal God. He was before he came. I love those scriptures where
he said, I came down from heaven. People got upset with him. And
if I said to you, I came down from heaven, you'd say, you're
a nut. But the Lord said it, it's true. He was before he came. And he came in the flesh. Great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
And in the flesh, he did what he came to do. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And that's exactly what he did. And anything that's contrary
to that in any way, with regard to the work of the Father in
this, the work of the Son in this, or the work of the Holy
Spirit in this, You can judge everything you hear by that. You'll know them by their doctrine.
Somebody that doesn't confess this, he's antichrist. Now, the
second thing that this means is you'll know them by their
life. By their life. Now what do I mean by that? Does
that mean that a preacher doesn't sin? Of course not. But if you
know me, you know who my Lord is. It's that simple. If you know me, you know who
my Lord is. Lynn knows whether Christ is
my Lord. She lives with me, she knows.
And that doesn't mean that a man is, I wish I was sinless, but here's
an example. Lynn showed me just, I think
it was last week, she showed me a picture of Joel Osteen's
home. Have you ever seen a picture
of that? It's a $10 million home. And it was, I don't know how
many, I mean, it was just, well, there's his fruit. There's his
fruit. And if you look at a guy like
that, if you follow him, shame on you. Shame on you. Obviously,
it goes with this guy's, God is money, is material. You shall
know them by their fruit. But what I think it means, maybe
more than anything else. Yes, these others are important.
You'll know them by their doctrine. You'll know them by their lives.
But you'll know them by their converts. Now, what do I mean
by that? Don't ask me what I believe.
What do you believe? Don't ask me, ask Rich. Ask Claire. That's ask Steve. They're the
one, I'll tell you what you wanna hear, or at least a preacher
will, I hope I won't, but I mean preacher, whatever he thinks
will get you into the church, he'll tell you what you wanna
hear. Don't ask the man, ask the people who hear him preach.
That's what he preaches. Ask his hearers. You shall know
them by their fruits. Now, back to our text. Wrap this up. Acts chapter 20. For I know this, after my departing,
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock,
also of your own selves, shall men arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples after them. Wonder how those
fellas felt when Paul said that to them. He said, some of you
guys, some of you guys, you're gonna rise up, and try to draw
away disciples after yourself. You're gonna try to get a hearing,
and you're gonna try to influence people to follow you. I wonder
if they were like the disciples when the Lord said, one of you
are gonna betray me, and every one of them said, is it I? Is
it I? But what a sobering thing that
must have been when Paul said that to them. Therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone
Night and day with tears. Now, we're gonna consider this
next week, but I'm glad he didn't stop in verse 31. You know, who's
sufficient for these things? What man is sufficient? Paul
said that, who's sufficient for these things? But he says, now
brethren, I commend or commit you to God. Our sufficiency is
of God. And now, brethren, I commit you
to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Now, if it was up to a man to
fulfill these responsibilities, we'd be in trouble. But he said,
I commit you to God, not to some preacher, not to your intelligence. I commit you to God and the word
of his grace, which is able. Oh, God's able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name that you would be our shepherd and that you would give us grace
to follow you. We pray that you would feed us
with your gospel. And we pray that you would protect
us From wolves, Lord, we need you as our shepherd to deliver
us and help us and keep us. How we thank you that Christ
Jesus is that great shepherd of the sheep. Now, Lord, bless
this message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name
we pray, amen. Dwayne, come and lead us in closing
hymn.