The Shepherds’ Mandate

Turn to the book of First Peter. As we recognize Frank as an elder
this morning, we enjoy a solemn and at the same time joyful occasion
in the life of Providence Bible Church. In doing so, the church
taps into God’s provision for leadership in the local church.
The term elder is the most prominent title with regards to leadership
positions in the church. It’s not a business, and so that
the title CEO won’t do. It’s not an autocracy, and so
any top down title king or czar won’t do. It’s not a club, so
president won’t do. No, the title that Scripture
uses most often for the leadership position in the local church
is that of elder used some 70 times in the New Testament. Typically,
it has reference to mature age at its core. There is a non-technical
use of the word elder, implying merely an aged or older man. Implying seniority, there is,
though, a technical sense to this word. Referring, first of
all, to the Jewish religious system elder. There are also
those elders that are mentioned, what I would refer to as eternal
elders mentioned in Revelation repeatedly, the 24 elders that
surround God’s throne. And then there is the Christian
church elder. referred to repeatedly throughout
the book of Acts, referred to in Paul’s writings and James’s
writings and Peter’s writings and John’s writings as well.
There are instructions plenty given directly to the elders,
even as we’ll see this morning. There is a consistent pattern
of a plurality of elders in scripture, as we see the scriptures unfold
the life of the church. Elders are found in Judea to
begin with in the surrounding area. They govern the church
in Jerusalem, as we see in the book of Acts, chapter 15. Among
Paul’s churches, there was leadership by a plurality of elders established
in Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Ephesus, Philippi, Crete and
on. According to This well-traveled
letter of first Peter elders existed in churches throughout
northwestern Asia Minor Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. Elders were the norm. Elders
were the leadership of the local church. On top of that, there
is instruction about elders that is given in plenteous measure
to the church instruction in the book of James as to prayer
instruction in the pastoral epistles. First Timothy, Second Timothy
and Titus. There is plenty of instruction
regarding the eldership provided us in the scriptures. So when
Peter wanted to address The leadership of the local churches that were
under his purview, as he does in the passage before us this
morning, he appeals first and foremost to the elders of that
body. If you would, if you’re in First
Peter, would you turn to chapter five? And I just want to look
at the first four verses this morning. This is familiar territory
for us. We spent no little time in these
verses in the past. And this, in a sense, by way
of review, but I think I hope this morning, particularly crafted
to speak to the to the elders in our midst. Therefore, I exhort the elders
among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings
of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
shepherd the flock of God among you. Exercising oversight, not
under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God
and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording
it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples
to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears,
you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Now, in the passage before us,
the office, as I mentioned, referred to as is referred to as elders,
the enduring office of leadership in the New Testament church.
But just as Scripture uses. Three titles in total to refer
to that same office, elder, overseer and shepherd, so does Peter,
even in this one passage. In this one passage, all three
of those terms are found right here, elder, shepherd or pastor
and overseer or much more poorly translated bishop. These three terms, elder, pastor,
shepherd and overseer, bishop, all refer to the same leadership
office. That much is seen in the fact
that those two of those terms are used interchangeably in First
Timothy three. The terms there are the rather
the qualifications for an elder there in First Timothy three
for overseer are nearly identical to those for elder in Titus. The terms elder and overseer
are used interchangeably in the opening verses of First Timothy.
First Timothy five says this one five. For this reason, I
left you in Crete that you might set in order what remains and
appoint elders. The verse continues and begins
to point to the qualifications of the same. And in verse seven,
it picks up steam and says for the overseer used interchangeably
with elder just previously. In Acts chapter 20, which verse
will consider a number of times throughout this message this
morning, all three terms again are used in conjunction with
one another. You’re probably familiar with the passage. Paul
calls to himself the leaders of the local church. He calls
to Ephesus and he calls the leaders down to the shore to meet him.
The elders from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him
the elders of the church. And when they were there, he
told them, in verse 28, be on guard for yourselves and for
all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To shepherd the church of God. Well, all three terms, as I said,
are used interchangeably, and the conclusion is that they all
refer to the same office in the church. All three refer to the
same New Testament office. MacArthur said it simply when
he said it this way, bishops and elders, overseers and pastors
are not distinct from elders. The terms are simply different
ways of identifying the same people. All three terms refer
to the same office. The term elder emphasizes who
the man is. Overseer speaks of what he does
and pastor or shepherd deals with how he feels in the pastoral
role of caring and feeding. Now, if you’re glancing at first,
Peter, you’re probably quick to realize this is about four
to six weeks worth of material. And what Peter does next is essentially
give you his calling card. Peter characterizes his exhortations
and characterizes and qualifies himself as being capable of this
exhortation. He says, therefore, I exhort
the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the
sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to
be revealed. If you needed any Resume from Peter, this is it. And we’ve been here before, as
I said, I preached this already, and as you desire, you can go
online and hear it all over again, but my purposes are different
this morning. And so we’re going to move swiftly past Peter’s
qualifications to Peter’s exhortation to us as elders. What do we need
to hear? And you have the privilege of
sitting in essentially as we get instructed this morning. It’s always funny for me to that
process, I call it the back door, the glorification of the worm,
where people say, oh, pastor, you are all over me this morning.
My toes are bruised. And I always tell people, well,
you know, my toes get stepped on first. The Lord deals with
me long before he deals with you. But this one today, you
get to sit in on while we get instructed, while we are taken
to task, while we are, as Peter said, exhorted. What do we need
to hear? Those in focus this morning,
those in the hot seat this morning, if you will, are we the elders
and would be elders. What do we need to hear? In looking to this address and
in crafting this message this week, I am assuming, and I think
it’s a good assumption, a reasonable assumption. I am assuming that
in, as in everything else, there is a desire to glorify God, to
please Him in every respect, to honor Him in this service,
this service of eldership. And that is my starting place
this morning. How do we, those who are gifted
and called and tasked and recognized as elders, how do we glorify
God in this calling? That should be our goal. It must
be our desire. And so what I’ve done this morning
and In the title, the sermon title this morning, there are
no typos. I’ve made plenty of mistakes
in the bulletin. But in the sermon title this
morning, there are no typos, if you glance at it briefly in
the first place. Grammarians would suggest that
a title like this should capitalize the letter S, but it’s not capitalized.
And you’ll learn more why in a moment, but we are not the
shepherds. There is one greater and the
apostrophe is not misplaced. It’s not the shepherds mandate
singular. It’s the shepherds mandate plural. This is the mandate to all shepherds. There are no typos. What we look
to this morning is a consideration of our calling as elders, as
I’ve already suggested, assuming that we desire to be God pleasing
and God honoring, to glorify him in this office as we do in
all the rest of our endeavors as Christians. First and foremost,
if we would be God pleasing elders, we must consider what it is to
shepherd. what it is to shepherd. Peter
said it simply, and he says it so simply that we almost gloss
over it as if it’s easy. I exhort the elders among you,
shepherd the flock of God. It’s a simple illustration. That
illustration throughout Scripture, the word here means pastor or
shepherd. translated usually as shepherd
and those occurrences so often of Christ. In two particular occasions,
a verse that we’ll consider again and again this morning is Acts
20, 28. Be on guard for yourselves for all the flock among which
the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church
of God. The noun is used some 18 times
in Scripture, eight of them referring clearly to Christ as the great
shepherd. Five alluding to Christ as such. Four referring to literal shepherds. And one. One time the noun is
used to refer to church leaders. And there and only there in Ephesians
4.11, it’s translated as pastor. Unfortunately, that alternate
translation pastor has just served to fuel the fire of misunderstanding
regarding the God given leadership structure of the church. As if
there is a hard and fast distinction between elders and overseers
and pastors. As if there is such an animal
as senior pastor. As if the office of pastor is
separate and distinct from the office of elders. As MacArthur
said, and I repeat, overseers and shepherds are not distinct
from elders. It all refers to the same office, all three terms. Peter says shepherd, do your
job. Do your job as shepherds. It’s
not just a title. It’s a work. And it’s a work
that has a particular calling to it, and it’s a work that has
a particular job description to it. Shepherd your people. Typically, the King James translation
has this as feed, and typically that’s the mentality that comes
with this word shepherd, teaching and feeding. Well, there’s much
more to it. And it’s fascinating that Peter,
of all people, would seize upon this title. I take you back in
your mind’s eye to the opening moments of our consideration,
our study of the book of First Peter. I am now infamous for spending
three weeks on one word, Peter. Remember, we looked then at and
the title of that series was The Apostle of a Grace Changed
Life. The thought was that, look, if
you look at the Gospels and you look at the life of Peter. And
then all of a sudden you pick up first Peter and begin to read.
There is a disconnect, something doesn’t square, something doesn’t
make sense. Because the Peter from whom we
read in first Peter and second Peter is not the same guy that
we see bumbling his way through the Gospels. One of those occasions
was the Mount of Transfiguration, remember? Where Peter got this
grandiose idea to build tabernacles. For all of those present, Moses,
Elijah and Jesus. And God’s rebuke at the end of
it was Absolutely poignant. He said,
this is my beloved son. With whom I am well pleased,
listen to him. The amazing thing is that Peter’s
epistles are a written testimony to the grace of God that Peter
had been enabled to do just as God commanded to listen to Christ. Twenty two times. Peter refers
to Jesus Christ never, not once to Moses or Elijah. Usually he
refers to Jesus Christ, not the much more informal and even casual
Jesus. So often used in our day, Peter,
in addition, refers to the Lord as The Holy One, the Lord, the
choice stone, the shepherd and guardian of your souls, the just,
the chief shepherd. You see, Peter had learned his
lesson well. When God said, listen to him. It changed Peter’s life. And we see that most notably
in John 21. This is where Peter picked up
the title shepherd. Turn to John 21, if you would,
briefly. We’re going to have to just skirt through this account. You know what has happened. Jesus
has been crucified. He has been buried, now resurrected. Peter, doubting, even denying
Christ three times, decides that he’s going to cash in his ministry,
chuck it and go back to fishing. And that’s where we find Peter
in John twenty one and look at verse three. Simon, Peter said
to them, I am going fishing, they said to him, we will also
come with you. Then they went out, got into
the boat and that night they caught nothing you’re familiar
with. The occasion Jesus resurrected arrives essentially to restore
Peter to ministry. But it takes some time to develop.
Jesus, still unrecognized by them, directs them to an overwhelming
catch of fish. Ultimately, Jesus prepares some
of the fish for breakfast. I know fish for breakfast. I
know we went all through it. Ultimately, Jesus fixes some
fish for breakfast and then this familiar dialogue begins. Look
at verse 15. When they had finished breakfast,
Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more
than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you
know that I love you. He said to him, tend my lands.
He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do
you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you
know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep. He said to him the third time,
Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because
he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to
him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus
said to him, tend my sheep. Now, there is a subtle difference
between these verbs to tend, to supply with food, to shepherd.
There were some that take this way too far and to say that Jesus
is talking about one group at first and then another group
second and then the first group again in the third. I don’t think
that it’s even necessary to divide it. Not that hard and fast. Jesus
is telling Peter, get back in the ministry. Get back in the
ministry and take care of my flock. Feed the little lambs,
if you must shepherd the sheep. Paul uses that same imagery,
same terminology in the passage that I’ve alluded to several
times, Acts 20, 28, be on guard for yourselves and for all the
flock. Among which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers to shepherd. The apostle here exhorts them
to feed, to nourish, to care for the Lord’s people and to
care for them with the discipline. That is so necessary. One capable commentator said
this, every minister of Christ ought to both be able to feed
his people with saving truth, rightly divided and applied to
every one of them according to their various conditions. No
less necessary than cherishing and increasing their spiritual
life, their ordinary food in due season for their bodies.
And likewise, they ought to have wisdom, authority and equity
for ruling the Lord’s people by the right exercise of discipline
and the application of discipline. When we shepherd the church,
we nurture the people of God, what he refers to here as the
flock, God’s sheep, we nurture them towards spiritual maturity,
towards Christ likeness, towards a growth in godliness. It is
a spiritual guardianship, as one put it. Where we seek out
the lost in our community, we gather those that are scattered
from God’s people, we watch over them, we defend them. And we
nourish them. It is our duty. It is our absolute
and solemn duty, men, to promote the good of the saints that are
under our care and our watch, to promote their spiritual good,
to watch over them and to promote their growth in these graces.
Faithful John Brown said it this way, it is not enough for ministers
to preach. That is the pitfall of far too
many men. It is not enough for ministers
to preach, yea, sacredly and diligently, but they must besides
take a particular oversight of their flock, looking to the conversion,
pardon me, the conversation, the way that they live and their
behavior and applying themselves accordingly in admonition, exhortation,
comfort. If a minister know any of his
people to be riotous or profane, he must rebuke them. If any are
out of the way, he must admonish them. He must harden them and
be in good course to go on still and must comfort them that languish
under their sins, temptations and fears. In a word, he must
deal with everyone as the cause requires. Men, we have to shepherd. It’s not enough just to take
the office, just to take the title of elder. I put two sub
points underneath this. We have to consider what it is
to shepherd in one of the things that will help. We do well to
consider after whom this office is patterned. Now, you know. You know, I’ve already told you,
you’ve you’ve seen it, you already know from your years of reading
the Scriptures that this is not the first time that this illustration
of the shepherd and his flock are used in Scripture. Think
of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me
lie down in green pastures and on it goes a beautiful picture
of God’s loving care for his flock, the people. In Zechariah,
the image again is presented in 13, seven, a Waco sword against
my shepherd and against the man my associate declares the Lord
of hosts strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered.
Spoken prophetically of Christ, Isaiah 40, 11. Isaiah 40, 11,
like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. Ezekiel 34, 23, I
will set over them one shepherd, my servant David. Ezekiel 37,
24, my servant David will be king over them. They will have
one shepherd. And on and on it goes through
Scripture. Turn, if you would, though, to John chapter 10. John
chapter 10. In John chapter 10, Jesus is
using the illustration. Jesus is using the illustration
of the sheepfold and the pen that keeps them and the shepherd
that cares for them. And guess who is the shepherd?
It’s him. It’s the Lord Jesus. Verse one,
truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door
of the fold of the sheep, it climbs in some other way. He
is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door
is a shepherd of the sheep. Verses 3-10 essentially talk
about that robber and talk about his tendencies. But Jesus wants
to point out also, verse 11, who the shepherd is. He says,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his
life for the sheep. Look at verse 14. I am the good
shepherd and I know my own. My own know me. Even as the father
knows me and I know the father, I lay down my life for the sheep.
And he must be, men, he must be the pattern for our work.
Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, once we truly begin to pattern
our ministry after the Lord Jesus, we will lose this smugness over
doctrine. We will be freed of this arrogance
over position. We will be freed of this arrogance
over power and prestige. We will be concerned then only
for souls. And for their good, for their
salvation, for their sanctification and edification. We must first and foremost shepherd
like Jesus Christ’s shepherds, lovingly, mercifully, compassionately
and humbly. There’s another little reminder. second sub point under that exhortation
that we have to consider what it is to shepherd. We do well
to consider after whom office this is patterned, but we do
well to consider under whom we serve. Peter writing earlier
in first Peter two twenty five refers to Jesus as the shepherd
and guardian of our souls. Jesus Christ is the master shepherd. As Peter even directly in this
very verse, in this context, verse four, he is the chief shepherd. Too often, men are quick to forget
the same God that saved them because of nothing in them is
the same God that calls and places them into his service because
of nothing in them. There is in the ministry a horrible
pitfall. To begin to believe that we are
the shepherds with a capital S, that we call the shots, that
we are preeminent, that the church is ours and the people is ours,
that the agenda is ours, that the church revolves around us. We are servants, we are under
shepherds, not alongside of Jesus shepherds. We are servants of
the Lord Jesus Christ and under shepherds to him. It is an honorable
place, no doubt, no greater privilege. But it is a humbling place. It
is a place where pride and arrogance and haughtiness cannot abide.
Point two. If we would be God pleasing elders,
we must not only consider what it is to shepherd. Secondly,
we must consider the great object of our labor. Look at the passage
again. Therefore, exhort the elders
among you, shepherd the flock. That sounds pretty simple, doesn’t
it? And you would think that we can’t get too far afield.
But we do. That little word here, flock,
is used in a variety of contexts, really about three. The metaphor
is more prevalent than that, but the word flock itself is
used only a few times. Jesus uses it. Do not be afraid,
little flock. The passage that we’ve considered
numerous times this morning, Paul refers to it. Be on guard
for yourselves and for the flock. We are to watch. We are to watch
out for the wolves. We are to watch out for deceitful
influences in the community, especially as it begins to touch
the church. We are to watch out for wolves
rising up from within us. We are to care and watch for
the flock with the passage before us. uses the image twice, not
only shepherd of the flock, but proved to be examples to the
flock. The great metaphor here of the
church is that of the flock. It is the flock of God. And as
we saw with the word shepherd. That shepherd chief motif is
consistently used as an image throughout Scripture. And his
shepherds are great business. is not doctrine alone. It’s not
our calling as elders alone, as if once we realize that calling,
we can now sit back and relax and glide into eternity. It’s
not our buildings. It’s not our standing. It’s not
our office. It’s not our efforts. It’s not
our reputation. Church leadership can and does
have this tendency to lose perspective and focus on all kinds of things,
good things. Ministries, doctrine, classes,
programs, opportunities. We can get caught up in all of
that. But we can never be justified in losing our focus on the one
thing. The one thing which the master
shepherd has tasked his under shepherds for is the flock. It’s the people. It’s the church
for whom Christ died. Thirdly. If we would be God pleasing
elders, we must consider what it is to shepherd. We must consider
the great object of our labor. We must consider whose flock
we shepherd. The points already been made,
we’ve already established above, we as shepherds are actually
under shepherds beneath the Lord Jesus. So it shouldn’t surprise
us that the flock we are tasked with shepherding really doesn’t
even belong to us. It’s God’s flock. Peter says,
shepherd the flock of God. It’s not your group. It’s not
your church. It’s not your deal. It’s not
about you at all. Peter says it quite simply. It’s
the flock of God that we are to shepherd. It’s His flock.
They’re His people. We are merely given the overwhelming
privilege to care for them for a season. They ask you, men, myself among
you, if God had a car and He let you drive it, nice
wheels, right? How careful would you be? If God had a mansion up in the
mountains, right? Big fancy deal. appointed with
all kinds of fancy accommodations, and He let you use it for a weekend. How careful would you be? If God had a garden and He let
you take over for one… I had to throw a garden deal
in there. If God had a garden and He let you take over for
one summer to plant and care for the crops, how diligent would
you be? And if God had a flock, A tiny group of people precious
to him. Near and dear to his heart, those
for whom Jesus Christ died. And he let you care for them. How careful would you be? It’s
not my flock. It’s not your flock. It’s not
our flock. It’s God’s flock. Fourth. We must consider what it is to
be a shepherd, what it is The great object of our labor, whose
flock we shepherd, we must consider fourthly the boundaries of our
flock. The boundaries of our flock. Peter says, therefore, I exhort
the elders among you, shepherd the flock of God among you. It’s the flock that is among
us that is to be our great focus. In Acts, chapter 20, Paul essentially
says the same exact thing. that the overseers are the overseers
of the flock that is among them. Be on guard for yourselves and
for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit made you overseers.
We must ever be concerned and careful for the lost that are
in this community. We will always interact with
a greater portion of Christ’s people in a given community.
We cannot be aware, unaware rather, of the condition, the needs,
the troubles, the errors, the tendencies of the national church
and the church in the world. But the elders great focus. Is not the national church or
the world church or the community church at all, the elders great
focus, the shepherds most crucial task is to shepherd that portion. of the flock that is allotted
to him. No matter how small or how great
to shepherd the flock of God among you is ever the mandate
to those who would please Christ. I’ve seen men lose complete focus
on this simple calling. A God given calling, wandering
in this day’s befuddled condition, trying year after year to cultivate
some kind of citywide, nationwide or worldwide ministry, all the
while to the detriment of the simple little flock given to
their care. I’ve observed one particular
individual, intelligent, gifted man, and since the day I watched
him graduate from seminary, wander from one would be powerhouse,
supercharged superstar ministry after another. Languishing in
the exercise of his God given gifts. Point five. In our consideration of our calling
of elders. As elders, if we would be God pleasing elders, we must
consider what it is to shepherd. We must consider the great object
of our labor. We must consider the boundaries
of our flock. We must consider, fifthly, the
nature of this work. We have an image in the word
shepherd, but Peter goes beyond that, and there’s a reason that
there are a multiplicity of titles given to the same office. Elder,
overseer, shepherd. And Peter says it again here.
Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder
and witness of the sufferings of Christ and partaker also of
the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God among
you, exercising oversight. It’s a simple word. Unfortunately,
it got mistranslated early on in the Latin. And it’s been lost
almost completely ever since got mistranslated into Bishop
and its higher denominations raised up around that one office.
Well. The word just means to oversee,
to look over, to watch, to care. To inspect. And then translated on four different
occasions as overseer. It means to exercise oversight,
to really watch and dig into and look. And men, if we’re going
to please God, we have to watch over our flock. Not only in a
sense of watching out for dangers, and typically that’s the easy
part, to watch out for error, but we also have to be watchful
over the particulars of people’s lives. What do they believe? How do they live? With what do
they struggle? And it isn’t just the sinful
tendencies for which we must be watchful. We must be watchful
to cultivate a growth in grace in the lives of others so that
we may encourage the use of that giftedness, that we may put to
use those gifts in the service of Christ in the church. We have
to look into and look over people’s lives. We have to be faithful
in this calling. One Puritan said it this way. Great penetration is requisite.
To search out the secret foldings of the understanding and heart.
To trace the various sources of error and vice, and when we
have detected them, neither by overlooking the reasonings of
infidels and profligates, to give them a handle for boasting
that they are unanswerable, nor by mentioning them without necessity
or weakly answering them To betray the cause we mean to defend,
our business is to such to hate and renounce what is their chief
delight. To engage them in a course of
life which they are strongly averse. The secure must be alarmed. The ignorant must be enlightened.
The wounded in spirit must be led to the position of souls.
The tempted must be fortified. The doubting resolved. The weak
strengthened and the backslider reclaimed. Men, if we’re going to be faithful,
if we’re going to please Christ in this calling, we have to look
over our people. Sixth and finally. If we would
be God pleasing elders. We must consider not only what
it is to shepherd. What is the great object of our
labor? the flock of God, we must consider
whose flock we shepherd. We must consider the boundaries
of our flock and the nature of our work. And finally, the motive
to this work. Peter says it and in very lengthy
fashion. Peter says this, I exhort the
elders among you, shepherd the flock of God. Shepherd the flock
of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion,
but voluntarily. according to the will of God,
not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet is lording
it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples
to the flock. Briefly, we won’t be able to
address all the subtle nuances of each of those words or phrases,
but we can get a general picture of what the motives are to shepherding,
not under compulsion. Nobody forced you. You came voluntarily. You came in an answer to a call
in your life. You came in answer to Christ
himself. Not for sordid gain, you’re not
in it for the money. You’re not in it to gain in some
kind of monetary fashion. But you have a heartfelt eagerness
to serve Christ by serving his people, nor yet lording it over. And that probably is the most
significant pitfall of all. Thinking that we are actually
above those whom we. Care for. This is the great motivation,
motivation. For the service of Christ in
the care of his flock, this is our calling, then this is our
ministry, this is our great honor in the service of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let us passionately rededicate our efforts, our time, our energy,
our gifts to this one great calling. Shepherd the flock of God among
you. Let’s pray. Our merciful God, we thank you
for your goodness and grace in our lives. For calling we who
were sinners. To the glorious salvation that
you’ve given to each believer. Here today, Lord, we thank you
and praise you for the added privilege and blessing and the
humbling honor of being called and tasked to shepherd your flock. Grant us the grace, Father, as
men, as we examine our hearts to see how we might rekindle
our own hearts anew to this service, to this work, to this great privilege
that God’s church might be built up The God’s flock might be strengthened
and encouraged. That we collectively and individually
would glorify the Lord Jesus in all that we do. We thank you
and we praise you. In Jesus name. Oh.