Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning comes from 1 Timothy, as we continue through this epistle from Paul to Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 7. If you're using one of the church Bibles, you'll find that on New Testament page 163. Paul is writing to Timothy. We will remember he urged Timothy to remain in Ephesus. This is from the very first verses of chapter 1, to remain in Ephesus because the church there needed him as pastor. Among other things, they needed him to charge certain persons not to teach, or to stop teaching, rather, what Paul calls other doctrine. We would call it heterodoxy. Among those who had rejected holding to the right doctrine with a good conscience were Alexander and Hymenaeus. Not the way you want your name to land in the Bible to be preserved there for all of this age. They were presumably leaders in the church whom Paul had felt the necessity of putting out of the church. It's a case of failed male headship, which we looked at last week. We also considered last week the impossibility of solving that failure by looking to women to lead instead. And so Ephesus then needed leaders, not like those that had to be excommunicated and not women. Jesus, during his ministry, had compassion on the crowd, seeing them as sheep without a shepherd. And the apostles appointed elders in every city where they planted churches. So it would not do for there to be a leadership vacuum in Ephesus. They needed leaders. But how should Timothy and the church there know who to put into those vacancies? You can understand they might be just a little gun-shy about that when they had recently had a traumatic experience of heterodoxy being taught in the church and those teachers being excommunicated. Paul wrote not only this epistle to Timothy, who was at Ephesus, but he also wrote an epistle to the Ephesian church. And in Ephesians chapter 4, he wrote to them that it is Christ himself who gives as his gifts to his church, some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." And those whom Christ gives to his church for those purposes that we just read from Ephesians chapter 4 are men who, in their qualifications for office, are to a significant degree like Christ himself in these qualifications for office. I say that because it is Christ himself, of course, who is our chief shepherd, our teacher, and even our overseer, which is the word we will have here in the first verse of chapter three. First Peter, chapter 2, verse 25, Peter exhorts the elect to patience in suffering and to obedience by reminding them, you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Which is his way of referring to Jesus. you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." That word overseer in the Greek is episkopos. It's where the Episcopal Church gets its name from. It is sometimes translated as bishop. Here it is translated as overseer, both in 1 Peter as well as here in 1 Timothy chapter 3. So Paul writes to Timothy to describe the character of Christ. that must mark the men that Christ gives to his church for her sanctification. Before we read the passage together, let's first go to God, who wrote it and gave it to us in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word to us, and we ask that as we come to it, you would open our eyes that we might see wonderful things in your law. They are there to be seen, but we confess that We not only have weak eyes, but even sometimes have rebellious eyes and will even suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And so we ask that you would overcome all that is ill in us and to teach us from your word by your Holy Spirit. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. First Timothy chapter three, the first seven verses. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Thus far, the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. May he add his blessing to the reading and to the preaching of it. To begin with, Paul addresses anyone who aspires to the office of an overseer. Now we can imagine that might be something that one aspires to with some fear and trepidation. And perhaps even the office has been sullied there in Ephesus by those who abused their authority and taught other doctrine. And so the very first thing that Paul addresses as he comes to more specifically address their need for leadership and how they should fill it is that the task itself is a noble task. Now he doesn't say that a self-centered ambition, he doesn't say the one who wants to put himself forward so that everybody loves and admires him as an overseer, that's a noble desire. That obviously wouldn't be a noble desire. A desire to serve the church might be a noble desire, but that is also not what Paul says here. What he says is the task is a noble task. And of course, it is. We were just in 1 Peter looking at the return to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. We think of Peter for a minute. After Christ's resurrection, he came to his disciples who had returned to their previous occupation of fishing. And he ate breakfast with them on the beach. And in John chapter 21, we read that when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord. You know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, 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, feed my sheep. And notice Jesus retains possession of his flock. He says, my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. The flock includes the lambs, by the way, feed my lambs. But he restores Peter after Peter's denials of Jesus. He restores him to a position of trust, to act in Christ's service, to meet the needs of the church as a shepherd minister of Jesus. Jesus says, this is my flock, but he says to Peter, I want you to feed them. I want you to tend them. Truly it is a noble task to which the overseer is called and to which any man might aspire. It is a noble task. And because it is such a noble task, Paul then goes on to say an overseer must be. And it's a somewhat lengthy list. It's an imposing list. An overseer must be, first of all, above reproach. That means the sort of person who is frustrating to those who might dislike and seek to remove them. Because as I think about above reproach, I think of Daniel. One from Judah who was taken into Babylon in exile, and he was put in a position of some authority there, and there were others there, maybe in exile also from other places, or maybe they were Babylonians themselves. There are those who envy Daniel, who don't like him, who do not like to see the favor that is bestowed upon him, and so they meet together to plot his downfall. The trouble is you have to find something to accuse him of if you're going to manage to tear him down. And they can't think of anything. Indeed, they realize if we wait for him to do something that is worth tearing him down for, we're going to wait forever. We'll all be dead and buried. Unless we manage to trick the king into making it against the law to worship Daniel's God. That's how we can get him, right? These men said, we shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God. He's above reproach. Not that he's morally perfect before the judgment seat of God, but these men who wish to accuse him in civil court can find no excuse to do so. Jesus was like that too, frustrating to those who plotted his downfall. Mark chapter 14, we read the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not agree. Then some rose up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But not even then did their testimony agree." They've resorted to hiring wicked men who are willing to offer false testimony, and they still can't get a conviction. They can't get the testimony to agree. It's because he's above reproach. Now, of course, Christ's character was absolutely perfect. And none other's is absolutely perfect. Indeed, our salvation rests upon his perfect moral record. We need his perfect righteousness to be imputed to us or we cannot be saved. But the overseer or elder, they are synonymous terms in the New Testament, must be like Christ in being free of any outward sin for which he might be justly tried and convicted in either civil or ecclesiastical court. Unless, of course, what he can be convicted for before the civil magistrate is obedience to the law of God, as Daniel was. He must further be the husband of one wife. He must be faithful. Now I'm only at the second thing in the list and already some are thinking, well I don't know how this program of saying this is all about Jesus is going to work. You know he was a lifelong bachelor, right? Despite what some blasphemous persons have tried to assert, he never married. He didn't have a wife. The requirement for husbands to be faithful to our wives is literal and important. But it's also of deeper significance than just that marital faithfulness or sexual purity. Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 5, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church. and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body and his flesh, of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Our marriages are important for a number of reasons, but one of the deepest and most significant reason is because God designed marriage to be a picture of the faithfulness of Christ to his bride, the church. And you notice how Paul unifies the biblical metaphors for that of marriage, the bride of Christ and the body of Christ, because the two shall become one flesh. So the church is his bride is also his body. As Adam said when he saw Eve, this is now flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. Because Christ says that about his church. How would it be for the one who is ordained to the office designed to exhibit Christ's faithfulness to his church to tell lies about Christ's faithfulness by his unfaithfulness to his own wife? And so the overseer must be faithful. the husband of one wife. Paul moves on then to say the overseer must be sober-minded, also self-controlled. Those are obviously closely related and maybe even more closely related to sober-minded than self-controls if we skip forward a little bit in the list to also grab not a drunkard. The overseer must be sober-minded, self-controlled, not a drunkard. Our Lord was accused of this, wasn't he? Jesus said, Luke 7, 34, the son of man has come eating and drinking. And you say, look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He was not, of course, a winebibber. He was not a drunkard. Jesus was always in control of his thoughts and of his behavior. That's the real issue with these. He always knew exactly who he was and what his mission was, and he pursued his mission with patient, careful, single-minded focus. He did not give in to fleshly desires. Even in the agony of Gethsemane, when we know He was in agony. He did not want to go to the cross. A little liquid courage may have relieved him of some of his self-control, and perhaps he would have given in to fleshly desires and not gone to the cross. Instead, Jesus, in control, perfect control of himself, prayed in the garden, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour." You see that dedicated, focused, patient control that he exhibited in such severe circumstances. And the overseer who serves as his minister must reflect something of that. A self-control. A focused, sober mind. We skipped over some things to look at not a drunkard. We come back then to respectable. In Matthew chapter 17, Jesus and his disciples come to Capernaum. Those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, does your teacher not pay the temple tax? Peter, never wanting to say, I don't know, said yes. And when he'd come into the house, Jesus anticipated him. You see, Jesus knows he's going to ask Jesus about this now. He's already given an answer, but now he's going to ask Jesus about it. Jesus anticipated him saying, what do you think Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes from their sons or from strangers? Peter said to him from strangers, Jesus said to him, then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them. Note that. Let's get a whole picture of Jesus. Sometimes we can picture him almost as desirous of offending. But he has no desire to offend unnecessarily. Jesus said, nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for me and you." At the same time, he demonstrates his freedom. He's a son of God who doesn't need to pay the temple tax, and lest we offend them, we'll pay the temple tax. But he's also no milquetoast, mealy-mouthed, do-whatever-is-the-path-of-least-resistance, I'm-so-sorry-I-would-never-want-to-offend-you, For we know another incident involving the temple, don't we? In John chapter 2, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. When he'd made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen and poured out the changer's money and overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Then his disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up. Now there's no contradiction between the two passages there. the way he behaved in the temple on that day, and his unwillingness to offend them so that he paid the temple tax. Jesus is not self-contradictory. They're just different circumstances requiring responses that look very different to us. Nor is there any contradiction here with him in the temple and being sober-minded or self-controlled. There's no indication in the text that Jesus was out of control, that he lost his temper. There's not the slightest indication that the next day he said to his disciples, you know, I'm really sorry about what I did yesterday. I was really uncalled for. He remained in perfect control of himself even as he was zealous. And in that instance, Jesus may have been more respectable in the eyes of those who were abusing the temple, using it for commerce instead of for worship, but Jesus was not ultimately concerned about being respectable in the eyes especially of sinners. He was respectable in the sight of God and in the eyes of all who respected the worship of God. So, respectable. There's a certain right caring about the estimation of those around, but not if it means becoming unrespectable in the sight of God. Priorities. Understanding of the particular circumstances to be respectable. Now that incident in the temple makes me want to skip forward in the list again, because the list also includes not violent. or quarrelsome, but rather gentle. And perhaps we wonder about that with this episode in the life of Jesus as well. In recent days, in our current cultural context, some have pointed to this text, this incident of Jesus driving the money changers and the sellers of animals out of the temple courts. They've pointed to this text as an example, they say, of violent protest. But Christ was not destroying property. He was defending his father's property. This is not random, I'm just mad so I'm going to destroy something. This was you have invaded what he calls my father's house. You do not belong here. What you are doing in my father's house violates my father's rules for my father's house. Get out. And he has every right to do it, and he has every right to do it with vehemence. As an overseer of the church, he was not itching for a fight. He wasn't looking for an opportunity to rake others over the coals. He took no delight in wickedness, not even as an opportunity to vent. He did not show up at the temple that day and say, do my eyes deceive me? Are they really doing this? Oh boy, watch this, guys. Been waiting for somebody to mess up like this. No, not at all. He doesn't have that violent, quarrelsome temperament, and neither should an under-shepherd, an elder in the church, should not relish a quarrel, should not hope for someone to offend that we might, you know, exercise church discipline. But he did, he does, and he always will defend the church vehemently when necessary. Skipped forward to violence, let's go back to hospitality. This is another one that might seem strange. For Jesus once discouraged a man from following him on the grounds that, Matthew 8 verse 20, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Is Jesus exercise hospitality? Invite people to come over to his patch of road while he's walking along? But hospitality, as we ought to know, is far deeper than entertaining in the home. Jesus once asked a Samaritan woman, which was amazing enough that he would speak to her, and she remarks on it. He asked a Samaritan woman to extend hospitality to him. He asked her for a drink. And she was surprised by it. The woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And then after she'd said that, the real reason for Jesus having engaged her in this conversation became apparent because Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Now he had no home to invite her into, but this is real hospitality. Same root we get the word hospital from, too, by the way. She needs the living water that only he can give. And so he initiates a conversation with her. She can't initiate a conversation with him, a Samaritan woman initiating a conversation with a Jewish rabbi. She wouldn't dare. So he initiates with her. And he initiates in this way that puts her at some ease. He doesn't come and say, oh, I see what a wicked sinner you are. I know what you need. He says, would you be so kind as to give me, would you extend hospitality to me? Would you give me a drink of water? So that he can then respond to her later and say, I have something for you. Though he had no earthly home, no house to call his own, yet he told his disciples, John chapter 14, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. The man whom Christ gives as gift to his church must be in some way hospitable like Jesus. To seek to give to others living water and a home with Christ forever. It is hard to imagine doing that in our culture without ever inviting persons into our homes. But just inviting physically into the home does not define hospitality. It's much deeper. Paul tells Timothy, the one who desires to be an overseer must be able to teach. Now we have no trouble applying this one to Christ, do we? Jesus was a master teacher. And like all good teachers, he knew his subject matter. He knew it better than anyone. He loved his subject matter. been loving the Father forever. And he loved his pupils. He loved his students. Jesus not only was a master teacher, but he still is. For in the same chapter we were just in, in John chapter 14, a little later in that chapter, Jesus promised These, to his disciples, these things I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. The Holy Spirit who teaches the church through the ministry of the word, In the mouths of his under shepherds, that spirit is the spirit of Christ. He remains the teacher of his people. The overseer must also be not a lover of money. We have already remarked that Jesus had no home to call his own. He did not amass any earthly wealth. That seemed singularly unimportant to him. He was no modern televangelist seeking to build up a numerous and wealthy ministry to make a name for himself. He sought to glorify the Father. So much so that in John chapter six, which is a lengthy chapter and it involves his disputation with a large number of the 5,000 whom he had fed the day before. They got a free meal out of him yesterday and today they want another one. And Jesus is having none of it and accuses them of just wanting a free meal. He says, you saw the miracle, but you didn't understand the sign. You didn't understand what was significant. You just want bread, but you're not interested in the bread from heaven who is standing right in front of you. And they keep pressing him for a sign, if you're really who you say you are, you should do some miraculous sign so that we could believe in you. Something like, oh, I don't know, hey, a free meal. That would be convincing. Jesus becomes more and more offensive through the course of that discourse. Until finally, late in the chapter, in verses 66 and 67, we're told that from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. John tells us what they said is, this is a hard saying, and who can hear it? The things he says are just too difficult. So Jesus turns to the 12 and he says boy that what this was not a good day. There's only 12 of you left I need each of you to go out and get 12 more apiece because we got to build this thing back up Now Jesus looks at the 12 and he says do you also want to go away? It was just the Father in the Spirit and me forever we're fine I As I thought about Jesus being not a lover of money, another thought occurred to me. This is somewhat astonishing. You know, Jesus chose the 12th. He chose Judas among the 12. There's indication in the New Testament that he chose Judas because the plan of God called for Jesus to be betrayed. So Jesus chose Judas on purpose because he needed a betrayer in the group. Jesus knew who Judas was. He knew Judas would betray him. That's why he chose him. But he didn't have to put him in charge of the money box. Judas complained about the expensive oil being poured out on Jesus. He says, that could have been sold and the money given to the poor. John tells us, he said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. And he had the money box, and he used to take what was put in it. Surely Jesus knew that was going on, didn't he? At least he knew the character of Judas. He allowed him to be the one who was in charge of the money for the group. Certainly Jesus was no lover of money. And the one who would serve him as an undershepherd in his church, as an elder, as an overseer, must be likewise not a lover of money. Verses four and five, we get longer passages here at the end of this list. Many of these are just a single word in a list, but here we get two whole verses that tell us the overseer must be a good household manager. Again, Jesus didn't have a house, and he didn't have a wife, and he didn't have children, and as far as we know, he had no servants. Didn't have a household. Hebrews chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 tell us, Moses indeed was faithful in all God's house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. The reason for the requirement of one who would be an overseer in the church, that is a mere human who would be an under shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ, the reason for the requirement that he should be a good manager of his own house is because if he's not, how will he care for God's church? And Christ, of course, is the manager. of God's church, of the household of God. And not just as a servant, but as a son. It is his own house. We are his own house and family. And he takes good care of his church. An overseer must be not a recent convert. Another one that initially seems quite strange to apply to Jesus. Of course, he never needed to be converted, did he? The reason for this requirement is stated that he might not be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. That is the same condemnation that the devil fell into. Let's use this as an opportunity to remember the full humanity of Jesus. He's often imagined as a kind of superhuman being who, because he was God, did not suffer like we suffer, was not ignorant like we're ignorant, was not anxious about the future like we are because he already knew it, could walk on water like we can't, all of these sorts of things. But when we do that, we, in a subtle but very damaging way, impugn the full humanity of Jesus. We don't know much about Jesus's youth, but we do have this snapshot from when he was 12 years old, don't we? The first time his parents take him to Jerusalem for one of the feast days. And then they're traveling back home, apparently with a large group of family and friends from their same hometown, they're all kind of going home together, and it's amazing to me what liberty the children must have had to run around on the periphery of the group that's traveling or something, you know, playing games with each other and eating meals at one another's houses or something, because it takes a while for Mary and Joseph to realize, you know what, Jesus isn't here, is he? So they go back to Jerusalem and it takes them three days to find him. After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. So when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said to him, son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously. And he said to them, why? Did you not know I must be about my father's business? Now think of this. Why is it that he's astonishing, that he's amazing in his understanding and his answers? Is that because he's divine? I don't think so. I think it's because at the age of 12 years old, he was already an ardent student of the word. Already back home. in a synagogue, in a home. He meditated upon the scriptures. He was already at work memorizing the psalms that they sang together in synagogue. He was contemplating, what does that mean? What does that mean? He loved the word of God already. So that when he gets an opportunity to finally be at the temple for the first time in his life, he's just beside himself. There's finally somebody I can ask these questions to. The rabbi back home doesn't know. Here's the teachers in Jerusalem, and I can ask the whole group of them. Explain this to me. And they're amazed at the profundity even of his questions. Why? Because he's already been contemplating this. It's in his reaction to his parents, too. Come on, mom, dad, you know who I am, right? I mean, if it's a choice between kickball and scripture, you know where to find me. I'm in the scriptures. You brought me to Jerusalem. Where did you think I was going to be? By the time he enters into his public ministry at 33 years old, oh, he knows the scriptures incredibly well. And that is why, and how, he withstood the temptation of the devil in the wilderness. He was already a student of the word before he was 12, and all since he was 12 until he was 30. He died at 33, so he comes into his public ministry roughly 30 years old. And as soon as he's baptized, enters into the public consciousness, he's driven into the wilderness, fasts for 40 days and nights. So he's weak and he's hungry. He can't think straight. And then the devil himself comes to tempt him. And what comes to his lips, what comes to his mind right away, as soon as he hears what the devil says, that doesn't mesh with scripture. That just doesn't sound right. I know, because my whole mind is just shaped by the scriptures. And what comes to his mouth is scripture. He quotes scripture. He doesn't say, look, I'm God, and I'm just telling you you're wrong. He quotes the scripture. Last, Paul says an overseer must be well thought of by outsiders. And this is in order to avoid traps laid by the devil. It seems to serve as a corresponding bookend with the first item in the list, above reproach, where we noted that overseers in Christ's church must be like him in being frustrating to those who wish to accuse them, because you can't find anything to accuse them for. Similarly, the one who is well thought of by outsiders avoids the traps of temptation that are set by the devil. This is not a man who fools the church, having a good reputation with believers, because we're so naive and want to believe the best about people, but then accusations surface from outside in the civil courts. And we find out that this hypocrite has been tempted into some sin because his reputation for holiness in the church was ill-deserved. It was only skin deep. That story doesn't sound at all familiar, does it? One whom we thought was not only a faithful Christian, but a giant in the faith. And then we hear, oh, there's an accusation. from one who used to be the pool boy. And the holiness, it turns out, was just skin deep. But Christ's holiness, while it radiated from his skin at the transfiguration, was not skin deep. It came to the surface from the very core of who he is. I'm thankful. For the overseers, for the elders that Christ, the overseer, has given to Covenant Reform Presbyterian Church, none are perfect. Perhaps you have some specific occasion to know that, particularly if you're married to one of them. But all of them reflect Christ's character to a significant degree in these ways. But I'm also thankful that we do not ultimately depend on the imperfect reflection of Christ's character, because Christ himself is the shepherd and overseer of our souls. By the word ministered and his spirit working through the plurality of elders and his sovereign providence over all things, we have in Christ the perfect and sufficient one. who loves his church by overseeing it himself and by giving to her overseers who are like him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the church. Thank you for the adoption that we have as sons so that we belong to your household, that we have been given the spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, Father, that we are the flock of the Lord Jesus Christ. that we have confidence that he cares for us. His rod and his staff, they comfort us. And we plead with you for your grace to be ministered to those whom you have given to minister to us. Make them faithful and make them ever to grow in more accurate, more deep, more significant, more thoroughgoing reflection of Christ's character in meeting the requirements for the office. Strengthen and uphold your church. For the glory of your name's sake, we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.