It's my privilege to be here, to be invited to give a charge to these men who are my friends and brothers in Christ and chosen as my text to look at as Philippians chapter 3. If you have your Bibles, feel free to turn to Philippians chapter 3. I'm going to look at, I want to look at few things out of verses 17 through 21. Listen to God's word. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. but our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. This is God's word. Brothers, it's a privilege to exhort you this day, and I want to just look at this passage and think about Scripture with regard to the nature and scope of the ministry that is entrusted into your care as ministers of the gospel, session members, ruling elder, the nature and scope of the ministry of the church. We see here Paul is exhorting brethren in this passage, and there's a pattern that's being set up and laid out, and that is a pattern that has in the pattern imitation and example. And so you guys, as leaders, you men, you minister, ruling elder, are leaders who are to be examples. And that should be something to be meditated upon and focused upon. But notice also that the examples here are those who walk. They are examples who walk. They walk by faith. They walk with Jesus. They walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. They walk in the truth. and they walk on earth. It is an earthly walk. It is a walk that, in the passage here, it's a walk that can be imitated. It's a walk that can be seen. It's a public walk. It's a walk that is of a nature that Jesus conveys when he says, that the one who would be a leader, who would be the greatest among you, would be the servant of all. And then he goes on to compare those who don't walk in this way. In our circles, when we talk about the ministry of the church, the life of the activity that goes on in the local congregation and the whole denomination, we talk about how The work of the church is ministerial and declarative. Ministerial means service, we serve. And declarative is that we declare the word of God, we convey the word of truth. And we are, in our circles, very good at affirming the declarative side of things. We affirm and uphold the centrality of the preaching of the word of God, the administration of the sacraments, too, as well. But the declarative aspect that's taking place is present. And we are growing in, and it's very encouraging to see the OPC growing in deeds of mercy. It is something that's very encouraging. But I want you to consider being examples, not simply of caretakers of the word and upholding the pulpit and teaching ministry of the church, but also being examples in service as word and deed go together. And I'm saying that's what I think Paul is getting at in verse 17 there, where he says, brothers, join in imitating me. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us. There is bearing one another's burdens, spurring one another on to love and good deeds. And that is something that is significant here. You can't see people as examples who have their head in the clouds all the time. Or can you? Because in this text, if you look, there is a focus here that does have a heavenly focus. If you look down to verse 21. Verse 20. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." And so, think of passages that exhort us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, to set our minds on things above. There's a saying that someone can't be of any earthly value, of any good if they're heavenly minded all the time, but that's exactly the wrong focus. Our focus in the church is to be, we're exhorted to have a heavenly-minded focus so that we can be of earthly good. And so, verse 21, consider that Christian focus that we're to have. So the nature of the ministry that I want to emphasize, exhort you to, is this pattern that Paul brings out of being examples, imitatable examples, who walk a certain walk on earth and have their heads a certain place in heaven. And he goes on, he talks about some don't walk this way, they're enemies of the cross of Christ, which means that you're friends of the cross of Christ. Which means that we walk as he did, taking up our crosses, which has to do with benefiting others as we labor. And that is word and deed, again, that it draws us to. But consider the scope of the ministry that is entrusted into your care. The scope has an altitude, an altitude that connects heaven to earth, like Jacob's ladder is connected heaven to earth. Heaven is present in the church and connected here. through your word indeed, but there's also a horizontal side of things, and I want to go there. The horizontal side of things is, it can be seen in verse 21. who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself." Think about the cosmic nature of that statement. Ephesians and Colossians have, we don't often think of Philippians as much as a cosmic, all-encompassing But he is subduing the nations. He is, as we sung about, he's bringing in peoples from every tribe and tongue. So there's a very much an outward focus and there's a task that's as big as the universe. So how are you going to be about that task? Well, one of the ways that we're about it is that as Presbyterians we believe in connectional being connected to each other. We, we bear one another's burdens locally, but we're also, uh, laboring in prayer. Uh, we've been laboring in prayer in Longview for this body and, uh, and that we're participating in one another's lives, uh, beyond the boundaries of the local body. And we could talk more about that, but, but there's a task here at hand. And that task involves a pastor, ruling elder, a man serving, minister serving on the session here, all with the same thing in view, to see Jesus's church built up. And so I want to just conclude thinking about the scope of that ministry. sometimes people think about the pastor as if uh... he's being installed here and so his his task is to labor to the members of this congregation but the task is bigger he's a minister of the gospel he's a minister of the opc he's a minister of Jesus's church on earth. And that means that there are sheep that are beyond the scope of the membership role. Many of them are not going to be, through the years, smart enough to join. But they're within the scope of your obligation to care for them, to minister to them. So as we think about the scope of the ministry here to which you're called, participating in this task that will subject all things to Christ eventually through his church, consider that it's word and deed, but consider how Jesus and the apostles define James, true religion, widows and orphans, those that might be on the periphery of the congregation of the life of the church, sheep who might be forgotten, shut-ins, widows and orphans. Think of Matthew 25, you know, with those who are hungry, those who are thirsty. Sometimes people misinterpret the cup of cold water as if that's an evangelistic outreach task, but in Matthew 25 it's those were ministered to because they were his disciples. So his disciples are sick. They're in the hospital, they're in prison, they're on the periphery, and Jesus cares about the one as well as the 99. So I would say I know that there's a focus on evangelism for the lost, for unbelievers. And there's a focus on the ministry of the membership of the body of Christ. But think about true religion. Think about Matthew 25, how it's construed to us. Think about how important that is to him to be incorporated into the life of the body. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word and spirit. We thank you, Father, for the means of grace that you've given into your church as we hear your word proclaimed and gather to worship and offer up to you Acts 242, the prayers. Father, we pray that you would bless the upbuilding of your church in this place. We thank you, Father, for the word that we have heard already, and we pray, our God, that you would help us to bear one another's burdens, to gather up those that would be your sheep, who are like those without a shepherd. Pray, Father, that you would gather into this fold not only those that have never heard the gospel, but those that are wandering and lost. Father, we thank you for the task, the display of what true service looks like in your Son and in the Apostles. We pray that we would put into practice in the life of your church, and I pray for this particular place, that those who lead by example would lead the congregation into comprehensive word and deed ministry. In Jesus' name, amen.