Beloved Lord, as we continue together in worship, we'll open our Bibles up to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. I'm gonna read a longer portion of scripture again today as we've been working our way through Paul's charge to the Ephesian elders. We have it sometimes read a little bit shorter passage, sometimes cut the whole context. We're just gonna catch the whole context again this morning, reading from verse 17 to the end of the chapter in Acts chapter 20. Always encouraged to keep your Bibles open as we study God's word, but it'll also be on the screen to follow along should you wish to read there. Acts 20 verse 17, we give our attention together to the reading of God's word. From Miletus, he, that is Paul, sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. When they had come to him, he said to them, you know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials, which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And indeed, now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I'm innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I've coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. As you yourselves know, these hands have provided for my necessities and for those who are with me. I've shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. Then they all wept freely and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. and they accompanied him to the ship. Let's read the reading of God's word, our focus 28 to 32, verses 28 to 32 of Acts 20. I pray the Lord will indeed add his blessing to the preaching of his word as we study God's word today. Beloved Lord, as we come before God's Word, we are zeroing in on the idea of being watchful or vigilant in the call of the Christian life, and also certainly in the idea and concept of Christian leadership, the task of elders and deacons and pastors. Applying as well, as we've mentioned before, to those called in various responsibilities, as we may have those we disciple, those we encourage, our families are part of, friendships and accountability groups and Bible studies will have application there as well. But it's the idea of vigilance, it's the idea of being watchful, staying alert. And I'm always surprised and I always kind of like learning a little bit from members of the church who do various things on their own. Maybe they have their own businesses. It's kind of where I'm going today. And you see how they handle their business and how attentive they are to the things of their business. They have goals for the year. They look at whether those goals are being achieved. They look at how the overall structure of the company might be heading and try and make adjustments that this may be as successful as possible. It's done in many various ways. We may have goals for health and we look at how our health is going. We may have goals for school. We work hard for those papers and those exams and tests and then we get back the grades and our report cards and see how we've done and try to make adjustments if we're really zealous to get good grades. The call today is to take that idea of alertness, the idea of watchfulness, and apply it to our own Christian lives, and apply it to the Church of Christ, to see that we have a calling to give attention to how we're doing. There's so many things we evaluate, so many things we want to see succeeding, but how often do we look at our own spiritual walk? How often do we evaluate whether we've been growing in the things of God, whether there have been idols that have been creeping in? Whether our joy in the Savior has suddenly disappeared. How often do we take a look at how we are doing in the Savior? Where is our life going? Do we do the same that those God calls us to oversee? We ask questions of where there's success, where there's failure. Do we stay vigilant to pursue Christ? So that's the call that Paul is giving to us in God's word today in Acts 20, 28, a call to the elders to take heed, to watch, to be careful, to be alert in seeing and seeking the blessing of God's people in his son. As we study this, we're gonna see this in three points. We're gonna ask first who we must pay attention to, who we must pay attention to. Second, why we must pay attention at all, why we pay attention. And third, how God will grant us success. How God will grant us success. So first, who must we pay attention to? And the passage begins in verse 28 with these words, therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. The neat thing that happens in the Bible, it has come out a few times lately in the life of this church, it's the idea that to be a follower of Christ is to be a sheep and have Christ as our shepherd. And it comes through in our passage. As Paul's writing to the Ephesian elders, he says these words, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock. And that terminology, he is picturing and considering the elders as part of the flock of God. They are part of the sheep, they are part of God's people, and the people of God are described of as a flock, as sheep. And that's a very complimentary term, isn't it? to be called a sheep. I don't know if you've done it, but on YouTube, you can look up on YouTube a clip, you type in sheep jumps into ditch. I think we might have used this one before, but it's worth using again. Sheep jumps in the ditch, and it'll come up in the video, and it shows this sheep that is head first in this tiny crevice in the ground. I don't know where it's taking place, it might be Russia. And the shepherd has a strap tied to the one leg of the sheep still sticking out of the ground, and he's grabbing the sheep and prying it out of the ground and pulling and hauling, and finally the sheep gets out of the ground. and it's all happy and it does a few springy jumps and then it dives headfirst back into the same crevice. When I looked that up for this one, I found another one just after it. It shows a sheep in a ditch full of water, the sheep can't get out, the farmer is getting in there, getting all soaked, hauls that wet sheep with all the wet wool out of the ditch, puts it on the other side of a fence, And what does the sheep do? Runs like 20 feet down, finds a low spot, jumps over the fence, jumps right back into the same ditch. This farmer just walked away after that. You're on your own. Sheep are not known for their intelligence. They do foolish things. They fall into the same problems they were in before. One of the things in Psalm 23, as we focused on that in the past, is how he leads us, besides still waters, he leads us to green pastures. Sheep don't always move on their own. They will stay in the same area and keep eating the grass down, further and further, even when there's nothing left. The shepherd's job is to move them to a place where they can get good food again. The tendency of the human heart isn't towards Christ, is it? Even after redemption, even after we're born again, even when God has saved us, made us new creatures in Christ. There's the old song that is so well known, come thou fount of every blessing, and it has that line, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. What a beautiful line. It shows the struggle of the Christian heart, doesn't it? I am prone to leave the God I love. If you're a Christian today, I hope I can ask you the question, do you love Jesus? Do you love him with all your heart? And I hope you can say yes. I hope you know you know you're not perfect, you know you struggle, but I hope you can say I love the Lord. That's how Jesus restored Peter, remember, when Peter was on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and he had three times denied that he knew the Lord, and three times Jesus said to Peter, Peter, son of John, do you love me? Do you love me, do you love me? You failed in so many ways, but can you just answer this? Will you love me? And so many Christians, we struggle in so many ways. We wrestle with sin, we find ourselves falling into things, but if we are asked the question, do you love Jesus? We can say, yes, I love him. I fail, I struggle, but I love the Lord. And yet, for all that love, I still walk away from Christ. I am prone to leave the God I love. And Paul says, take heed to yourselves. Watch your own heart. The same command he gave to young Timothy. Remember how Paul was a pastor and others were trained up under him, Timothy, Titus? In 1 Timothy chapter four, Paul says to Timothy, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, for in doing so you will save both yourself and others. Paul knew that Timothy is a man of God, would be just like any other Christian, he's a sheep. And you and I, we're not any different. We may have been in the church for a year, may have been in church for 30 or 50 years. Doesn't matter. Because we're all gonna have a tendency to walk away from Christ. God calls us to keep an eye on ourselves. So often when we think about Christian leadership, we think about watching over others, don't we? We think a leader needs to take care of other people. And it's true, there is to be a care for other people. But it starts with watching over your own soul. A great pastor in the early 1800s, the man, his name is remembered and known by many today, Robert Murray McShane. He lived to only 29 years of age. It had a reputation as a pastor of exceptional ability and gifts and blessing from the Lord. He wrote these words, the greatest need of my people is my own personal holiness. A holy pastor is a great weapon in the hand of God. Beloved in the Lord, how does God bring revival? How does God turn a church? How does God turn a nation? How does God awaken a city with men and women and children coming to realize they need to make sure their own soul is right before a holy God? Take heed to yourselves. So let's ask a question this morning. Do you take stock? Do you give yourself a spiritual report card? Do you watch over your own life? Do you consider how your own devotions are going? Do you watch for ways in which bitterness may creep in? In Hebrews 13, the author of the book of Hebrews said, let no bitter roots spring up among you, defiling many. He is calling us to be on guard. 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Do you watch over your own spiritual life? Do you ask God as David did at the end of Psalm 139? Search me, O God, and know me. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Do you realize you are a sheep? And you need to ask God to keep you in Christ. to keep you in Christ. We watch over ourselves, but secondly, we also watch over others. Now there's a special calling here upon the elders. Whenever we think and speak about leadership and authority in the church, we always want to be careful. We want to recognize that, as we've mentioned before, elders, deacons, pastors, in one sense, they have the same calling as everyone in the church. Everyone in the church is to care for others. Everyone in the church is to encourage the weary, strengthen the weak, right? We're all to seek the wandering. We're all to have the spirit of Christ. It's in one sense the same responsibility, at least in content, but in another sense it is elevated, isn't it? It is a weightier calling, a heavier responsibility. And that's coming through in the text here when Paul says, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. God has set you in a place to care for others. And as we mentioned, that has, of course, reflection in daily lives. It has reflection in our families, reflection in our friendships. When we have a good friend, I remember a friend came to me once in Christ, and he said to me, listen, Greg, if you ever see me walking away, if you ever see me in my Christian life struggling, I want you to tell me. I want you to be a friend who will address me when I'm walking away, please. I need that type of friend, I hope you have that. That type of responsibility. Paul's calling for this, and calling us to not only watch out for ourselves, but to watch out for others. to see how they're doing. To do this, notice the words of the text where it says, among whom, or among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. There's an assumption here that the elders are among the people, isn't there? When Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, Luke 22, There's a rather remarkable thing. The disciples began to argue about greatness on that very night in which Christ, remember, at the beginning of the meal, he took off his outer garments, he robed himself in a towel, he washed the disciples' feet. That very night, the disciples began to argue about greatness. And Jesus told them a story. He said, who is the greater, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? Remember that? Who is greater, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? And Jesus says, but I am among you as one who serves. What is the great miracle of the incarnation? John 1 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The elders are not above the church, not distinct from the church, they're among. The people of God. You have to know them. Understand them. Know their struggles. Why? Because Christ knows them. Because He did not stay far off. Because He dwelt among them. He bore their burdens. He took their shame. And the elders in the name of Christ say they live among the people of God. Why? To care for them in the spirit of Christ. To care for you. We have these elder visits that come every year, maybe two. That's the goal. They come into your home and we say sometimes things like, yeah, but how much can really happen in a night? Is it really worthwhile to have your elder just come to your home for a night and suddenly talk about spiritual things? Are you not together before Christ? Aren't you all sheep? Aren't we all in the same boat? Don't we all have the same hearts? Don't we all have the same Savior? Is there not such benefit to have someone who cares for our souls ask us the question, how is your walk with God doing? And shouldn't we love that if we know we're prone to wander? Shouldn't we have honesty with those the Holy Spirit has made overseers? Let me share the joys of Christ with you. Let me share my struggles. Pray for me, encourage me, point me to Christ, because I need him. And God has made us a body of believers to encourage each other in the things of God. And He has called the elders to watch over the flock. Why? Why? Two reasons. One, because He loves you so much. He loves you so much. Ah. Take heed to yourselves and all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God. Notice the possessive there. The church of God, the church that belongs to God. Remember, the church is not the building. The church is the people. God says to the shepherds of Ephesus, listen, you have to watch over the people of God here, because they're gods. He cares for them. I don't know if you have anything in your house that is particularly precious. I got a little bit, I got a really special model boat for my birthday this year. It's kind of fancy. And I was really protective of it. Stuff was happening, be careful, don't break the boat, you know? It's my boat. And the kids knew, and my wife knew. You gotta be careful around that thing, because Greg, he likes that thing, and he's protective of it. One commentator said there's nothing in all the earth that God loves more than his church. These sheep that are prone to wander, boy, oh boy, does he love them. I remember one time meeting someone, and it was the husband of my wife's best friend. They'd been best friends for a while. She moved to England, married a guy. They came back to Canada, we visited with them, and my wife said, Greg, meet your new best friend. I liked him right away, but why? Because he was the husband of someone we loved. Someone we cared for loved this person, therefore we cared for them too. Do you love Jesus? Do you love Jesus? Then do you also love the people Jesus loves? The people that are his. The text goes on to describe how much he loves them. Shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. We read Isaiah 53. Today we all like sheep have gone astray and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He didn't buy these people with silver or gold, says Peter in 1 Peter. He gave his life for them. We're not perfect when we become a Christian. We're still so flawed. We have character faults, we have things that annoy people, we have trends that are unhelpful, habits that people might not like. We can get under each other's skin because we're human. But Christ loves these broken sinners so much he went to the cross for them. He could have called 12 legions of angels, he could have come down at any moment, and yet he took the weight of God's wrath, he bore the agony of hell. Because he loved them so much, he loved you so much. When God charges the elders to watch over the flock, he says watch over them because they're mine. And my son died for them. Doesn't just pertain to the elders, I know. Husbands are called to love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. No wife is perfect. Husbands are worse. No wife is perfect. But you are to love her as Christ loves the church. Wives are to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ. To see in the authority God has placed in the home a reflection of God's love for them through His Son. to honor that, to respect that, to encourage your husband in that. The families, it's the same concepts. One of the best parenting tools we were given as younger parents was the idea of taking time on a regular basis to assess your children's growth in Christ. You look at their report cards, you look at how they're doing in school, you might ask their boss how they're doing at work. One parenting Christian counselor, teacher, I think it was Paul Tripp, said we should be evaluating the Christian lives of our kids. How are they growing? Do they have joy in Christ? Do they know the forgiveness that is found? Are they walking by faith? Are there signs of repentance? Do they have a zeal for the things of God? Watch over, take care of, shepherd the flock of God among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. For the elder that applies to the church, we all have responsibilities, don't we? Whether in families, in friendships, in Bible studies, to care for those around us that Christ loves and died to save. Why do we care for them? Because Christ cares for them. Beloved, if you are in this church this morning, I don't know where you're at, I don't know your life, but please know Christ cares for you. If you are part of His people, if you're outside of it, He cares for you too. If you're a non-Christian, He cares for you too. He cares for you so much He calls you to come to the Savior. He calls you to find His love displayed for you on the cross and to know His love, demonstrate on the cross that you may know you can be forgiven. So many times people think they're insignificant, they think they're not like someone else, they're not as valuable. Remember the church, that is just the lies of Satan. Christ shed his blood, no more for one than for another. He loves them, calls us to care for them. We are also to watch over the flock of God and ourselves, not only because God loves us, but also because there's an enemy. Well, imagine you were given as a present a Connor McDavid rookie card. Connor McDavid rookie card. I've seen card collections in the past. Some of them, they get these fancy hard cases. They slide that card into a hard case to make sure it's protected. But if it's a really good card, they actually have a chunk of hard plastic You put the card on it, you put another chunk of hard plastic on top, then you put screws in the corners to make sure that card is protected. You could protect it by that kind of thing, but then imagine someone was coming to your house to rob you. That would call for a different kind of protection, wouldn't it? Not just a case, not just some kind of security, but you'd have to be on the watch because you know someone's gonna try and come and steal your favorite hockey card. God's talking to the elders and says, you don't just protect them because I love them, you protect them because they're under fire. There are wolves. Not just wolves, says Paul, but savage wolves will come among you. And they won't spare the flock. In the Bible, God describes the opposition of the church in many ways. In Revelation 12, he speaks of Satan like a dragon, seeking to devour those who hold to the testimony of Christ. In 1 Peter 5, he describes Satan like a lion, prowling and seeking whom he may devour. In Ephesians 6, he says our battle's not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual forces in heavenly places. He describes these enemies as real, vicious, and merciless. Why are we called to be on guard? Because there's an enemy who wants to destroy your soul. He wants to destroy the soul of those around you and Christ would not have you lost, would he? He loves you. There's an enemy and therefore he must be on the alert and must guard. In light of this then, beloved, how can we succeed and what task does God give to grant us success in the call to persevere and to be watchful and to stand in such a way? There's a couple things that come through. We're gonna start off with verse 32. And it says this, here is Paul, and remember, what was this Ephesian church like? The Ephesian church was around three years old. All right, so I want you to imagine, we get to, sometimes we have some new members we welcome, and it seems like a changing face of the church, right? And we see people we don't maybe know too well. Imagine, and you know, for some of us who've been around for a while, we may know some people for 10 or 20 years, right? Imagine a church where everybody in the church has been there for three years or less. That's the Ephesian church. The oldest Christian there was converted within three years. That's the Ephesian church. That's pretty cool. Paul is leaving them. He is never gonna see them again. He knows there are spiritual forces that want to consume them, and what does he say? So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. What is the number one tool the church of God has to protect the flock of Christ? It is, ultimately, a person. It's Christ, isn't it? It's Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep. the real protector of his people, the one who gave his life to destroy the power of Satan and hell and all that it brought about. But how do we anchor people in Christ? We point them to the Word of God. Paul commends the church to two things, to God, Our protector, Psalm 121, I lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who watches over you will not slumber or sleep. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. There is a God who saves you. What a thing! Paul is leaving a church of Christians who've only been Christians for three years, and he's not afraid because he knows they have a God who is greater than all the forces that are against them. I commend you to Him. Trust Him, follow Him, stay near to Him. He is your rock. But then he says, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. What a gift God has given us in the Bible. It is described as a word of His grace. What sustains the people of God as they are prone to wander? What protects the flock, these sheep who are prone to jump into the same pit over and over again? What guards them from the snares that can be on the right hand or from the left? It's a gospel of grace, isn't it? It's a gospel of mercy. When the Christian falls into sin and they're tempted to think they've sinned one too many times, they'll never be able to be forgiven again, God anchors them back in Christ, doesn't he? He calls them not to look at the Christian life like a legalistic action. As if we begin by grace and after that, the moment we fail, the moment we struggle, God cuts us off. He anchors us in mercy, in a God who loves us. A word of grace. And yet that same word, it never excuses sin, does it? It doesn't allow us to fall into legalism, it doesn't allow us to fall into a lazy Christian living, sometimes called antinomianism, a lawlessness idea. It reminds us of the holiness of God. It reminds us of the need to follow Christ. It reminds us that God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he will also reap. He who sows to the flesh, let the flesh reap corruption. He who sows to the spirit, let the spirit reap everlasting life. But God is the ultimate protector of his people, isn't he? In his word, he guards our souls. He keeps us anchored in Christ. That's why Paul says, I commend you to God and the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I asked you a question earlier if you love Jesus Christ. Do you love Jesus? Let me ask you another question now. Do you love his word? Do you love the word of God? When life is heavy, had a few prayer requests this past week that were heavier prayer requests, didn't we? When life is heavy, do you go to the word of God? Do you pray and say, Lord, I can't handle these things on my own, I'm stressed beyond the breaking point? Do you open his word and find the promises of God sweeter than honey to the lips? As God assures you of his grace, his power, his unfailing care, fear not, little flock, said Jesus to his disciples, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom. He's gonna bring you home. He's not gonna leave you, he's not gonna forsake you. Do you love the word of God? That's why when the elders come into your homes, they come with Scripture. They come with a Bible, why? Because it's not in the power of man to protect the flock of God. We must put ourselves in the hand of the Almighty. and commend ourselves to the word of grace that is found in Jesus Christ. Beloved Lord, God loves his church. He loves it so much, he gave his son to save it. This is not an abstract idea. It should not be an abstract idea. When we speak to the church, we are speaking of you. He cares for you. He knows the inclinations of your heart. He knows where you tend to go. He loved you anyway. One of the favorite lines of the Belgic Confession speaks about how Christians can struggle with assurance when after they're saved, they continue to wrestle with sin. And the line given is this, don't be afraid, dear Christian, for God knew when he sent Christ to die for you that you were a sinner. He knew you were a sinner. He loves you with an undying love and would have you anchored in Christ that his flock may not be lost. The church of Ephesus would hear Paul's words, they'd hear his warnings, they'd watch out for enemies. I missed enemies within. Sorry I missed that part. Just the idea that we can't simply build walls to keep out the devil, can we? He's within our own soul, comes from inside as well. But the Church of Ephesus would watch, and in Revelation chapter two, years later, Jesus would write a letter to the Church of Ephesus. And if you remember the letter of the Church of Ephesus, he praises them for how they are great in doctrine, how they watch out for falsehood, and then he says, but one thing I have against you, you've left your first love. Remember that? That's the Church of Ephesus, that's these elders. Paul says watch out for the wolves, watch out for those, and they have some kind of vigilance in that regard, but then their heart begins to wander and they leave their first love. But I want you to recognize those that in Revelation 2, Christ does not abandon them, does he? In Acts 20, he told them to watch out. He told them there's gonna be wolves, there's gonna be enemies, you're gonna be prone to wander. Enemies will rise up even from within. In Revelation two years later, you find out his warnings were true. The heart of the Ephesians has wandered. They've lost their first love. And what does God do when his people lose their first love? He speaks to them again. He calls them again. He renews them in repentance and summons them back to Christ. He will not let them go. Beloved, He will not let you go either. He calls you to find your hope in Christ. And thus find the protection, the grace, the strength we need that we may not only bear up under attacks from without, from struggles from within, that we may know the joy of the God of grace and be more than conquerors through him who loved us. God cares for his people. Do not give up. Do not fall asleep in your Christian walk. Be vigilant, be vigilant to see that you continue to look to Christ, the anchor, the author, the finisher of our salvation. And know that we can do that because he will never fail to watch for us. Let's join together in prayer. Father in heaven, as we come before you this morning, we are, Lord, we confess that we are indeed prone to wander Lord, we ask that you will anchor us in your grace, that Father, we will find, as Lord, you spoke through John, greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Now, Lord, the grace that sustains will continue to hold, and we find foes and enemies from without and within, and we have a Savior who knows the state of our soul. He knows the struggles of our heart. and he bore all our sins, past, present, and future, that we might know the forgiveness and security of what it is to be a sheep in the flock of God. We pray, Lord, you'll be nearer to us as a local church in our call to care for each other, to be vigilant over our own souls, to watch out for our own souls, to guard ourselves, to be sure we're in the gospel, but also, Lord, our care for each other. We would have a holy care for one another, a concern for how others are doing. We pray, Lord, for our elders and the leadership of this church, that you will grant them strength to care for the people of God in the way you call them to, that, Lord, they will know their hope is in the Lord, in the word of his grace, and they will be vehicles for that word to be brought and applied to the lives of your people. And we pray, Lord, you'll bless those relationships. That, Lord, you'll give strength to the shepherding that happens in this church, to the care that is given individually, whether from the pulpit or house to house. That, Lord, through these means that you have ordained and you have set your Holy Spirit to make these men overseers, that you will build up the flock of God and guard them from all foes. and lead us to know Christ more. We love you, Lord, and we pray that you will anchor us in the gospel, and we pray, Lord, you will use the means you have given, the word, the spirit, but also, Lord, the leadership of the church, to strengthen us, to keep us, to defend us, to keep our eyes centered on Christ. And Father, we pray that you will hasten the day when that enemy will be destroyed. The enemy from without, the enemy from within. And we will know the glory of our God in the face of Christ. And by your grace, hear the words well done, good and faithful servants. So will you hear our prayers, will you build your church, will you watch over us this day, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.