We turn again to the Word of God. We are picking up, if you are visiting with us, on our sequential exposition of Paul's letter to the Colossians. Last week, we looked at that great theme of Paul's ministry, that theme of every believer who is united to Christ and who lives a life which is patterned after the life of our Savior, a life of suffering. We saw last week that that life of suffering for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ was particularly the pattern of Paul's life as that great apostle and as a minister of the gospel, how he was willing to place himself front and center in the battle for the advance of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the one who was willing to take the blows, to cover the hard ground, to be the landing expeditionary force for the sake of the gospel. And because of that, he would suffer again and again and again, even to the very end of his life for the sake of the gospel. Now last week, this picture of the Apostle Paul gives us a flavor of the nature of the ministry which he exercised. A ministry which we will now learn more about as we could turn again to this passage. We'll be looking at Colossians chapter 1 verses 25 to 29, but in view of this idea or this overarching principle of Paul, a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffers for the name of Christ. And what were the reasons that Paul wrote this letter to Colossae? What was it that compelled the apostle in prison in Rome to write a letter to the Colossians? One of the great reasons, and the reasons for many of the letters of the New Testament, is to address a specific situation or a specific challenge of the church. In Colossae, one of the specific challenges of the church, and one that we haven't spent too much time looking at, one of the specific challenges of the church was this, that false teaching and error was always on the doorstep. The Colossians were being tempted to believe false doctrine. There were those who were circulating views of the gospel and teachings concerning the Lord Jesus Christ which were contrary to the gospel delivered once and for all to the saints, the gospel preached by Paul and by Epaphras. Well, as Paul now writes this letter to the church, he does so with the hope and with the intent that the church would not be sucked into false doctrine would not be led astray by these false teachers. The content of some of these false teachings in Colossae was the following. Some were teaching that you could be right with God by works righteousness, by adhering to some of the external aspects of Jewish law. Others were teaching that Jesus was indeed a mediator, but there are more mediators, that you could be made right with God or that you could approach God by appealing to angels and others who were supposed to be in heaven and around the throne and mediators between God and man. There was a fascination then with the spirit world, with what we would call even occult tendencies. And all of these errors were swirling around this little new church in Colossae, just newly formed by the power of the word preached. Well, Paul's response, how does he deal with false teaching? We've already seen that this letter itself is a response to false teaching in one sense. One aspect of this letter is that it's a response to false teaching. It encourages the church. He opens with pastoral encouragements, saying that he had heard of the reputation of their faith, of their love for all the saints. But then he begins to lay this foundation, a doctrinal foundation that we've seen in the rest so far in chapter one, which expounds sound doctrine, our right view of who God the Father is and how he relates to the Colossians, who God the Son is in his might of creating the heavens of the earth, in his powerful work of reconciliation through his blood on the cross, and that the only way to the Father is to be reconciled to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, to be presented by the Father, wholly blameless and unreproachable by Jesus Christ. That Jesus is the one mediator under heaven by which we, through whom we might approach God the Father. Now Paul has been writing, he wrote a letter then to deal with false doctrine. He has been encouraging the church to continue in the faith. He has been teaching sound doctrine. Paul has been exercising a ministry, a ministry. He has been serving the church at Colossae. Even in this work of writing this letter to the Colossians, he is acting as a minister of the gospel, a servant of the church, one who serves God's people. Now this idea of a minister and a ministry is already prominent in the letter to the Colossians. You see, chapter 1, verse 7, that we have already been introduced to one minister, Epaphras, a dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. Minister. Paul has already set forth the ministry of Epaphras. Then in chapter 1, verse 23, we have read that indeed the gospel, which you heard in the second half of the verse, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. Now again in the text before us, chapter 1 verse 25. Ending at verse 24. The church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you. Paul has been talking again and again in Colossians chapter 1 about this idea of a ministry that Epaphras and Paul are ministers of the gospel, ministers of the church. Now as Paul turns from some of these great doctrines of who the Father is, who the Son is, and how we relate to the Father through the Son, he now paints a picture, a picture for us of a biblical ministry. what it means to be a minister of the gospel, what Epaphras is by the grace of God, what Paul is by the grace of God, and what every minister of the gospel and what every biblical ministry should look like. Paul now lays forth a pattern of biblical ministry. We can ask this question here this morning as we see Paul's pattern. What are the distinguishing marks of a biblical ministry? What are the characteristics that set apart a true minister of the gospel and a biblical ministry of the gospel from a false ministry? Well, Paul gives us in this text four different characteristics or aspects of a true biblical ministry, and here they are for you. The first thing that he will teach us is that a biblical ministry is one that is established by God himself. Secondly, he will teach us that a biblical ministry happens in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The third thing he will teach us is that a biblical ministry is one that is characterized by one central act, the preaching of a message, a message from God. And finally, he will show us that a biblical ministry is one that always has eternity in view. Well, Paul sets before us his own ministry, and he does so to remind the Colossians of his qualifications and that he is a God-sent spokesman for truth and the truth of the gospel. And he does so, beginning in verse 25, by describing himself with these words. He says, the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you." When Paul opens up to describe himself as a minister of the gospel, he immediately points us to the fact that he is a minister of the gospel by divine appointment. That he is one that has been called into service and pressed into service by God himself. And this doesn't come as a great surprise to us if we know Paul's life story. He was the one who was on the road to Damascus and apprehended by Jesus Christ himself, stopped in his tracks by that blazing light from heaven. That wasn't actually his call to ministry. That was his conversion as he came face to face with Jesus Christ and his majesty and glory. He fell to his knees and he cried out, Lord, what would you have me to do? Broken, humbled, on his face in the dust. And it was to this blind, humbled, broken man. That God then came a few days later through his prophet Ananias. And God said to Ananias, go to this man Saul in the street called Straight, and there you will find him praying and speak to him my word. And Ananias was so afraid to go because he knew Saul was the one who was the persecutor of the church. But then God gave that message to Ananias. And the Lord said to Ananias, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name." See, God was saying to Ananias that Paul is one who had been specifically set apart by the will of God. He is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name. that Paul's ministry and the root of his ministry in Colossae and all of his ministry was this, that the sovereign God had set him apart for a task. He was chosen as a vessel to bear the name of God before the nations. And we see this all through the life of Paul. As in chapter 13, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the disciples and the apostles here, the Holy Spirit said, God himself said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And they are now being sent out on this missionary journey. And in each case you see that Paul's ministry, what lies behind Paul's ministry, is a declaration of the living God, that he has been chosen as a vessel to bear God's name, that he goes out on the missionary journey. It's the Spirit of God who says, I have called Paul and Barnabas to do this work. Paul testifies of this concerning himself in almost every epistle. Paul, 1 Corinthians 1.1, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. Colossians 1.1, the chapter we're in, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And now in our text here, called to be a minister, given a stewardship by God. It is God's divine initiative that makes Paul an apostle, that makes Paul a minister of the gospel. The principle we learn here concerning a biblical ministry is this, that there is a divine act. There is an act of God Himself, and we're going to see this through the whole text this morning. That is, there's a divine act. It's a divine impetus behind all gospel ministry. When a minister is called of God, God Himself stands behind the minister and behind that ministry. And God Himself is at work. in a biblical ministry of the gospel. But there's a second aspect here to this ministry of Paul. You see that he speaks of it. He says, the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you. Paul says, I'm a minister of the church. I've been given a stewardship, this ministry, and I've been given it particular for you, the saints in Colossae. I am a minister who is called to be ministering to the church in Colossae. Now, we've been using the word minister so far. Now, what does this mean? It's the Greek word diakonos. It's the Greek word from which we get the term deacon. It means servant. It means one who is called to be a servant of others. The title itself already gives the intimation of the fact that Paul cannot be a minister on his own. He cannot be a minister separated from the church, but he is a minister because he is a servant of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The title describes his position that he is to be one who is serving others. He is to be one who bears their burdens, who carries their loads, who, like the Lord Jesus, who washes their feet, who prepares their meal. who works, who labors for the church. Now when we put these two things together, you can ask a question. The question we asked at the beginning, how can you identify a biblical ministry? In a world of a thousand quote unquote ministries, when you can turn on your television and you can find almost 24 hours a day, those who claim to be ministers of the gospel, when you can open your mailbox and you get another appeal from another ministry. What is it that makes a biblical ministry? These two things together. That God himself has called a man and set him apart to service and that he has done so for service in and for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every biblical ministry is a ministry where a man has been called by the living God, who has been set apart to be a servant of the church, the body of Christ, to be preaching a message and a gospel that has an intended audience, recipients, which is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you ask yourself, how can I know? Because when the scripture lays out, the boundaries, the picture of what the ministry of the gospel is to be. How can I know that I sit under a godly ministry? How can I identify? How can I give somebody else counsel as they are looking for a church to go to? Or if I'm wrestling myself with this question, am I called to preach the gospel? How can I know that I am sitting under, that I am directing someone to, that I am even seeking or being sought by God to be a minister of the gospel? Well, God gives us, in His Word, identifiers. can demonstrate whether or not this basic foundation of a man called by God to serve the church is in place, and that is this. He has said that someone who is called to preach is to have a godly character, to be exemplary in holiness. 1 Timothy chapter 3, blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior. hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent. That God has said that there is a certain holiness of character which marks out one who is to be a servant of the church, an elder or a minister of the gospel. That that one is to have a desire for the work of the church and a love for the church, to have gifts, to take this stewardship and give it to the church. Do you see that the sign of a ministry is not, at the end of the day, that a man believes that he's called? Neither is the sign of a ministry a desire to do the work. But at the end of the day, the sign of a ministry which has been called and initiated by God himself is that the church itself calls a man, and that it declares a man. by God's declaration rooted in the Word, that the Church itself declares a man to be a minister of the Gospel. And we see that even in the Apostle Paul's case. Because when Ananias was sent to go to Paul, he was sent with a particular action. He was sent to lay hands on the Apostle Paul and to demonstrate by the laying on of hands that God himself had invested a ministry in this man. And when Paul and Barnabas were to leave to go on that missionary journey, the church laid hands on them. When Timothy was ordained, he was commanded by the Apostle Paul not to forget the laying on of hands of the eldership or the presbytery that God had divinely and sovereignly initiated through his church, that this one was to be set apart for the ministry of the gospel. So a ministry that is called and ordained by God is one that is recognized by the church and it stands on the authority that Christ has given to his church. See, our own desire, my own desire, if you desire the ministry, if someone down the street decides that they should be a minister of the gospel, how are we to know if this is a ministry that we can submit to, that has been ordained by God? Because God has set forth His church as the one that recognizes and calls a man to the ministry. So if you want to set yourself under a godly minister, you must set yourself under a ministry of someone who is under the authority of Christ in this church, on whom hands have been laid on, and God then testifies that he is at work in this one. Well, Paul has given us these first two marks, a godly minister. and ministry is one who God has ordained. A godly ministry is attached to and takes place in his church and is confirmed and affirmed by the church. But what is the work that Paul is to do? Well, if you keep looking here, you'll see in verse 25 that Paul became a minister of the church according to the stewardship from God, God's action in granting him a stewardship, which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God." What is the principle here? Well, the principle that Paul is setting forth is that as a minister of the gospel, he's not just been set apart for the church. But God has done something. He has given him, particularly, a stewardship. He has become a steward of a message. God has given Paul a message to preach. He's given him a deposit. And Paul, preeminently, unlike any one of us, any minister of the gospel after Paul, Paul as an apostle had a particular stewardship. And the stewardship, as we keep reading here, was a mystery. That is, Paul held in trust for God. The picture is this, that God granted to Paul the stewardship of a mystery, which Paul then was to grant or pass on to the church. And the stewardship is this. Paul says twice, it's a mystery. God gave me stewardship of a mystery. And the mystery was this, that in the New Testament, Now that Christ has risen again from the dead, and now that His gospel goes to the ends of the earth, that God was unveiling all the promises of the Old Testament, all the promises encapsulated in the New Covenant, that God said He would make His gospel go out to the ends of the earth, Paul was recipient, a steward of these promises and of the word of the gospel, and he, by the preaching of the word, was fulfilling the word of God. He was fulfilling all the promises of the Old Testament, that what Paul was doing and Epaphras were doing in Colossae, what I, by God's grace, even do right now, is a participation in all the promises that God gave in the Old Testament to send His Word to the ends of the earth by the mouthpiece of the ministers of the gospel. See what was God's, what is this mystery that he speaks of? You see it, Paul speaks of it here in the text. the mystery which has been hidden in verse 26 from ages and from generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glories of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." And what Paul is saying, and he says it also in Ephesians chapter 3, is that God has made me a minister of the new covenant. God has made me a minister who is to preach the gospel to all nations, not just to Israel, but to Jew and Gentile and to the ends of the earth, that God, by my ministry and the ministry of Paphras and Timothy, those with me, has decreed and is working out his decree that a gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ will be preached to the ends of the earth." See? God's intention. revealed in the promises of the new covenant were this, already intimated long ago in Genesis chapter 12 to Abraham in the covenant of grace. Abraham, through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And when God deals with Nineveh through Jonah, God is intimating that he has a plan of redemption which is far greater than just the Jews. Psalm 117. One of the great Psalms of global dominion. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Laud Him, all you peoples, for His merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of God endures forever. There is this note that runs all through the Old Testament that God is going to, in the New Covenant, in a period in the future, make the knowledge of God cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And Paul is an agent of all of these promises. He calls himself in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 a minister of the new covenant. A minister of the new covenant. That is the mystery then that Paul has been given. That he is a preacher to the Gentiles of a gospel which goes to the ends of the earth. Look at the climax of this mystery which he speaks of. The end of verse 27, this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. See, Paul is preaching a gospel and a mystery. He is preaching this, that to Jew and Gentile, to the ends of the earth, ordained by God, that I as a minister of God am preaching this gospel, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That God in his mercy has taken reckless, willfully rebellious sinners. As Paul said just a few verses earlier, reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. So now that Christ abides in you and you in Christ. He calls this the hope of glory, that in Christ we have the hope of heaven itself. That we are known of God, known by God, and drawn close to God. And this describes Paul's ministry all through the New Testament. He calls himself a steward of the mystery of God, that he preaches Christ in you to the whole world, that God's redemptive plan has now, after Christ's finished work, has exploded to the ends of the earth. And the central act then of Paul's ministry is this, that as God has given him a stewardship of a mystery, that he preaches that word to the ends of the earth. And he describes that preaching in verse 28. He says this, "'Cause God has given me this mystery, I now proclaim Jesus Christ.'" The central characteristic of my ministry, the central activity of my ministry, a ministry appointed by God, a minister in his church, is to preach Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. And all through this text we read that God is making himself known. He is revealing himself. He is showing a mystery which has long been hidden. And this revelation of God comes through the preaching of the word. Paul gives three marks here of biblical preaching. The first thing he says is, the mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He says, Him we preach. How can you discern a biblical ministry? How can you discern a ministry which is according to the will of God? Well, it is full of Christ. Christ is preached. Christ is exalted. Christ is set before you. If you're driving around Greenville and you have your radio on in your car and you hear some preaching, the way to ask, is this a biblical ministry? Is this biblical preaching? It's to ask the question, do I hear Christ? Do I hear of Christ? Do I hear a list of topics how I may improve my life or do I hear Jesus Christ and Him crucified? What Paul said to the Corinthians, he said, I say to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified. an aspect of the central characteristic of a biblical ministry is this, that it is a preaching of the Word of God and preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you hear Christ preached, His offices, His work? Do you hear Christ, the Christ of creation and redemption? Do you hear Christ, His coming and His second coming? Do you hear of His grace and mercy? Do you hear of His justice and His holiness? Paul says, Him we preach, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the mediator, the savior of sinners. A biblical ministry, then, Paul is saying, is marked by the Lord Jesus Christ on display, declared to the world, to the nations, Jew and Gentile, to the ends of the earth, with boldness and power, as the one way to the Father. Augustine said the business of a minister is not to make men marvel at their eloquence, but to make men marvel at the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ. This is what Paul says. He says, him we preach, but he says we do it in two ways. We warn men. We warn We warn men of God's justice and holiness. We warn men. And God says, Paul is saying this, that preaching must include the element of warning, to flee from the wrath to come. So as I preached to you this morning, Christ in Him crucified. I set before you the one name under heaven by which men might be saved, who is Jesus Christ. The one through whom we have reconciliation to the Father. the one through whom we have the hope of glory, even eternal life in heaven forever. The next word Paul says, we warn every man that this Christ is the judge of the heavens and the earth. He's the one with whom we have to do. See, Jesus is the one before whom you will one day stand and give testimony and give witness to everything which you have done in the flesh, whether good or evil. Jesus preaching itself. is full of warning. It's full of exhortation. It's full of cries to turn and to repent. And Paul says, a biblical ministry is not one that simply preaches the love of God. It's the one that warns all men. Imagine yourself at the wheel of a ship sailing through the sea. You're in a storm. You don't know where you're going. You've lost your way. And up ahead, you start to see dimly through the gloom, the flash of a light. And as you get closer and closer, you see that it's a lighthouse and you know that it's set on some rocks. And what that light is saying every time it flashes is turn or perish, turn or perish, turn or perish. What Paul says is the biblical ministry does this. Week after week, you sit under the preaching of the Word. Week after week, you hear the warning. Christ, yes, He is a Savior, but He's a King and a Judge. And that God is beautiful and glorious, but He's holy and almighty. The preaching comes like that flashing light. Turn or perish. Turn or perish. Turn from your sins. or perish. everywhere, all things which I have commanded you. So negatively, preaching must give warning, but positively, it must build us up in the most holy face. It must build up, it must lay a foundation, it must instruct, because there's a goal in mind, not just that we would turn away from sin, but that we would grow in grace and be more like this Savior, Jesus Christ, who is in you. See, a biblical ministry is marked by the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. with warning and with teaching to every man. Finally, the fourth aspect of a biblical ministry is this, it has eternity in view. A biblical ministry has eternity in view. How often do we not get sucked into living for this present age? We live for the wrong world. We get our feet planted here. We don't live like Abraham who was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. But we live so caught up in the present. and our endeavors are so concerned. We want a savings account. We want to pay off our mortgage. We have children to raise. We have bills to pay. The life is so full of the present that we forget the future. But Paul says, as a minister of the gospel, there is something I will never forget, that there is a goal and an end for which I minister. I am a servant of the church so that I might see something. If you look in the text, you'll see what it is. that he might present, see the words there, end of verse 28, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Paul says I labor as a minister of the gospel for this end because I know that there is a day that everyone who is under the sound of my voice, and he says we, and he's including Timothy and Epaphras here, every gospel minister, he says, we labor, we toil, we preach Christ, we warn, we exhort, we teach, we come commissioned by God, we come with a message from God, and we do all of this as servants of the church so that one day we might present you mature before the face of God. See, Paul knows that his ministry is not just to make a better life, a better family, a better marriage, a better home. Yes, all these things to glorify God. But he says at the end of the day, there's a goal. There's an end of everything that I do. That I might present everyone who is under the sound of my voice, who reads my letters, who hears of my ministry as mature in Jesus Christ. Pilgrim's Progress has that great figure, great heart. He's the pastor. He's the one who goes ahead of the people. He's the one who fights the battles for the pilgrims. He's the one who's willing to suffer for them. He's the one who's willing to teach them, to warn them, to exhort them, to call them to fix their eyes on Jesus Christ. And what is he doing it for? Because he is determined that everyone under his care would reach the celestial city. That's Paul's heart cry. Paul's heart cry is that there would be growth and grace, there would be maturity, and there would be a presentation of everyone before Christ. In verse 29, how does he do this? With this goal in mind, he says, I labor, I strive, I toil, I exert every fiber of my being for you, so that I might present every believer mature in Christ. See what your pastor prays for you. What your elders here pray for, what we strive for in weakness, as broken, sinful men, even ourselves, is that one day you may be able to present you before the throne of God, mature in Christ Jesus. So to this end, we strive, we toil, and we labor. Well, there's one theme here that Paul has had running through this whole text, and it's a remarkable theme. It's a humbling theme for your pastor. It's a remarkable theme to hear the ministry of a pastor and elders who labor among you. And it's this. Throughout this whole section, Paul has one running theme, and that as he works, Christ works. And as Christ works, Paul works. There is an intertwining here, a union of Christ and Paul himself. Paul, when he describes his own toiling in verse 29, he says, "...to this end I labor, striving according to his mighty working which he works in me mightily." That Paul is working, but Christ is working. That God in his wisdom and his grace has appointed ministers of the gospel so that he might be striving and toiling and laboring and working in them for you. Do you remember we read just a few verses before? What Christ died to do. Verse 21, and you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, what? To present you holy, blameless, and unreproachable. And now what does Paul say? He's saying, I am laboring. And he even says, I bear in my body the afflictions. I suffer with Christ, and Christ suffers in me. I preach what Christ gave me. I give you the very word of Christ. I labor for Christ's church. He is the head of the church. It is his body. And I present, as I labor to present you, it is Christ who is laboring in me. See, the mark of a biblical ministry is, yes, it's set on eternity. God in his mercy is doing something. As the minister, as your elders, our believers united to Christ, called by God, it is Christ himself who strives and labors and toils that you might be presented, mature in Christ, holy, blameless, and unreproachable. It's the great double presentation. Christ, your pastors, your elders. laboring to present you mature in Christ for all eternity. Well, the writer of the Hebrews gives us some, causes us to reflect for a moment on these things. How then should you submit to a biblical ministry? He said, the writer of the Hebrews says this, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life, imitate your faith, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. Listen to this, as those who must give an account, And on that great presentation day, your elders, your pastor, we will have to give an account for you. Maybe you're here this morning, and I know some of you are, and you're seeking the gospel ministry. Is this the picture? Is this the pattern that you seek after? Do you want to suffer with Christ? Do you want your own ambition or has God initiated this work in your life? Are you seeking his face? Do you want to be a leader or do you want to be a minister or servant of the church? Do you want to be one who studies or do you want to be one who preaches Christ? Do you want to be one to solve people's problems or do you want to be one who wants to labor so that you might present believers mature in Christ? Finally this morning, we praise God for His provision. Christ is the one who has provided a ministry of the gospel for His church. As we see now, it is Christ Himself who labors, who strives, who toils, who even suffers alongside your pastors and your elders so that you might be brought forward, growing, in maturity, finally presented by Christ Himself to the Father, wholly blameless and unreproachable. May God ever bless this church with a ministry, with elders and teachers who fit this pattern, and pray that God would keep us from sin and from temptation, and strive that you might sit under and pray for the ministry of the gospel in this place. Let us pray. Lord, our God, we come to you this morning and we confess we are weak and sinful men. Lord, we wonder how it is that you would use jars of clay and that you would invest this great mystery, the hope of glory, Christ himself, the message of the gospel in such vessels. Lord, you have done it so that your strength might be made evident in weakness. and that the surpassing glory of your power and your grace would be made evident to all. Lord, we pray that as we together hear Christ our Savior preached and exalted, that you would turn us from our sins, that you would warn us, that you would teach us, and that you would make us mature in Christ, ready to stand before your face. Forgive our sins, we pray, in preaching and in hearing. Give us new, fresh love for our Savior. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Turn to Trinity Hymnal number 599 as our hymn of response. Savior, like a shepherd, lead us.