I said, welcome everybody. This is not Sunday morning. Remember, I know you go to sleep on Sunday morning, but you don't have to sit there like you're already in the grave on Wednesday evening, right? This is not a funeral service. This is a Bible study time. And I am glad to be with you. Thank you very much for having me and for coming out on a hot Wednesday night. It's like this all the time in Orlando. So this is nothing to me. And you guys are suffering, I know. So thank you for coming out and not just sitting at your home, sitting on mid-Julys tonight or something. That's what it did in the old days, wasn't it? Am I loud enough? Can you hear me? Yes? Okay. Okay. Good. Okay. Well, let me remind you of what we're doing. This is a month where we're giving attention on Wednesday night to the subject of prayer and how prayer can be a very important part of this church's life, not just now, but especially now. As you go through this transition time between a pastor and then another pastor now to another pastor. And so it's an important time for us to focus on the things that are central to the life of this church and the things that are going to make or break the future of this church. And I think it's important to zero in, especially on this issue of prayer. Now, we've talked about two different things. We've talked about how prayer involves asking God for things. And I suggested to you the first night that we need to stop simply going through our quick list of things like a radio request line, telling God to need this, I need this, I need this, bless on Susie, bless Uncle Joe, and Jesus name amen. We need to learn how to engage the Lord in prayer like Moses did by offering our reasons for praying the way that we do, asking for the things that we do. And then the second thing we saw last week was that the sort of other side or the flip side of prayer is not petitioning, but it is to give thanks to God. And I suggested to you that we need to learn how to say thank you that we're not all born knowing how to say thank you. Thank you is something that we have to grow in as human beings and thanking God as Christians is something we have to grow and learn how to do. And last week we saw that one of the most central ways in the Bible for us to thank God is to tell God stories, to tell God's stories about things that he has done for us. Now later on this evening after I've done my thing here, we are actually going to do this together. There are three people in your congregation that have agreed to lead us in prayer tonight and they're going to praise the Lord and thank the Lord for things in this church and they're also going to begin to lead us in prayers for the pastoral search and for the future of this church as it relates to your future pastor. And we're doing this because as this month goes by, we're going to be moving more and more toward that kind of focus, the future of this local church, the place that you call independent Presbyterian church and for the visitors that are here, you're welcome to listen in. How's that? Okay, you fake county people, okay. Now tonight we're going to talk about one of my favorite people in the Bible and that is King David. The reason I like King David so much is because I'm a lot like him and because you're a lot like him too. We're going to be looking at your favorite book in the Bible. It's called First Chronicles, not First Corinthians, First Chronicles in the Old Testament which is a story about David. And when I say that David is a lot like you and me, what I mean by this of course is that David failed. He failed in some very serious ways didn't he? His life was not this pristine ideal thing that you and I would like to see our lives be. But the reality is that his life in many ways is like our lives. Now you may not have the same flaws as he did, but you've got flaws and you know them even if nobody else does. And the thing I like about David, especially in the book of Chronicles is this. Despite the fact that David had done so many terrible things, despite the fact that he had failed so miserably in the book of Chronicles that David ends his life on a great crescendo. His life ends very positively. He has very good things going on in his life to the point that in the book of Chronicles it seems as if all that old stuff, all that bad stuff, all that failure has just been forgotten and set aside. And that of course as a general thing gives us great hope doesn't it? It gives us great hope for our personal lives and for our families. And you know what else it gives you hope for? It gives you hope for your church. And it gives you hope for your denomination. And the reason it gives you hope is because you and your personal life and your family life and in your local church and in your denomination and in the body of Christ throughout the world, we are not perfect. We have not done super well. We have flaws and faults and stumbling in almost every direction you can name. But the fact that David having that kind of life ends with this great crescendo we're about to read about here in first Chronicles 29 gives us hope in all of those levels that we can end our lives that way as well on a crescendo not in failure.
Do you know with them one of the biggest problems that the Church of Jesus Christ has in this country? Do you know what the biggest problems we have? It's going to sound strange but I'm going to go ahead and say it. It's competent people, not incompetent people, competent people. That's you. Do you know the kinds of people who normally would come to a church like independent Presbyterian church? They're very competent people. A lot of you have handled in your day large sums of money and you've done it very successfully. Most of you are highly educated compared to the rest of the world. Most of you are wealthy compared to the rest of the world. Most of you are very competent. And if I were out here looking for somebody to come feel a job or do some kind of task for on my behalf, the kind of people I'd be looking for would be people like you. Because for example, if your car breaks down, do you go trying to find an incompetent mechanic? Of course not. You try to find a competent mechanic. If you are becoming sick, do you try to find the worst doctor in town, the one of the worst reputation, the quack of the city? No. What you do is you try to find a competent doctor, the most competent one in that field. You see, we normally think competence is really good. Well, last week, my eight-year-old granddaughter was with Gina and me in Orlando for the whole week. It's one of the things I did coming up here. I zipped down to Jackson and took her home with me, kept her for a week and then brought her back as I came back last week. And one of the things I found out about an eight-year-old that I had forgotten, because she acts just like her mother did at eight years old. I've forgotten this. Eight-year-olds are think of themselves as highly competent people. I know. I don't need help with that. No, no, no. No poops. I don't need help with that. I know how to do this. All right. So, we go off and get this little boogie board. You know what a boogie board is at the beach, in the little sort of tiny surfboards that kids like to swim on and jump around on the waves and things like that. And I said, well, Maggie, let me show you how to do this. Oh no, poops. I know how to to do it. I've seen it on TV. I don't need any help. She would have used the word competent as she known it. I'm quite competent in this. I can boogie as good as anybody can. Well, so, you know, rather than alienate her, I just sort of let her go ahead and go out there in the water. No, it's close by, but it didn't take but one big way before she found out how totally incompetent she was. But being the eight-year-old she was, she didn't blame it on her incompetent. She blamed it on the wave. You see, it's okay to think about and to value competence so long as you don't overestimate how competent you are. But as soon as you begin to overestimate how competent you are, you get thrown around by the waves of life. And that's the way it is in the body of Christ. And that's the way it is even here at independent presbyterian church. You have lots of competent people, but it's very easy for you and me in all of our competence and all of our ability to overestimate, like my eight-year-old granddaughter, just how competent we are and to think that we really don't need much help. This passage, 1 Chronicles 29, is a great passage that gives us the heart of King David toward the end of his life. He's about to hand the scepter to his son Solomon. And this is sort of the picture of David's life in his last great speech and his last great prayer in his whole life. And what happens here in effect is that the writer of Chronicles is sort of peeling back the layers of David's onion here to reveal what's right at the very center of David's life, what his heart really is like. And I want us to begin by looking at what we might call sort of his superficial competence. Let's take a look at it and see what's happening in this passage is that David has just finished preparing everything for his son Solomon to build the temple of God. Now I know you know that story. I know you know that God told him, David, you can't build the temple, but your son Solomon will. And a lot of people know that, but they don't know that David also spent almost his entire life as King preparing for Solomon to build the temple. It was almost as if all Solomon had to do is take tab A and stick it into slot A and he had a temple because David had done so much for him. And this is the passage where David illustrates just how much he had done. Listen to what he says, verse 1 of chapter 29 and first Chronicles. Then King David said to the whole assembly of Israel, my son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen is young and inexperienced, incompetent. In other words, the task is great because this palatial structure is not for man, but for the Lord. With all my resources, I have provided for the temple of my God, gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors and all kinds of stone and marble, all of these things in large quantities. Now if we were to put that in common English, basically this is what David is saying. He's saying, look, I've got the plan, I implemented the plan, I've got all the materials that a person could possibly need to build this temple and I've got them all together and it's ready to go. David is saying, I am a very competent builder of the temple of God. Now that's not being looked upon as silly or trivial here. In fact, David was a great, greatly competent as a builder of the temple of God. And that should tell you something right here out of this passage for your life as a church. You know, in our day, we do not believe in the New Testament that God has told us that we must build physical buildings as if God lived in physical buildings any longer. Now it's okay to have a building, a nice one like this, nothing wrong with it, but we know that as Israel built a temple, you and I are also involved in building a temple but it's not a building, it's the church, this people is this congregation and the various congregations around the city and around the world. You are the temple of God, you as the people of God and you must be built. And the example of David tells us something, if you're going to build a temple, you do want to have people who know how to build a temple. If you want to build a church, you want to have people who know how to build a church. You have been so blessed at IPC with competent leadership, both in your senior pastors of the past and in your staff of the past and the staff that you have today, that you probably don't even realize how competent they are because you never notice what they do because they are so gifted. They are so good at what they do. But the competence of this church goes far beyond the professionals here. It also goes to the elders of this church and to the deacons of this church. You have remarkably gifted leaders of this church, but it goes even beyond that. It goes to you, the lay people of this church. You here at Independent Presbyterian Church know more about how to run a church and how to be the church than most Christians throughout the world, the vast majority of Christians throughout the world. And I can tell you that's true because I've been around and I've seen how they do church in other parts of the world. It's a nightmare compared to what you have here. I know you have problems here at IPC. I know you have conflicts, I know you have struggles, and you wish that people would do things differently than what they do and on and on and on it goes. But at the same time, you need to sort of sit back and realize, hey, we've got a church that really is very gifted and very competent. But that, while it's your greatest strength in this church is also your greatest weakness. And let me tell you how it happens. The first thing that happens when you have a church that has competent leaders is the church tends to professionalize its ministry. What does that mean? That means you hire the right people to do the work of church and then you watch them do it and enjoy how they do it. And there's a tendency here, I've been here enough, I'm just going to tell you the truth. There's a tendency here at IPC for the ministry to be professionalized. That means that your half dozen or so pastoral staff has a tendency to do the work of the ministry and there's a tendency for the congregation here to sort of just watch them do it. May after all it's their job, isn't it? But you know, the wonderful thing about this church having so much competency is that you don't have to give it over to the professionals. You have ability too. And it's time for this church to realize this especially now, especially now, as you begin to make this transition toward a new phase in your history. It's no longer going to be the case that you can sit back and say, you know, we can entrust the future of our church to the half dozen professionals that run our church and everything will be okay. It's now time for you to begin to be involved in the future of this church and to use your competence as well. So one of the greatest dangers you face as a church is that you feel like, well, I don't really have to contribute anything to this. I have nothing really to be involved with. I have no way to really influence the future of this church. It's quite the contrary. You have so many gifts and God has blessed this church so much with this spirit that you must begin to influence the future of your church. Now, I'm going to tell you how in just a minute, because here's the problem. As soon as I say something like that to you, you're saying, dog on right. Yeah, that's what we've got to do. What we've got to do is start circulating petitions. What we need to do is start complaining louder. Now, if I can just complain loud enough, somebody will pay attention to me. After all, I've got the Holy Ghost. And I can tell these people what they need to do. I'm competent as competent as they are. Richard Pratt said so. He said, we've got confidence all over this church. We don't have to have a professionalized ministry. We don't have to limit it to the elders and to the Deacons. Everybody should be leading the church. Didn't you hear Richard on that Wednesday night? Oh my, but that's not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying at all. When I'm going to talk about your involvement is something that's extremely important for you to add now to what I've just said. It's the lesson I learned about my eight year old granddaughter while you have competence like she had competence. She didn't have enough confidence to ride the boogie board over the big waves. And we don't have enough competence to run and build the church of Jesus Christ on our own.
It's a big difference saying that we have some competencies and that those things are good and then to turn around and let it deceive us into thinking that, well, we can just do it. And here's the problem. A lot of you have great skills in business. You have great skills in community affairs. You have great skills in interpersonal relationships. Some of you have been able to manipulate your way through life without anybody ever catching you. Haven't you? You've done it in business. You've done it in the family. You've done it in neighborhood. You've done it at the club. Yeah, you've been able to manage all those things and keep all those those plates spinning. But the problem here is that the church is not a business. The problem here is that the church is the temple of God far beyond anyone's ability to build. Anyone's ability to manage and anyone's ability to make succeed, you need somebody else. Just like my eight-year-old granddaughter needed me standing beside her to save her from drowning, you need someone else too. And as not another person like me is not another professional. Do you know who it is? Do you know his name? His name is Jesus. And David illustrates that in his life immediately in this great assembly he had. While he goes to where he says, I've done this and I've done this and I've done this and I've done this. I want you to hear the very next thing that David says in chapter 29 and verse 10. David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying praise be to you, O Lord God of our Father Israel from ever lasting to ever lasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor. For everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. You wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things and your hands are strength and power to exalt and get strength to all. Now our God we give you things and praise your glorious name. Everything comes from you and we have given only what comes from your hand. What David is saying here is this, Lord I know we've done something really great today. We've gotten everything ready for the temple to be built. Solomon's just going to have to stick it together but I want to make it very clear Lord that I know something about what's happening today. I David did not do this. It was too much for someone like me to do. It took you. Everything I've done you gave me. Every breath that I breathed you gave me. Everything that I collected you gave me. Now you might say well of course David said this because these rubies and these turquoise and these stones and this wood and the gold and this silver it just sort of fell out of heaven on them didn't it Richard? It just sort of dropped out of the sky. How could he deny that God had done it? How could he but praise God for those things after all? It was a great miracle wasn't it? And the answer is no it wasn't. When you read the book of Chronicles you find out where David got that gold and where David got that silver where he got the turquoise where he got the wood where he got the money to buy all these things. You know where he got it? It tells us in first Chronicles very plainly where he got it. He got it by going out and fighting wars. Wars. He went out and killed people. He went out and had people and his ranks killed. He fought wars year after year after year after year. Then the writer of Chronicles says this is where he got his money. This is where he got his wealth and this is where he got the wealth that he used for building the temple. In other words he worked himself to death for this. But what does David do? David knows that this is really not his effort. He knows his success, his life, the goodness that he experienced, all came from the hand of God and unlike you and me he does not hesitate to give credit where credit is due. Now we've been talking about that haven't we? We've been talking about the fact that a church that's really in tune with where God is. There's a church that's going to be thankful and a church that's not going to allow itself to think hey we can just keep things going because you know after all we did it once we can do it again. You and I have got to come to the point in here right here at IPC on these Wednesday nights of realizing that it is not because you have competent leaders that this church has succeeded. It is not because you've had good pastors that your church has succeeded. It's not because you have competent elders that your church has succeeded. It is not because you are so competent that this church has succeeded. It is 100% a gift from Almighty God that you have seen the success that you have seen. Now do you believe that enough to honor him enough to acknowledge it enough to say that God does deserve to be praised for these things that everything you have given comes from his hand. Do you know what this church is known for around our denomination perhaps around the world? This church is known for its great generosity. I don't know if you know that or not. I'm talking about financial generosity. You're known for this. You support lots of ministries at great sums. And so one of the reputations that this church has is that you are a church of many resources. How about that? You're a church of many resources. Do you know what that means? I say euphemism. Do you know what it means? He got money. Now you know I raised money. Okay so I don't go around saying getting money. What I say is do you have any resources? And when we talk about you, we don't talk about it in terms of well he's got money. She's got money. No, no, no, no. This is a person that believes in the ministry. Okay that's another euphemism. But what we're talking about here is you got money. You've got money. And so it's very easy for you to think of running this church like you think of running your business or your home finances. I've got a certain amount of money. I can stick the money in and the machine will grind out the right product. But this is not a business. This is the temple of God. And more than anything, you should realize that every single penny you have has been given to you on a day-to-day basis by the hand of Almighty God. And every resource you have to contribute to this church has been given to you by the hand of Almighty God. And your heart must become a heart that is full of thanks and praise that can look to God and say, you know Lord, this church has succeeded but has only succeeded because of your hand, your mercy, because everything we have ever given to this church, everything we've ever done in this church has come from you and come from you alone because yours is the kingdom, yours is the majesty, yours is the praise. Ask someone, I said on Sunday morning when they sing the praise hymns, are they praising them more or less? You, I asked someone who goes to your church on Sunday morning and they said all about the same so maybe the message hasn't gotten through yet. The next time you sing a song of praise to God, you need to acknowledge as a church that everything you have comes from the hand of God. Otherwise, you will never be able to be the kind of church that can move into the future. And let me tell you why because of what David does next. Listen to what he does after he praises God. He says this down in verse 17. He says, Lord, I know by God that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity, all these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. So he says, it's great. Lord, you have blessed us and your people are just pouring money into the church and good things are happening but now listen to what he says. O Lord, verse 18, God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever and keep their hearts loyal to you and give my son Solomon the whole hearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided. What does David do after praising God for all that God has given him? He turns to God and he says, Lord, please keep this thing going. Please keep the desire that I see today in the hearts of these people. Please keep it growing, their devotion to you. Please keep it growing. Please make Solomon wholeheartedly commit it to you so that he will complete the building of the temple so that the future will be successful like the past has been successful. Why did David do this? Why does David not just simply sit back and say, well, Lord, you provided. Now we can just sort of watch it. Let's get the architects in here. Let's get the construction crews in here. Let's build no big deal. But instead what he does is he says, Lord, you've got to give the people the desire. You have got to continue to empower what's going on here in the building of the temple. Why does David do it? This is why because he understood something that despite all that had been accomplished, despite everything that had been done, it could all go down the drain tomorrow. That's the reality. Despite all that has happened at independent Presbyterian church, it would not take much at all, not much at all, for it all to go down the drain tomorrow. I don't think you believe that. I think you got enough money in the coffers to keep it going. I think you believe that you have a professional enough staff to keep this church rolling with or without the Holy Spirit. It doesn't matter. I think you don't believe that this church could actually go down the drain in a matter of just a few years. But isn't there a church around here, a church building right around here that used to be a vibrant growing church that is now being replaced by a Walgreens? What church am I talking about? That's right. You door about this church. Was that at one time a very vibrant church? I understand that God used it evangelistically. Lots of people were converted there, probably more than we've ever been converted in this church, and that the Holy Spirit was there, and that the witness of the gospel was there, and now some 20 years later maybe, just a blink isn't it? I know if you're young, you think that's a long time, it's not. A blink, don't blink, because now it's Walgreens. Do you know why you don't pray for your children? Do you know why lots of parents in here have not even fasted one day for your children's salvation? It's because you think they're going to be saved automatically, because you're such good parents and you send them to the right schools. And because you don't believe that all of your efforts, all your discipline, all that money you spend on them to go to school, all those things that you've done for them can go down the drain. You don't believe it. If you believe it could go down the drain, you'd be on your knees before God on behalf of your children. And grandparents, I thought I would never have to have faith in anymore once my daughter Becky got married to a Christian man. I thought it was all good now. You know, I could just have, don't have to have any faith that any of these grandchildren. And now I'm concerned about my grandchildren entering the kingdom of heaven. All of a sudden I've got to start praying and fasting for them too. Why don't you pray for your children and your grandchildren and your nephews and your nieces because you somehow get duped into thinking that all the money I spend on them, all the training I gave them, all the inculturation I gave them, all the safety that I gave them all through their lives is insulation of my cultural and socio-economic level. That's going to take care of them and get them into the kingdom of God. It's almost automatic, but the reality is what's true for your children is that they can all be lost apart from the grace of God. And if you believe that, you'll be on your knees for your children. And if you understand that this church can be lost, despite all that has happened, it can be lost by one generation of people.
If you were to believe that, you would be on your knees for this church. So how tenuous do you think a church is? I remember one time getting out of the bus in Smurna, Turkey, which is one of the places where one of the churches in the book of Revelation are, one of the ones that Jesus is mad about and says, I'm going to get you for what you've done. And I remember getting out of the bus there and asking the tour guide, where do you think the church was? The church that's written about in the book of Revelation where Jesus says, I'm going to take the lamp stand from you if you don't get your act together. And so where do you think it was? And she said, well, we probably think it was probably over there on that hill. The original church was right over there on the hill, established by the apostles, okay, right over there on that hill. And I said, why do you think it's over there on that hill? Why? I'm such a skeptic. And she said, well, because that's where the oldest mosque is.
How do you tell where the Christian church was? By where the mosque is. And this was a church established by apostles. And you don't think Walgreens can replace this church building.
Now it does a little fear of that. Encourage you to start praying for this process of the new pastor you're going to have. Does it make you realize that you can't just keep on going on with business as usual and expect things to just keep on being good here? That churches really do close down. And in fact, that our denomination, according to Harry Reader, we only had a net growth last year of church plants. Net growth, considering how many we closed down, how many we opened, we had a net growth of five churches because we're closing as many as we start. And you don't think you can be in that list? All it takes is for you and me to continue to think that our competence can take care of the situation. So I really want to encourage you now that this example of David who was very competent and yet held on to the fact that he needed to praise God for what God had done and he needed to earnestly besiege God for his help must be our way of approaching our future. Because you have a precious thing here in IPC, a precious church that needs to grow and needs to be vibrant and needs to display the glory of God in this city. And it can only be done when you competent people are also grateful and are seeking the help of God. Now to do that tonight, we're going to have a little prayer time. It won't be very long, don't worry. This is not nap time, just prayer time. I'm going to ask the three people that are going to help me to come on up here and sit in these three chairs, please, if you would. If you're not asleep, I hope they didn't go sleep. No, you didn't go sleep. How about that? Great. These wonderful brothers and sisters have come to pray. Now this is not a show for you. They're actually going to be leading you in prayer. They're going to be taking you to the throne of God and they're going to do it by walking up to this microphone here, which I assume is on. Yes? It is on. Good. And let me just tell you what we're going to do. We're going to have a little prayer meeting. I'm going to start the prayer myself. Okay? And then what we're going to do is we're going to hear two people give praise to God like David did. They're going to get praise to God for what this church has meant to them. And the reason for this is because they understand that God has blessed them in this place and that this is a place of great and tremendous gifts from God to people like you and me. And then on the basis of that praise, we're going to have one who will stand up and begin to pray. And she's going to begin by praying for the next pastor of this church. And I want you to listen as they pray. And if you find yourself in agreement with them, if they say something that sort of rings true for you, I want you to whisper, please don't shout because you're Presbyterians. Okay? I understand that. I'm not into shouting much either. I would like to ask you to do what the Bible tells you to do. And that is just whisper a little on end, which all that means is, Lord, I agree with that. I think that's true. I'm with that for you young people, word, and all that. Okay? Ed Norton had that translated. Did you translate for it? You're at the older group, Ed. Okay? But do you understand what I'm asking to do? This is a very serious time now for this church to begin to think and to begin to practice symbolically here. We're sort of kicking it off that we're going to start honoring God for what he's done in this church and thank him for it. And we're going to turn to him for the next leader of this church who will take us into the next phase. And so as we begin to pray, I'm going to ask you to take it very seriously. We have a moment of silence. So if you have some serious sin in your life, please at least tell the Lord you'll try harder. Okay? Don't say too much. Just at least I'll try harder. And that I'm going to lead us in prayer. We're going to go to the two people who are going to praise God for what God has done for them in this church. And then we're going to go straight into the petition for the next pastor in the future of this church. Then I'll close the prayer as well. So let's have a few moments of silence, please. Lord Jesus, how we adore you. You are the head of the church. You make the church all that it is. And like David built the temple in his day, you are building this temple. Here at Independent Presbyterian Church. And we come to you now as humble people seeking, seeking to honor you and to pour our hearts out because of what you have done in this church. And what we hope one day you will do. Please hear our prayers now as we bring our praise and our requests to you. Amen. Holy Father, thank you for making prayer of blessing and not a duty. We don't have the words of the psalmist to honor and glorify you, but we do have hearts that say, Amen. A thousand tongues, Lord, are inadequate to properly praise and glorify you. We're so thankful for this church which provides such fertile ground for us to grow in our sanctification. I remember John Sartel and his faithful expository preaching and sound advice that he gave me in a very difficult spiritual situation. We're thankful, Father, for Brian Hanson, who has influenced and is influencing our lives in so many positive, beautiful and wonderful ways. All of our ministers are instrumental in making our spiritual lives more significant. Here are our prayers, Father, regarding our new pastor. Give us eyes, Lord, to see your invisible hand at work in all that we say are due. Send us a Moses, Lord, that will lead this church to heights beyond anything that we might even think or imagine. We pray in the name of the one who became poor in order that we might become rich. Amen. Father, God, I come into your presence with thanksgiving and into your courts with praise for you are the great and awesome king and come before you in the name of Jesus. Father, you are the holy God and if you had not done anything for me, I would still praise you before because you are worthy of praise, but Father, you are also a loving Father, kind and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and you have blessed me in so many ways. You brought me to this church. I remember the first time I came to this church, Father, in 1984, for the Presbyterian Conference Own Reform Theology, for a conference with R.C. Sproul and Chuck Coulson and as you were teaching me about the importance of your scripture, about the reform faith, you started teaching me through this church at that time. Father, you, when I got out of college, you brought me back to this church, Father, 20 years ago. Father, I can remember sitting in this fellowship hall one night during a college and career and I remember what John Sartail preached on just like it was yesterday. As he taught on Caleb and the title of his sermon was a long obedience in the same direction. As he
taught out of your holy scriptures, he taught about day in and day out, following you living before your face in the mundane day in and day out, events of our lives, fearing you as Caleb did. Father, I remember that and how you've taught me through the years and as you have blessed me with a wife and with children you have used men like Wayne Herring and Durant Fleming and Ed Norton as they have baptized my children, as they have led them later on in their lives if they stood before this church and professed the faith of their parents as those men have mentored them in growing in a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Father, I've been at this church almost half of my life, Father, and I thank you for how you've used the ministers in this church, the ruling and teaching elders, the deacons, the Sunday school teachers, the membership of this church to strengthen me, Father, and there are many events that I remember, many sermons, by the most importantly you've taught me the importance of your Scripture and as the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth so that produces fruit, so is your word that comes forth from the mouths of the men and women that preach your word. It does not return to you empty, Father, it produces fruit in our lives and I thank you for the strong teaching of the word that it would continue in the future as it has in the past. Let us remember that, Father, as we were taught tonight, let us not forget from where we came. We pray this in Christ's name.
Father, how we do praise you. That IPC is your idea. We thank you for your faithfulness to raise her up in this place at 4738 Wallnut Grove. We thank you for your faithfulness throughout the generations to provide just what is needed to make a faithful witness here at this place. We thank you for how you have used the men and the women from the past ages and how you continue to use them. But Father, as Richard was teaching tonight, I remembered how faithful you were to the Israelites in the temple, how your glory was there in the temple, and how it was visible. And Lord, I think of how the Israelites got so busy in what they did in their programs. They knew what they were to do. They were very competent. And Lord, when your glory left the temple, they didn't even know it. And Father, how easily that can happen here, how we can continue in our programs, how we can continue to live our Christian lives without the Holy Spirit. It's very easy. And so Lord, we bow before you. And we asked that you would not, your glory would not leave this place. We asked because we are your people that you would continue here to be the head of our church. We asked that you would not leave us to ourselves. For Father, we are a needy people. You tell us that we are wayward sheep. And yes, Lord, we are. We go about our own ways. But Lord, we ask that you would have mercy on us. And for the sake of your son's name, we ask that you would guide us at this time. Father, there is a man out there that you already know that we need. You know how to grow your people. We don't know. And Father, I think of the committee that's going to be formed to go look for a shepherd for this place. Lord, they are human. They don't know the hearts. They don't know what kind of man needs to come here to lead us. But you know, you know our hearts. You know how we need to grow. And so Lord, we ask that you would guide us. We ask that you would provide the people to be on the committee. And we ask that the committee would be a committee that looks to you and you alone. Father, there are many things that contempt us and lead us. There are many programs that look tempting that this might be the thing we need. Or there are many men that look like they might be the ones that we need. But Father, as I think of how you chose David to shepherd Israel, Lord, it's not always what we think and what looks like what we need. David was not the man that looked like he would reroller over Israel. But you saw his heart and you knew he was the ruler. And so Father, we need your leading. And Lord, we praise you that you love this church. She is your son's bride. And you have set your son at your right hand and you are resulting him in how better Lord to exalt him than through his bride. Father, how his bride needs to be a bride that honors him with her whole heart, a bride that loves him single-mindedly, a bride that follows him and him alone. Oh, Father, only you know how to grow this. And so we ask that you would be our leader, that you would be our God, that we would follow you. Father, thank you for your promises, that if we ask, we will be given. If we seek, we will find if we knock the door will be open unto us. Oh, Father, make us a people that ask. And when you don't ask, answer, make us a people that seek. And then Father, when you take us to the door, make us a people that knock at your door into you open. Almighty God, only you can do this. We cannot. Father, only you can make us a people who are truly yours. And we ask that you would do that for the sake of your son's name, so that we will truly be a salt and a light in this place, a people that honor Jesus Christ. And we ask it for his honor and his glory and in his blessed name. Amen. How we bless you, Lord Jesus. We adore you, we worship you. And we do come to you at this moment, committing ourselves to being people whose hearts are full of thanks for what you have done here and gratitude and recognition that it's by your hand. But also, Lord, we commit ourselves to you now, to the task of praying for the future of this church, knowing that even it is in your hands. Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening. See you next week.