The Perfect Pattern for Ministry (Mark 1:35-45) with Pastor Ryan Connellan

Well, please take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of the Gospel of Mark, Gospel according to Mark, chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

And our text this evening will be verses 35 down to the end of the chapter, verse 45.

Mark chapter 1, 35 to 45.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

And Sim, and those who were with him, searched for him.

And when they found him, they said to him, Everyone is looking for you.

But he said to them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.

And as he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and casting out demons.

Now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, I am willing.

Be cleansed.

As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.

And he strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go your way.

Show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded as a testimony to them.

However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely and spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places, and they came to him from every direction.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you this evening, and we do indeed thank you that you are our hope in life and in death.

And Lord, we need those truths to sink into our hearts and minds more today than ever before.

We thank you as we open this passage.

We see Jesus as the perfect pattern, the perfect example of one who gives his life for the sheep, both in life and of course one day in death.

And so, Lord, we pray that you would just minister to our hearts in Jesus' name.

Amen.

There have been an immense amount of books written over the years, but particularly in recent years, about church ministry and how ministry should be done.

And you can find books on a range of topics addressed to pastors and churches and how things should be done and what priorities should take place and how things should be structured and what programs you should have and how discipleship should look and church structures and all sorts of things.

And some of them are very helpful.

A lot of them are not so helpful.

The ones that are not so helpful usually draw upon secular ideologies and philosophies and psychology and sociology and all of these things, trying to help the church to really understand how best to minister in the culture and society that they live in.

And certainly pastors have been drawn into all different kinds of philosophies of ministry, drawing from all of these things, which often leads the church astray and leads it into some form of either apathy, apostasy, or an unbiblical philosophy of ministry.

Well, here in this passage, as I was reading it and studying it this week, I saw, of course, the perfect example, the perfect pattern, if you would, for ministry.

The perfect example of what a gospel minister, you could say a pastor, but really anybody who's involved in gospel work should follow in terms of how we ought to think of and prioritize and approach the various tasks that God has given us to face.

The Lord Jesus, and we don't need to look any further than the Lord Jesus as the perfect example of everything, but certainly the perfect example of gospel ministry.

Now, in some ways, this message is kind of a message to myself and those who also are in full-time, or you would say, vocational ministry.

Perhaps it may be specifically relevant to those who are pursuing or thinking about pursuing a life of gospel ministry, but there is so much that here is that relevant for us as a church as well, as we need to have our minds and hearts sharpened and shaped by the Lord Jesus Christ and how we are to approach this task.

And as we see how the Lord Jesus conducts himself, we are given a glimpse into his private, into his public, and into his personal life and ministry.

And what we're going to see is that his personal, sorry, his private life was a life that was empowered by prayer.

A life that was empowered by prayer.

His public ministry is marked by preaching.

And his personal ministry is characterized by pity, or the New King James translates the word compassion.

And I'd have to say that this was a very challenging and convicting message for myself, because as I said earlier, this is a pattern, I think, that all those who are in or all those who are pursuing a life of gospel work should seek to pattern their life after.

The Lord Jesus provides for us a pattern of effective ministry.

And we should be looking to him and him alone as that example.

It's so easy for us, and I put myself in this basket, to look online and even social media for examples on how we ought to do things and how we ought to think about life and ministry in the church.

And they're often very tempting and alluring, sometimes frustrating and discouraging.

But let's just look at our Lord.

See how he lived his life.

See how he gave his life for his sheep, both in his life, but also, of course, in his death.

And let's pattern, seek to pattern our lives after him.

The first thing you'll notice is that the life of the Lord Jesus, or the ministry of the Lord Jesus, his private life, was one that was fueled by prayer.

Now he's coming off of a very, very busy time of ministry.

He has spent his basically last waking hours of the day previous healing and ministering all kinds of people on a day that was supposed to be a day of rest, a Sabbath rest.

But of course, he is demonstrating that those works of mercy and works of necessity are allowed, of course, on that day, and he gives himself over to forsaking that day of rest in the sake of ministry to other people and finds himself exhausted.

And yet the Bible says in verse 35 that in the morning, that next morning, he rose a long while before daylight, and he went out to a departed, departed, to a solitary place, and he prayed.

He prayed.

You know, it didn't take very long, did it, for Jesus to become very well known and sought after.

As soon as people heard that he was able and certainly willing to heal diseases and cast out demons, uh, and all of the things that he began to teach, even very early on in his ministry, would have drawn thousands and thousands of people to come and see or hear or try to get a miracle from this one who could heal all manner of diseases.

And crowds would gather to see him and to speak to him.

The pressure on him was immense.

The demands would have been overwhelming, more than any one of us could ever, ever, ever measure up to.

And yet we see here the Lord Jesus putting a priority around prayer.

Now, this isn't something that the Bible says that this is a pattern that Jesus did every single morning.

It doesn't say that every single morning he rose up and this is the way that he started his day, but we do know that in Luke chapter 15 that it says that he would often slip and go into desolate places, places of isolation, and spend time in communion with the Father.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And what you see often in the New Testament or in the Gospels is that this aspect of his ministry of rising early and spending long times in prayer often marked very significant occasions in the life of his ministry.

Of course, we know that he spent all night praying when he was selecting his twelve disciples.

I can imagine that wrestling over choosing Judas probably would have taken up a lot of time of that prayer.

We know that, of course, before he goes to the cross, the hours that he spent in the Garden of Gethsemane in agony praying over that next step in his life was demanding over him.

And so when there seems to be a significant event or a significant shift in his ministry or significant things that are coming up, he prioritizes, he puts this aspect of prayer front and center in his life.

He doesn't neglect this.

Well, we see that Jesus in his private life, first of all, we see that there's a priority that he puts into prayer.

He says it's it's early in the morning.

He rises before the sun is even up.

It's the first thing that he puts as a priority in his day before the day got busy and full of responsibilities, before the demands of his time and ministry were placed upon him, he sets this time aside on these various occasions to deliberately spend time in prayer to the Father.

And I would say that if you are considering gospel ministry, or for those of you who perhaps are facing large decisions in your life, we ought to ask ourselves: is prayer a priority?

Do I face these decisions after I've prioritized communing with God and spending time extra perhaps with Him?

Is prayer a priority for us, even as a church?

Do we recognize that we need to prioritize this in our ministry, regardless of what's going on, but especially when things, big things are going on, is it a priority that we set aside time devoted to praying?

You'll also notice the place that he went.

He didn't just simply prioritize prayer, but he also had a specific place.

It was a place of solitude.

It was a place where it was just him and the Father alone, one-on-one.

You see, this is distinctive between him and the Pharisees.

We know that the Pharisees were known for their prayer life, but their prayer lives were public and everybody knew what they were doing.

They would publicize their prayers or stand on the street corners or in the synagogues and offer in front of others these great elaborate prayers.

Jesus called them hypocrites because they wanted to pray in public, but they didn't want to pray in their closet.

They sought the approval of men through their beautiful, elaborate prayers, but did not spend any time in solitude.

Contrast to the Lord Jesus, who did not prioritize prayer in the sense that he got up and woke his disciples up or got in front of everybody and said, Now listen to me pray.

He goes and finds a place where it's just him and God alone.

What a man is in private will always come out in public, won't it?

And here we see the perfect priority that Jesus puts in prayer, finding a quiet refuge in which he communes with God.

This was not a show.

This was the Lord Jesus in genuine communion with the Father.

But then, of course, there's the purpose, and I think this is something that perhaps we often ask.

Why does Jesus pray?

He's the eternal Son of God.

Why does Jesus pray?

Well, I think it's important for us to know that he doesn't pray in the same way that we pray.

Number one, and I think Andrew mentioned this when we had our prayer meeting last week, you know, Jesus doesn't confess sin.

Uh that takes up, it ought to take up a significant amount of time for our prayer life.

He doesn't confess sin.

Nor does he need to pray for the Spirit's empowering to do things because uh he was uh uh the Spirit of God came upon him in his baptism, and as a sinless man, he was perfectly and completely filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is praying for the purpose of communing with the Father.

In his incarnation, Jesus in his humanity is dependent and submissive to the Father in all things.

He's committing to the Father the works that he is about to embark upon.

And we know that he is about to commence a very public work of preaching and teaching in Galilee.

And even though we aren't given insight into the exact prayers that he prayed, his other prayers that we are given insight into show us that he commits all of his work to serving and honoring the Father.

And so Jesus prays to commune with the Father, to fellowship with him.

Is this how we pray?

Now I know that we have to add things like confession and wisdom and all of these things that we need as mere humans, but do we pray purely for the reason of communing with God?

Of course, we could do this as we go.

The Bible says we are to pray without ceasing.

That doesn't mean that we just are always praying all the time, otherwise, nothing else would get done.

That's not what he's saying.

But do we have a posture or an attitude that is in often and regular communion with the Father?

And the thing we see about this is that Jesus is really praying.

He is really communing with the Father.

He's not just trying to show us an example, but this is a genuine priority for all of his life and ministry before his taxing an arduous day and period of public preaching and teaching, he puts this priority into communing with the Father.

Now, if Jesus, the perfect man, really does this, why do we, as very imperfect people, very imperfect people, think that we can accomplish the works and the tasks that God has called us to without prayer?

It's presumptuous on our part.

And I would say to all of us, and I'm preaching to myself and to all of us who engage in public ministry, it is presumptuous to think that we can stand in a pulpit and preach without first a good amount of prayer.

If you are considering gospel work in your life, and I know that some of you are, consider this that prayer must be a priority.

It must be a priority.

If our Lord Jesus took time to prioritize prayer, we ought to and we must as well.

As C.

H.

Spurgeon said, the best and holiest men have ever made prayer the most important part of pulpit preparation.

So I was reading this, I kind of asked myself, okay, well, where are I in this text?

Not that I ought to look for myself in this text, but you know, sometimes it's easy for us to think, yeah, yeah, I'm I want to be like I'm trying to be like Jesus and everything.

And I found myself in this text, and I found myself in verse 36, and I am not like Jesus as much as I ought to be.

I'm more like Simon.

Look at what Simon does.

Of course, this is Simon Peter.

And Simon and those who were with him were searching for him, and when they found him, they said to him, Everyone is looking for you.

This is classic Simon Peter.

I love Peter.

Peter wakes up the next morning, and Jesus is not in the house.

It's like he was here, this is where I left him, I don't know where he's gone.

And in classic Peter, as the crowds begin to gather, you can imagine around the house, as the early morning crowd begins to look for Jesus and search for Jesus, seeking him and seeking attention and seeking a miracle for him, Simon begins to panic.

Where is Jesus?

We've got to go find Jesus.

Where is he?

We've got to go find him.

He's anxious and worried that that Jesus is gone, or Jesus doesn't understand all of the important things that have to get done that day.

Jesus, where are you?

Simon is not praying, he's panicking.

He's fretting.

He's anxious about the things that need to get done, but he goes looking for Jesus.

You know, we are probably not as much like Jesus as we would like to think we are.

You know, I was, as I said, convicted even about this in preparation for the sermon this week, and I was convicted about this matter.

And I thought to myself, you know what, this week, I am gonna set aside at least one morning this week to spend extra time in prayer.

And so I set my alarm one more one evening for at least a half an hour earlier than I usually do, and I told myself that night that I am going to rise up early and pray.

Oh, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is very, very, very weak.

Because early came around much faster than I was expecting.

And that alarm went off.

And I reached over and I pushed snooze.

And as I began to try to get myself to get up early and rise early to pray, I poked a foot out of the duna cover and thought, boy, it's cold.

And my brain began to have a discussion with my body, thinking, you know what?

I could probably pray in bed.

That I can do that.

I can, I don't, I don't have to get up.

You know?

I can probably pray in bed.

I think I'll do that.

So I began to pray, and the next thing I knew, it was an hour later, and I had not prayed much at all.

Man.

Spirit's willing.

The flesh is so weak.

By God's grace, thankfully, later on in that week it was able to do that.

But how convicted is this?

I mean, how hard is this, isn't it, for us as weak people, to just spend that extra time in the morning in solitude and quietness when the house is quiet and things haven't got busy in prayer?

We are more like Simon than like Jesus in so many ways.

Jesus is prayerful.

He's concerned about his father's business and probably, no doubt, praying for his disciples as we see his heart in other passages of Scripture.

And Simon wakes up to see that Jesus isn't there, and he's panicking about all the things that need to get done.

We are more like the struggling disciples, anxious about the work that we have to do, often in a panic, thinking that Jesus is or isn't around, but we must be reminded again and again, as Hebrews 7 verse 25 reminds us, that he ever lives to make intercession for us.

Hebrews 7:25

Jesus prioritized prayer.

Second of all, what we see in Jesus' perfect pattern for ministry is that his public ministry was marked by preaching.

You'll notice there that he says there in verse 38, he says, But he says to them, this is to Simon and to the disciples, let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, because it's for this purpose that I have come forth.

And he was preaching in the synagogues throughout all Galilee and casting out demons.

Another busy day of healings and exorcisms was there awaiting Jesus outside of the house that they were staying in.

And again, when Simon says, Everyone's looking for you, he's probably not just referring to the disciples, but to all the crowds of people that wanted to see him and experience a miracle.

And remember, Jesus has just spent a long day doing all sorts of Healings and exorcisms the day before.

He is exhausted from that point.

And yes, he could have absolutely stayed and continued that aspect of his ministry, but he says we need to do something else.

We need to go into the next towns.

Why?

So that I may preach there also, because this is the purpose for which I have come forth.

This is the purpose for which I have been sent.

Now, most people think about Jesus' public ministry, of course, about all of the miraculous things that he did, and he absolutely did miraculous things.

But what you often see in the miraculous is that the whole purpose of the miracles and the signs was to either authenticate or point to his preaching.

We see this particularly, don't we, in John chapter 6, after he feeds the 5,000, and then he goes to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and the crowds come to him, wanting more food and more miracles to take place.

John 6 · chapter mention

But what does he give them instead?

He gives them a sermon.

He preaches, he teaches.

What is it that the Pharisees hated him so much for?

It wasn't the fact that he healed the lepers and cleansed the sick, uh healed the sick and even raised the dead.

It was what he said, it was what he proclaimed, it was what he taught that he was known for.

You see, there were many other towns that needed to hear the gospel of the kingdom of God.

And this was his primary message, and you can see this in Matthew and Mark and other passages as Jesus comes proclaiming that the kingdom of God is now at hand.

And all of those things that uh relate to that.

It was Jesus' preaching and teaching ministry that proclaimed that salvation has come into the world.

And even though the miracles authenticated the message, what we see repeatedly, it is that the message that he preached, it was what he said, it was the words that came out of his mouth that either softened the hearts of sinners or hardened them.

You see, Jesus is here saying that my primary purpose, the purpose that I have come forth, is to declare, to fulfill my prophetic ministry of declaring that the kingdom of God is here and that salvation is through me.

And so what we see here is that in his private life, prayer was this priority.

In his public ministry, preaching was his priority.

It marked him.

Dare I say it that preaching is the primary means, as we know, through which sinners hear and receive the gospel.

Therefore, all faithful ministry and all faithful ministers ought to be marked and known for their biblical preaching.

Preaching is not a side element.

Preaching and teaching is not just one of the things that we do.

It is one of the primary means of grace that God has given by which sinners are drawn to himself, that the saints are edified, and that his kingdom is grown.

And what we see is the apostles continue this in the way of the New Testament, don't we?

What was the first thing that they did once they were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost?

They preached, they declared, they proclaimed.

The apostles went into all the world preaching and proclaiming the gospel, and that is what they were known for.

Paul tells Timothy in chapter Timothy 4, verse 2, he says, Timothy, do what?

Preach the word.

This ought to be the mark of your ministry.

This ought to be what you are known for.

And sadly, throughout history and even today, churches have tried to substitute all kinds of things, thinking they need to replace or diminish the preaching of the word and the teaching of the word.

And this can be seen in various ceremonies or stage productions or dramas or sermons that get reduced down to some sort of a TED talk or motivational speech or seminar.

The church should be known for its preaching, its message, its teaching.

It needs to be front and center in the public ministry.

If you desire to be a gospel minister, a herald of the kingdom, do not neglect your preaching and teaching.

Now, unlike Jesus, of course, who needed no training, no practice, or any help with his sermons, he didn't need any commentaries to aid him, didn't need any systematic theologies to help him and shape him and mold him.

We do.

We must work and grow and train in this manner if God has called us and gifted us to do so.

It ought to be the mark of our public ministry.

And again, if Jesus' ministry is marked by preaching and teaching, and if there is such an emphasis in this in the New Testament, then as the people of God, as the Church of the Living God, do not neglect this means of grace in your life.

I encourage you to sit under faithful preaching and teaching.

Expose yourself to the ones that God has gifted and called to serve you in this manner.

No, you didn't get Jesus as your pastor.

None of us have, and none of us ever will.

And they never will preach the world's perfect sermon.

None of us ever have or ever will.

But it is how you, as a people of God, are fed by Christ as He is brought to you by those who He has gifted and given to the church for your edification.

Do not neglect the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.

Thirdly, we see that Jesus is a perfect pattern for ministry because his personal ministry or his personal life was characterized by pity.

I'm using the word pity, obviously, because it fits my uh fits my um uh what is this?

An outline.

That's what it is.

See, I need to work on my preaching.

Uh fits my outline, but it is the way that the ESV translated the word compassion, okay?

So I'm not uh alone in that.

You notice there in verse 40 that a leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling to him, saying, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

And then Jesus, who was moved with compassion, that's that word pity, stretched out his hand and he touched him, and he said to him, I am willing, be cleansed.

And as soon he had spoken, the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

And he strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, See that you see you say nothing to anyone, but go your way and show yourself to the priest and offer your cleansing, uh, for your cleansing, those things which Moses commanded to testify as a testimony uh to them.

However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places, and they came to him from every direction.

Jesus' personal ministry, and when I say personal, I'm not trying to separate this from his public ministry, because his public preaching and teaching was also characterized by compassion as well.

He doesn't separate compassion in that sense.

So preaching is not separated by this, but this is his one-on-one personal ministry that he has with individuals.

And you see there that it is characterized by pity.

Now, of course, the Lord Jesus was not someone who was just merely a showman in the ministry.

He wasn't just simply interested in a public platform where you'd preach these dynamic sermons and then you'd never see him ever again, and he'd just wander off into the distance and go from town to town preaching all of these uh uh these sermons, but nobody could ever talk to him or come to him or anything, and that he was surrounded by bodyguards who would not allow anybody into his presence.

No.

Here what we see is that a man comes to him for healing, but it's not just any man.

The Bible says that he is a leper.

If we have any understanding of this disease, and particularly the way that it is portrayed in the scriptures and in the Old Testament, we know that leprosy, a highly contagious skin disease, which was a uh basically a death sentence in waiting for anybody who contracted it because there was no cure for it, and even today there's very few treatments for it.

It meant that this man was living in complete and utter isolation.

He would have been cast out from society.

He certainly would have been cast out from being anywhere near the temple, which is where the old covenant people would come to be the closest that they could possibly be to God.

He was rejected from his friends and from his family.

And of course, all of this was to try to maintain and make sure that the diseases did not spread throughout the community, but of course, these people were completely isolated and hated and looked down upon by others as unclean.

There's no way that this man could ever have come anywhere near anybody else, let alone the Lord Jesus.

His physical condition meant that he could never experience all of the elements of worship and fellowship at that time.

He couldn't have joined with his brothers and sisters in the various feasts that would have taken place throughout the Jewish calendar.

He couldn't have celebrated Passover, he couldn't have enjoyed any of these things, no time with friends or family.

But the Bible says that he comes to Jesus and he implores him and he kneels down before him and he offers a prayer.

And I love it.

He says, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

I love that.

The leper knows that Jesus is able to make him clean.

He knows that Jesus has the power to make him clean.

He knows Jesus has has the ability to make him clean.

With just one sentence, one word, that leprosy could have been cleared.

But he offers his humility, his humble prayer.

He knows Jesus is able, he just doesn't know if Jesus is willing.

Will you save me, Jesus?

I know it's in your power to do so.

I have no other hope other than you.

I have nothing to bring, I have nothing to do, I have nothing in my hand.

I all I have is you.

He knows Jesus is, he knows who he knows who Jesus is, he also knows who he is, he knows that he is completely hopeless and helpless.

He knows his condition is incurable and that his only hope is found in this man before him.

He knows Jesus is able, but is he willing?

And the next phrase in verse 41 reveals the heart behind everything that Jesus does and all that he is.

Now I love this.

Notice it doesn't say that he felt compassion or felt pity.

He didn't just have a fuzzy feeling and a warm spot in his heart for this man.

He didn't just feel, but rather he was moved.

He moved.

He went to this man.

And it doesn't say that he was moved with frustration, annoyance, nor out of obligation or guilt, but that he was moved with compassion.

Love.

A pity which goes beyond mere sympathy and certainly is not just empathy.

He doesn't join the man in his leprosy to see how he felt.

Have you ever wondered this?

Why does Jesus have compassion toward anyone?

Why does Jesus move with compassion?

Now you say, well, this man is a sufferer.

I mean, shouldn't we all have compassion upon those who are suffering?

But we very rarely even do that.

But think about the Lord Jesus.

Yes, this man is suffering because of a disease that was in probably in no ways a result of perhaps a sin or anything that he's committed.

He's suffering because of a the fallen world that he lives in.

But why is the world fallen in the first place?

Why is there disease?

Because of sin.

Because of Adam's sin.

Because of Adam's cosmic treason against Jesus himself.

That's why we live in the world that we live in.

And compassion and love are not the words that we would use or associate with someone who has been the recipient of cosmic treason.

And yet Jesus is moved with compassion.

It is the love of the Father and the love of the Son, which is behind all of his creating and saving works.

This man is not owed compassion.

Just like you and I are not owed the love of God.

But Christ moves towards us because he loves us.

And this is evident in the instruction that he gives to the man.

He says this, I am willing.

Can you imagine hearing those words as a leper?

You're willing?

You will do this.

And he is able to save all those who come to him to the uttermost.

This is the Jesus that we are preaching to you.

This is the Jesus that we ought to hold, uphold to all in the world, that he is the one who is the savior of sinners, that he is willing and able to save all that come to him.

And we see that this is done completely out of love for the man.

Because the instruction that he gives to this man is don't go and broadcast this to everybody.

He doesn't say, hey, before I do this, can somebody get a camera out and film this so I can put this on TikTok?

When I do this, can you go tell everybody how awesome I am?

He does this for this man because he loves him.

This is the nature, this is the love and the compassion that is towards this leper, reveals the character and the nature of our Savior.

He indeed is the one that Exodus chapter 34, verse 6 reveals to us that the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth.

Exodus 34:6

And so Jesus' whole ministry, be it his public ministry of preaching, his personal ministry of healing and ministering to those one-on-one who desperately needed his help and his salvation, was all moved, characterized by a genuine love for those whom he had been called to serve and to save.

That the motivation is not a platform, it's not a position, it's not a paycheck.

It's the people that God has called us to serve and to save.

Excuse me.

Now, Jesus, of course, is the perfect model for ministry.

And for every honest gospel minister, there is this humbling reality that we can and never will live up to the example of Christ.

We will never pray as well as Christ prayed.

We will never preach as well as Christ preached.

And we will never have a perfect love for sinners as Christ has for sinners.

All of us fall completely and totally short of what we know we ought to be in Christ.

But take comfort in this, and I take comfort in this.

That as much as I fail in this area and am not what I ought to be, that Christ is still praying for us.

That Christ, through the preaching of the Word of God, is actually the one who is going forth and doing the work that only He can actually do.

And He's doing it through sermons that are excellently preached and sermons that are not so greatly preached.

He's doing it through the most gifted of preachers, and He's doing it through the most simplest of preachers.

Christ is fulfilling his ministry.

And despite the fact that we and no human being will ever love the way that Christ loves, that when you feel and know and experience the love of God, it is that tender compassion of the Savior who heals your broken heart and who brings you a sinner and brings you into his kingdom and saves you and redeems you and washes you and makes you clean.

And so all those pastors, preachers, aspiring ministers, look to Jesus as your example.

Look to Christ as your example.

And know that even when we fall so far short, that ultimately it's Christ's ministry, it's Christ's work, and he will accomplish it perfectly, regardless of the failing, f uh fallen, and broken vessels that he chooses to use.

And any and all success, if you would call it that, is because Christ is ultimately truly the one and only who is working in and through you.

Look to Jesus, brothers and sisters, the one who prays, the one who proclaims that the kingdom of God is here, and the one who, with the most compassion and pity and tender love of all, brings and welcomes all who come to him in repentance and faith, and he is able and willing to save all that come to him.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

Lord, you are far greater than we could ever deserve.

Lord, the fact that you use people like Simon Peter and Paul and John and James and Lord, every single gospel minister throughout church history who is deeply flawed in so many ways testifies to the reality that, Lord, ultimately any growth, success, and advancement of the church is all because of you.

For Lord, none of us have the ability, the power, the holiness to accomplish one iota of success in the work of gospel advancement.

I thank you, Lord, that you're a compassionate high priest.

Lord, one who is willing and able to save sinners.

And I pray here this morning, sorry, this evening, that if there is someone here today, a spiritual leper, one who is aware that they are far from you, that they are infected and affected by sin in every aspect of their life, Lord, may they see in you a Savior who is so willing to save.

May they come to you as that leopard did, humble themselves, and pray and seek your face.

And I pray for everyone who is perhaps considering gospel ministry, that they too would order their ministry around the example of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Give us a church that prioritizes prayer, that is marked by preaching, but is known as a church full of compassion.

For you and you alone have done this for us and will continue to do this through us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.