Promises to The Orchard | 1 Peter 5:1-4

My goodness, man.

I didn't think I would ever actually get to meet you people.

It is exciting for the Hell family today.

This is a big day in our life.

I know it's a big day in the life of your church family.

And so I just want to take just a second just to say thank you for allowing us to be here.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share God's word and share some of what God's done in our heart with you.

We don't take this lightly, but this is an incredible privilege just to be with you here this morning.

But I'm going to do what I know to do, and that is we're going to open God's Word together.

So if you have your copy of God's Word, turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

It's toward the end of your Bible.

And if you would, would you stand with me as we read God's Word together?

I know you just had a seat.

I apologize.

1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

We'll just read the first four verses together.

God's Word says, So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you.

Not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Let me pray for you.

Heavenly Father, Lord, this morning, the Orchard Church does not need me to impress them.

They need me to love them.

And Father, even more than that, Lord, they need me to share with them your love for them.

And so, Father, today is not about Cody Hell.

It is not about a lead pastor candidate.

Today is about Jesus.

It is about his kingdom.

It is about your glory.

And so, Father, I pray that every single thing that you would have me to say, I would remember to say.

Everything that you would not have me to say, I would forget to say.

If there is something that is unplanned that you have to say, that oh Lord, that you would say it and you would say it boldly.

I pray, Father, that you would speak to the hearts of the people this morning, that you would give me the courage of a prophet and the heart of a priest, and that, Lord, this morning we would leave in awe of what Jesus has done for us.

We ask these things now in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

You know, I imagine that the question that you all have this morning is can I trust this guy?

Can I trust this guy?

And honestly, that's a fair question.

And it's a tough question.

And it's tough because we don't really know one another yet.

You don't know if what I'm telling you is always going to be the truth.

You don't know that I have your best interests at heart.

You don't know if I'm more concerned with impressing you than with loving you.

Trust is risky, isn't it?

That's why it's so hard for us.

That over the course of our lives we come into relationships where we end up being deceived, where we're lied to, where someone wounds us.

We trusted them and they violated that trust, and that brought harm to us.

And so trust is difficult.

Yet trust is also the currency of leadership.

We don't listen to people that we don't trust.

And we don't lead, we don't follow people's lead that we don't trust.

So this morning, I don't presume that you trust me just because I'm standing on the stage.

In fact, you shouldn't trust people just because they stand on a stage in front of you.

But what I want to do is I want to start the process this morning of earning your trust.

I recognize that that may take time.

It may take a lot of time.

But I'm committed to come in and to be a part of that process.

So to start that, what I want to do is I want to share with you four promises, four promises that I'm going to make, four commitments that I'm going to make to the orchard on day one.

Promises that I want you to hold me accountable to, promises that you ought to be able to count on, promises that we're going to need your grace.

We're not going to get it right every time.

But I at least want you to know the framework from where I'm coming.

These are promises that I think come from 1 Peter 5.

The exhortation that Peter's giving here to the elders of Asia Minor, I think these are really implicit and embedded within what he's saying.

You'll notice that our text in verse 1 starts with the word so.

Starts with the word so.

Do you see it there?

And it's telling us that he's really building on what he's already said.

He's making a culminating point, right?

So he has in mind the context of what he's just said to be able to explain to us what he means now.

And what Peter has just said is he's just said that there's going to be a judgment that's going to come upon the earth.

But before the judgment comes upon the earth, there's going to be suffering by the righteous, suffering by the church, trauma induced upon the people of God.

And he's bringing into our minds a prophecy from the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 9.

Ezekiel 9 · chapter mention

That in Ezekiel chapter 9, the prophet Ezekiel talks about a time in which there's going to be a judgment that comes against the temple of Israel.

Ezekiel 9 · chapter mention

But before the judgment comes against the temple temple of Israel, the Lord is going to line up in front of the temple all of the shepherds and leaders of Israel.

And before the judgment comes upon the temple to purify the temple, the judgment is going to come upon the shepherds.

And so, when he uses the word so, Peter has a couple things in mind, I think.

I think first, what he's warning them to see is they prepare to suffer as the church in Rome under incredible persecution, that he needs, they need to recognize that it will be the elders that will stand up and be counted for Christ first.

It'll be the elders who will first experience the pain and the agony of following after Jesus.

They're going to come after the leaders first.

But I think the second thing that he's getting at is that the elders will be judged with a greater strictness.

They will be judged with a greater judgment.

And so, embedded in Peter's exhortation here is the expectation that the elders ought to make sure that they are trustworthy.

That they better be prepared to give an account before the resurrected Lord in all of his glory for the way they have shepherded and cared for his flock.

So it's from these descriptions and these exhortations that I want to make these four promises to you this morning.

The first promise that I want to make to you is that we'll lead by grace and not by guilt.

We'll lead by grace and not by guilt.

Each of these promises starts with the word we.

Leadership is never an I, leadership is always a we.

And that's here in our text.

You'll notice here that Peter calls himself a fellow elder.

In other words, Peter the apostle is bringing himself on the level of the elders, and he's saying, I'm part of a we here.

You'll also notice that he says, so I exhort the elders.

It's multiple, it's plural.

If you go through the whole New Testament, almost exclusively the word elder is used in the plural.

That there is an expectation to be among the shepherds of the church, that there's going to be a plurality of leaders that are there among them.

I don't have all of the wisdom, experiences, and expertise that are necessary to lead the orchard well.

That may be a disappointment to you.

I am not omnicompetent.

I do not have every spiritual gift.

I do not have every life experience.

I have not read every leadership book.

If you're looking for the perfect pastor this morning, you need to vote no because I am not the guy.

I am not the guy.

And that's why the Lord, in his sovereign wisdom, in his gracious kindness, has placed over his church a plurality of leaders, a plurality of expertise, a plurality of wisdom, a plurality of life experiences.

So one of the commitments that I want to make right out of the gate with you is that it's never, it's always going to be a we and it's never going to be a me.

It's always going to be a we and it's never going to be a me.

And I want you to hold me accountable to that.

If you hear me using the pronouns I and me, I want you to come talk to me about it and figure out where that's coming from.

When I was a teenager, I think probably as a lot of teenagers are apt to do, I tended to get in a lot of trouble primarily because of my mouth.

Right?

Y'all can identify, I see.

You know, James talks about the tongue being like a fire that goes and lights all the forests on fire, and I was lighting a lot of fires.

You know what I mean?

The interesting thing is that usually it wasn't what I said, it was the way that I said it.

You've heard this from your mom, right?

That you can say all of the right things, but when you say them in the wrong way, it takes the right all the way away from it, right?

This is really in Peter's mind as he's talking about the elders.

That Peter's concern here is not so much with what the elders do.

Of course it matters what they do, but he's somewhat presuming that they're going to be doing the right things.

So Peter's concern is not so much what the elders are doing, but why and how they're doing it.

The trustworthiness of an elder is determined by his motive and by his attitude.

That Peter recognizes that a person who does the right thing from the wrong motive, they'll eventually turn on you.

A person who does the right thing with the wrong attitude, they'll usually quit on you.

Trustworthiness is the result of the right actions flowing from the right reasons and done in the right way.

Now, what's the right way?

Well, I think this is what he's getting at when he says, not under compulsion, but willingly.

The right way is the new covenant way.

See, the old covenant was compulsory, right?

The old covenant was the law that by your moral fortitude, by your internal compass, you had to muster up the right strength to be able to make sure that you upheld all of the law, and you might do that begrudgingly, and the law ultimately served as a condemnation of you, right?

But the new covenant, the miracle of the new covenant, is that you have been so radically transformed in heart and so radically transformed in nature that now it's not I have to, it's now I want to.

I do all of the things that God would have me to do, not because I have to, because I want to do those things.

I become the person that God would have me to be, not because I have to become that person, because I want to be that person, that the Lord has changed the inclinations of my heart, he's changed the desires of my heart.

So no longer is it compulsory, now it's gratuitous, now it is being driven by grace.

That the difference between the old and the new covenants is the difference between I have to and I get to.

It's the difference between duty and delight, it's the difference between grace and law.

And so here is Peter, and he's saying, this is the shape of a New Testament elder's ministry.

This is what a ministry of a new shape of the testament.

Whoa.

It's like a ride at Disney World, man.

It's alright.

But here is here's Peter, and he's saying, let that this new covenant reshapes the shape of a new covenant ministry so that the ministry of the elder embodies the grace of the new covenant.

That we remember that our gospel, at the center of our gospel, is a savior who served willingly and not reluctantly.

Andrew read Philippians chapter 2, and you can see it right there.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Willingly, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, right?

Willingly he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

That these things weren't reluctant.

He wasn't compelled, he was he was willing, he laid down his life in an act of obedience to his father's will because he wanted to do that.

Not my will, but your will be done.

That's the heartbeat of Christ.

So, what does this look like, this promise, in real life?

What does it mean to be led by grace and not by guilt?

It doesn't mean that we'll never have any hard conversations.

It means that we won't be harsh when we do.

It doesn't mean that we'll never call you to radical generosity or to lay down your life.

It means that we'll never shame you into doing it.

It doesn't mean that we won't call you to live uncomfortably or to serve sacrificially.

It means that we won't manipulate you into doing it.

That we will lead by grace and not by guilt because grace sustains faithfulness in a way that guilt never can.

The first promise that I want to make to the Orchard Church is that we'll lead by grace and not by guilt.

The second promise that I want to make to you is that we will see you as family and not as statistics.

And I'm gonna haunt myself for writing the word statistics in my sermon.

I have trouble pronouncing it.

There was a trial in the 70s of a man by the name of Adolf Eichmann.

Um, some of you might remember this.

Adolf Eichmann was really kind of one of the last of the Nazi leaders to be tried.

He had escaped down to South America for some years, and so they brought him back to Jerusalem to be tried for war crimes.

And the defense that Eichmann made was that he was essentially just following orders and that he was really afraid for his own life.

And so there was uh the defense that was made was based on the banality of evil, right?

That ordinary people are capable of extraordinary evil when they are under external pressure, and very often they will cave with very little introspection of their own conscience.

At the same time, kind of diving deeper into that, there was a psychologist by the name of Stanley Milgram who began to run a series of tests to see how entire cultures and entire countries and communities could potentially begin to be a part of such cruelty.

And what Milgram discovered is that you could take someone who was an otherwise good neighbor, a person that we would call a good person.

You could take somebody that was a good mom and a good dad, a grandmom, a granddad, the kind of person that would help you change a flat tire, the kind of person that would bring you food when you had a death in the family, you could take that kind of person.

And if you manage to be able to dehumanize and objectify a group of people, that person, no matter what else they were capable of, whatever good works they were capable of in their life, that person would become capable of unconscionable cruelty.

It's kind of what the famous Stalin quote gets to, right?

One death is a tragedy.

One million deaths is a statistic.

You see, turning people into statistics dehumanizes them.

It diminishes the dignity of the image of Almighty God that has been impressed upon each individual person.

That when you turn people into statistics, essentially you delete their story.

You delete their context, you eliminate from them all that has made them them and all of the experiences that come culminated in their lives.

Yet it is unfortunately too common for churches to reduce the people of God to a balance sheet where it's about whether attendance is up or whether attendance is down, whether offerings are up or offerings are down, and turn them into an abstraction that is actually an objectification.

And so when Peter is here and he's saying that our ministry must not be for shameful gain, but it must be eagerly.

I think we can understand that it is when we approach our ministry in an attempt to expand our platform or to increase our affluence or to be able to advance our agenda, that what we are in effect doing is we are dehumanizing the flock of God.

We are dehumanizing them and turning them into numbers so that they can ultimately accumulate for our own good.

And so here is Peter, and he's pushing back and he's saying, no, no, no, no.

That is not at all the ministry of Jesus.

Think about Jesus.

Jesus never treated anyone as a statistic, did he?

In fact, Jesus doesn't seem particularly interested in crowds altogether, does he?

Every time Jesus seems to get to the crowd, he ends up driving them away one way or the other.

Now, Jesus is the shepherd that leaves the 99 in pursuit of the one.

Jesus is the one when the crowd is coming and they're thronging upon him and they're pressing into him, and there's a woman, a woman who is a social outcast, a woman who nobody else on earth would want to be touched by.

She reaches up and she grabs the hem of his garment.

Jesus freezes, he dismisses the crowd, and he looks now so that he can minister to her personally.

That Jesus has a ministry that's clearly not for shameful gain, but has the kind of eagerness that a father has when he's caring for his son, and he does this for every single person that we see him interact with.

He cares for them through his ministry.

And so Peter is probably remembering that he experienced that himself personally.

You remember Peter's famous denial, don't you?

There's his best friend hanging on a cross, the man that has invested his life in him for the last three years.

And there on the Christ, on the cross, Peter denies that he even knows the man or that he's ever been around the man.

Of course, Jesus, after he's resurrected, just as he said he would be, approaches Peter, doesn't he?

And he approaches Peter for the purpose of being able to show him grace.

He approaches Peter very personally, doesn't he?

And three times he asks Peter, Peter, do you love me?

Do you love me?

Do you love me?

And three different times Peter says, Lord, you know that I love you.

Lord, I will die.

I love you.

And how does Jesus end each of those encounters?

Three different times he says, Feed my sh my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.

This is John 21.

That in that moment in which Jesus is restoring Peter personally, he is teaching him about the nature of what it means to be a shepherd of the flock.

And it was a lesson that Peter never lost.

So Jesus teaches Peter what it means to be a shepherd.

And now here's Peter teaching the elders of Asia Minor and all of us.

And what is the lesson?

The lesson is that the people of God are not a means to an end.

The people of God are not for the expansion of your platform.

The people of God are not for the advancement of your agenda.

The people of God are your siblings, not stepping stones.

The bridge is love.

Deep, abiding, humanizing love.

That's the distinction between Jesus and the Pharisees, isn't it?

So you see, brothers and sisters, when we talk about leadership in the kingdom and leadership in the church, we're not talking about platform building.

That has no place.

We're not talking about a stage for one's own advancement and one's own ambitions.

What we're talking about is laying down our lives for the good of the church.

That Jesus teaches us that leadership is a stewardship.

And that stewardship is for the purpose of being able to be leveraged and invested for the good of the flock and the glory of God.

You know, I'm not going to make every decision right.

Our elders, we are not going to make every decision right.

We're not always even going to make the best decision.

That's not what this promise is.

This promise is that you can rest knowing that even if we make the wrong decision, even if we don't make the best decision, every decision that is being made is being made with the intention to do what is ultimately best for you.

That here at the Orchard Church, you're never going to be a stat line.

You're never going to be a balance sheet.

You're going to be our family.

That's the second promise.

The third promise that I want you to see this morning, that I want to make to you, is that we'll shepherd you and not push you.

We'll shepherd you and not push you.

He says at the end of verse 3, or at the beginning of verse 3, he says, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

That Peter is reminding us that there are really two different ways that you can lead.

That you can stand behind the flock and you can yell at the flock and essentially try to spook them in the right direction.

And essentially what you're gonna have is a trembling, scared flock who's ultimately scattering everywhere all of the time.

The other way that you can lead the flock is to stand in front of the flock, to guide them, to walk the path that you're calling them to walk, and to walk that path right in front of them.

Of them so that they can go with you.

And what's interesting about that is when you stand behind them and yell, you're driving them away from you.

When you stand in front of them and lead them, you're bringing them with you.

So it's the second way that is the leadership of Jesus, isn't it?

This is how we see Jesus leading time and again.

In fact, I think that Peter is probably recalling another leadership lesson that he learned from Jesus back in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Do you remember Mark chapter 10?

Mark 10 · chapter mention

This is when the sons of Zebedee, James and John, they approach Jesus.

They, Jesus, we want to be great in the kingdom.

We want to know that we're on the right hand and on the left hand.

Like when you're in all of your glory, we like all these other guys.

We just want to be a little bit extra special, right?

It reminds me of one of my kids that always says, Dad, am I your favorite, right?

And Jesus responds, like, You don't know what you're talking about, dude.

Like, you have no clue what you're asking.

And he uses a strange phrase that most of the time we run right by that I think is really pertinent here.

In Mark chapter 10, verse 42 says, And Jesus called to him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, Lord it over them.

Mark 10:42

And there are great ones, exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

You know what he says?

The kind of stuff that you're doing, the kind of kinds of ways that you're approaching greatness, the kinds of ways that you're approaching leadership, that's the way that people that don't know God respond to leadership.

That's the way that people outside of the kingdom approach leadership.

That's the way people who have not encountered grace, who have not been forgiven of their sins, who have not had their nature transformed, that's how they approach leadership.

Because in the kingdom, in the kingdom, the first shall be last, life shall come through death, losers shall be winners.

He's flipping the economy of the whole thing on its head, isn't he?

In fact, the word that's translated in Mark chapter 10, Lord it over them, is the same exact word in 1 Peter chapter 5 that is translated as domineering.

Mark 10 · chapter mention 1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

It's the same concept.

And so here is Peter, and he's like, no, this is not what the Lord has taught us.

This is not what the Lord has taught us.

That leadership in the kingdom is not a power grab.

Leadership in the kingdom is not about establishing greatness.

Leadership in the kingdom is about getting on your face, about taking up your cross, about running after Jesus.

That we remember that at the center of our faith is an incarnation.

That the living God of heaven emptied himself of his dignity as the king of the universe to come and walk and sleep on dirt.

And here, among us, in the incarnation, he embodies all of the values of the kingdom.

He embodies all of the ethics of the kingdom, he embodies all of the passions of the kingdom, he is holiness incarnate, he is righteousness incarnate, he is love incarnate, he is justice incarnate.

And here he is saying, no, no, if you're gonna shepherd in my way, if you're gonna lead my people, this, this incarnational ministry where you embody the values and the ethics of the kingdom, that's what I'm calling you to.

That's who you're to be.

In fact, by using the word example, I think he's may have in his mind John 13.

You remember that moment?

There at the Last Supper, right in the shadows of the cross.

As Jesus is about to sweat great drops of blood because of his agony.

He goes and he gets a towel and he ties it around his waist, doesn't he?

And he gets down on his knees and around all of the filthy feet of those disciples, he begins to wash all of those feet, doesn't he?

One by one.

He goes and he washes the feet of his disciples, even his own betrayer.

Do you remember the words that he says?

He says, If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have given you, here's Peter's word, an example that you should do just as I have done to you.

When it comes to my leadership philosophy and the leadership philosophy that I want you to hold me accountable to, the leadership philosophy that you should expect here at the Orchard Church, I have done my very dead level best to plagiarize Jesus' leadership philosophy.

That I think you can go to his example here in John chapter 13, and I think you can summarize Jesus' leadership philosophy in four words that it is to honor, inspire, teach, and love.

John 13 · chapter mention

Honor, inspire, teach, and love.

Think about the picture.

Here is the Son of the Living God, the one who is the ruler of all the universe, the one who will return on a white war horse in victory to bring final solution to all of the end of the world.

And he's on his knees, scraping the muck off the feet of his disciples.

Now, can you imagine what it would have been like that day?

No wonder Paul says that we ought to outdo one another in showing honor, right?

Our posture is to wrap a towel around our waist, not ascend into an ivory tower.

That's Christian leadership.

To inspire.

When you're getting your feet washed by the living God, can you imagine there being a dry eye in the room?

He's inspiring them forward.

He's showing them this is what brings people together, this is what changes the world, this is what transforms societies, this is what the kingdom is about.

He's inspiring in them a vision that paints a picture that makes them want to be a part of it.

When you hear that, doesn't it inspire you?

Man, all leadership ought to be inspirational.

All leadership ought to be inspirational.

And it's teaching.

I did this so that you would know.

Now, when we talk about teaching, we're talking about instruction.

Sometimes we're talking about correction.

It can include reproof, it can include rebuke.

But this is all part of what it means to be a part of Christian leadership.

But don't miss this.

Why did Jesus do it?

Remember Peter's concern is motive.

Why did Jesus serve as an example?

Why did Jesus wash the feet?

Why did Jesus inspire?

Why did Jesus do?

Because there's a culminating value, because he loved them, man.

Because he loved them.

That we ought to lead, we ought to lead competently, we ought to lead wisely, we ought to lead passionately, we ought to leave with vision, we ought to leave inspiration, we ought to leave all with teaching, we ought to do all these things.

But they all must be done with love for the flock.

Orchard church.

You can have the expectation of love from your elders.

That is right.

You can have the expectation of love from me.

So we'll shepherd you.

We'll stand in front of you and we'll lead you.

We won't stand behind you and yell at you.

Finally, we'll follow Jesus and not just plans.

We'll follow Jesus and not just plans.

When Peter says, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

He's holding up Jesus here as a fulfillment of prophecy.

That Jeremiah had made a prophecy 600 years earlier.

And it was a prophecy that essentially Israel had always had problems with their shepherds, right?

Like you would have a Josiah, you would have a David, you would have a Hezekiah, that would be an interruption.

But overall, what's often said about the shepherds of Israel, and one of the reasons they end up in exile, is that the shepherds of Israel saw the flock not as a stewardship, but as an opportunity to feast.

And so, like wolves, they would prey upon the flock rather than they would protect and defend the flock.

And so in Jeremiah chapter 23, the prophet prophesies that there is a day that is soon coming in which the Lord will line up all of his prophets, all of the shepherds, all of the false shepherds of Israel, all the ones that have preyed upon the flock and brought harm to the flock, and he will bring judgment upon them, and he will cleanse the house of Israel from all of these shepherds.

Jeremiah 23 · chapter mention

And then he says, Then he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch.

And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell dwell securely.

And this is the name by which he will be called.

The Lord is our righteousness.

That he prophesies that all of the wicked, unfaithful shepherds of Israel will be eliminated from the house of Israel, and that are branch from the house of David, the Messiah, will be sent.

That this time the Lord is not entrusting his care to men.

The Lord Himself will come and he will be the shepherd in person over Israel, that he might lead them into the land that flows with milk and honey, that they can know security.

Don't you want to live in security this morning?

That's what we're longing for, isn't it?

Security.

To live and dwell secure.

And so here is Peter, and he's saying, The chief shepherd has come, y'all.

The branch of David has come.

The Lord is righteous, is come.

He has come.

And he's come in Jesus.

And here's what that means to me the orchard church already has a senior pastor.

And his name's Jesus.

He's the chief shepherd.

Our responsibility is just to be under-shepherds.

That Jesus sets the agenda for his church.

And Jesus sets the pace for his church.

And Jesus sets the tone for his church.

The responsibility of the elders of the orchard is to discern what is the will of Jesus for the orchard church.

How is it that we can push back darkness in West Tennessee?

How is it that we can be part of the gospel solutions here in Collierville and Germantown?

What can we do to rock the nations with the good news of Jesus?

That I want to make a secondary promise there that I think is just as important as all the others, but is really embedded in the idea that Jesus is the senior pastor.

That if Jesus is going to set the agenda, you don't need to hear what I have to say.

You only need to know what he has to say.

And so the commitment that I'm going to make to you right here on the first day is that we're never going to dodge a text.

We're not going to dodge it because it's difficult.

We're not going to dodge it because it's weighty.

We're not going to dodge it because it's controversial.

We are going to trust that all of the scriptures have been breathed out by God and that all of the scriptures are profitable for us.

We are going to allow Jesus Christ to be our senior pastor, to set our pace, to set our agenda, and we're going to go to him week in and week out and ask him, Lord, what do you have to say to us today?

You know, when you look at a full moon against a dark sky, it looks like the moon has light in and of itself.

But nothing could be further from the truth, could it?

The moon is totally dependent upon the sun for any glory that it's able to have, for any help that it's able to bring.

That if there was no sun, the moon essentially would just be a big dark rock hanging up in the sky that didn't help us at all, right?

That's who I am as your pastor.

If you get something from me, it's all borrowed light.

Seen in glory in me, it's all borrowed glory.

I'm just a big rock.

Completely and utterly dependent upon the sun.

And so, Orchard Church, my heart is to run after Jesus with you.

That we would pursue a crown of unfading glory by laying ourselves down at Jesus' feet.

Can I pray for you?