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Gracious Father, we ask that You would do what You have promised

to do, and that is that by Your Spirit You would open our understanding

and that You would bring Your words and their truth to life and that You

would help us to make sense of this thing which is beyond our making

sense of: that You would come to lay down Your life in our places. We

pray that You would use our time now as we open the Word to

continue to bring clarity to exactly what that gift meant, why it was

important, and what You intend that it would mean for us.

We pray this in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

 

 

As we make our way toward Good Friday and Easter, we’ve been focusing on the single event in Jesus’ life and ministry that his followers consider to be more important than anything else he that did and that is his death on the cross.

 

The death of Jesus falls like a shadow across all of human history and it stands out as the defining event in Jesus’ ministry. But why? Why did he die? What makes his death so significant, so important?

 

Over the past two Sundays we’ve talked about how the cross opened up the door for us to enter into a love relationship with God, and we’ve talked about how the cross dealt the defeating blow to the enemy who seeks to undermine us.

 

This Sunday and next Sunday we will be exploring one of the most puzzling paradoxes in all of the Christian faith. You’ll find this paradox in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church: I Corinthians Chapter 7 verses 22 and 23. If you want to turn there, I would invite you to do that. You’ll find that on page 1779 in your pew Bible. I Corinthians Chapter 7 verses 22 and 23. On our way there, I would like to thread two other passages together to help us understand that passage a bit more.

 

First, just one page over—I Corinthians Chapter 6 verses 19 and 20—in which Paul says to those who are Jesus’ followers:

 

You are not your own; you were bought at a price.

 

And then in Revelation Chapter 5 verse 9, that price—that purchase price—is spelled out for us by those who are worshiping around the throne in heaven. They sing to Jesus:

 

With your blood you purchased men for God.

 

You are not your own. You were bought at a price. And that price was the blood of Jesus. With his life he purchased your life.

 

Well that brings us to the paradox in I Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 22 and 23 which says this:

 

For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price….

 

Jesus’ death on the cross brought about a seeming contradiction. At one and the same time for all of us, by his death he freed those who had been slaves, and he made slaves of those who had been free.

 

Next Sunday we’ll be exploring this idea about those who were slaves being set free from slavery through his death, but this morning we’ll look at the other side of that paradox: that through his death, those who were free have been purchased for God as slaves.

 

Now, as soon as we step into this passage we are at a complete loss because slavery is so remote from us as Americans living in the twenty-first century. We have more contact with asteroids than we do with slaves. I wonder if there is anyone in the room who has actually met someone who is or was an actual slave.

 

What ideas we do have of slavery are shaped profoundly by images from our history as a nation and they are exceedingly negative and incredibly emotionally charged: images of African Americans stripped and sold on the auction block, or whipped and beaten in the cotton fields, or abused and used in their masters’ homes.

 

But for those living in Jesus’ day and in Paul’s day, slavery was everywhere. Slaves were as common and as accepted as cars are for us today. In the Roman Empire at that time, estimates are that at least one out of every five individuals was a slave. In Rome itself, the number was closer to one out of three. Well, little wonder with something that was so pervasive in the culture that the New Testament writers would draw on the image of slavery to communicate important spiritual principles.

 

But it is important that we understand the use of slavery language to describe our relationship with God, that that is a metaphor. The way a metaphor works is not to say that one thing is identical to another thing. Instead, it says that one thing is like another thing in some important respect. When Jesus says, “I am the vine,” he doesn’t mean that a closer search like the sort that Thomas does after his resurrection would reveal that his skin is actually bark or that he was growing grapes somewhere. Instead, it means that, like a grape vine, he is the source of spiritual life and of fruitfulness for all of us, and that we need to find some way to tap into him in order to gain access to that life-giving power.

 

Jesus’ parables work in a similar way. For instance, in Luke Chapter 16 verses 1-9, Jesus commends a man who is clearly dishonest in one of his parables. But Jesus isn’t approving of his unscrupulous behavior. He clearly says that the man is dishonest. What he applauds is the man’s foresight and his cunning, not his flexible moral standard.

 

In the same way, we have a responsibility—being so far removed from the context in which this was written—to separate out which portions of slavery Jesus and his followers intend to point to, and which they do not, when they speak of our relationship with God in those terms. The New Testament writers were not blind to the injustices of slavery and they frequently used slave language to refer to behavior that is destructive or controlling or sinful.

 

But when they speak of God as master and us as slaves, they do not have in mind forced compliance or the abuse of power or arbitrary rule or cringing subservience or diminishing the value of a human being or any of the other abuses that spill out of the essential wrongness of a human being claiming another human being as property. It is not in the nature of things as God designed them that one human would own another. And followers of Christ, recognizing this, were at the forefront of the abolition movement and the underground railroad.

 

Nonetheless, the New Testament doesn’t hesitate to use slavery language in a positive sense to depict the Christian life and its ideals of exclusive allegiance and of total availability for service and of complete dependence on and devotion to the Lord; those ideals they hold up when they use the analogy of slavery. And it is startling, in fact, how much they do so—much more than I realized before I started this message.

 

The word for “slave” in Greek, doulos, appears 180 times in its various forms in the New Testament. That makes this one of the most important word groups in all of the Scriptures.

 

Now that may be a surprise to you because there are only a few times in our English translations where we come across the words “slave” and “master” to describe our relationship with God. Most of the times that it’s used as a spiritual metaphor of this relationship between God and follower, the word doulos is translated “servant” instead of “slave.”

 

But I think that it’s important that we know that there were six other words available in ancient Greek that meant “servant,” any one of which would have been available to the New Testament writers if that was the idea that they intended to convey. But all three of the most revered of the lexicographers of Greek New Testament words—those who are most respected and those who are most trusted—all three of them insist that this word doulos should be translated “slave” every time  it shows up in the New Testament.

 

In addition, the word for “master” also gets lost in the New Testament at times. That’s because in Greek the word for master, kurios, is the same word that is appropriately translated “Lord” at times. Certainly the writers of the New Testament often intend to equate Jesus with the God of the Old Testament or to contrast him with the Emperor of Rome, both of whom were called kurios. But there are many times when “master” is probably a better translation of the word kurios, especially when the word doulos is nearby.

 

In Greco-Roman culture, kurios and doulos were words that went together. They are what is known as correlatives like thunder and lightning or flesh and blood or smoke and fire; where there was kurios, there were douloi.

 

Jesus himself uses these two words together several times in his teaching. One of those is one that has been translated “slave” and “master”: John Chapter 13 verses12-16, where he says about himself and about us, “A slave is not greater than his master.”

 

Other places where “Lord” should perhaps be translated “master” instead of “Lord” are in Luke 6:46 which says, “Why do you call me Master, Master, and do not do what I say?” or in Colossians Chapter 3 verse 24 which says, “It is the Master Christ whom you are serving as a slave.”

 

Now, if slave and master imagery were allowed to come back to the surface more in our translations, I think this is what we would hear. First, this is the primary way, the primary way, in which the leaders of the early church described themselves and one another as followers of Christ:

 

Romans Chapter 1. Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus.

 

Philippians 1:1. Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.

 

II Peter 1:1. Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.

 

James 1:1. James, a slave of God and the Master Jesus Christ.

 

Jude 1. Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James.

 

Revelation 1:1. In which John, serving Jesus Christ, refers to himself as his slave.

 

Colossians 4 verse 12. Paul describes Epaphras as a slave of Jesus Christ.

 

And, I think very significantly, a passage that I don’t know that we hear in

the way that we’re intended to:

 

Luke Chapter 1 verse 38. Mary, responding to the angel who comes with

the announcement that she has been selected to carry the incarnation of

the living God, she responds by saying, “I am the Lord’s servant. I am the

Master’s slave. May it be to me as you have said.”

 

The use of slave language is not just used for those who were spiritual leaders in the church but that language carries over and describes everyone who was a follower of Christ in the writings of the New Testament:

 

Acts Chapter 4:29. Now, Master, consider their threats, and enable your

slaves to speak your word with great boldness.

 

Ephesians 6:6. Like slaves of God, do the will of God from your heart.

Serve as a slave wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Master and not

men.

 

I Peter Chapter 2 verse 16. Live as free men, but don’t use your freedom

as a cover-up for evil. Live as slaves of God.

 

And a verb based on the same word root, one that means “to serve as a slave,” is used to describe frequently the lives of those who are Christ followers:

 

Romans 12:11. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,

serving the Master as a slave would.

 

Romans 14 verse 18. Anyone who serves Christ as a slave would is pleasing to God and approved by men.

 

And then referring to those who turn their backs on Christ:

 

Romans 16;18. Such people are not serving our Master Christ as a slave

would but instead their own appetites.

 

So, the writers of the New Testament use the imagery of slavery on a regular basis and they do so to convey three essential ideas that are integral to the notion of slavery and mastery as it was understood in New Testament times.

And I’d like to pull those out for you now.

 

The first significance or meaning of being a slave was the idea of Exclusive Ownership.

 

The central meaning of a slave is someone who is the property of another: another person who could use you in whatever way that he desires. It means absolute and exclusive ownership, control on the part of the master, the absence of the right of the slave to determine the course of his life or to determine the use of his gifts and abilities or time. A slave is by definition—because of the ownership of the master—denied free choice and denied the power of refusal. The Romans had a term for this: dominium, the right of absolute ownership.

 

A slave is someone whose person and whose service both belong wholly to another. A slave owner acquired the right of all of the slave’s labor for the rest of his life without further payment. But it was not merely the slave’s service which was owned, but the slave himself—a life purchased.

 

Revelation Chapter 5 verse 9 again: With your blood you purchased men for God. [A claim of ownership]

 

Acts 20:28: He bought the church of God with his own blood. [And a reminder that the word church in its roots means belonging to God]

 

I Corinthians Chapter 6:19-20: You are not your own; you were bought at a price.

 

The result of this purchase of Jesus’ life given in exchange as the purchase price for our lives is that we now belong to God. What a difference it would make for us if we understood that as followers of Christ this is perhaps the most fundamental thing that is true about us. As Murray Harris says in his book Slave of Christ, “Belonging to Christ is the essence of the Christian faith.”

 

And so here are these confessions of faith that come forward:

 

I Corinthians 3:23. You belong to Christ.

 

Romans Chapter 14 verse 8. We belong to the master.

 

Interestingly, we find an expression that conveys this same idea of ownership in the Great Commission as Jesus sends out his followers across the land and around the world and urges them to make disciples of all nations and to baptize those followers into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 

If you do something “into the name” of another person, that was a technical term that came from the marketplace and it means a transfer of ownership to that person. Go and make disciples of all nations transferring the ownership of their lives into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

On of the great privileges that I had when I was a student at Gordon Conwell was to have a chance to hear Joseph Tson speak. He was a Romanian pastor during the worst of the Communist regime in Romania and he was repeatedly imprisoned and beaten during the 1970’s. I got to hear him preach when I was at Gordon Conwell in the 80’s. And whenever he was introduced as was the case when he was introduced at Gordon Conwell, he insisted upon being called a slave of Christ. And he went on to say how much people danced around his request to do that: that they would introduce him as a faithful servant of Christ, as one who faithfully sought to serve the Lord. And he said, “No! I insist that you introduce me as a slave of Christ, and this is why. A servant gives service to someone, but a slave belongs to someone.” And he wanted all the world to know that he belonged to Jesus Christ, that that was his profession of faith: I belong to the Lord.

 

So the first part of what being a slave means is that we recognize that we do not have a claim to ownership in our life, but that, in fact, God owns us—that we belong to Him.

 

Secondly, this idea of being a slave under a master communicates the idea of Complete Relinquishment of our will.

 

By Roman law it was spelled out that a slave had:

No power to speak for himself.

Had no personal property.

Had no freedom to do what he desired.

Had no freedom to go or to live where he chose.

 

For that reason, within the laws of the Roman Empire, becoming a slave was legally understood to be the equivalent to death because you died to yourself and you died to any right that you might have over your own life. To be a slave was to hand over the control of your life to your master.

 

Because a slave belonged to another, that slave stood under what was called dominica potestas which means “the master’s total sway.” The slave’s life revolves around and is defined by the will of the master. What the master wants is what shapes the life of the slave. His will is in subjection to the will of the master; he is totally at the disposal of his master; he lives solely for the benefit of the master having laid aside the freedom to choose his action or his movement  

 

So obedience becomes one of the most core and central notions of what it means to be a slave. You do what you’re told. You do as you’re directed. You do what you’re asked. You don’t argue. You don’t decide for yourself. You obey. This is the slave’s primary role.

 

It’s interesting that the earliest confession of faith is Jesus is kurios. Now I believe that is absolutely intended to be a statement that, as opposed to the claims of this man called Caesar, Jesus is the one who is the Lord. And I believe that that is also a recognition that in Jesus we see the face of God who revealed Himself in the Scriptures: the face of the Lord. But I also believe that we are to understand in many places that profession of faith, Jesus is kurios, is to be understood as the expression Jesus is my master.

 

II Corinthians Chapter 5 verses 14 and 15 get at this idea of our lives belonging to him and our will being subjected to his. It says:

 

For Christ’s love compels us, [That word compels is an interesting word. It’s used in a number of different situations like when you pull two doors shut together. You take them in hand and you pull them together, hold them together. It means pressing together or constraining like if a crowd has surrounded you and you can no longer control your actions. You’re being shoved around by those around you. It’s a word that’s used to describe being held in custody as a soldier might a prisoner: that you have no freedom. Or it conveys the idea of being totally absorbed with something or occupied with something as when you have a message that you are intent on communicating]

 

Paul says Christ’s love does all of that to me. It takes me in its hands and it controls what I do. And then he goes on. He says:

 

because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. [There’s that equating of death and slavery: one died for all, therefore, the lives of all have been purchased as slaves in his service] And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.

 

The essence of the role of a slave is obedience.

 

I understood this at a very scary moment in my life when as a senior in high school, three hours of my life were sold to the highest bidder to do with me whatever that person wanted. They sold off everybody else. This is when I was at Culver and I was the last one they pulled up. And I saw this gleam of delight on the faces of those who kept raising their hands and raising the bid and I was really afraid: what is this going to mean for me? I have made this agreement that I’m willing to do whatever they ask of me. What have I gotten myself into?

 

Finally the bids closed at something like $110 that a freshman paid. I didn’t even know this guy. Back then—in the dark ages—$110 was worth like thousands of dollars!

 

This guy came to my room and he got me and he said, “How ‘bout if we go play ping-pong?” And then we finished playing ping-pong and he said, “How would you like to watch a movie?”

 

I realized to my great delight and joy that what he had purchased was my friendship—that he appreciated me and that he hadn’t had opportunity to get to know me and that that was important enough for him that he was willing to pay a huge price to make that happen.

 

The one who is our master, who claims the right to our lives and insists upon controlling our lives, is the same one we described just two weeks ago who is the lover who is intent on pursuing and loving his beloved.

 

Total Devotion.

There’s a third aspect of what it means to be a slave. The slave belongs to the master; the slave seeks to obey the master. But there’s more. He seeks to please the master.

 

This is the other part of the slave’s life. There are many parts in a slave’s life where the master has given a direct command and what is expected is obedience. But what about those parts of life where there isn’t given a direct command? Does that mean that the slave is entitled to do whatever he wants during those times? No. What governs a slave’s behavior in those times is that he is bent on doing whatever he can to anticipate the needs and the desires of his master and to set about trying to meet those unbidden, unasked, as an expression of devotion and delight for this one who is master over him.

 

How differently we hear Colossians Chapter 1 verses 9 and following the prayer that Paul prays for the Colossian people when we hear it in its language of slavery and mastery where he says:

 

We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will [of your master’s will] through all spiritual wisdom and understanding, and we pray this in order that you may life a life worthy of [your master] and may please him in every way.

 

II Corinthians 5:9 gets at the same idea:

 

We constantly make it our ambition to please him.

 

Not mere begrudging compliance, but a heart of total availability and devotion to one that we love and one who has purchased us with his life.

 

Now this is voluntary. It’s not forced. This is not an abuse of power.

 

In the ancient world, a free person could become a slave by force as when captured by a foreign army, or by their own volition as when they sold themselves in slavery to pay off a debt.

 

That’s just the sort of picture that I think God intends that we would have in mind: our selling ourselves into slavery in order to pay off a debt that we have.

 

We voluntarily embrace our slavery. We eagerly seek out of our own will, as an expression of our will, to submit our will to the One who is master over us.

 

God says to us, “You belong to me. I am your master.” And then he invites us to say, “I belong to You. I am Your willing slave.”

 

A Hebrew slave who loved his master and wished to be his servant for the rest of his life would have his ear pierced with an awl in order to show to everybody his devotion to his master: that he was set free. He had the freedom to do as he wished and voluntarily he submitted himself under the master’s control as an expression of devotion to his master, as an act of voluntary relinquishment.

 

I think we are given a beautiful picture of this in The Lord of The Rings when Pippin comes before Denethor and offers his services and offers his life in his service. He says, “Little service, no doubt, will so great a lord think to find in me, yet such as it is, I offer it in payment of my debt to you.” And then he says, “Here I do swear fealty and service to the lord and steward of the realm to speak and to be silent, to do and to let be, to come and to go as I am bidden in need or plenty, in peace or war, in living or dying from this hour henceforth.”

 

We freely pledge to serve our master wholeheartedly as long as we live.

 

Whatever you may think of the character of Jar Jar Binks, The Phantom Menace gives us a compelling picture of this idea:

 

Qui-Gon lands in the swamps of Naboo only to discover that he has landed in the midst of a battle. Diving to safety, he inadvertently takes with him an odd reptile-like creature named Jar Jar Binks, saving his life in the process. And after the danger has passed, Jar Jar hugs and he kisses him and he tells him he loves him, and then he refuses to leave his side.

 

When Qui-Gon seeks to send him on his away, Jar Jar says [This is one of the few times when I’m not going to imitate the voices], “No, no. I am going to stay. I am your humble servant.”

 

Qui-Gon says, “That won’t be necessary.”

 

Jar Jar says, “But it is! It is demanded by the gods. It is a life-debt.”

 

As it turns out, “As you wish” means “I love you.”

 

A couple thoughts about what this has to do with us:

 

This teaching that God is our master and that we are His slaves through Jesus’ death on the cross collides headlong with our most cherished values: freedom, self-direction, autonomy. Name something that we value more than our freedom as Americans.

 

This is true of Greek culture and Roman culture as well. They cherished freedom as a priceless treasure. They defined freedom in their laws as the freedom to act and move as one chooses without subservience to the will of another, the ability to choose the course of one’s life and to use one’s gifts and time and energy as he wished, where slavery meant forfeiting those cherished freedoms and subjecting yourself to the will of another. Why would you do that? Why, as a free human being, would you subject yourself to the will of another? What could be more wrong with that?

 

The idea of one person being subject to another person isn’t in the nature of things as God designed it. It is not what God intends.

 

But it is part of the nature of things. It is part of how God designed and intended things to be: for us freely to relinquish our lives to Him and to live under His rule because He made us. He designed us for that very type of relationship with Him and He purchased our lives for Himself.

 

Let me give you an example. When we found Budalia, she was a picture (this is our dog); she was a picture of freedom. She had no master. She could do anything she wanted to do: absolutely anything. She had no leash, no chain, no collar. She was free. And she was helpless and she was starving and her fur was matted and mangy and she was desperate.

 

When we brought Budalia home, we brought her under our mastery—sort of, and that’s a separate sermon about digging food out of the trash and bolting out of the front door and into our neighbor’s house and stealing the neighbor’s dog’s food or climbing on the table and eating things. But she is now happily under our mastery.

 

God invites us to come to a place of voluntary relinquishment of our self-ownership in recognition that this is in the nature of things, this is a design for which God created us: that we would yield up possession of our lives, of our time, and our gifts, that we would exercise our freedom in the greatest way possible by freely submitting ourselves to His will over us in order that we would experience still greater freedom. And that’s the theme of next Sunday’s message.

 

Now, in order for us to do this, this requires—absolutely requires—two things and it is nonsense apart for them. We have to remember that God’s mastery over our lives is always defined by His wisdom (that He truly knows best) and God’s mastery over us is always defined by His love (that He truly wants the best for us).

 

And that leads me to an invitation. You’ve heard me say before that there are, I think, four stages in the progress towards the sort of relationship that God intends we would have with Him through Christ. We begin with:

 

I’m in it for me. All of life is about me; it’s for me; it serves me; it’s in order to meet my needs. And then we take a step. We recognize; we acknowledge the presence and existence of God and that we should include Him somehow in our lives: that He’s important and that He cares for us. So then we move from I’m in it for me to:

 

God’s in it for me. Acknowledging that God really does desire my best. But there is then another step that fewer of us take and that is the step of saying, “I recognize His priority in my life: that He is more important than I am.” And that’s when we go from God’s in it for me to:

 

I’m in it for God. I will gladly put Him first and try in the ways that I know to serve Him. But there’s still another step that I believe God intends that we would take and I believe it’s one that not as many of us take and, without this step, we are failing to experience the fullness of what God intends for us to experience in our relationship with Him. I’m in it for me. God’s in it for me. I’m in it for God.

 

I am the master’s servant. I am the master’s slave. May it be to me as You have said. Not just recognizing His love, not just recognizing His importance, but acknowledging His mastery, His right place over us in the place of rule and direction. And I invite you to take that step: to allow God’s mastery over your career, mastery over your relationships, to truly have the last word in the manner in which you conduct yourself in the use of your gifts, in the use of your time, the use of your resources in things as particular as what it is that you choose to read and to watch and with whom you choose to spend your time—even things like the determining of what will be the goals and the ambitions that give shape to your effort and your energy through your life. What would it look like for God to have mastery over all of those areas—for you freely, voluntarily, to relinquish those into the hands of God?

 

It is for that that we were made and our lives will not be as God intends that they would be until we come to that place.

 

I know that many of you are aware that my favorite devotional writer of all time is a man by the name of George Herbert. He was an amazingly gifted man who took a pastorate in a tiny church south of Salisbury in England and just lived to the age of 39. He wrote a whole collection of hundreds of pieces of poetry that nobody even knew existed until after he died. And when they were published, this is some of what his best friend, Nicholas Ferrar, wrote in the dedication of the poems. Okay. As soon as I can find it. Hum. Well, I think I’ll have to do a translation for you. I re-wrote this into my own words and somebody is enjoying that at the present.

 

All right. Here’s what it says:

 

“Being nobly born and having been equally gifted with gifts of great intellect and having by his hard work and an exceptional education, perfected them to the greatest height of excellency. This brought about his fellowship at Trinity College in Cambridge and his selection as the Orator of the university together with recognition by the king himself. Together these things could have meant for him opportunities far beyond the ordinary. But setting aside that which he had earned through his effort and all of the opportunities that were before him for worldly fame, he took himself to the sanctuary and the temple of God choosing rather to serve God than to seek the honor and recognition of the king. All of this he felt compelled to do, not from outward forces but from inside, and many of these ensuing verses bear witness of this. But he did this in a way that did not detract in any way from his freedom but only added to the honor of his resolution to serve God as his master in all things. As God gave him opportunity, as God allowed him, he expressed that he believed that it was right for God not only to call him but to compel him to this service, and he so faithfully carried out his responsibilities that he has become an example and a pattern for his generation and for those who follow. And to testify to his independence from the direction and control of all others and to reinforce his diligence in serving God alone, he often in his ordinary speech when he made mention of the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to add the words, My Master.”

 

Jeremiah Chapter 10 verse 23 expresses a slave’s vantage and that of a devoted follower when he says:

 

I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own. It is not for a man to direct his steps.

 

For the past seven years we have been privileged to enjoy the friendship and the leadership of one who has sought to live his life under the mastery of Jesus Christ.

 

In the middle of this week we sent out a letter—and I’m aware that some of you have not yet received this—announcing that Stephen believes that God is calling him, compelling him, to serve the Lord as the senior pastor of a church outside of Cincinnati.

 

Stephen, I’d like to invite you to come and tell us about that opportunity and the calling that God’s put on your heart.

 

Stephen Kirk:

 

What an amazing sermon for an announcement like this. I do feel compelled only because I sense that God is calling me to a new season of ministry and I’ve had opportunity to meet with a number of you but not all of you. It’s been a common phrase to me, “We’re happy for you, but we’re sad for us.”

 

Well, I’m sad for me too. Amy is sad. We love you all so much and have been the recipients of the Love of Christ in so many tangible and intentional ways that we are sad because of the cost that it is both to you and to us as we venture out.

 

One of the things I’ve had opportunity to share with my kids a number of times: in odd places, they would pull me aside and say, “Now, we’re never ever leaving Covenant, right?” And this probably happened about six or seven times over these years. Every time I’ve said the same thing. I’ve said, “We will never leave Covenant until God says, ‘It’s time to go.’” So I gathered Emma and Josh up a few days ago with Amy and I said, “Guys, you know how Daddy has always said that we’ll never leave until it’s time to go, until God calls us.” And all of a sudden the tears rushed into Josh’s eyes.

 

In Hebrews 11 it says that by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance even though he didn’t know where he was going, he obeyed and went because Yahweh was his master. And that’s what we’re stepping out into as well. Believing that God is calling us, we’re stepping out into that new adventure. And being obedient is not easy, but it’s what we feel called to.

 

The last thing I would share with you—and there are lots of things I’d love to share—is that a number of my friends in seminary as we were graduating said, “Why aren’t you going to be a senior pastor? We’re going to be senior pastors. Why aren’t you?”

 

They didn’t know about Covenant. They didn’t know the role that Covenant was gonna play in my life in shaping me and loving me and encouraging me and in making me into the pastor that I have become and am becoming.

 

So, I am so grateful that in God’s large economy, He saw fit to bring Covenant into my life and me into yours over these years. I’m gonna miss you a ton. Amen.

 

And I also want to say that I love this guy and I also believe that the reason why God—one of the great reasons—why God brought me here was to be able to be mentored into ministry by David. So, I’m very grateful to you for that.

 

David Henderson:

 

I’ve found that it’s become my pattern with Stephen to hug him and then hit him for the last several weeks.

 

Would you join me in praying for this man and his family?

 

A man’s life is not his own. It is not ours to direct our steps, Lord, but

Yours. And all of us together—not just Stephen, not just me, our families—

but all of us as a church family we express to You that profession of faith.

You are our master and we belong to You and it is Your prerogative to

direct us and to lead us in serving You and being part of accomplishing Your

purposes in this world in whatever way You wish. Know the One who is Lord

over this man and the Lord over us is also the One who loves us as a lover

and is a friend and who knows what is best and who wants what is best. We trust

that for Stephen. We believe that You know what is best for him and for his family

and You know what is for their best, and we entrust them into Your care. Lord,

even as we do that, we do the same with ourselves. In a way that’s harder for

us to see, we express to You our faith, our confidence, that You know what’s

best for us and that You want what is best for us and that this is all part of Your

loving purpose for us. Confessing our anxiousness, expressing our sadness,

we nonetheless voice to You our confidence in You, our trust with You—trust that

You warrant, trust that You merit, trust within us that You have proven again and

again and again. So, as Your beloved, we pray to our lover; as your slaves, we

pray to our master. Lord, may Your will be done. We pray this in the name of

your Son who so beautifully served You.

Amen.