Gospel responsibilities

00:02 If you would turn your copies of the Scriptures to the Book of Hebrews, we find ourselves continuing to work through the Book of Hebrews. We have one more message left after today. Brother Duane will be wrapping up the series next Sunday, Lord willing. And yet we still find ourselves in Hebrews Chapter 13. 00:22 We've titled the message this morning, "Gospel Responsibilities." Gospel Responsibilities. What kind of responsibilities do we have as believers in relationship to the Gospel that has been so freely given to us, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ and His reign and His salvation and His forgiveness of sins and so on? 00:43 Begin reading this morning at verse 7 through 17. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the Word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. 01:05 For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. 01:27 Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the One to come. Therefore, 01:47 by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch for your souls. 02:07 As those who must give account, let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. We, as believers who have been saved by the blood of Christ, have a responsibility. In verse 1, we have a responsibility to the brotherhood to let brotherly love continue. In verse 2, 02:27 we have a responsibility to the strangers and to entertain strangers. And we never know who we're entertaining, who we're welcoming when these strangers come into our lives. In verse 3, we're to remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are suffering, especially those who are suffering for and imprisoned for their faith. 02:49 In verse 4, we have a responsibility to marriage, to keep marriage alive. The Gospel does not negate the marriage vow. It reinforces marriage. And it enables us to live holy and free from fornication and adultery and in moral purity. In verses 5 and 6, 03:08 we have a responsibility to God's promise, God's promises, His promises that He will never leave us and He'll never forsake us. Therefore, we can boldly say the Lord is our helper. And we need really nothing else except that to make it through life. God will help us. God is there. And He is with us, 03:29 as we have heard this morning. God is with us. And therefore, we can be content in whatever situation we find ourselves in. In verse 7 and 17, we find a responsibility to leaders. There is much that is said about leadership relating to people in the New Testament. 03:50 There is less said about people relating to leaders, to their leaders. And these are some of the primary Scriptures that give us pause in how to consider how we relate to those in leadership in our lives. In verse 8 and 9, we have a responsibility to sound doctrine. 04:09 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. Don't be carried around, carried about. But rather, be stable, be steadfast, always abounding in the truth. 04:23 In verses 10 through 13, we have a responsibility to Christ and to the Gospel, the Gospel whereby Christ laid down His life for us in fulfillment of the Old Testament covenant, the Old Testament sacrifices, and the Old Testament promises. We have a responsibility to Christ and to the Gospel. 04:42 In verse 15, therefore, 04:47 by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. We have a responsibility to praise and give thanks to God. And we have a responsibility in verse 16 to do good and to share, not to earn our salvation. But because we are saved, we do good works. And we give our sharing to those around us and those in need. 05:08 We have generous hearts and responsibility to give. And then, as Brother Duane will come to us next Sunday, verse 18, we have a responsibility to pray. He says, "Pray for us, for we are confident we have a good conscience in all things desiring to live honorably." So we have this morning responsibilities. We divide into three categories: responsibility to leaders, 05:30 verse 7 and 17; responsibility to doctrine in verse 9; and responsibility to the Gospel in verses 10 through 16. So what are our responsibilities to leaders? As I have said moments ago, much is said about the leader's responsibility. 05:50 If you look in Titus and you look in Timothy, both Timothy's, and you look at what Jesus said about leadership, there's a great responsibility that leaders have to keep their lives in order, to keep their doctrine and their lifestyle within the parameters of God's Word and under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 06:11 However, there's very little that's said about followers' responsibility. However, in this passage of Scripture, three times it refers to leaders, verse 7, 17. And if you go over to verse 24, "Greet all those who rule over you." The word here for leader is, or as the King James and New King James renders it, 06:33 rulers, those who rule over you, those who lead you. The word is a generic word that is used for leadership in general. Even secular leadership uses this word. But these are primarily spiritual leaders. How we know that they're spiritual leaders is because in verse 7, it says, "Follow their faith. 06:54 They have spoken the Word of God to you." In verse 17, it says, "They watch for your souls. They will give an account to God for you and how they shepherded you." And so these are spiritual leaders. These, likely in verse 7, are speaking about those who have gone on, who have finished the race, 07:14 who didn't give up because He says, "Follow their faith considering the outcome of their conduct." Now, some of the outcome of their conduct was martyrdom. And some of it was persecution. And some of it was not something that you would desire in the flesh. But He said, 07:32 "The faith of these men who have gone on before, follow their faith." Imitate them is the word that is used. Whose faith? Follow. Imitate them considering the outcome of their conduct. They were faithful men of God who preached the Word of God to you and now have received their reward. And I like to, 07:53 He says to remember those. And so this morning, I want you to think back with me just a little bit about some men of God who have impacted your life as they preached the Word of God to you. I did that this week. I did some remembering. And it was interesting. 08:10 I came up with about nine leaders through the years that impacted me in some very profound ways. I remember my home ministers that impacted me. 08:24 One was from which I learned to respect and to honor and to his visionary leadership. And I also learned from this brother how to forgive because this was one of the nine, the only one of the nine that did not finish well. And yet, he shared with us the Word of God for a period of time. 08:46 And as he shared with us the Word of God, the Word of God is the power and not the preacher. The preacher is not the power. The Word is the power. And as he shared the Word, it profoundly impacted my heart. Then I think of one of our other pastors who had a strong pulpit ministry and gave me a love for good, 09:06 solid preaching and Bible teaching, cultivated a love in my life for prophecy, biblical prophecy, and also was very influential in helping me to understand the sanctity of marriage in a day of rampant marriage, divorce, and remarriage, and to have a position, what I believe, 09:24 the biblical position on one man for one woman for a lifetime. Then one of our other pastors really maybe didn't have a strong pulpit ministry, didn't have not a flamboyant personality either. But he was one who was consistent. He just passed away here recently within the last couple of months. 09:44 But he was consistent. Brother Clarence, when you knew Clarence, you knew that who he was today was who he was going to be tomorrow and who he was going to be the next week and the next month and the next year and the next 50 years. He was a man of God, a man of consistency, and a man who was not wobbling all over the place with every wind of doctrine carried about to and fro. 10:06 But a man who knew what he believed, taught the truth, and lived the truth consistently. Then I think about another brother, Brother George Brunk, who was the second, who was a great evangelist in the Mennonite Church. He would come to the West Coast. And I learned from him how to be steadfast in the truth. 10:27 Then other men that are still living. Brother Walter Beech, he had a profound effect on my life and ministry. And what I gained from him was a love for the church and a love for church history. Brother Willard Mayer at Rosedale, in my time at Rosedale, I remember these men. 10:44 And the thing I gained from him was a study of the Scripture and a love to dig in and dive into the Scripture and really unpack it and understand what it means. Brother Paul Emerson, an understanding of expository preaching, has impacted my life. My Uncle Eldon was a pastor. He was a Pentecostal pastor. 11:03 And I learned from him a love for Jesus. He just loved Jesus. And he loved people. And he was very active in personal evangelism and ministry. Others I have learned from personal evangelism and principles of evangelism that have stuck with me to this day. That's not so important as the message that they carried, 11:24 the conduct and the outcome of their faith. Paul says, or whoever wrote Hebrews, the writer says, "Remember them. Remember them. Follow them. Imitate their faith." These men shared the Word of God with me in a way that impacted my life and ministry. And so while I remember, 11:44 we're also told to seriously consider, consider their faith and the impact and the way they laid down their lives for the Gospel. Imitate their faith. Observe the outcome of their conduct. But remember, remember the next verse, that it is Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, 12:05 today, and forever. You see, leaders come and go. Those who preach the Word to us come and go. Hopefully, we in ministry here at Living Water have had an impact on on on the lives of those who have come through these doors. And but someday, we will not be here. Someday, this man, this person, myself, will not be the pastor at Living Water. 12:26 But others will fill in that role. And someday, Brother Duane, and someday, Brother Trevor will maybe not be pastors here at Living Water. We don't know how long our ministries will be necessarily. They're looking at longer ministries. I'm looking back at a longer ministry. I have more behind me than in front of me. 12:44 But I thank God for a young man who said the other day to me, he said that his life and ministry has been impacted by my own. To God be the glory. That's what we want to do. But remember, remember, it's Jesus Christ that is the same yesterday, today, and into eternity. 13:04 We, as men, come and go. We pass through this way, this life for a few years that Scripture describes as a vapor. But it is Jesus Christ who was Lord yesterday, who is Lord today, and who will be Lord forever. He is the one to whom we bear ultimate allegiance. 13:25 He is the constant when others come and go. He was faithful, is faithful, and will forever be faithful. Let me tell you that men, men of God, women of God, even those that we highly respect, will disappoint us. They will disappoint us. 13:43 All the men that I read in that list of men who have impacted my life have in some way disappointed me along the way. But Jesus Christ will never disappoint you. He will never be unfaithful to you. And He will never forsake you. 14:01 In verse 17, now this is a verse that is easier to preach in another church than it is in your home church. But here it is. You got to do something with it. And so we are obliged to refer to verse 17 in our responsibility to leaders. And that is to obey and be submissive. 14:21 As they speak the Word of God to you, follow them. As they watch for your soul, follow them, respect them, honor them. Now, as I said and as I've told the congregation, I have limited years of pastoral responsibility looking ahead. 14:40 If the Lord tarries, my next birthday, I will be 60 years old. I never thought I'd live this long. But here I am. And I don't know how long we have. But I do know that there's a point in time when, for health reasons and mental reasons and physical reasons, that you pass the mantle on and you pass on responsibility. 15:01 And so we're looking at that as a church and as a leadership team. And so by the time I'm 65, not that 65 is a mandatory or even a sacred number. But for me, it's one that I'm looking forward to to to pass on lead pastor responsibilities. And I can honestly say that at Living Water, 15:21 you have have honored your pastors. And I give you thanks. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have honored us. You have respected us. You haven't always agreed with us, nor are we with you. I don't always agree with my wife. She doesn't always agree with me. But she honors me. And I honor her. And we love each other. 15:40 And I pray that you feel love from your leadership team. 15:43 But be that as it may, I would pray that the next man who fills the office of lead pastor would have the same level of of of respect and and honor and appreciation and and encouragement from this congregation as what you have given to me. 16:06 And I thank you so much for that. But it will be more meaningful and even so much more meaningful when that baton gets passed, that that allegiance and loyalty gets passed on to the next man. Well, I hope you always appreciate us no matter what role we fill in the church. But the loyalty, 16:25 the submissive attitude, the honor that you have given to your pastors through the years, thank you so much. Don't stop now. Look for the next generation of leaders. And as God gives them the opportunity to be faithful, may you also be faithful. And so we watch for the souls of those around us. 16:46 We watch for one another's souls. We, as leaders, have a responsibility to watch for the souls of those under our care. How do we do that? There's various ways that we do that. We watch for the souls. We watch for the inner man. We watch for the heart. 17:02 One of the ways that we do that is through membership, through a commitment of leaders to members and members to leaders and members to one another, 17:10 where we give each other authorization to speak to us about the areas in our lives that may be inconsistent. And we do that at communion. Now, sometimes at communion, we hear a little rumbling. Well, why do we have to talk to the preachers before communion? And a little bit of disgruntledness sometimes. 17:32 And that's okay. That's okay. But one of the things it does is an opportunity to be intentional about looking our sheep in the eye and the sheep looking their their pastors in the eye and giving an account for our spiritual condition. 17:50 And there's something about standing up front at the end of that time of counsel where we, as pastors, have to look you in the eye and say where our spiritual condition is. It is a way of keeping one another accountable. Is it the best way? Maybe not. Is it a perfect way? Surely not. But is it a way for us to watch for one another's souls? 18:11 We have a covenant resigning every three years. What is that? It's an opportunity for us to watch for one another's souls, to watch our faith, our doctrine, our manner of life. How are we doing on this road of life by which we will one day give account to God? 18:29 Not only will you give an account personally to God, and we will, as a congregation, want to help each other prepare for that, but we, as pastors, will give an account to God for how we shepherded you. 18:44 And may I also see in this passage that you will also be called to give an account of how you responded to that shepherding. Let them do so with joy and not with grief. That's the pastor's giving account to God. 18:59 For that would be unprofitable for you if the Lord has to scold you on the day of judgment because you refused to listen to the Word of God which was preached from this pulpit. Is that fair enough? And so there's a warning. There is a warning. And we have the responsibility to that warning. 19:19 And so we give opportunity to be intentional about watching for each other's souls and caring for each other's soul. The second responsibility we have is to sound doctrine. 19:37 We see this in verse 9: "Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines." Just a little phrase there. But nevertheless, a powerful phrase. "Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines." It's a warning. We don't know exactly what the issue was. 19:58 But it probably had to do something with their tendency to want to go back to Judaism. The word "various" here literally means many-colored. And boy, are there many-colored forms of of false doctrine out there today. Strange doctrine means foreign to the Gospel. 20:18 Interesting, if you study history, that a lot of what has been debated today as strange doctrine has been strange doctrine for many years. Someone has said that if the strange doctrine is new, it's probably not true. And if it's not true, it's probably not new. 20:42 And that's the case. Because all that comes to us today is repackaged nonsense from the enemy. And he has packaged that in different ways at different times through different years, through the years of church history. And when you study church history, all of a sudden, you start to realize that, 21:01 oh, you mean this thing we're dealing with today was dealt with in the third century, the second century, the first century, the fourth century? Amazing that we do not live in a time where it is safe to follow after some new doctrine. 21:18 Rather, what we have is the faith given to us once and for all in the Scriptures. And so as I thought this morning about this warning, I wondered, what are some of the strange doctrines invading the church today? I'll just give you a list of things to be careful and cautious about. 21:38 Number one is the prosperity Gospel, believing that health and wealth are the sign of faithful discipleship, faithful of God's blessing. Health and wealth, just name it and claim it. And it's yours because God wants you to be filthy rich and and and and suffer nothing. 21:57 Well, that's a false doctrine. Strange doctrine, the Word of Faith doctrine teaching, one that can believe that one can create reality by his spoken words. Now, do spoken words influence reality? Yes. But do they create reality? No. 22:17 It's a misunderstanding, a misinterpretation of Scripture. And so I said a number of months ago, about a year and a half ago, I met a relative. And he asked how I'm doing. And I said, "I'm..." How did I say it? Oh, it's a common way of responding. 22:38 I didn't say I'm blessed. Oh, I said, "I'm better than I deserve. Better than I deserve." And he rebuked me. He said, "I just don't receive that. I don't receive that." I said, "Well, what do you think grace is? Grace is being better than I deserve. What do we deserve? 22:58 Hell. What do we deserve? Punishment for our sins? What do we deserve?" So I'm always better than I deserve. But where he's coming from is a Word of Faith mentality. If you say that, then you're speaking into existence negativity. No, I just simply don't agree with that. 23:19 Not that we can't be more positive. Certainly, we can always be more positive. And it has challenged me to be careful of the words that I say. But Word of Faith, believing that one can create reality by speaking it into existence, is a direct assault on the sovereignty of God. In fact, 23:39 I heard a Word of Faith man testify some time ago. He said, "I'm sick and tired about hearing the sovereignty of God." That was his statement. And if you're creating your own reality, then you don't have room for a sovereign God. Ongoing revelation would be another strange doctrine invading the church today. 23:59 God is still speaking authoritatively today through prophets. I believe that God has given us what we need in the 66 books of this Bible. Now, is it true that God gives us impressions? Yes. God gives us promptings. Yes. 24:20 But does God speak today through prophets? If prophecy is proclaiming the Word of God, yes. But if prophecy is telling us that that Donald Trump is God's anointed man and he's going to win in the 2020 election, no. 24:41 He didn't. And these so-called prophets had egg all over their face. Now they're reinterpreting their prophecy and saying, "Oh, he's going to win in 2024. We got it wrong." Just be careful about those things. Be careful about those things. Hell, a doctrine that's being being challenged today. 25:03 There are those who believe, rather than hell being a place of eternal conscious torment, it is a temporary destination before oblivion sets in, annihilation. Other things, that Christ became God, not that God became man. 25:18 And so we have those who believe today that Christ was a man upon whom God descended and He became God, rather than Christ being the second person of the eternal Trinity, 25:31 one with the Father from ages past who came in a unique way that will not ever be duplicated as the Son of God, as God the Son. 25:45 Others could be mentioned: unconditional eternal security, that one can live in sin and still claim to be a Christian and go to heaven; open theism, which believes that God doesn't know the future until people get there and make their decisions, and then God knows the future; signs and wonders movement, 26:02 that these signs and wonders are necessary for the church to flourish today and that can be that are normative today. And also one thing that's taking evangelicalism by storm today, and that is what's called critical race theory. Critical race theory. 26:23 When you hear about that, be cautious. Be aware. It's even in many churches today. And it takes legitimate concerns about racial issues, law enforcement tactics, and healthcare access, and all the various injustices of the world around us and of the culture around us, 26:43 and says that we have to liberate oppressed people from oppressive structures. Now, there's some truth in that. Most false doctrine have a little bit of truth in it. Some false doctrine has a lot of truth in it. But the strict nine is dangerous. That's mixed in with the oatmeal. 27:01 And so what they take is a legitimate concern and find themselves believing and teaching that the Gospel is not about setting people free from the oppression of sin, but the Gospel is about setting people free from the oppression of social structures of injustice. 27:24 Because they don't believe that the truth is actually the truth. The truth is not determined by an objective standard of right and wrong, but of various personal experiences and the experiences of various people groups. The Gospel becomes about liberating people from oppressive social structures. 27:44 And it judges people as groups instead of as individuals. So if you're an African-American, you have been oppressed and you belong to this category. If you are a lesbian or homosexual, you've been oppressed. If you are a poor person, you've been oppressed. Everybody's been oppressed except white male Christians. 28:05 And so if you want to understand the world around us today, in our culture, you have to understand that there is an assault on Christianity. There's an assault on whiteness. And there's an assault on maleness. 28:21 And because we are the oppressors—you see me standing up here this morning preaching to you—is oppressing you, especially women and homosexuals and people of other ethnicities. And so we judge people based on groups. This is critical race theory. We judge people based on groups. 28:42 And we pigeonhole people because you're this color or you're that gender. You belong here. And you belong here. And you belong here. And truth is about what is true for the group rather than what is true from the Word of God. 28:57 Not only do we want to strive for what I consider to be a blindness as to ethnicity—I love people of all races, colors, descriptions. I guess there is only one race, the human race—but all ethnic groups, all colors. 29:16 But don't allow yourself to be put into a group as an oppressor or as a victim just because of some identity. It's called identity politics. And the world is trying to fix oppression by furthering oppression. And if you don't know about it, 29:37 we're not going to take much any more time to explain this morning other than to say it creates division, envy, power struggles. And it negates the need for every single one of us to come to the foot of the cross and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And it also is not about forgiveness. It's about revenge and justice. If you want to talk about justice, 29:56 you have to talk about that from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, justice is met with forgiveness, forgiveness. Lot could be said. So we have a responsibility to leaders. We have a responsibility to sound doctrine. And then finally, this morning, we have a responsibility to the Gospel, the Gospel. 30:18 In the center of all these responsibilities is the Gospel message that Christ suffered outside the gate, that He sanctifies us with His own blood (verse 12), suffering outside the gate, 30:37 and that we therefore should go to Him outside the gate and bear with Him His reproach. What is that all about? What is this all about? 30:51 Well, He begins this time by saying that we should be—we should be—that we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. So He's contrasting again the New Covenant with the Old Covenant. And as we look at the New Covenant, 31:12 we see that the altar is superior. Our altar, the cross, the cross is our altar. That's where we come and rid ourselves of our sins. That's where we come and receive the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. 31:28 That's where we come to receive cleansing and not ritualistic cleansing with washing of water, but of the water, washing of water by the Word. Our altar is superior. We partake of God's grace in the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our food is superior to theirs. 31:49 You see, they had the showbread. They had the offerings that came on the table of showbread. And then they had the offerings that came that were distributed to the priests, the meat, and so on for the priest's livelihood. But our food is superior. We feed on Christ, not on the things of meat. 32:10 Our sacrifice is superior. You see, this thing of suffering outside the gate is important for us to understand. 32:21 When they would sacrifice an offering or a burnt animal, burnt offering, or a sin offering or a peace offering, they would sometimes sacrifice that and kill it at the altar in the temple or tabernacle area. And then they would offer on the fire that which should be offered on the fire, 32:40 the fat around the liver and the kidneys and so on. And then they would take the meat and they would distribute that to the priests and to the high priests and to the Levites. And then they would take what was left, the guts, if you want to put it that way. 32:58 It's called in Scripture the offal, off all. It's basically the guts, the entrails, and the skin and what was left of it. They'd take outside the gate to a clean place, but to a place outside of the community. 33:18 And they'd burn it out there because that clean place would become unclean as it experienced all of these and received all of these leftovers and kind of the yucky stuff from the offerings. And also the outside the gate was where the lepers were. 33:39 The lepers were unclean. Where do they live? Outside the camp. Miriam, when she received leprosy, where did they banish her to? Outside the camp. The red heifer, the ashes of the red heifer. In Leviticus, it says that they should take a red heifer and kill it outside the camp, 34:00 burn it, and then take the ashes inside and mix them with water and use them for purification purposes. Do you see the symbolism here? That Christ suffered outside the gate as that red heifer did. 34:17 And He cleanses us from our sins by coming into the Holy of Holies of the presence of God and into the heart to receive cleansing from our sins by the blood of Jesus. But it's also a picture of Him bearing our reproach. 34:35 It's a picture of Him experiencing reproach and being cut off and being despised and rejected and insulted. 34:46 The word here where He was reproached (verse 13), we come outside the camp bearing His reproach, means that we identify Him in His woundedness, in His bruisedness, in His piercedness, in His shame of sin and reviling, insult, and dishonor. 35:02 We identify Him with Him in that. And it's outside the gate. What's the gate? I think He's talking about the gate of Judaism here. Christ, there was no place in Judaism for Jesus. He was removed from favor in Judaism. 35:25 And these people, remember, the whole purpose of the book of Hebrews was to convince them of the New Covenant is better by far than anything else. You would be doing despite to the Spirit of grace if you went back to the Mosaic Law. 35:42 That law points to Christ and His unfaithful leaders ostracized Him outside the gate. Now we go outside the gate, meet Him in His reproaches. And we do not go back inside the gate of Judaism. I think that's what it's saying here this morning. And so what we have here is the fact that Jerusalem is not our home. 36:04 Heaven is our home. He said, "We have no continuing city, but we seek one to come." Animals are not our sacrifice. Praise is, praise is our sacrifice. Let us offer continually the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 36:25 Even when you don't feel like it, we praise. Praise is a gospel response to the reproaches of Christ and the love and grace and sacrificial ministry of Christ on our behalf. It's a gospel response. Sharing and good works are a gospel response. 36:45 So He says there in verse 16, "Do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased." He's no longer pleased than if He ever was with the sacrifice of bulls and goats. 37:00 He says, "Sacrifices and offerings did I not desire, but a contrite heart." That's what God had in mind the whole time. With our contrite, humble heart in praise and thanksgiving and adoration to our great God who has given us all things in Christ, we give to Him the sacrifice of praise continually, 37:21 the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name, sharing with others, and not forgetting to do good to those around us. I conclude this morning with a reminder. 37:35 These gospel responsibilities are not—they are not—what's the word I want? Up for debate whether or not you should do them or not. They are mandatory. They are mandatory. These are things that Christians do. 37:55 These are things that believers do. Because coming back to verse 17, every one of us will one day give account of himself to God. There is not one of us sitting here today that will not sometime in the future stand before God and give an account. 38:18 Romans 14:12 says, "So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." Jesus said in Matthew 12 that even the words that we speak will be subject to review. 38:33 I say to you that every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. As I said earlier, pastors will give account for their people. People will give account for how they come under the authority of the preaching of their pastors. 38:49 Therefore, it is urgent that we help one another prepare for this coming reckoning, this coming day of reckoning. And so the pastor's prayer and purpose is found in Colossians 1:28 and 29, "Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, 39:11 that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Paul says, "To this end, I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily." Second Corinthians 5:9 and 10 says, "Therefore, we make it our aim, whether absent or present, 39:32 to be well pleasing to Him. 39:34 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad." So one of our responsibilities 39:53 is to prepare for the coming account, accounting, and to prepare one another for that accounting. Let's pray. 40:07 Dear Father, we thank You for communicating to us clearly in this passage of Scripture what is expected of us and what our responsibilities are. First of all, we give You thanks and praise and rejoicing and the fruit of our lips and praise and thanksgiving for the great gift of salvation that You have given to us in Jesus Christ, 40:29 not of works lest any man should boast, but producing good works that God has appointed that we should walk in them. We want to make sure, Lord, that we don't get the cart in front of the horse, but we get these things in the right order. Salvation results in good works. Not good works result in salvation. 40:50 And so we thank You for the finished work of Christ at the cross. We thank You that He was willing to suffer outside the gate and receive the reproach of them who reproached You fell on Him. 41:03 And Lord, we gladly today go to You outside the gate where we also may experience the reproach for Christ's sake. 41:15 Lord, we don't find our meaning and purpose in the world system, in the praise of the world and its values and systems. 41:31 But rather, we come to You to the place of reproach where people hate the gospel because it does not cater to their whims. Lord, out of the world, would You call faithful remnant? And would You call those who are searching and seeking for Christ? 41:51 May You find them. May they find You and be saved also. 41:57 Lord, I pray this morning that there be one person in the sound of my voice who's not ready to meet You, that today, before they lay their head on the pillow tonight, they would come to Christ, that they would seek out those who might help them and those who might pray with them and 42:15 those who might challenge them and lead them to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in the cross of Christ. And so Lord, we bow our hearts and heads before You. We ask, Lord, that we might be counted faithful with these responsibilities until Jesus comes. 42:35 Prepare us, Lord, for that day of accounting. To that end, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.