Be Strong and Courageous

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

Well, good morning, friends, family. How are you this morning? Good. My name is Cameron, one of the pastors here at Conduit, and it's my pleasure to welcome you home this morning. Today is a really exciting and also really unique day for our church. And over and so over the last several months really over the last year, but over really in earnest over the last seven months we have taught on biblical eldership we have we have lifted up the, both john and eric as men that we believe, have the qualities the characteristics and the qualifications sought out in places like 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1. We have sought your feedback about them and their lives and their character and their home life and their inner lives. And we're like over the moon excited to be able to install them as elders this morning. Now, there has sometimes been questions about like, well, what does, what type of, what type of things do we go through? Or what is the basis or the foundation behind how we make these decisions about

Who is in these like leadership positions? Is it just who like the one who has the, has gotten like all the gold stars on the attendance sheet? Is it the one who serves in the most places? Is it the one who is like the most mature or longest, longest, how do we make these, how do we make these decisions? And we are not left to our own devices on how we make these decisions. The scripture speaks to us about who these men are to be, and not just who they are becoming, but who they have already displayed themselves to be through a life in godliness, and a pursuit of holiness, and a commitment to the things of God in this church. So I want to read these scriptures again, scriptures from the passages from 1 Timothy chapter 3, 1 through 7, and Titus chapter 1, verses 5 through 9. So Maureen, are you in here? Maureen, yep. If you want to come up here, Maureen's going to read for us out of 1 Timothy.

This is from 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 6. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

Sorry. The husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Thank you, Maureen. And then Stacey's going to come up and read from Titus chapter one, five through nine.

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God's household, he must be blameless, not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Thank you, ladies. So we want to bring attention one more time, to what the Scriptures say and what the Scriptures do not say about the type of men who hold disposition, the position of elder. When we're looking at them and we're saying, okay, what is emphasized? Notice what is emphasized here. Scripture says almost nothing about talent or personality. Or charisma. The scripture is primarily concerned about the man's character, that he be above reproach, that he be sober-minded, self-controlled, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money. Scripture says that he is to be concerned with his home, the husband of one wife managing his household well children who honor god because before a man shepherds the church, he must have a heart and a practice of shepherding people that are under his own roof. The scripture says that they are men who are concerned with doctrine, that they hold firm to the trustworthy word, that they are able to teach sound doctrine. And not only are they able to teach it, but they have such a good apprehension of it that they're able to rebuke false doctrine and those who contradict it.

They're able to give correction in areas of doctrine as well. Now, over these past few weeks, we have prayerfully looked at both John and Eric's lives through this lens, this biblical lens here. We have met with them several, several, several, several times over and again. We have met with their wives.

We've had time to sit down with just their wives to ask all of the juicy details of home life, right?

To hear their heart and the fitness of their husbands for this role. I want to tell you, in all of those times together, we did not find perfect men.

We didn't find men who were perfect. But we found men whose lives, by God's grace, reflect the pattern that we see in Scripture and who are willing to keep growing in it in a pursuit of godly, Christ-centered leadership for their homes, for their own hearts, and for the church.

One more thing about what Paul says in both of these Scriptures. Notice he says that one of the qualifications for elder is that they be men who aspire to be in that role. One that desires a noble task, what Paul says. Both John and Eric, it is a good thing to want this. It's an okay thing to want this even in the weightiness of it as a thing to receive, so before god before this church we commission you to these tasks we commission you to this type of character,

I Was thinking a little bit about what I would want to preach or say in a service like this. Because if this is your first time here at Conduit, I mean, we love you. We welcome you. We honor you. I'm so glad you're here for this moment and this service. I want to let you know this is kind of not our typical pattern or Sunday morning. We would, but glad that you're here. Usually my sermons are very, very short, succinct, to the point.

So this morning's will be exactly like it always is, very, very short. But I was thinking about,

What I would preach or what I would talk about in a moment or a service like this. And I was reflecting or have been reflecting kind of on my own experience,

Leadership furnace my own leadership journey, and development and what is what has been necessary in my life as a pastor to, to lead well or to lead to just to lead not even say lead well but just to lead and

A really strong refrain that I kept hearing as I was like what am I going to preach on? What am I going to preach on? It was actually from the Old Testament in the book of Joshua, the first like 10 verses, nine or 10 verses of the book of Joshua. So I'm going to read those for you. And then just have a few short comments about that passage of scripture. Now, if you maybe not aware what was happening in the history of Israel at that point, is that Moses had let the people out of slavery in Egypt, and they had been kind of traversing in the wilderness for 40 years just in this pattern of disobedience and then, God brings judgment and disobedience and God brings judgment and they return to faithfulness and just trying to work it out with God. And there's an instance where Moses, actually the leader of the Israelite people, kind of disqualified himself from seeing the fulfillment of the promised land. And so when Moses died, his leadership was passed on to kind of the next generation. And when, and that leadership came to a guy named Joshua and Joshua,

The, the book of Joshua here is the six, six book of the old Testament. And, we see how God commissions Joshua and what he has to say to him. What is the thing that Joshua must do? Who is Joshua supposed to be in the midst of this next step of leadership for him? So let me read it here for you. Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise. Go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I'm going to give to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.

Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Now, a good habit to have in Bible study is to, when you're reading a passage of scripture, to notice, to pay special notice to the things that are said more than once in like a short little paragraph, right? If there's something that keeps getting brought up, if there's something that keeps getting said in the same way, that's an indication that it's an important point. It's something of emphasis there. Repetition equals emphasis right and so when God is commissioning, Joshua here he says something three or four times in the pretty much the same way be strong and courageous be strong, and courageous one time he said be strong and very courageous right be strong and courageous, I think it's sufficient to say for us that if you were to kind of analyze what God was calling Joshua to be and do,

In his leadership, now that Moses was gone, it would be that God wanted Joshua to be strong and to be courageous.

Now I don't know if you've recognized this in our world, but strength and courage are indispensable qualities for anyone in leadership positions anywhere but especially in spiritual leadership positions,

The necessity of being strong and courageous when the culture, when the world, when the life of sin is pressing and imposing upon our sensibilities, wanting to push us in directions that are antithetical to our values that we hold with the Lord or with what we believe to be true about scripture. Is there anyone who will stand strong and courageous?

Who will be firm? Who will give positive direction? We see in verse six here that God says, be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. One of the very first things that God says is like, if you, strength and courage is necessary. You want to lead people into the future that God has promised for them. God had promised the Israelite nation this land, and he had done so long, long, long before Joshua's leadership had ever started. Long before Joshua was probably even alive. Okay but in this moment it was going to take both strength and courage for joshua their new leader to lead them as a people into the place that god had promised to send them, and if and if we don't have leaders who are both strong and, courageous it's going to be difficult to go anywhere let alone go to the place of promise that God has for us.

You notice as he goes on in verse seven and eight, he says, only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all that the law of Moses, my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. Listen, it takes strength and courage to hold fast to God's word. It takes strength and courage to pursue obedience, to orient your life straight towards truth. Drifting either to the left or to the right is for people with no rudder of control in their life. Nothing that is able to steer them in the right direction. But we believe, and it is the elder's job primarily to practice the, like practice hand on the rudder of God's word for the direction of the church. That with, and that takes strength and that takes courage. That takes fortitude, understanding what actually steers the church. What actually is the rudder? What is the thing that keeps the ship from going off to the right, going off to the left? It's not good intentions.

It's not good strategy. It is faithful men with a hand on the rudder saying that like this the word of god, is the thing that steers us and we will be strong and courageous holding on to this very thing it takes strong it takes strength, and courage to recognize that you are not the source, of your own strength.

You have not completed your salvation alone. You have not earned it by your good conduct or your positive example. You have not willed your own character or your own calling. Joshua was indeed told to be strong and courageous, to walk in both strength and courage, Not getting terrified or discouraged is what he says. Have I not commanded you? Verse 9, be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed. Why? For the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.

So Joshua walked and led in both strength and courage because God was with him.

God was with him. Not because he carried himself with his own strength and his own courage. Not because he had the attributes that he had mustered up within himself, manufactured within his own life? I'm sure he did, right? But at the end of the day, what was necessary for Joshua to lead with the strength and the courage that was necessary for the people of Israel, the one thing that was necessary is that God's presence be with him. God's presence. God's presence.

If there is anything ever that we are to pursue, it is the presence of God in our lives. Abiding in him, remaining with him, not turning to the left or the right, not relying on our own strength or charisma or capacity or gifting or personality or calling, but to say, all I have, all I have is Christ. There is nothing that is good in me except Jesus.

All other things, can be laid at the altar and surrendered and sacrificed for the case of God's glory, Christ's power in us. Leadership takes both strength and courage to stay the course to feed on the right things to draw constantly on god's presence.

John and eric I want to invite you to come up for here for the remainder of the service where, we will dance awkwardly around the stage here because this is our first time doing this as well.

But we have some things that we'd like to present to you, some questions or some things we'd want to ask of you.

You can do whatever's comfortable eric you can do a cartwheel if you want I don't,

I get, out significant, I want everyone to see your pretty faces. Hi, guys. All right. We have some gifts for you. But they're not just sort of commemorative gifts. They're gifts with meaning, and they're gifts meant to remind you about what it means to be an elder in this congregation.

And so I want to walk through each of those gifts here for a moment.

The first gift that I have for each of you is a Bible that you guys will have. You guys will hold these for a little bit and then I'll take them back.

But Paul in 2 Timothy, he says to Timothy, who was a young elder, young pastor, he says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And so, as we give you these Bibles, it's to remind you to preach the word in season and out of season and to protect the flock against twisted doctrine.

James was writing to the church and to the elders, and he said, If anyone among you is sick, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil and the name of the Lord. We give you this oil in order to remind you to pray for the church and for the sick and to not neglect the ministry of prayer.

Jesus himself on the night he was betrayed washed his disciples feet and he said this to them as a model for all of us if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet and so we have a towel for each of you This is to remind us that your leadership is to be marked not with domineering, but is meant to be marked with a lifestyle of service and that you're called to wash feet and to not sit on a throne.

And then finally, Peter was talking to the church and he had a message to the elders and he said this, he said, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight and 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 example to the flock. And so we have for each of you a staff to remind you to shepherd the flock of God among you, to guide and defend and protect with leading, with gentleness, and with strength.

You guys can fight over which one you want later. But if these gifts is meant to be a reminder of what it means to be an elder in this church, I'm now going to read to you some charges. And these are the responsibilities of what it means to be an elder. And at the end, if you are willing,

Please say yes to the charges. Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. You will face moments when it would be easier to stay silent, or to avoid a hard conversation, or to choose comfort over faithfulness. In those moments, remember who sent you. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. These are not your people, they're his, and he bought them at the highest of prices. Shepherd them willingly, not for gain, not as domineering, but as examples. Love them when they are difficult. Pursue them when they wander, and protect them when the wolves come. Guard your marriages and your homes. Do not win the church, but lose your household.

Keep watch over your life and doctrine. Persist in this, for by doing so, you will serve both yourself and your hearers.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. John and Eric, to the best of your ability, will you do your best to discharge these charges? Yes. Okay. We're now going to take those from you so you guys have your hands free. And then each of you are going to have an opportunity to share a message with the congregation. Yeah, go for it.

You can take boxing. Okay. You guys can figure out which one of you goes first. There you go. I'll get to move this over here.

This is my personal paper palm pilot. Lots of thought goes into what to say today.

And so what I'd like to do really is just familiarize. Oh, wait a minute. I got it ready.

What I would like to do is just offer who I am somewhat, and especially spiritually, because we're getting bigger. The church is getting bigger. And so it's important for us to keep knowing each other, And especially, I just felt it was important for you to know a few things, to know some of my mistakes, some of the things that the Lord carried me through, and so I just wanted to offer that. And I am no theologian, I am just somebody who wants to serve all you folks.

Psalm 30, verse 3, in particular, one part says, you kept me alive. And that applies to me some, and maybe some of you folks.

I was unchurched, pretty much, in my family, So I didn't have any spiritual grounding, so to speak. And so I had a bit of a wild youth, a little bit, Vietnam, and many years in the fire service. But

I didn't believe in Jesus Christ at that time. And so I believe that the Lord kept me alive, plain and simple.

And then 1 Corinthians 15, 10, But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And an old Christian friend of mine, who's now with the Lord, modified that a little bit. And he said, only by the grace of God, there go I. And that's what I believe and

That's all I pass on is to the Lord. There's nothing of me, I'm just a sinner saved by grace, just wanting to serve you folks.

I wasn't saved until I was 44. I was a slow learner. And 44 years of thinking I knew the answers, which, of course, I didn't.

And so that posed some interesting problems. When I got back from Vietnam is when I met Maureen.

And so I immediately was impressed, and really, she really caught my eye. She doesn't even remember meeting me.

And so I had to work at it some and so I wanted to get married maureen had grown up in a church family wonderful family and was kind of newer along in her faith, although she was a believer then. So the question you may have is, what did she want with a slug like you? I understand.

So I had to go through the process of lying to her. And I made up things. I went, I met with a pastor who very mechanically thought he led me through the Romans Road. I walked down the aisle. I'm in the club. And then for 20 years, then I lived on the other side.

Not good. Lots of mistakes thinking I had the answers. So during our our marriages at that time then I wasn't responsible really and with we had three boys jacob josh and luke and maureen raised them spiritually I just didn't really want anything to do with it and so those were hard years somewhat we agreed pretty much on everything else I'm making money and you know everything's going well but spiritually we were separate

And maureen was just Handled me very well because she didn't make life miserable for me. She didn't nag, so to speak. She was just led by the Lord and by the counsel of others, and we stayed married.

Plain and simple, we just stayed married. And then what happened to me? Well, it was just an amazing thing. The Lord started to beat me severely about the head and shoulders.

The hound of heaven was pursuing me and making me miserable in a lot of ways. And probably the worst one was when I just started—I

Knew I was separating from the most important thing in my family was their faith. My three boys and my wife, of course, my three boys are all longer in the faith, senior in the faith, so to speak, than me.

As a matter of fact, then finally when I was saved, Jacob and I were baptized together at Lakeside Bible Chapel in Chautauqua Lake in the seaweed and the dead fish.

And it was a great day. So God just was putting so many people in front of me. And, of course, Maureen was always there, my

Best example and steadfast partner. And my sons, it was a hard time for them also.

And then I have to forgive me, my nose keeps running, because I don't know why.

And then there were people that I didn't know, that I never saw again, that said things and did things to me.

And Maureen's mother, Tina Miller, was very instrumental in me understanding the faith. And so I give so much credit to her. She's now with the Lord, but she was a real warrior, a strong woman for the faith.

And the whole Muller family, many of them are serving the Lord in great, powerful ways. And then Pastor Moll, Clyde Moll from Lakeside Bible Chapel, we went there once I was saved. Then I went there for 20 years, and he discipled me. There's a saying about sitting at the feet of somebody, learning from them, and that's what I did with him. And he knows Scripture, and he taught me Scripture, and I was so

Well-grounded. If I was him, I think I would have punched me during the times that I didn't. And I was thinking today,

I used to go to church on the big days, and I would, one time I brought, two times I brought a folded-up magazine of Sports Illustrated in my pocket. And that's how selfish I was. That's how, and I was miserable in church. I know we receive people well and people like me. I was miserable. Because there the gospel was preached, and I knew I was in trouble, but I still wouldn't change yet.

And then as I was saved, we had a wonderful relationship. Old Jack Orr was an old country preacher that came up for Pastor Mo, and he was quite a football player back in the 30s or so, kind of a linebacker kind of a guy. And that was the last guy that saw the old John Staley. He grabbed me by the shirt and got right in my face and said, you're going to hell. You're losing your family. He just started on me, and he was so right.

And then about a week, maybe two weeks later, he preached a sermon in an old church, sat down in the pew and went home to be with the Lord.

So I say that for my puffing up, not to tell a story, an interesting story. It's just I want people to understand how not to live in a lot of ways. And what does my heart good is to see men here at church taking leadership roles, it's huge. You know, there's a saying among people, guys that church is for women and kids, and that's not so. It's our responsibility as men, as young men, to take the lead

And bring the faith forward. Romans 10.15, we don't think of it this way, but probably the ugliest part of our bodies are our feet.

Did you ever think about that? They smell sometimes, they're kind of ugly. But to the Lord, our feet are beautiful. In Romans 10, 15, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

That's how important we are to the Lord to do his work. And that's what I love about this church.

And I'm just looking at myself as being your servant. And we're not in this time of running for political office and that we are not elevating ourselves. This is very humbling, very humbling. And so I just want you to know I'll do the best that I can to be your servant

And that I love you all very much. And As much as the Lord and that agape love, I would just serve you, each and every one of you. There's nobody that's more important than anybody else.

And then the, I forget, what was the name of that movie? Where the guy, Jim Carrey,

He was in the military in Vietnam. He did amazing things. I can't remember his name now.

Forrest Gump. I'm sorry. Yes, Forrest Gump. And so I just want to tell you that I will do what I can, and I love you all. And as Forrest Gump said, that's all I got to say about that. Thank you.

You know, just about the time I'm thinking there could be no stupider thing than to hand Eric a mic and send us up here. He's quoting Forrest Gump. I'm thinking, thank you. Sweet. And then you land there. It's like, oh, no, no, no. That was a safe place to land. Hi, I'm Eric.

I know a bunch of you. A bunch of you know me. Some of you even have known me for more than a couple years, which is awesome.

I'm not going to go through my whole story. There is too much. To quote the Princess Bride.

I walked in here. I had to. I walked in here on May 12th, 2019. And when I did Stacey, my wife and I At the time we had four children We still do

We were looking for a church And I remember very specifically In my heart What I really desperately wanted to find And see if it existed Was a church that took this

And said that's the target. This is the guideline. Specifically, it was actually regarding church leadership. I wanted to find a church that said, this is how we build our leadership. Now, it is tremendously awkward and humbling and

And I don't know, very strange that now I am the one standing here talking about that because that was never, ever, ever my goal. I wanted to sit and submit under church leadership that cared about doctrine and truth and biblical structure. That's what I've wanted. And I

You guys, we have here, like, Pastor Cameron and Pastor Luke are the ones that came up with this whole, like, they're the ones that said, there is a scriptural way to outline church leadership. Let's see if we can't hit that.

John and I didn't have anything to do with this conversation. It was these two that said, wow, this is the way that the scripture says to build church leadership. Let's go there. That takes tremendous humility on their part.

They are handing John and I spiritual authority over this organization. That takes so much trust and also humility. And I don't want that to be missed.

Cameron's making a big deal about, read through 1 Timothy and Titus one, and that's, yeah, wonderful. But like the humility that these guys have showed, thank you.

That's actually what I came here looking for. Seriously, thank you. With that. A couple things.

We did not collaborate, which is fun, because I had actually already pre-planned. Rachel, could you toss up John 15?

Is that my countdown timer or count up timer? You guys don't have a timer and I do.

Shoot. I am the vine in my old Bible. This is my new one. Just got it today. In my old Bible, this is in red. It's black here. So Jesus is saying, I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I am him. He it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my word abides in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

Did I tell you verse 9 too? We'll just stop at 8. One of my, so let's just consider this for a second. I'm going to try to be so brief and I'm so sorry.

All of us are sitting here in a room. I'm assuming most of us are under a hundred and some years old.

And we have an opportunity to live and do something with our lives. Can you imagine

The ability to actually bring glory to the God who spoke, let there be light, who existed before anything else existed, who will exist on the other side of whatever happens here? The one that when he shows up to Moses says, I am. The one that is outside of all space and all time and everything created. He is the only one that is separate. He is the holy, separate. But I can somehow with, I'm 59 years old, and I can somehow with my life glorify the Father. That's ridiculous. Let's say that I live to be 80 years old.

That's a really small amount of time. And yet this Jesus, it's in red in my old Bible.

He says, by this, the father is glorified that you bear much fruit, but let's back up. In verse five, it says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he is that bears much fruit. What a weird way of saying that.

It's possible to bear fruit. So here's what I'm asking of you. And here's what my prayer will be for you.

Let's pray for each other for the strength to abide in the vine. What if in my life, I was able to, by God's grace, abide in the vine and have strength and bear fruit? And then one day, when we get to the other side, we can all stand there and say, we brought glory to the Lamb.

Like, we can do that together. And my prayer is that you, Stan, will be able to have the power to abide so that when you, in any mercy that God gives to you, will be able to look upon his face and he will, by grace, look back at you and say, welcome into my presence.

And yet we could do that and if we do that we bear much fruit and if we bear we get the opportunity to bring glory to the one who sits on the throne guys that's I don't know okay I wanted you to know a little bit about who I am that's a little bit about at least what's in my heart of like,

Did I get shut off? No. I don't blame you, Connor. One last thing that I actually did want to mention, because

As I said, this is terribly, terribly awkward and weird. And I spend a lot of time on this stage, and this is by far the weirdest I've ever felt on this stage.

I would love to publicly say, I am not an island. John, I did not come to salvation at 44 years old or walk down the aisle the first time at 44 years old. I don't remember ever not being in church or not professing to be a Christian. I don't remember ever being there.

Doesn't mean I've always lived like a Christian, But as far as what I believed in my head and knew in my heart, I don't remember ever living there.

But my dad is standing here, and he made sure that I knew what the scripture said while growing up. My uncle here, who was my employer for the majority of my life and has been a very close friend, is sitting here. And he has had tremendous influence on who I am today. Their father was a man of prayer

That was my next door neighbor and he had tremendous influence over who I am today. My cousin is now my partner and he has tremendous influence in his example and being a faithful Christian and godly man

Speaks loudly in my life. He's a wonderful example to me. My wife, just recently this week, has challenged me, Eric, this was what you said you would do, and this is what you need to do. You're going to stick to your word. Thank you.

I say all that because I want you to know, man, you guys, we have influence in other people's lives.

I'm not an island. There's nothing special about me. I am what actually, I am a product. I am a product of people's faithfulness, I am a product of people's prayer, and I am a product of God's mercy. And that is it.

I think I can land on that, is it? Yeah. Thank you. Can you move your chairs this way, guys? I'm going to, right now, what we're going to do is we're going to lay our hands on John and Eric and pray for them. I'd like to invite first up stacy and maureen to come up with, both john and eric and then anyone else from, really anyone else if you're here in support of either eric please come up and join them if you're on leadership team here if you just love john and eric and want to come up and support them like we're looking for anyone who wants to come up. We're just going to surround them in prayer. Could I make a request for Orange Room? Yes. To come up? Yes. Can someone run down and get Orange Room kids to come up?

Lorena? Thank you. Oh, and Eric's kids? Yeah. You can come around the middle too, guys. Or come around the front if you need to.

No, no. Lord Jesus Christ, Chief Shepherd, Overseer of our souls, you are the head of this church. You have bought her with your own blood. You hold her in your hand. And you have promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against her. We come to you now, not trusting in these men, not trusting in ourselves, but trusting in you. Every good and perfect gift comes from you and today we thank you for the gift of shepherds, we bring both john and eric before you and ask you to do in them and through them what only you can do,

Father make these men men of your word let your word dwell in them richly Give them a hunger for your word, for wisdom to rightly handle it, and courage to teach it, even when unpopular.

When they counsel, let them speak your truth and not merely their opinions. When they correct, let it be with gentleness and with scripture in hand. Keep them from error and guard them lord against false teaching and make them faithful watchmen over the doctrine of your church.

Lord, you told Joshua to be strong and courageous, not because he was strong, but because you were with him. Speak that same word to John and Eric now. You have not given them, Lord, a spirit of fear, but one of pop, of love, and of self-control. And so we ask you to break every fear that would make them less faithful. The fear of man, the fear of conflict, the fear of failure, the fear of disappointment. When it would be easier for them to stay silent give them boldness when it would be easier to look away give them the nerve to pursue when wolves come lord make them stand, and keep their courage humble let them never lord it over your people but lead as servants eager and willing as examples to the flock. Guard them from pride when they've praised and from bitterness when they're criticized.

Father, we lift up Maureen and Stacy. We thank you for their faithfulness and their willingness to walk this road with their husbands, strengthen their marriages, Lord, protect them from the enemy who would love to strike the shepherd by striking his home. Give these couples deep joy in each other and in you. Lord, we pray for their children. Let them see, Lord, in their fathers, a living picture of what it means to love Jesus and to serve his church. Let this calling be a blessing to their families and not a burden. Help John and Eric remember that their home is their first congregation.

Lord, the work of a shepherd is hard. There will be late night calls, hospital rooms, hard conversations and burdens that they can't share. Sustain them, give them rest, keep them close to you in prayer. Guard their hearts and their eyes. Keep above reproach. Protect them from temptation and from schemes of the enemy. Bind them, Lord, together in unity with their fellow elders so that this church is led by men who are of one mind in Christ.

And now, Father, in obedience to your word, and with the affirmation of this church, we set apart John and Eric as elders, Conduit Ministries.

Lord Jesus, they are yours. This church is yours. Fill them with your spirit. Keep them faithful to the end. And when you, the chief shepherd, appear, may they receive the unfading crown of glory. To you, Lord, be glory in the church. And in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. In the strong name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.