The Great Commission and Your Vocation

Thanks for listening to the latest podcast from Him We Proclaim with Pastor John Fonville. In this special series, we'll explore how the gospel speaks to our identity, our calling, and our confidence in Christ. Drawing from passages in Luke, Matthew, Ephesians, 1 Peter, and Jude, Pastor John unpacks themes like grace and vocation. The power of God's Word and the unshakable assurance we have in Christ's favor and goodness. Whether you're struggling with your calling, seeking clarity on your role in the church, or simply needing encouragement.

These messages will remind you of the sufficiency of Christ and the hope we have in the gospel. Let's listen now to the Great Commission and your vocation. Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 28. Verses 18 through 20. Which is what you just heard.

The Grey Commission. What is the Grey Commission?

Now, most people would think, what is the Great Commission? And that sounds obvious. Duh, right?

Well, it's actually not obvious. Because to understand the Great Commission, You can't well, let me say it like this first, to understand the Great Commission. You have to understand that Christ visible church Ha ha. A vocation. We looked at this last week, the doctrine of vocation.

Christ's Visible Church has a vocation. All right, so with that. thinking that To understand what is the Great Commission, you can confuse the vocation. of a visible church with your vocations as a believer. And that's what happens typically when you think about the Great Commission.

Is that people think the Great Commission is what you do as your private activities go? Go away now. Out into this world as a minister for missions. That's not the Great Commission. Personal evangelism.

is not The Great Commission. You had this question, perhaps, asked you before. Are you a great commission, a great commission Christian?

Now we're going to come back to that at the end. And I'm going to ask you that question. And I think you'll be able to answer it definitively. But the visible church has a vocation. It's a very specific calling.

Which is what a vocation is. We saw that last week, calling. has callings. Everything from God has a calling. The visible church has a specific calling which is defined by the Great Commission.

The Great Commission of Matthew 28 establishes this. specific The specific mandate Floor Christ Visible church. And it's the official ministry that we looked at last week. All right, so it's not visible churches. specific official ministry That shapes.

believers for their Multitude Of vocations, their callings to go into the world.

So we're going to talk about the Great Commission. Plus The Christians' vocations. And how I r How it connects together. What is the Great Commission? And how does the Gray Commission relate to these vocations of believers.

That's the question. All right, so here's the first thing we're gonna do. I'm gonna give you a quick and brief overview. on the Gray Commission. And then second, I'm going to show you how that relates to your vocations that God has given you.

All right. Look at Matthew chapter 28. Verses 18 through 20, the Great Commission has three. I'm calling it this: the Great Commission has three great plans. Heart.

All right, here's the first one. The Great Commission has a great Uh announcement. Second. The Great Commission has a great Mandate. And third, the Great Commission has a great Promise.

So it has three parts. Here's the first one. Look at verse 18. The Great Commission. And what is the Great Commission?

The Great Commission has a great announcement. Jesus says, He comes up to His disciples and He says to them, He says, All authority has been given to me. All right. in heaven and on earth. The Great Commission, what is it?

It begins with a great Announcement. What is it? Jesus has All authority. And it's been given to him. given to him.

It's a gift. Mored. Jesus has all authority where? What is his sphere of his kingship? What does he say?

In heaven. And on earth. The whole entire created World is his authority. That's his sphere of kingship. He rules the whole thing.

Why is this? Why does Jesus begin with this great commission? Jesus, as the resurrected Messiah, is claiming that he has all power and he has all right to exercise it. Example, but you're thinking, well, but didn't he already have all power? Because we just heard from the scripture readings today, Matthew chapter 8, he could walk out into a stormy sea and he could command it to be still, and instantly it was like glass.

That's authority and power, isn't it? He could tell. a bunch of pigs, his creation. He could tell the demons go into those pigs, run them down the hill, and crash on local towns' economy, and they could beg him, please don't come back here. That's authority, that's power.

But Jesus says, here he has all authority and power. What's the difference? Because he has defeated death. He's not subject to death. Ever again.

He has all authority. He is the resurrected Messiah. He is the Son of Man from Daniel 7. You see. And so, having accomplished this saving work that the Father has sent him to do, he has received the reward for his labors.

He has been exalted. We'll come back to that in a moment. But why does Jesus begin with this great announcement? Listen carefully. Too often, folks begin the Great Commission with Jesus' mandate, go make disciples of all nations.

That is not, verse 19 is not where the Great Commission starts. The Great Commission, that's a great mistake because it confuses law and gospel. Jesus grounds his mandate to make disciples. On his unlimited power and his right to exercise it. The gospel comes first.

Now the question is why? Two reasons. If there's no message. There's an omission. Before there's a mission for Christ's visible church, there has to be a message.

As Michael Horton says, he says, there's no reason to go into the world. as Christ's ambassadors apart from The work that he has already accomplished. There's nothing to give people. There's nothing to motivate the mission. There's nothing to undergird in.

and propel the mission, sustain the mission. Empower the mission. And Michael Horton says, he says, the great commission doesn't begin with an imperative. make disciples. It doesn't begin with a plan.

It doesn't begin with a strategy. It doesn't begin with the church's strategy for victory over the world. The Great Commission begins with a great announcement that Christ has conquered sin and death. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So Jesus sends an announcement as good news. What is it? What is Christ's visible church as his embassy on this earth proclaiming to the world, the whole world? Listen. The message is this.

Jesus is the Christ. He's the risen Messiah and he has fulfilled everything. How? By his obedient life. and his death.

His obedient death, by his burial, by his victorious resurrection, he has conquered sin. He has conquered the novel. He has conquered death. He has overcome. He has fulfilled everything.

He has cried out in triumph on the cross. It is finished. He has been given everything by his father for his perfect obedience to the mission the father has sent him to fulfill and he's fulfilled it there's nothing left And Matthew says, he is the risen Lord of all creation. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is the exalted, ascended king, right hand of the Father, which means what?

All authority in heaven and on earth. This is how Paul says it in Philippians chapter 2, verse 8. He says, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. From four. This reason, his obedience.

Listen, God the Father has highly exalted him. for his obedience. He was exalted for his work, for his performance. He was exalted by his father. Listen.

And the Father has bestowed upon him the name which is above everything. Every name. Why? What purpose?

So that, and here's the purpose.

So that at the name of Jesus. Every knee will bow.

Now, Mm-hmm. We'll bow again this morning because I forgot the first bow, but we'll bow again. But listen, what do you do when you come into the presence of a king who has all authority? You just stand up and say, hey, how's it going, bud? When you walk into the presence of a king, you don't even look at him.

And the last, you don't address it neither. Unless he says you can look at him. and you can address him. And Jesus says through us, you can't look at me and you can't address me. Because of his grace and mercy, because he's a king of grace.

He's not a king of judgment to us anyway. More But listen. You're gonna bow your knee And so when you come to church, Get used to it. That's why we do it. We humble ourselves and bow our knees.

And every knee is going to bow. That's not figurative language. That's a physical reality. You're going to bow your knee on the ground one day. And stand before God in human flesh who has All authority and the right to exercise it and praise God, He exercises His authority and power in grace towards us.

But Jesus has been exalted, and this is the message that we take to the world. Every knee is going to bow. Listen, in heaven And on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This message is what we take to the nations. Martin Luther says it like this in Paul's letters, such as in Romans, Galatians, and Colossians.

There are many passages that say God has fulfilled all the requirements. of of God's law for us in Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of the law. of time of all things. Christ is all.

Christ has all. The person who holds on to Jesus in faith will receive the forgiveness of sins. God's law will be fulfilled. Death will be conquered and the devil will be overcome. That person will receive the gift.

of eternal life. Or In this man, Jesus. Oh. is settled. He has fulfilled Everything.

Whoever accepts him Has Everything, as Paul says, you have been given the fullness. of Christ. That's The message that propels the mission. That's the message that is the great announcement. That's what we announced to the world.

Christ has all authority to speak to his creation. He has all authority to forgive sin. He has all authority to conquer death. He has all authority over death and demons. He can command them into pigs.

He can command them to do whatever he wants them to do because he is the resurrected Lord. He has all authority. That's the message. That's the great commission. Second, Jesus has this authority.

Why? Because it empowers and ensures the success of the church's mission. This great announcement is the foundation in its The motivation for everything that Christ's visible church is called to do. Anton B. You have to understand this.

The American evangelical church is awash in a theology of glory. Everything has to be big, everything has to be electric, everything has to be exciting, everything has to be polished, everything has to be perfect, everything has to have size and numbers and money. How big is the budget? How great are the programs? How exciting is the worship?

Right, which is just music. Because the church has replaced Christ's authority with their faith in that stuff. But Jesus says, where two or three are gathered, I'm there. And wherever Jesus is, all his authority and power and his right to exercise it are present. Because the church's mission is not sustained on a theology of glory, but a theology of the cross.

A theology that says the risen Lord of creation has his authority here where his mission is present. And we're going to see what that mission is now, which is the great mandate. Look at verses 19 and 20. Jesus has based upon his great announcement. He says, Go, therefore, therefore, in light of all the authority that I have to empower this mission with this great announcement that the church has been given to proclaim.

Go therefore look and make disciples of all the nations. Baptizing in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And here are just quickly three brief remarks about Jesus, his great. Mandate first is urgent.

Why, as we heard in catechism class this morning, Jesus' mandate to make disciples is urgent. Why? Because all things have been fulfilled in him. All the promises of his first coming, they have been fulfilled. There's nothing left on the time, on the calendar, on the time.

the creation of time, except what? His return. The consummation, everything has been done. Jesus has fulfilled everything. All that's left is his second coming when he returns to judge his enemies and vindicate his people.

And maybe you've asked, well, why doesn't Jesus just return? Because, boy, the world is such a mess, and it is. And the answer is this: that before the consummation of Christ's kingdom, As Michael Horton says, there's a staff. of execution. That's a chilling thought, isn't it?

The state of Alabama just put a criminal to death last week. But there was a temporary stay of execution. That's just a tiny little Blip of glimpse. of this day of execution that is coming. those who reject the authority on the risen Messiah.

He's gracious. Matthew 24, verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. Jesus isn't lame. Why?

He said that all people groups. have a chance to hear the gospel and repent of their sins before it's too late. And so Jesus is giving by his grace. He's giving people An opportunity to to receive him the forgiveness of their sins.

So, this mandate is urgent. Second, this mandate is universal. He said, and it's make disciples of who? All the nations, all people groups. Don't think of this as countries.

Yeah. United States Right? Great Britain. Dan, don't think of it like that. That's not what he's saying.

He's talking about people groups. Within our own country, we have multitudes of different people groups that need to hear the gospel. But Jesus is mandated. Why is he? Why is it universal?

First, because he has all authority. His authority extends, the extent of his jurisdiction extends to the furthest corners of the entire created world. But second, it's universal because it's the fulfillment of. of God's promise to Abraham. The great commission given to the visible church is the fulfillment of Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, where God preached the gospel to Abraham and he gave this promise.

He says, Abraham and you. All the families of the earth will be blessed. That's us. And we're a part of that fulfillment of God's promise here today. Then, third, this mandate is not just urgent.

It's not just universal, it's very specific. Jesus doesn't leave his visible church directionless. He gives specific vocation to his visible church. He specifically tells his visible church to do this. Make disciples.

This this this this this mandate This great mandate is the goal of the visible church's mission statement. You can say like this: verse 18: The visible church's mission is driven by the gospel, good news. Verses 19 and 20 is directed by a specific mandate, make disciples. Just two quick questions. What is a disciple?

What does that mean? A disciple is simply a pupil. Jesus is instructing his visible church, go make lifelong learners. The visible church is a school. Where lifelong learners come who are at various stages of development.

Some are preschool.

Some are, well, babies, right? When we baptize babies, initiate them into the visible church. They're not even preschool yet, but they are learners at that point. They're disciples. But everybody is initiated through baptism into the visible church and becomes.

At various stages of development, lifelong learners. Becoming a Christian. Cakes. A lifetime. Second, how's the disciple made?

How do we do this?

Well, here's the great thing about Jesus. We don't, as a vestry, Michael, right, in the great, we don't have to sit down in vestry meetings each month and go, okay, guys. How are we going to do this thing called church and how are we going to make disciples? What are we going to do next week? What are we going to do in five years?

What's our 10-year plan to make disciples? Jesus doesn't leave us guessing. He clearly specifies the visible church's vocation. He tells us to make disciples. by means of, listen, baptizing verse 19 and teaching verse 20.

Do you know what that is? Word and sacrament. In the context of Christ's visible church. The message in the gospel, Jesus' great declaration of victory because of his life, death, burial, and resurrection and ascension. It doesn't just give rise to the mission of the church, but it determines the means by which this mission is accomplished.

Let me say it like this: the marks of the church, how identify a true church from a false church. Right here, the Great Commission, pure preaching in the gospel, pure administration in the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline, teaching. It's up right here. And listen, those three identifying marks of Christ's visible church, where a true church exists, as Christ's embassy on this earth, giving this great announcement, this great message of the gospel to the nations, where those marks are, that's where the mission is. Marks of the church are the mission of the church.

So somebody says, Hey, hey, Joe. Are you missional? Yes, why? Because I go to Christ's visible church where the true marks of the church are found. The pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of sacraments, and the exercise of faithful church discipline.

That's what it means to be missional.

So that is how the visible church makes disciples. And it just sounds so simple, doesn't it? We baptize them, either babies or adult converts. We baptize them. We initiate them into the church.

Now they become members of the church. And then we teach them for the rest of their life. That's the Great Commission. And if you want to see what the Great Commission looks like in Scripture, just go to Acts chapter 2, verse 42, which is a perfect example of what the Great Commission looks like. In practice, where it says that the early church devoted themselves Right?

Two, word and sacrament. That's what Luke says. That's what the Great Commission looks like. The third part is the Great Promise. You have a Great Announcement, you have the Great Mandate, and you have the Great Promise.

What is it? And look what Jesus says at the end of verse 20. He says I am with you. How long? Always.

Always. Even to the end. I'm the age.

Now, what is interesting about this promise is that Jesus gave it right before he left. Yeah. Yeah. Could you imagine me and the disciples standing there? And Jesus says, hey guys, I'm with you all the way to the end on this thing.

And then all of a sudden, he's gone. Yeah. Okay. I'm not sure about that, right? I mean, really, that's why in the book of Acts.

They're gathered up in the upper room scared to death. Because right before He ascends, they say, oh Jesus, is it this time that the glory of the kingdom's coming? And he says, just wait here. Till power comes from you on high. And then you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Right. Jesus left right after he made this promise. He ascended. But here's the hope that he gives us. He's not left us as orphans.

He's promised to be with us, the visible church, his church, to the end of the age. He assured his disciples, he prepared his disciples for this. The night before he was crucified in John chapter 14 verses 16 through 18, he says, I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. Right? Periclete.

to be with you forever. And who is that? Even the spirit of truth in the world cannot receive because it neither I think that's the only thing that I have done. You know him. for he dwells with you and he will be in you.

And then he says Listen to this. He says, I will not leave you as Orphans. Christ promised to be with his church forever as captained and through the giving, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has promised to make disciples, to build his church, to extend his mission to all nations. To fulfill his promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, to bless us with his presence, the means that he's instituted in the great commission, which has been given to the visible church to preach the gospel, to minister the sacraments, and to exercise discipline, either formative, which this is, it's positive.

Or if you get out of hand, we gotta get the shepherd's crook and pull you back in and say, Stop that and now let's keep going together. Yeah. But listen, where the means of grace are found, there's no doubt that Christ is present. in saving grace and In judgment. Just very, very quickly, I don't even have time to explain it fully, but in Matthew, where you often hear where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them, and everybody goes.

Oh, praise the Lord. There are two or three of us praying, so Jesus is with us. It's not what Jesus is talking about. He's not addressing a prayer meeting. In fact, prayer has nothing to do with that statement that he says.

It's not even in the context. It's actually one of the scariest passages in the entire New Testament. Because the context there is not formative discipline, but it is corrective discipline. And what Jesus says is: if there's a sheep that's gone astray and the church has called him to repentance, and he doesn't or she doesn't repent and come back. Let them be treated as a tax collector.

Which isn't unbeliever who needs repentance and who needs Jesus. And then Jesus tells his disciples if the church Leadership in the visible church agrees on that judgment about that particular unrepentant professing believer in Christ's visible church. Christ says, where two or three are gathered, what witnesses to this unrepentant life. I And there giving my stamp of approval to that judgment. I am judging that unrepentant professing believer.

That's what he's saying. That's why means of grace. Where is Christ present? Where he is promised to be present. You don't want him present at all times like that.

You want him present in peace. And grace. But here's the point as we wrap this up and get to our vocation. We need Need a more profound understanding and dependence upon the work and power of the Holy Spirit. We truly do.

He has been so truncated in certain ecclesiastical traditions. that other ecclesiastical traditions have overreacted to that and just become almost deistic. There's no power of the gospel apart from the Holy Spirit. But second, we also have to recover this profound understanding and dependence upon the means of grace that the Holy Spirit uses to deliver Christ and all his saving benefits to us. Word and sacrament.

And the Great Commission is bookended with good news. It begins with Jesus' great announcement, and it concludes with his great promise. Empowered by his authority and accompanied by his presence, the great commission of the visible church. cannot fail.

Now As we reflect on this overview of the Great Commission, we see that the visible church has a specific vocation defined in the Great Commission. But I know you're thinking If the Great Commission isn't the mission of the visible church, what's my role? All right. Do I just come to church and get the mission? And just sit there as a passive recipient and never do anything, just be a passive spectator, because the mission is the visible church.

What do I do? What's my role? How does this fit together? We're not made for a mission. Am I not supposed to go and tell the whole world about the gospel and witness it and evangelize and share the gospel with other people and?

Do these kinds of things? The answer is simple and it's good news and it liberates you from guilt. Listen carefully. If you distinguish the vocation of Christ's visible church. With your individual virtual vocations in the world, there's no problem.

Let me say it like this. The church is both, and I've said it before, the church is both a people. and a place. A place is not the physical building. The place is the formal gathering of God's people where God comes, the Holy Spirit comes, the means of grace.

Word, sacrament, and discipline to serve and shape his people to make disciples. As a people, the church is a people, believers then leave the gathered assembly on Lord's Day to fulfill their various vocations in the world where God has called them. This is where your good works go. First of all, if you're married to your wife. Second, if you have children, to your children.

to your home. Here's just a tiny little illustration. Catherine was out of town this weekend. We had a house full of boys. With The grandma Mamie Epperson.

The kitchen was an absolute tornado wreck. Ha ha ha ha ha. Because it's filled with a bunch of boys. And boys are messy, and boys don't clean up after themselves. And so I walked into the kitchen last night, I went, oh no.

Look at this mess. And I thought for a split second, I'll just let Kathy do it when she gets home. That's so sexist, isn't it? That's just so bad. That is horrible Pop, pop, pop, pop.

And I thought, You know what? What is my, and I thought to myself, what are you preaching on tomorrow? What is your vocation? Why don't you? Love your wife, love your boys, love your grandmother, love your mother-in-law.

And serve your family. and take 10 minutes Wash out the dishes, load them up, put them in the dishwasher and wash them. And I thought, oh, that's a good idea.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you for reminding me very gently of that, that I'm preaching on this tomorrow. That isn't my vocation. How was I empowered by that to do that?

It certainly wasn't from my flesh. Because I was tired, you know, I thought I got to get up early and I got to go to church. And I mean, I had a million excuses for not doing it. And I said, I'm not going to think like that. I'm going to reject that terrible spirit.

I'm going to do this with joy and be joyful about it because I get to serve my wife. I get to serve my mother-in-law. I get to serve my lazy boys. Get that little. Law digging.

But but but I did it. I did it joyfully. I honestly did. And I was very excited. Wake up this morning and see a clean kitchen.

And she actually, my grandmother, I mean, my mother-in-law saw it, and she was what? She was so happy. And I was happy that she was happy. And that's how vocation works. And I did it simply because I paused for a moment and started to pray as I Lord, help me.

And He just reminded me of how He serves me so richly. And I thought, oh wow. Hmm. Our good works go to our brothers, our sisters, our co-workers, our family members, our neighbors who need them. Christians are called and do many things that the visible church is not called to do.

The place where believers are made salt and light is where God's word is preached in his purity and the sacraments are administered in his purity. The gospel. But the primary place where believers are salt and light is in the world. No, I'm just going to do it, and I shouldn't have done it, but I said a prayer time. I wasn't going to do it, but I was just going to make you laugh, and I just want you to laugh.

So I was thinking about how I could illustrate this, and so I said, okay, you come to church to get salty and to get it lit up.

Now that's terrible. Right. Like, and then you could imagine all the surfer dudes who have certain problems. Oh, dude, we get lit up. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no. That's not what that that's not what the illustration meant. You come to Christ's visible church to get resalted. Why? Because throughout the week, you lose your salt, and you come here, blah.

You come to church to get literally lit up like a Christmas tree so you can go out into the world in your vocations and shine light. But by Saturday night, you're like a flickering wick.

So you gotta come back? and gets salted up again. Get salty again, get tasty again. Get filled with the light again of the gospel so you can go back in your vocation and serve. And so we can say it like this: believers gather to be made disciples, and they scatter to apply their discipleship.

Wearing in all the vocations that you've been given. Saying like this: The great commission is God's gift to you. Your vocations are your gifts to to others. God comes down to us. The Father and the Son, by the Holy Spirit, to us to gift us on the Lord's Day.

And as his gifts come to us and flow through us, we scatter out to give those gifts to our neighbors. That's how the Great Commission and the Great Commandment vocations work together. And the Great Commission undergirds our vocations. The Great Commission establishes a specific mandate for the visible church and its official ministry. But it's this ministry that you come to receive in the Great Commission that shapes you for your various callings and vocations in the world.

The Great Commission makes you a better husband. The Great Commission makes you a better father. The Great Commission makes you a better brother. The Great Commission makes you a better employer, employee. The Great Commission makes you a better whatever it is that your vocation is.

And so, after Holy Communion, as we're about to partake each week, we pray in the post-communion prayer. This is why. Historic Reformation, gospel, Trinitarian grounded liturgies matter. It matters what you do in worship and how you worship. Listen to this post-communion prayer that you're about to pray in a couple minutes.

It's divided into two separate parts. The first part is a trying in God's service to us. The second part is our thankful response and service to others. The first part has to do with the Great Commission. The invisible church's vocation, God's service to us.

The second part has to do with the Great Commandment, the believers' numerous vocations. Having given thanks for God's abundant service to us, we then pray for His grace to go. Go out and serve others. Listen to the prayer. Almighty and ever-living God.

We thank you for feeding us in these holy mysteries with the spiritual food, most precious body and blood of your Son. our Savior Jesus Christ and for assuring us Through the sacrament of your favor and goodness. towards us. How much do we need to have that each week? We thank you for assuring us that we're true members of the mystical body of your Son, the blessed company of all faithful people.

We thank you for assuring us that we're Christians. And we're saved. Members of the body of Christ. We thank you that you've assured us that we're also heirs through hope. What of your everlasting kingdom?

How? By the merits of of the most precious death and passion of your dear son. That's the Great Commission. That's the vocation of the visible church. That is God's service to you that you receive when you come here week after week.

And part two, the great commandment, your vocation.

Now, we humbly ask you, Heavenly Father, to assist us with your grace. What grace? The grace that you just prayed right there. Word and sacrament. assurance of his favor and goodness.

That you're a member of His church, that you're a part of the blessed company of all faithful people, that you're an heir of hope of the everlasting kingdom of God by the merits of his son. That's the grace. We humbly ask you, Heavenly Father, to assist us with your grace. What? That we may continue in that holy fellowship, that's our vocation, and do all the good works.

That you have prepared for us to walk in. You say hunting works, great commandment. Undergirds the Great the Great Commission, undergirds the Great Commandment. You can't You can't confuse them. You can't separate them.

They work together. Gospel? the application of gratitude. Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your visible church. We thank you that we can come here and have the assurance of your favor. and goodness towards us. confirmed week after week. We thank you that we're members of the mystical body of your Son, the blessed company of all faithful people.

We thank you that we're heirs. Through hope. of your eternal kingdom. And we thank you that it's based upon the merits of the most precious death and passion of your dear Son. It's based upon his authority.

All authority that's been given to him, all this is based upon that. And give us grace, we pray. Give us that grace to sustain us, empower us, and to drive us in our vocations. Two. Love and serve our neighbor.

In the vocations, the callings, the good works that you've prepared for us to walk in, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. John Fawnville sends his thanks for listening today. And before we wrap up, can I tell you about an encouraging book you might want to get soon? It's called Hope and Holiness: How the Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity.

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paperback, audiobook, or Kindle. The links are in our podcast descriptions or check out. Just search for Hope and Holiness by John Fonville on Amazon to get a copy for you, and it's a wonderful book to go through with a small group. Him We Proclaim is a ministry of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can find us at paramountchurch.com.

We'll talk again soon.