Life of Paul Part 17 - The Wisdom of Elders

Good morning, everybody.

Hey, it's great to have you here. Hey, let's take a Bible and open it together. Acts chapter 14. We're going to be continuing in our study of the life of the great man, the Apostle Paul.

Acts chapter 14 will be coming there in just a minute. As most of you know, I was a hippie back in the 60s. I had long hair and bell bottoms and love beads and the whole nine yards. And back in the 60s, there was a mantra. That most of us as hippies followed, it was coined for the first time by Chicago seven activist, Abby Hoffman.

And it went simply like this. Don't trust anybody over 30. Some of us remember that. Now, you know, 30 years later, what we have seen is that this was not just a passing fad that that we live in a world today that still has a clear and unmistakable bias towards youth and towards young people. And I'm not here trying to say that that's bad. I'm just here to say that when we look in the Bible, we find God presenting to us a different outlook on things, a different perspective, a balance to our cultural bias for everybody and everything young. And indeed, it exists.

Just look at television, just look at advertising, just look at marketing. But what does God really have to say? Well, God talks in the Bible about a worldview that espouses the wisdom and the value of elders. And this is what we want to talk about today, because we're going to see this very principle on display in our passage today from the life of the Apostle Paul. So we want to talk about that. And then, as always, we want to bring that into the 21st century and say, Well, what difference does that make to you and to me? So here we go.

A little bit of background. Remember, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas are out doing itinerant preaching. They are on what we call today Paul's first missionary journey. Paul left Antioch in Syria. He's gone over to Cyprus, and then he's gone up to Perga. He's gone to Antioch, to Iconium, to Lystra, and now he's gone to Derby. Now in Antioch, he got thrown out of town. In Iconium, he got thrown out of town.

In Lystra, he got virtually stoned to death. And he's gone to Perga now, and as verse 21 here says, he's led a lot of people to Christ. Okay, well, Paul has pretty much reached the zenith of his first missionary journey.

It's pretty much over, and it's time now to go home, to go back to Antioch in Syria. And there's two ways to get there. He can either start at Derby, where he already is, simply go to Tarsus, which was his hometown, see his mom and his dad, and then go on to Antioch. That's the fast way to get home.

And the other nice thing about going home like that is you don't go back through all these towns where people would love to have another opportunity to schwack at you again, right? Okay, the other way to go home is to go back through each one of these towns, to go start at Derby, go back to Lystra, go back to Iconium, go back to Antioch, back to Perga, and then sail for home. Which way do you think the apostle Paul chose? Well, of course, he chose the hard way. That's Paul. But it wasn't just because it was hard that he decided to go this way.

Let's read and see what happens. Chapter 14, verse 21, middle of the verse. It says, And then leaving Derby, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. You mean all these towns where people wanted to get at him again?

Yeah. Why did he do it? Verse 22, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. You see, Paul understood that in every single one of these cities, there were young new followers of Christ. Most of them he had led to Christ himself. He felt a responsibility to these folks not to leave them floundering, but to go back, and as verse 22 says, to strengthen them and to encourage them to remain true to the Lord. Paul went this way, folks, because he had the heart of a shepherd. And a shepherd doesn't put his welfare first.

He puts the welfare of the sheep first. And that's why Paul did what he did. Well, when he went back to these cities, one of the things Paul did to help these young believers grow strong and stay strong in the Lord is he set up some systems. And one of the systems he set up was a system of spiritual leadership in each of these churches.

Look at verse 23. It says, And Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting, Paul and Barnabas committed those elders to the Lord, in whom they, the elders, had put their trust. The spiritual leadership system that the Apostle Paul put in place in each of these churches was that he appointed elders for them. And we want to stop for a moment and let's talk about this whole process and these elders that Paul appointed. Now, the Greek word elder that's translated elder here is the Greek word presbyteros. We get our English word presbyterian from this word.

A presbyteros in Greek literally just simply means an old man, an aged man, an AARP member. This is who we're talking about here. Now, Paul chose these men and he gave them the spiritual leadership of each of these churches. And in doing this, Paul didn't come up with this idea out of the blue.

Oh, no, Paul knew the Bible. And in the Bible, in every age, this is how God has set up leadership. Moses, Numbers 21, out in the wilderness with all these Israelites.

What did he do? God said to Moses, Moses, choose 70 elders to help you rule the people. Once they went into the Promised Land, God instructed Joshua, once you go in, Deuteronomy 21, I want you to set up elders to rule over every city in the Promised Land. In the New Testament, we find that every synagogue, whether in Israel or out of Israel, was governed by a group of elders.

And so right here, the apostle Paul, we see, is simply following the biblical model of appointing New Testament church elders everywhere he went to rule over those churches. Now, we need to realize that God's choice to put senior people in positions of spiritual leadership, that that is a deliberate act of God, that is an intentional act of God. And the reason God did this is because of God's worldview on older, mature believers. Listen, Leviticus 19, verse 32, rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and thereby revere your God. Proverbs 23, verse 22, listen to your father and do not despise your mother when they are old. My goodness, if you listen to them at any time, it ought to be when they're old.

Why? Because that's when they got enough wisdom to help you. And the reason God tells us to respect and esteem older people who have grown older in the Lord is because they have acquired wisdom over living all of those years, and they can dispense that wisdom to us and keep us from making a lot of stupid mistakes if we'll just listen. They say, but Lon, you certainly understand that just because a person gets old doesn't automatically mean they get wise. Well, you're right. Absolutely.

I agree with you. Sometimes when people get old, all they get is crotchety, and I understand that. But if we're growing older in connection with the Lord, if we're walking with God as we grow older in humility and with teachability, it is certainly true that in most cases, as we experience things and as we age, God grants us wisdom. And when it comes to spiritual leadership in the church, God tells us in the Bible to identify people like this who are wise and seasoned and godly, to place them in positions of spiritual oversight and authority and then to listen to them, to follow their lead, to submit to their wisdom or else the results can be disastrous. You know, one of the greatest examples of this principle in action is found in the Old Testament. It's found in 2 Chronicles 10.

You don't have to turn there, but let me tell you the story. There was a King Solomon, of course, who expanded the borders of Israel to the largest they've ever been. And then he died and he left the kingdom to his son, a fellow named Rehoboam. Well, Rehoboam gets all Israel together for their first town meeting. He's a brand new king. And look what the people say to him. They say, verse 4, King, your father put a heavy yoke on us.

So what are they talking about? Well, if you remember, King Solomon was a wonderful builder. He not only built the first temple in Jerusalem, but he built chariot cities all throughout the kingdom. He built all kinds of stuff. And remember, in Israel, there was no slavery. So there wasn't this huge pool of slave laborers to build all this stuff. How did he get it built?

Well, he pressed free men into service and made them go build all these things. And that's what they're talking about. They're going, hey, enough is enough.

And they go on to say, lighten the heavy yoke that your father put on us and we'll serve you. Well, Rehoboam said, give me three days to think about it. Send them home.

And look what he did. Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father, Solomon. And he asked them, how would you advise me to answer these people? The elders said, if you will be kind to these people and if you will give them a favorable answer, hey, they're ready to serve you, King. They'll follow you wherever you want to go.

That's what you should do. Then Rehoboam, the Bible says, went on and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the testosterone team, as I like to call them. And look at the advice they give him. They say, what? Do you tell these people that my little finger is thicker than my father's waist? You say, well, what in the world does that mean? Well, that's Bible talk for you ain't seen nothing yet. It's actually pretty funny. And if you got Bible talk, you'd be laughing now because you'd say that's funny.

Well, OK. But the point is, he's trying to say, hey, you think my father was bad? You think King Solomon was bad?

Friends, you wait till you see me. Now, which advice did he take? Verse 13, then the king rejected the advice of the elders and he followed the advice of the young men.

He answered the people harshly. And as a result, the 10 northern tribes rebelled and placed a new king over themselves. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to Rehoboam. You understand what Rehoboam did?

He split this nation right down the keel. And the really tragic thing is that it didn't have to happen. The tragic thing is that it wouldn't have happened if he had just listened to the wisdom that these elders had. They gave him the right advice.

Folks, here at McLean Bible Church, we are determined that we're going to avoid the mistake that Rehoboam made, which is why we are governed by a group of godly elders. These are men who have not only met the qualifications that the Bible talks about in 1 Timothy 3, but these are men who have demonstrated over years in this church family that they have wisdom, that they have seasoning, that they have godly insight that only comes with age and growing in their walk with God. And I want you to know, I meet with these men. I listen to these men. I submit to the advice of these men. If you don't believe me, you go ask any of them, and they'll tell you that's true.

Because they ask the right questions, and they season things in prayer, and not a single one of them makes knee-jerk decisions. There's not a testosterone team member among them. And they're not young either. If you ever meet one of these people in the hall, you won't see some young buck.

And we love young bucks. But you know, friends, there is a certain wisdom that comes with just living and flying in the cockpit that you can't learn in a seminar. You can't learn from a book.

You don't get in college. It just comes from living. And that's why we have honored this principle to place the wisdom of elders prominently in the way we do leadership in this church.

And I've got to tell you something. A major part of the reason of why this church is where it is today is because of these men. They keep the rest of us from doing dumb things. They keep the rest of us from stepping into quicksand. They keep the rest of us from making foolish mistakes that would hurt and damage this church. And if you ever see one of these guys in the hallway, usually they've got a little gold badge on, you walk up, you shake their head, hug them, kiss them, and just say, I don't even know you, but thank you, thank you for what you do because this church is blessing my life.

And you're the reason that we're doing it as well as we're doing it. Friends, isn't it interesting that the system for leadership that the apostle Paul set up 2000 years ago still works today? I mean, the world has changed, but God's principles have stayed the same. And any church that will lead the way Paul did it in the Bible and told us to do it will find that God will bless us just like he blessed the early church. That's how we do it here.

We respect the wisdom of elders. Now that comes to the end of our passage because we want to ask the most important question of the morning. And the most important question of the morning. Everybody knows it, right? So everybody ready? Yeah. Come on. Here we go. Deep breath. Here we go.

Ready? One, two, three. Wow, that was really good. That was. You say, Lon, so what? I mean, it's wonderful that God tells us here to honor older people. I mean, the reason he tells us that is probably because God's kind of old himself, you know, so that's why he says that. Well, I don't know. But but, you know, that's not simply what this is about.

You say, well, you know, that doesn't help me Monday morning. But, friends, we're not just talking about wisdom that comes with years that elders bring to the table and running a church. We're also saying here that God wants to give you and me wisdom that comes with years of walking with him, that we can bring to the table and running our families, that we can bring to the table and running our businesses, that we can bring to the table running government agencies or military units or whatever the case may be. God doesn't want us to find six or seven men who are have the wisdom of elders and then stop there. He wants every single one of us to be in process of growing into these kind of men and women.

You understand? He wants you to be at the point where somebody one day will look at you and go, wow, now there's a wise woman. There's a wise man. So I want to share with you today in closing some of these lessons that I hope you will inculcate into your life. Lessons that I've learned in 53 years of living, 30 of them walking with the Lord. Lessons that have come with age that I hope will make you a wiser person. I learned most of these things the hard way, friend. I don't want you to learn them the hard way like I did.

Maybe by talking about them, that'll help. Here we go. Number one, what are some of these lessons of wisdom and age? Number one, I've learned people are the most important thing in the world. You know, when Paul met with the elders of the Church of Ephesus for the very last time, here's what he said to him. Acts 20, verse 28. He said, Keep watch over the flock over which the Lord has made you elders. Be shepherds of the Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

Now, isn't it interesting? Here's the apostle Paul giving final instructions to these leaders at the Church of Ephesus. Isn't it interesting where his focus is? You don't hear him mention a thing about budgets or buildings or programs or attendance figures or numbers of baptisms or denominations.

None of that. Where is Paul's focus? He said, Take care of the sheep. Take care of the flock. Protect and guard these people, these precious people that Jesus died for on the cross.

That's where his focus is. Now, I might have known that when I was younger in my head. But I got to tell you, it has taken the passing of years for me to get it in my heart, in my spirit.

I think I've finally gotten it, but it took a long time for me to get it. And I made a lot of mistakes and hurt a lot of people along the way until I did get it. And that's why here at McLean Bible Church, our number one core value is people matter to God.

Not buildings, not programs. People matter to God and they matter to us. It's how we try to do everything we do in this church, putting people first, because that's wisdom. We live in a culture that doesn't do this. Friends, God wants you and me to go out there and represent a different set of values to this culture that people are first.

Number two, the second lesson I learned in 53 years of living is that every hill is not worth dying on. Now, let me read to you Luke Chapter four. All the people in the synagogue were furious at Jesus. This is in Nazareth, his hometown, and they drove him out of town and intended to throw him off the cliff that the town was built on. But Jesus walked right through them and went on his way. I mean, listen, these are people who are rejecting Jesus. They're trying to kill him. They're throwing off his authority as the Messiah. I mean, don't you think Jesus could have called out lightning from heaven?

Kaboom! They'd all be gone. Don't you think when they tried to throw him off this cliff that he could have called 10,000 angels to come and schwack him? Yeah, he could have.

Jesus didn't do that. You know why? His attitude is, hey, I could win this fight if I wanted to, but this isn't a hill worth dying on. Let him keep the hill.

I'll just go about my business. You know, when you're young, when you're macho, you think every hill is a hill worth dying on. I've been there. You know, nobody takes a hill from you. You understand what I'm saying?

I've been there. You know what I've learned as I've gotten older? Yeah, there are some hills worth dying on, but there's a whole lot less of them than I used to think. And smart people don't waste all their resources trying to hold on to hills that don't even matter. Let somebody else have it.

Who cares? Save your resources for the hills that really matter. And there just aren't as many as I used to think. You'll be smarter if you'll learn to realize not every hill is worth dying on. Number three, I've learned with God, timing is everything.

This one's been a really hard one for me to learn. I got to tell you that. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 1, there is a time for everything and a season for everything under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time for this and a time for that. And one of the things I've had to learn as I've gotten older, friends, is that everything doesn't have to be done yesterday. I have learned, Isaiah 55 9, God's ways are not our ways. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. And may I add, God's timing is never our timing. And you know what? I have been ahead of God so many times. I mean, right idea, but just about 10 steps ahead of the timing of God and made a mess out of so many crazy things. Smart people learn to live in neutral.

You know what I mean by that? The motor's running. You're ready to put it in first and rip the clutch. But God says, no, no, no, I'm working on some stuff. You just sit there and you just be content to be in neutral. And when I want you to pop the clutch, I'll call you.

Smart people learn that's OK. Smart people learn to be very comfortable just sitting in neutral for a month, for a year, for two years. Now, I'm not real good at this, but I've had to learn to be. While the timing of God matures, because with God, what do we say?

Timing is everything. You know, a while back, some good friends of Brenda and mine gave us a gift certificate to go eat at this really fancy French restaurant. I mean, I've never been to a restaurant, a French restaurant quite this fancy.

So we went and we sat down and the French waiter came over and, you know, he took our order. And then we waited and we waited and waited. And I'm not the most patient person anyway. But but on top of that, I had fasted all day, saved all my calories for dinner, and I was starving. And the food's not coming.

It's not coming. A couple of times I gave the old evil eyeball, you know, to my waiter who just completely ignored me. And finally, when he came by the table once, I stopped him because my attitude was kind of like, you know, what is the holdup here? And I stopped him and I said to him something like, where is the food?

I mean, we've been here a long time. Where is the food? And he looked at me and he said, sir, he said, we have a chef here.

If you want fast food, go to McDonald's. I tell you, friends, nobody can insult you like a Frenchman. But I really learned something.

I learned something that night. I learned that chefs are never in a hurry. Chefs take it slow. Chefs let it simmer. Chefs have a timing for everything and you're not going to get it till their timing's right.

Period. McDonald's, they don't have timing to anything. They just slap it on the grill.

You want it quick? Go there. But you want it right, you go to where a chef is. But you better be willing to wait because they simmer things. Friends, may I tell you that in running the universe, God is not a cook at McDonald's. God is a chef, which means he lets things simmer, which means he has perfect timing when every little piece has fallen into place and you're not going to get God to move before then. And if you and I try to move before then, all we're going to do is gum up the works. Man, I've had to learn this the hard way, that smart people learn to wait on God's timing.

Smart people learn to rest in God, to stay in neutral till the timing of God is matured. And when it has, everything goes perfect. You may be sitting here today going, man, I'm so frustrated.

I need this and I need that. Why isn't God doing this? And come on now, why isn't that happening? Hey, friends, neutral, neutral, get comfortable in neutral. God hadn't forgotten about you, but he's a chef and you're not going to rush him. So you just live in neutral when it's time to pop the clutch.

He'll tell you, believe me. And until then, just get real comfortable sitting there with the motor purring, just waiting for further orders. I've had to learn that. Number four, I've learned that in life, some failure is a good thing.

Some failure is a good thing. Listen to what David said. David said, Psalm 119, verse 67, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word. So he goes on to say in verse 71, it was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your way. Now, if you want a really un-American statement, you just heard it.

It was good for me to be afflicted. I don't know an American who would ever make a statement like that because in our culture, we don't think it's good to be afflicted. We think as Americans that failure and loss and suffering is the worst thing that can ever happen. And it's not part of what is due us as Americans.

That is our culture. But, folks, when we look in the Bible, we find a completely different outlook. We find the Bible telling us that some failure, some loss, some setback, some suffering is a good thing. You say, well, how can you say that?

Watch. Jesus said, whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. And how do we get to the place that we become humble people?

Let me tell you, not through success. Success never humbled anybody. It's failure and loss that brings us to the end of our self. It's suffering and heartache that drives us to our knees. It's failure that forces us to depend upon God. It's loss and setbacks that humble our high opinion of ourselves. And let's do a little bit of logic here.

Follow me. If God wants to bless every follower of Christ, and He does, and if God blesses the humble, and that's what Jesus just said, and if failure is what causes us to become humble, and that's true, then some failure in life is a good thing because it humbles us so that God can bless us. Friends, there are some doorways to the blessing of God that you can only get through by crawling on your belly.

The door is only about four inches or five inches high. You can't walk through it. You've got to crawl through it. And on the other side is huge blessing from God. But you've got to crawl on your belly through it.

And the only thing that gets you and me on our belly is failure. Trust me, I know I've had to crawl through some of those doors. Now, I didn't want to crawl through them. Frankly, I didn't like crawling through them. But when I got on the other side, I said, wow, wow, that was really good I went through that door.

But it was God getting me on my belly through heartache that got me through the door. You know, there was a Nike commercial a couple of years ago during the Olympics, real simple commercial. And here was the tagline. It simply said this, you don't win silver, you lose gold. Now, that's an incredible statement because whether we realize it or not, what we are hearing in this commercial is a defining value of modern American society.

What this commercial is saying is you dope. You didn't win the silver medal, you dope. You lost the gold medal. There's no value in having the silver medal.

If you didn't get the gold medal, you're a loser. Welcome to America. And friends, we live in a culture like that. And you know what's happened? A culture that says all failure is bad.

There's no redeeming lessons to be found in failure or loss at all in America. And that has creeped into the church. Just look at televangelists. Listen to Christian radio. All sickness, all failure, all setback, all loss is of the devil and completely out of the plan of God for your life. God would never want that for you.

And so what we need to do is when it comes to prosperity, we need to name it and claim it. If in doubt, cast it out. You understand? And there's a book that's out there been written called God Wants You Well, the premise of which is all sickness has nothing to do with God. Well, I'm sorry. I've been thinking about writing a book entitled Sometimes God Wants You Sick.

Now, I don't think I'd sell a lot of copies, but that is a biblical perspective. Yes, sometimes God wants you sick. Sometimes God wants you to fail. Sometimes God wants there to be setback and loss and struggle in your life and my life.

Why? Because there are some places God can't take us to on our belly. And that's biblical.

And that's right. And none of us want to hear that. But, friend, that's what the Bible teaches. And maybe you're here today and you're going through some really hard times in your life and you're saying, what's wrong? I mean, I can't find a thing I've done wrong.

You know, where God's punishing me. I mean, has God forgotten about me? Has God forsaken me?

Does God not listen to me anymore? Is the Bible a hoax? Is this whole Christianity thing not real?

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, time. I'm here to tell you, you may be and you're suffering right smack dab in the middle of the will of God. Right smack where God wants you. Don't you buy into an American view of Christianity. You buy into a biblical view of Christianity. And, friend, suffering is part of it. Some failure in life is a good thing. I've learned that.

Some of the best places God's ever taken me. He took me by the path of failure. They said, Lon, how in the world can anybody in their right mind look at failure like this? Well, because of number five.

Number five is the secret. And here's what it is. I've learned that for followers of Jesus Christ, Romans 8 28 always comes true. What does Romans 8 28 say? All things work together for good to those who love God. Now, God's not saying all things are good.

Don't get him wrong. What God is saying is he will take the good, the bad and the ugly. He'll take the things you do understand and the things you don't understand. He'll take the things that make sense to you and the things that don't make any sense to you. And by the time he's through with them, give him some time.

Trust him. And every single one of those things is going to come out for your blessing and your benefit. I tell you, friends, in 30 years of walking with Jesus, I have learned this always, always, always is the case. But I'll be honest and tell you, there's some times I've really doubted God on this. I've had things come in my life where I've said, Lord, in my wildest, I cannot see in my wildest imagination how you could ever turn this into anything good.

Well, let me inform you of something. I'm not God. Isn't that good?

That's wonderful. And God took every one of these things that I couldn't see what he was going to do with them. And today I shake my head affirmatively about every one of them and go, you know what, God, I had to eat my words. You were right. I was wrong.

Look what you did with these. Friend, if you got something in your life that you're looking at as a follower of Christ and you're going, there is no way under the sun God could ever turn this into any good. I got news for you. You're not God.

That's good. And if God says he's going to turn it into something good, he's going to do it in a way that you're not smart enough to figure out. He doesn't want you to figure it out. He's not asking you to figure it out. All he wants you to do is trust him.

He's got to figure it out. Trust him. I've never seen this fail in 30 years of walking with God. I've never seen it fail. And it won't fail for you either. And that's why failure is not a problem. That's why loss is not a problem. That's why setbacks aren't a problem.

Why should they be? If God's going to take them all and turn them into good anyway, what is the problem? I've learned this. May I say that if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus as your real and personal savior, that this promise comes along with trusting Christ. Now, this promise wasn't made to every American, and this promise wasn't given by God to every human being alive. It is expressly for followers of Jesus Christ. And when you give your life to Christ, guess what? You get this promise as part of the package. It's wonderful. I mean, you talk about a golden parachute. When God promises you, he's going to see to it that every single thing that enters your life turns out for good. Hey, golden parachute, forget the one at work.

It's puny compared to this one. This is the best golden parachute in the world. And you get it when you give your life to Jesus.

Man, I sure hope you do that. Why in the world would anybody walk away from a promise like this operational in their life? Something to think about. Well, let's summarize.

We're done. God wants us to respect the wisdom of elders. But God, more than that, wants you and me to acquire the wisdom of elders in our lives to become true men and women of seasoned wisdom and faith.

And what are some of the lessons God wants us to learn? Number one, that people are the most important thing in the world. Number two, that every hill's not worth dying on. It's okay to leave a hill. Just go around it. Number three, that with God, timing is everything.

Get comfortable living in neutral. It's okay. Number four, that some failure in life is a good thing. And we don't have to worry about failure because number five, Romans 8 28 always comes true for followers of Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know if this was helpful to you. I had fun preaching it, but I don't know if you all have benefited at all from it.

I hope you did. But if we would follow these five simple little principles, can you imagine how it would change our life? We live in a world where people are not number one. We live in a world where people want to die on every hill. We live in a world where people don't think failure is a good thing. We live in a world where people despair when things go wrong in their life because they don't have any hope that these things are going to turn around into good. We live in a world where everybody's in a hurry.

Nobody's willing to wait on anything. Friends, and if we go out living these five principles, we go out as representatives, not of an American worldview, but a biblical worldview. Let's go out and live like good Christians following a biblical worldview, not just good Americans following an American worldview. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for talking to us about right down where we live, because, yeah, it's true.

Every single thing we've talked about today, our American culture has backwards. And, God, my prayer is that you would help us be better followers of Christ in our worldview and worry more about what you tell us in the Bible than what our culture tells us. Help us go out and represent to our culture a worldview that reflects the heart, the attitude, and the reality of God in an accurate way. Thank you for the elders you've given us in this church, Lord. May we respect and honor them. They're a gift from you. But, Lord, help every one of us aspire to grow and be such people in our own lives, men and women that others would look to in the years ahead and say, wow, what a person of wisdom.

I need to listen to them. Lord, make that our goal that we try to live up to and work in our lives to make it a reality, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. .