Sermon Transcript
A couple years ago, my wife Bernice walked into a familiar coffee place. You would know it. It’s known by its good service, its excellent customer care, but on that particular day that she was there, the service was just downright awful. The customer care was terrible, and partly because the 2 employees who were standing there turned out to be brand new employees, and they were engaged in a conversation just among themselves, but also with a friend who had walked in, and so the 3 of them were just talking to each other. Bernice is standing there waiting to get served on, and, you know, they haven’t helped her.
And she waited and waited and waited, and finally one of them walked over and said, you know, how can I help you? And so Bernice gave her drink order, and then once they got it all together, she left the place. And she left the place thinking, you know, those 2 are probably not going to have a job very long unless they kind of change their approach to customer care because basically they were clueless when it came to the whole matter of customer care. Now, you get that, right? If you’re going to have a business that’s going to last, you’ve got to care about your customers.
Employees must care about their customers, just like, you know, at a hospital, hospitals need to care about their patients. Teachers need to care about their students. Parents need to care about their kids, believe it or not. Cat owners need to care about their cats. I mean, you can go on down the list, right?
Neighbors should care about their neighbors and so on and so forth. Basically, we live in a world with a lot of places and a lot of people that extend care to other people. In fact, everywhere we go, there are people who need to be cared for in some way. They need to be loved. They need to be supported.
That would include us. We need to have mercy and grace at times. A kind word would be nice, a thoughtful gesture. Maybe just a word of encouragement or a shoulder to cry on, a course of action, not really sure what to do and somebody comes along and offers some encouragement or advice. Maybe a phone call, that would be nice, a note.
And if nothing else, just somebody who would stop and pray with them. So everywhere we go, there’s that need, that need to be cared for. And for many of us, we have people in our lives we call go-to care people, you know, people that we go to that we know when we’re talking to them, they’re gonna care. So it could be a friend. It hopefully is your spouse if you’re married.
You know that that’s a go-to care person. Your dad, your mom, a neighbor, a coworker. It could be a doctor, I hope. It could be a nurse, a teacher, counselor, a pastor, a coach. It could be a lot of different people.
The one who’s on one of my favorites list is an auto mechanic, and the reason is because it seems like I’m always needing the auto mechanic, just saying. But, you know, we have people in our lives that we can go to because we know they’re going to care, and we turn to them for help. Well, we’re looking today in our finishing study in 1 Peter. We’re down to the last 2 studies. We’ve been studying 1 Peter for a while, and today we come to chapter 5.
We’re going to look at verses 1 to 7. And we come to this section where it just talks about how the church, the church, God’s family, should be a place where people receive care and a place where people give care. And really, if, you know, if we were to put a banner up or something, it could be a banner that just simply says, care happens here. That really would be descriptive of what God wants for his church. This should be a place where care happens.
It should be, you know, like in the fabric of the DNA of the church that, a church should care. Now, would you agree with that? Okay, at least 4 of you did. Yeah, I hope it’s a place that we care, that, you know, people that we’re hanging out with and that sort of thing, that if we need some help, if we need some kind of care, we’re going to be able to find it there. So you care, I care, we all care.
All together we care, and we not only care for each other, but we care about those who are around us. And so, we’re going to take a look at a passage that I think can elevate our care. I think this is a congregation that cares. There’s always room for improvement in all of our lives when it comes to, like, any area, but especially the area of care. And so, we’re going to see this morning really 4 descriptors of the church that cares, or 4 marks of a church that cares.
So, it begins in chapter 5, verses 1 to 4, this way: To the elders among you I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and one who will also share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds, he writes to these people spread throughout Asia Minor, especially the elders at this point. Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you’re willing, as God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. This is the first of 4 matters he’s going to bring up, so stay with me.
Some of you right now are saying, well, this one’s not going to apply to me because I’m not an elder. Stay with me. I think you’re going to enjoy seeing what hopefully is a group of people in this church or any church that can give care. And Peter is saying, you know, elders need to eagerly serve their congregation, the place that God has placed them. And you could actually widen this just to include leaders.
But verse 2 says that elders should be serving eagerly, meaning the opposite is reluctant. So, they’re not reluctant to care, they delight in caring, they delight in helping others and caring for others in whatever ways that they can. A couple of weeks ago, our family was vacationing over in Aptos in that beach area over there. You ever been over there to Seabright Beach? And you can park over there and camp.
Anyway, so we’re over there having a nice time, and they had in the campground some hosts, H-O-S-T-S, right? You ever been to a camp place where they have hosts? Well, we got to know the hosts a little bit. The hosts were there to be responsible for some things, but it was their absolute joy, it was their joy to care. It was their joy to care for the campers and to serve them.
Well, this passage is essentially saying the same thing. If you’re an elder, a presbuteros is the word that’s used there. And that actually, in the Old Testament Scriptures, would define somebody who was old, somebody who was older. But in the New Testament time, it actually came to mean somebody who was not only older, but it could also mean somebody who was serving in a role or an office in the church, a leadership office or role. And so, Peter was appointed by the Lord to serve as an elder, to serve, as you can see here, God’s flock, and he’s writing to the fellow elders that are among these churches throughout Asia Minor.
Peter, who saw Jesus suffer and die, was charged by Jesus to care for God’s flock. You remember that? In fact, you may remember the conversation that Jesus had with Peter after Jesus resurrected and he came back and he was appearing to the apostles, and one of the conversations he had was with the apostles. Several of them had gone back fishing, evidently to their former occupation. And Jesus interrupted that, and he asked Peter a few questions.
In fact, he basically asked the same question over and over. He simply said, do you love me, Peter? You know, 3 times he said to Peter, do you love me? And then he said, well, if you love me, you’re going to shepherd my sheep. You’re going to care for them.
You’re going to feed them. You’re going to lead them. And Peter is saying here, as I’ve come to understand, sheep need a leader. You need to be that kind of a leader, or you see the word shepherd, and the word shepherd, by the way, is the word that we get pastor from. So, an elder is one who was to shepherd or to pastor God’s— as you see it there, verse 2, God’s flock.
And we pastor or shepherd the flock by feeding them, by protecting them, by leading them. And Peter is saying, what I’ve learned, I’m now passing on to you as a fellow elder. That we would be shepherds of the flock, serving the flock, but also overseeing— verse 2, do you see that? Overseeing the flock. And this word is the word episkopos, which is the word that we get bishop from.
You’ve heard of bishops before. Well, a bishop or an episkopos is somebody who looked closely in order to pay attention or to give care that was needed. And he’s saying that these elders need to be people who pay close attention Kind of like, you know, a parent would pay close attention to a kid. I wish they wouldn’t, but actually that’s part of the parenting responsibility is to pay close attention. And in the same way, it’s the responsibility of elders to pay close attention to the flock, to the flock.
What flock? The flock that’s been entrusted to their care, verse 3. This flock entrusted like parents are entrusted with children. Not to neglect the children. They’ve been entrusted by God, a privilege and responsibility.
Elders have been entrusted with this flock. I was recently speaking to somebody who was trying to find a new dog caregiver. Their dog caregiver walked out on them. Actually, they moved out of the area. And so we had, I don’t know, a 5, 10-minute conversation about how they’re trying to find somebody that they could leave their dog with.
I don’t know if that’s you. You know, if you want me to pass along your name, I’ll be happy to do that. After a few minutes, this person didn’t ask me if I was interested in being the dog caregiver. Wrong guy, you know, I’m an elder but not a dog caregiver. But anyway, I didn’t volunteer either.
But this— we’re having a conversation about this matter that was very important to them because they’re going to entrust their dog to somebody to care for their dog. And you can understand that if you’ve got a dog you love. I mean, if you don’t love, it’s a different thing. But anyway, you know what I’m saying. Yeah, you want somebody who’s going to care, right?
And God is saying that I’ve given to the care of elders something that I want them to care about. I’m entrusting these people to their care. And I want them to— you notice this in verse 3? I want them to set an example. I want them to be people that could be followed.
And I want them to not lead by lording it over. Do you see that in verse 3? I don’t want them to lead by lording it over. We call this in the corporate culture command and control. I don’t want my leaders to take the path of command and control, that leadership approach, but I want them to be servants.
I want them to take the servant leader. I want them to serve. I want them to eagerly serve the church. I want them to eagerly serve me. By serving the flock.
So I want them to be shepherds or servant leaders. Now this is different. This is different than a command and control approach. This is a different approach than lording it over. In fact, the picture that is here is of a shepherd and not a cowboy.
What’s a cowboy? Well, a cowboy is somebody who drives the cattle. They drive the cattle, right? They drive the herd. A shepherd is somebody who leads.
The sheep. And I don’t want my leaders driving the herd. I want them to lead the sheep. I want them to demonstrate that they care. And then he says, and you know, Peter brings into focus this matter of how there’s going to be a payday.
There’s going to be a payday for leaders who care appropriately. That there’s a crown of glory that’s coming, verse 4, and this crown of glory is going to come from the Chief Shepherd, Jesus that would be. The Chief Shepherd is going to show up and he wants to reward his leadership. He’s going to remember how they approached this responsibility that was placed into their hands. It’s not that we serve, Peter is saying, because of money.
It’s not because of the greed of money, verse 2. It’s not because of financial gain, but it’s because We’re serving the Lord and we want what we do to be worthy of reward from the Lord. That’s what he’s saying. Now, we can talk about, you know, is this reward like literal? You know, God’s going to give us a crown to wear for the rest of eternity.
Is that literal or is this figurative? Is it literal or figurative? Quite frankly, you know, it doesn’t really even matter. All we know is that the Lord is saying, I want to come along later and I want to reward those who serve as leaders in ways that are appropriate, that care for my flock. And if it’s nothing more than God showing up and saying, hey, Andrew— serves as chairman of our board— Andrew, good job.
Fritz, good job. Suresh, Good job. John, good job. Paul, good job. Bert, good job.
Mel, good job. If it’s nothing more than the Lord saying, you know, you did a good job, that’s enough motivation, that knowing that there would be that commendation to eagerly care for the flock of God. So a church is a place where there should be that kind of care coming from its leadership, leaders that honestly care. And you know, I just love being a part of the leadership of this church. I really do.
If you could get behind the scenes and talk to the leaders that God has given to us, the elders that God has given to us, we have— and the whole time I’ve been here, just groups of men who absolutely care about this church. They care deeply about what happens in the lives of people. But take that over to the side of the flock. You know, when you think about elders who care, are you embracing the elders who care? I mean, do you care that they care?
Are you putting yourself in a place where you are welcoming their care, where you’re asking for their care, where you seek it out and you support their efforts and you’re doing all that you can to help them be better caregivers? You see, a church that is a church that cares is a church that’s led well. By elders who eagerly serve. Then he says this, this is gonna be fascinating. Verse 5, the last part, or first part, it says, young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older.
In the same way as what? Verse 5, in the same way as elders care for God’s family, you who are younger, and the younger here, it could be all-inclusive, meaning men and women, but you who are younger, younger than the elders, younger than older people, You who are younger can actually elevate care. You can elevate care in the church by intentionally submitting to those who are older. Younger willingly submit. That’s what he’s saying.
Now, if you’re younger, at this point you’re like maybe having something going on inside. I’m not sure what you’re feeling right now. You know, just the thought of using the word submit, that, you know, the S-word. Here we are back to that word again. We talked about it in chapter 3.
Oh, You know, I hate the S-word, or whatever it is. Let me just say, don’t tune out for just a minute because you know what this is saying? This is saying that it’s possible for you to receive as a younger person than older people that are in the church. It’s possible for you to receive care from an older person, and it’s possible for you to give care to older people. And I realize that’s a challenge.
I mean, we always have this challenge of the younger older, you know, the younger older challenge. Of like getting along with each other and respecting each other and valuing each other. Struggle is often connected to, you know, control and freedom and those kinds of things. My way versus your way, old ways versus new ways, all of that. But really, the root of the problem typically comes down to the problem of pride, you know, just the fact that I don’t want anybody telling me what to do ever.
I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. And so it really comes back to this whole matter of humility. So that aside, you know, one of the things that sometimes happens in our lives is as we grow older, we actually have a perspective change on older people, believe it or not. That actually happens. One guy talking about his dad wrote this.
He said, you know, when I was 6 years old, I thought my dad knew everything. That’s when I was 6 years old. But when I was 12, I I actually realized that I was just— he didn’t know everything. That’s what I realized even at 12. And at 15, I knew for sure my father didn’t know everything at 15.
But then as I continued to grow, when I got to about 25, I just put it all together and said, you know, Dad knows some things, but he doesn’t know a lot. And at 30, however, I was amazed how much my dad changed in the previous 5 years. I mean, I don’t know what happened, but something happened, and at 40, I actually wanted to ask Dad for his advice. At 50, after Dad died, I wish I could have asked him for his advice. And at 60, I came to realize my dad knew everything.
Now, I think any dad would say, I don’t know everything. Nope, that would be stretching it for any older person to say, well, we know everything. But I think we could say that older people do know Some things, some things. And some of those things that they know are actually the result of the experiences that they’ve had in life and the learnings that they’ve had in life and the good times and the bad times. Kind of like if you’ve ever followed Solomon in the Bible, King Solomon and all of his learnings, and he ended up writing a book called Ecclesiastes where he talked about the things that he learned by the mistakes.
That he made in life. A lot of times that’s how it is for older people. They go through a lot and they learn some things and it’s just been a part of their growing and changing years. And what I think Peter is saying here is that there is value in the church from putting yourself under the care of somebody who’s older, of somebody who’s learned some things. You see, what this verse is telling us is that an older person could be a tremendous source of help and care for you if you were to put yourself— and it’s not a description of an older person coming along and saying, hey, you, submit.
You’re younger than me? Submit. No, that’s not the description at all. It is a description of a younger person who recognizes the value of an older person, and this younger person puts themself under this older person so as to learn something, to learn something. And in doing that, in doing that, oftentimes what will happen is a younger person will experience greater care, and a younger person will actually express greater care for somebody who’s older than them.
I wasn’t always as old as I am now. I know some of you find that hard to believe. I used to have a different color hair, but when I was younger, and got married, which I got married at 22, you know, I thought I knew it all, really. I mean, like, yeah, we’re getting married, we’re so old, and we’re ready to go, you know, and all the rest of that stuff. You know what?
I mean, as I look back on that, I’ll be like, how did you even, you know, make it back then? Are you kidding? You knew nothing in comparison, kind of thing, to, you know, after having been married now for 40 years. You knew nothing. Are you kidding?
I was brought into a lead pastor role when I was 27, which is like, you’ve got to be kidding. You’re like counseling people that are 50 when you’re 27, that sort of thing. Really? How did that go? Well, sometimes it went okay, sometimes not okay, but here’s what I learned.
I learned how desperate I needed older people in my life, how much I needed older, wiser people to come around and Thank God he gave me a group of elders and other friends who came around me and they became to me somebody who taught me things that I don’t think I would ever have learned any other way. Really, seriously, so many times they saved my bacon. You know what that means? They saved my bacon because they reached out to me and they extended care to me in times of need. And quite frankly, when I get to heaven, I’m going to have some catching up to do with people that have already died that were a big part of my life when I was younger.
People like Norma White, Wilma Price, and Jack Nitzel, and John Champ, and other people like that. When I get to heaven, I need to spend some time just saying, thanks for caring. Because what happened in those days that we had together, you helped shape me, made a big difference. Friends, I don’t know what your age is. All I know is that the body of Christ is better if we as younger and older embrace the need for care between us.
So Peter is saying, hey, healthy, caring church is a church where eager— elders eagerly serve and younger willingly submit. And then he says this, verse 5, the last part, and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, Because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So now it’s like on the plane of everybody, and he’s saying, and everybody needs to put on humility. Humility. Now that’s a good one, isn’t it?
There’s a minimalistic movement all around us where people are talking about like this one thing. The word is simplify. So simplify your life. They’re saying things like, you know, just buy 1 or 2 outfits. That’s all.
Just buy 1 or 2 outfits and then wear the outfits over and over again. And, you know, nobody will know if you’ve washed the clothes because you’re just wearing the same 2 outfits, you know, older and over again. Just do that. And if you do that, we’re told, it will just make your life easier and your life will be less complicated. Now, I don’t know if you’d take that kind of advice, and I’m not really here to try to convince you to become minimalistic and that whole sort of thing, but what this passage is saying, last part of verse 5, what it is saying is that there’s one garment that every one of us should be wearing every day, And it is the apron of humility.
The apron of humility. If you look at verse 5 and the word clothe, you see the word clothe there? This word actually describes an apron that a slave would put on, they would tie on just before they were going to serve those in the home. It really was a picture of a white apron of a slave in that day. And we’ve seen those kind of aprons, you know, still to our day where chefs might wear a white apron or a cook or a waitress.
Or a waiter in a nice restaurant, or maybe it’s somebody who’s cleaning the room, you know, at a nice hotel and they put this white apron on. So you get the picture. Jesus put on an apron, so to speak. In John chapter 13, verses 4 and 5, it says he’s with the disciples. It says, so he got up from the meal, he took off his outer clothing, and he wrapped a towel around his waist.
And after that, he poured water into a basin and he began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. When Jesus put the servant’s towel on, essentially what he was doing was he was girding himself with humility. And that’s the picture. He humbled himself. He took the form of a servant.
He took the form of a slave. And instead of waiting for other people to serve him, he served other people. And then he in turn, in verse 15, said, now I’ve set you an example. That you should do as I have done for you. Go about humbly serving one another.
Don’t wait for somebody to point a need out. You see the need, and when you see the need, then get up and meet the need. And this is a picture that it is for everybody who’s a part of God’s family. God wants everyone in his family to wear or to intentionally put on, to intentionally put on the apron of humility. And notice this, verse 5, God opposes the proud, it says.
So a person who says, well, that’s below me, you know, I’m not doing that. I’m not serving that person. Well, this verse says that God is opposed to those who are proud, too proud to do that. The word literally means he sets himself against the proud. So really what you have in contrast is God is opposed to that kind of an attitude or demeanor, but he is for— he is for or blesses the attitude or demeanor that says, instead of serve me, the attitude that says, here, I’m here to serve.
I’m here to serve you. And really great church, great caring churches are churches where the people put on the apron of humility, and they keep it on time and time again. And when there’s a need, they find a way to meet the need. They don’t have to be told to meet the need. They just respond to the need.
And sometimes that need is, you know, parking cars or helping people find parking places or welcoming people to a church. Or it could just be a note, just a note of thanks, a note of appreciation, a phone call, whatever it might be. The picture that comes to my mind was way back early on in the ministry, we were putting on these annual Christmas dinners. It was something we just did as a church for the community around us, and a bunch of people would come and hear the gospel and have a wonderful Christmas evening that included dinner. It was a great time, but we depended upon our congregation in order to make this thing happen.
And one of the couples that were a part of this, in fact, they took care of the kitchen. They took care of serving the food, of getting the people together to serve the food. They also took care of cleaning up. The dishes and all of that sort of stuff. This couple, Frank and Carol Marshall, just did it willingly for 15 years.
They just absolutely loved serving people in that way. They absolutely loved putting the apron of humility on and serving. And when it came to washing the dishes, they put on trash bags. You know those yard bags, right? They put another hole in the yard bag and put it on, and they used the yard bag because they were outside with a hose washing off the dishes.
I don’t think this was by health code, but anyway, so they did it. That’s just how they did it. And then they went from there back to the caterer, and the caterer, I’m sure, washed them, but, you know, better than we washed them and that sort of thing. Oh, by the way, Frank and Carol Marshall, their occupation was— they were corporate lawyers. Corporate lawyers.
And it wasn’t beneath them to put on an apron of humility and meet a need.
Congregations that care are congregations that collectively see need and say, let’s take care of that. Kind of like just what happened with this backpack drive. Wasn’t that wonderful? We were wondering if we’d get to 100. Surpassed that, and a whole bunch of money on top of that.
That just shows that this congregation cares. And that’s what God wants. But then there’s a final point here to this, and this is interesting because this little text here we’ll just look at quickly oftentimes is divorced from what we just talked about. Watch what it says, verses 6 and 7. It says, humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Cast all your anxiety upon Him. You’ve heard this verse before, right? Because He cares for you. Sometimes in the King James Version, cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you, it says.
Well, he’s saying everyone should cast off anxiety. One of the matters concerning care is also the need to Cast off anxiety. And I like the word cast. Don’t miss this word because it’s intentional. To cast something, we’re talking about something that’s big, all right?
To cast is bigger than, you know, like a handoff or a casual flick or something like that or a gentle toss or something like that. We’re talking about an ocean fishing pole kind of cast. That’s what we’re talking about. We’re not talking about a dinky flick. Flick with a kid’s bamboo fishing pole, you know, you’re just going to drop that little line in the lake or something.
We’re talking about a guy or a woman who is casting hook, line, and sinker, the bait, as far as they possibly can out there, get it past the waves. That’s what we’re talking about. Sometimes we would use this word to describe, you know, the casting of a fishing net. And if you’re casting a big old fishing net, you’re talking about casting something out as far and as wide as you possibly can, because if you’re going to get the fullest benefit, you’ve got to get it out there. Just like if you’re going to get the fullest benefit with this rod and reel, you’ve got to get it out there.
You’ve got to get it out there as far as you possibly can, away from the boat, away from you. Now, that’s the picture. That’s used here. It is a picture of taking the anxieties that you have and not just flicking it off and not just a little handoff. We’re talking about getting rid of it.
We’re talking about unloading, unloading that worry that you’ve got, unloading that anxiety you’ve got, unloading the burden that is weighing you down right now. Don’t hold on to it. Get rid of it. But listen, notice the context. The context is in the context of caring.
One of the things that oftentimes happens for the caregiver is that they can end up with care stress or care anxiety, and that care emotional distress can be just a part, the result of caring. It can be difficult to continue to care for people that need to be cared for. But if you’re a good caregiver, you don’t stop caring, but you do want to take what it is that you care about it, and instead of being burdened down by it, give it to the one who can care the most. And who’s that? It’s the Lord.
And not just give it to him, but cast it Take whatever it is that is holding you down, that is a burden to you right now, and cast it, cast it to the Lord. And if you do, in fact, once you do that, you will know you’ve done that because you’ll experience peace. Peace. Bible says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests Be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This peace is the result of casting our anxieties on the one who cares the most.
You’ll experience peace. You’ll experience a new perspective on the circumstances that you find yourself in, or that friend and the circumstances that they’re in. You will realize that there is constant care available, and that care is available through the one who cares the most. But I’ve got to ask. I’ve got to ask.
I’ve got to ask for his care. My life is in his hands. What better place for it to be? Give it to him. And then he says, and there’s going to be patience.
You’ll know that you cast it your cares unto the Lord because you’ll be patient with God’s timing. You’ll be patient with what it says here, that he’s going to do things not according to your time, but he’s going to do things in due time. And in due time is perfect time. It’s according to his time. And so one of the best things that we can do is humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
And take that which we care about and give it to the one who cares the most. So if we’re a church that cares, that cares, we’ll take our cares and we’ll unload them on the Lord.
Yesterday, 6 hours after we dropped our daughter and and her 2 children, Annabelle and Alden, 5-year-old, 3-year-old, at the airport. We went back and picked them up. They went to the airport to take a flight back to Austin, and we ended up having to go back and pick them up because we got word that their flight had been canceled. It had been delayed, but then it was canceled. And so My son sent me a text message.
Danielle sent us a text message, phone call, that sort of thing, and said, we don’t know what we’re going to do. We’re trying to sort this whole thing out. What do you think we should do? We said, well, we think we should come and pick you up. So that’s what we did.
And the reason why we did that is because that’s what you do, right? I mean, that’s what family does. You intervene, you do what you can, you come alongside, you help out in time of need. You don’t say to them, well, you know, if you would have been born into a different family, you’d probably get better care right now. We’re not coming.
Just, hey, work it out yourself. No, you try to intervene. You try to do whatever you can. You even, if necessary, drop what you’re doing in order to do something to help the person who needs care. And for us yesterday, this actually meant changing our schedule, leaving a meeting early, and a couple of other things and things like that.
But that’s what you do as family. We expect and we do these things for each other, right? That’s what characterizes a family. A family cares. A family cares.
And in the same way, that’s what God wants for his church. He wants us to be a family that cares, a family that cares, so that when there’s a need, whatever inconvenience it’s going to be, that’s fine. We go out of our way. We do whatever it is that is necessary to care. Why?
Because everybody needs it. And when we care, everybody is better for it.
Let’s pray. Lord, thanks that we could talk about that today. Thanks that you give us opportunities to care about each other and people we don’t even know. And so we pray that we would, as your family, be known as a family who cares. May that continue to multiply in our midst.
Thank you for leaders that care. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege we have of learning from each other. Thank you, God, that we can humble ourselves even as Christ did and serve one another. What a joy.
Thank you, Lord, that you, the one who cares the most, Invite us to bring our cares to you in time of need, not just one time, but continually. We pray for anybody who’s here this morning, Father, that perhaps has never come to you and asked for your care of their life. They’ve never come to receive the good news of the gospel of salvation in Christ. We pray that even today might be the day for that to happen for them. That they would come to the God who cares and receive Jesus as their Savior.
In fact, if that’s the desire of your heart, tell God that even now, or say, Lord, I don’t know what this is all about, but I’d like to know more. He’ll answer that prayer. If we can help you, talk to us after the service. And Lord, thank you that you continue to care, that we could come before your throne of grace in times of need and know that you care. So help us do that.
Help us do that on the behalf of others. Help us this week be people that care in ways that reflect your glory. We thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
