A Life of Faithful Service

Spencer Davis | Be Strong Men’s Conference

How can we serve the Lord faithfully, even when the weight of the world is against us?

In this episode, Spencer unpacks what it looks like for men to remain committed to God in every circumstance. He explores the biblical call to serve with humility, regardless of recognition or reward. Spencer also addresses how to stay faithful through emotional and physical trials. He highlights the importance of perseverance, even when the path is unclear. Using Scripture, he illustrates examples of courageous service in the face of adversity.

This episode challenges men to align their lives with a deeper, unwavering devotion to the Lord. 

• Acts 20:1-6
• Acts 20:15-28

Transcript – A Life Of Faithful Service

Hey guys you all doing good? My name is Spencer. If I hadn’t met you, there’s, a lot of guys here. That’s awesome. You got a Bible, let’s go to Acts 20. I’ve been here for 20 this summer will be 25 years and I love it here. I do risk management here, which is, it’s great. It’s easy, it’s good. So, that passage that Brody spoke on this morning six years ago, I think it was at Be Strong I spoke from that same passage and I remember back then, I went on this weird rabbit trail, because, Paul’s kind of, given his last words and Brody was talking about, we don’t really have Paul’s last words to Timothy and Mark, but I remember back then that I was really fascinated. I kind of, got on this weird rabbit trail of thinking about people’s like, last words before they die and I started looking up all these and a lot of them are really sincere and really meaningful, but a lot of them are funny as heck and so, I found a new one today that I wanted to share with you all last words and it’s not my favorite one, but it’s my second one. So, there’s this dude, he lived about the time of the Civil War and his name was Henrik Ibsen, he was Norwegian and he wrote plays, so he’s a playwright and he’s on his deathbed one day and his wife is taking care of him, she comes in to check on him, she comes in one day.

He’s terrible, terribly sick, he’s clearly on his deathbed and she walks in and she remarks, honey, you’re looking better. You look like you feel better. You look like you’re improving and Henrik replied on the contrary and died. I was like what I laughed out loud today as I was studying, because I thought my boy finally won an argument, like he got the last, last, last word, he’s like and I’m out. That was awesome, but my favorite one and I mentioned this, it’s like, five or six years ago, be Strong. My favorite last words, was this guy, he was a general in the Civil War, his name was John Sedgwick. Some of you guys have heard this story, but he fought for the Union. They were fighting with the Confederate soldiers and basically all these Confederates had these sharpshooters and they were just, they’re picking guys off and this general is standing, fully straight up. All these men are like, hunched down after this stuff and they’re all like, you got to get down. They’re going to kill you. They’ve shot several guys and he just refused to crouch down and he starts making fun of his boys and his very last words were what they couldn’t hit an elephant at this dis, done, that’s my favorite last words.

So, you got a Bible let’s go to Acts 20. We’re going to be talking about Paul once again. Tomorrow we’re going to look at Peter, but tonight, we’re going to look at Paul once again and these words in Acts 20, they aren’t his literal last words on earth, but they are his last words to the Ephesians. This is the last time he’ll address these guys. Obviously, this is in a time where there’s no cellphone communication, there’s no text like, once he’s done with these guys, he knows and we’ll talk about that in a second, he knows he’s never going to see these guys again and so, he is giving a really profound, a really concise last words to these guys. I’m going to give you the heart of it first and then, we’ll back up the heart of it if you are there, it’s in Acts 20:24 that’s the heart of Paul’s message, listen to it. I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish the course and my ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. Wow, that is a crazy last word. That’s the heart of the message. That’s the big verse.

That’s where I want to spend our time. in a minute, but I got to kind of, go back and set the stage, because Paul is going to give these guys more than that, he’s going to give these guys some instruction from his past and some inspiration from his future, but first we got to dive into history. Are you all familiar with the church at Ephesus at all? All those churches kind of, blend together, if you haven’t read them recently. So, basically, in Ephesus, Paul spent three years ministering to those guys. It’s his longest stint anywhere, he spends three years ministering to those guys and had a ton of success and he evangelized, he discipled so much success. There were tons of people that were putting away their gods in Ephesus, they worshiped this god named Artemis, or the Romans called her Diana and there was this big temple there. Basically the people, so many people, became Christians that they started putting away their God. So, much so that it started hurting the local businesses that made tiny idols to Artemis and so, basically, this created so much of a problem that the silversmiths started a riot against Paul, he had converted so many people, it was hurting the economy crazy and so, they started this riot. So, to some people, they’d be like, Paul is taking our money.

We got to get this dude out of here and other people who are more devout, he would be like, Paul, he’s saying that Artemis is not great and Artemis is great and so, these silversmiths. They basically rile up all these people and they rush into this big theater. We have a picture of theater here as it’s seen today, but this that this big theater in Ephesus and hundreds of people rush in here and they’re so mad at Paul and they’re confused, they’re screaming out different things, but eventually they all settle in, screaming, great is Artemis of the Ephesians and Paul tries to go in there and his friends are like, no, they’re going to murder you and so, basically, the situation’s so hot that Paul has to leave this city that he’d ministered in for three years. That’s a long time for an apostle to minister in one place. His heart was with these men, with these women, with these elders, with this church. So, I want to pick it up. I want to go to verse 1 and we’re just going to look at kind of, Paul’s situation as he’s leaving Ephesus. Once that big riot happened, Paul had to get out of there and then, we’ll pick it up with his address, verse 1 after the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.

So, Paul leaves Ephesus after about three years there and the end of Paul’s time was super rough. Obviously, it’s not just the riots, in fact, in 2nd Corinthians he writes that he despaired of life itself when he was in Ephesus, like things got really, really bad, in fact, he refers back to the wild beasts in Ephesus and a lot of people don’t think he’s talking about actual lions and stuff so much as the people, he faced so much oppression, so much difficulty there and so, he encouraged the believers and he departs. We’re going to put up a map and you may or may not be able to see able to see it, but basically, Paul, when he leaves Ephesus, which is in Asia, there, he sails across and ends up in Corinth, so he’s in Greece once he leaves Ephesus and he spends three months in Corinth and it’s pretty widely believed that in that three months that he spent over here in Greece, in Corinth, that he wrote the book of Romans, which I never thought of it before, but three months to write the book of Romans, the perspective that it put in mind would be like, okay, when was that that’d be like New Year’s. What have I done in 2025 so far? Paul wrote the book of Romans In three months. What have I done in three months? Because, Paul, he’s not only sitting down and writing a book.

He’s been engaging a crazy Corinthian church at this time. Look at verse 3 there, he spent three months and when a plot was made against him by the Jews, okay, there’s a second plot on his life here, as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. So, it was a crazy three months when he’s over here in Corinth, so crazy that they’re trying to kill him and so, instead of boarding a ship where they can easily kill him and dump the body, he’s like, oh, I’ll walk and so, he decides to walk for a while and like, they take a ship and basically what happens is Paul walks up to Philippi and he sails and I’m not going to go into all the detail, but he walks on, he sails some, he’s avoiding hardship, but he’s trying to get to Jerusalem. So, what I want to do, I want to skip down to verse 15 if you got a Bible, we’re going to skip that funny story about the sleepy guy, Eutychus, the kid who falls out and Paul raised him, fantastic, but basically, Paul, he’s continuing on towards Jerusalem, he picks up, Luke, let’s pick it up in in verse 15, sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios. The next day we touch at Samos. The next day we went to Miletus, for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so he might not have to spend time in Asia, because he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost,

So, Paul is trying to make it back to Jerusalem by Pentecost and we’ll see in a second, Paul knows exactly what’s going to happen to him in Jerusalem, but he’s going to pass by Ephesus close enough, Ephesus, that’s the place where the riots were. That’s the place where he spent three years ministering and so, he wants to see these guys one last time and he knows it’s going to be his last time, because he’s going to Jerusalem verse 17. Now, from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. When they came to him, he said to them, pause for just a second. There’s 20 miles in between Miletus and Ephesus. My question is why does Paul not just go on into Ephesus, why does he call those dudes to walk 20 miles out to meet him? I think there’s a couple of reasons, an obvious first one is, last time he was there, there was this, giant riot and so, he might get held up, if these guys were trying to kill him before they hear he’s back in town after a few months, they might try to, there might be another incident that to keep him from Jerusalem and he’s got to get there, but I think the second reason is he cares for these guys so much he knows it’s going to take a long time to say all his goodbyes, so he calls for just the elders to meet him.

Just the elders are coming, because it’s these guys that have been entrusted to lead the church in the so important city because, as the elders go, so goes the church, in part, as the elder go, so goes the church and this is really the only speech by Paul that’s recorded to Christians, but it parallels a lot of the letters he’s written. So, when I’m reading this speech, I want you to think about, this is Paul’s last words to these guys. This is his last speech and Brody mentioned I wish I could have heard that speech that Paul gave to Timothy and mark his last words. We get to hear it with these guys and I joked around about it before, but anytime you hear the very last words given to a group of people by a great, we got to lean in and listen, because they’re likely going to give a really concise, a profound charge about only what’s important. No extra words. So, here’s Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders, he’s going to call their minds to remembrance, here’s his speech, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I didn’t shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public.

From house to house, testifying both to Jews and the Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s looking back, he’s calling their minds to remembrance, you guys know, you all know I lived with you all for three years. You saw my faithfulness, you saw my humility. You saw my tears. You saw the trials. You watched the plots happen. You know I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was profitable to you. I did it in private. I did it in public. What I proclaimed was Jesus repentance and faith, the same Gospel that Jesus preached and it worked. We know that in two year span, all the residents of Asia heard Acts 19:10, this is in the prior chapter, it says this continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. You all, that’s crazy. This one guy goes to the city. I think when we see specific dates and times, we should take notice, because I think they’re there in part to motivate us, Paul wrote Romans in three months, Paul evangelized a continent in two years, obviously, he’s pushed and he’s driven by the Holy Spirit, but it’s worth pausing to ask myself, what have I done in two years have I done since March of 23? You know what, I’m saying? What have I done since New Year’s?

We have the same spirit I think Paul, he’s not bragging here, he’s not just being like, you all I’m great, you all remember when I did this and this and this and how cool that was, he’s not just bragging to these guys. I think he’s instructing them. I think he’s giving them a crash course on what it means to be an elder. Now, not everybody in the room here is an elder. An elder of your church, not everybody’s in a position of leadership, but I think this is where it applies to us broadly as men, because we’re called to lead, every single one of us is called to lead. Yes, there are things here that apply only to church leaders or specifically to church leaders, but as a, you are called to lead by serving. Look back at Matthew 20. It’ll be on the board when the disciples were arguing about, who’s the best among us, you all, know what Jesus told them? Matthew 20 Jesus called to them and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man, that’s him, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom, for many, a leader should serve.

We hear that all the time, don’t we, you should be a servant leader and sometimes we say that all the time a leader is supposed to serve, but it can get really vague and that’s why I appreciate what Paul just did because, what I think he’s doing is he’s mentioning eight specific things to give us some structure on what does it look like for you to serve, for us to serve in our lives, like he’s given us eight crucial things from his example, listen to his example real quick, serving the Lord with humility, with tears, with trials, everything that happened through the plot of the Jews. I didn’t shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable I taught you in public and from house to house, testifying to Jews and Greeks, repentance towards God and a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to look at eight things that we should emulate that Paul’s mentioning and serving, eight things will be on the board, here’s the first one. We are as men, as leaders. We are to serve the Lord with humility. There’s a verse in Philippians that talks about live lives worthy of the Gospel. That’s a huge charge, but I think part of living lives worthy of the Gospel is living lives like the Gospel like we live like Jesus. We imitate Christ who emptied himself to serve us. We serve not for personal gain. We serve for the gain of our families. We humble ourselves for young men who need to see selfless service lived out.

Serve the Lord with humility. The second one is this, serve the Lord with tears. That is an uncomfortable phrase for most men. That’s not something that comes naturally, but Paul saying, I served you with tears, with genuine concern and empathy and not cold, not fate. You all, we have to cultivate deep, genuine relationships and that does not come natural to most men, but service doesn’t happen on accident. You got to get deeply involved with others to the point where you truly rejoice with them and where you grieve with them as you point them toward the Lord. Seriously and I had to ask myself this like, when was the last time you got so involved with somebody that you genuinely grieved over them in prayer? Paul is in three years Paul’s so intimately linked to these people that when he leaves, all of these grown men cry that’s not weakness, that’s closeness, I’m saying? That sort of, closeness, it doesn’t happen without prayer. If you feel cold towards somebody, start praying for them. You will not be able to stay cold towards someone if you’re praying for them. Third thing, serve the Lord through trials. What’s this look like for us? There’s going to be hard times. You’re going to struggle with your own sin. You’re going to struggle with disappointment. You’re going to struggle with the sin of others. Serving is not for the soft. Don’t quit.

Serve the Lord through trials. It takes real grit to serve through being wronged and through suffering. The fourth thing these are coming out of Paul’s example, he’s saying, look, you saw how I the next one, serve the Lord with courage. What does that look like for us? It takes courage to teach a Sunday school class for real. It takes courage to have that conversation with a coworker, but I think about these examples that are laid out for us in scripture, these great leaders of the faith that are being beaten and stoned, I often wonder if Paul and these other guys would roll their eyes at the things that I shrink back from. I’m like I can’t talk to my neighbor about the Lord. I think if I think I’ve had a conversation with Paul, he’d be like, oh, was there like, a riot or something, was he whipping you? No, I thought he was going to give me a funny look, like they would roll their eyes and serve the Lord with courage. Number five, serve the Lord by being in tune with what’s best for the flock, he said, I didn’t shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable, he’s in tune with the flock, because he knows what’s profitable. Our relationship should go so deep that we’re in tune with those the Lord has entrusted to us. Number six serve the Lord by ministering publicly.

Also privately and personally, you all know, for elders, this is a good charge. Beware the pastor who only appears at the pulpit for real. It’s ministering publicly and privately, but what about for, you all, some of you guys aren’t elders, or maybe your role isn’t teaching, but maybe you’re gifted in one on one discipleship, but I’ll tell you this, if you’re not pouring out, you’re in danger of getting stagnant for real. We speak the word over coffee. We speak the word in the workplace or on the drive, you and I, we have to speak the truth into complex social situations. We speak the wisdom of the word through elections. We speak the wisdom of the word about the situation in the Ukraine and about transgender swimmers and about global catastrophes. We speak a hope that’s bigger than vaccines and politicians and armies. We preach Christ and him crucified, publicly and privately. Number seven, from Paul’s example, he said testifying to both Jews and the Greeks, we serve the Lord by ministering to all this applies to elders. Beware of the bigoted pastor, beware of the racist pastor, beware of the pastor who only ministers to top tier tithers, Paul’s giving good instruction to elders, but it’s also good instruction for us because he preached to people from different demographics. We’re going to share.

We’re going to have to step out of our demographic to minister to all, you all, it’s hard to have a conversation with somebody that doesn’t come from where you’re from, that doesn’t look like what you look like, or doesn’t speak or think like you think. I’ll tell you what, it’s hard to minister to people that aren’t your same age. Brody was talking about teenagers and them being in the fog. Teenagers are hard to have a conversation with, sometimes. That fog is real I have a teenage son in my house and all his friends. Is it’s real, it’s hard, but I tell you what there’s, teenage boys in your community that need you, they need a solid man to point them to Jesus. You can do it. The last one I think we can learn from Paul’s example. Then we’ll learn looking forward, last one serve the Lord by preaching the truth of the Gospel. Paul has said, testifying, of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, obviously we should, as for elders, we should beware the pastor who bends the word at all for any purpose, but for us, we just teach Jesus. You can’t go wrong there. Don’t stray too far into self-help and your own, advice or whatever. We preach Christ and him crucified. You don’t have to be a pastor to preach the truth of the Gospel. You can work for Duke Power. You can work for Pendergrass Plumbing. You can tell people about Jesus but I’m going to tell you this.

We aren’t going to share what we don’t know. If we’re going to speak the Gospel to our flock, we got to know the Gospel. We have to be men of the word. I say this to myself, how many mornings do I neglect reading the Bible? We’ve got to be men of the word and then, what we do is we read the word and then, we get out of the way and show that to others and that’ll do that’s good ministry. I look at a list like this and I’m going to be real. It kicked my butt this week, all week and it the list like this demands. I need to expect more from myself, seriously and that’s my challenge to, you all, is demand more from yourself. Some of us are good on the milk, but it’s time for meat, like many of us, we’re fighting sin and that’s great for real. That’s so great. Many of us are reading the word and that’s great, but the Bible says they’ll know we’re Christians by our what, by our love. Love has an object.  It’s time we look beyond ourselves to our communities and I know, I’m preaching to the choir, for a lot of guys, I look out here and I’m like, oh yeah, those guys, that guy, that they’re getting it done. So, many you guys are, but it’s easy to slip into we hear so many things about leadership, so many conferences center around leadership qualities, but the reality is if we’re not connected to people.

We are not leaders. We’re not leading. We might have these qualities in private, but we’re not leaders. It takes courage. It takes teaching, it takes tears. It takes awkward conversations, with guys at work. It takes awkward invitations for a guy to drive to the next town and back with you, so you can point him towards Jesus but Paul’s given us, he’s given these guys, he’s looking back and giving them instruction. Now he’s going to look forward and give them inspiration, verse 22 he’s talking about what he has done now he’s talking about what’s about to happen, verse 22 and now, behold, I’m going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, listen to this, not knowing what will happen to me there, except the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. That is terrifying, because the Holy Spirit does not lie, Paul doesn’t know what’s about to happen all he knows is, there’s pain. I’m going to Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit said there’s pain glory for God, but pain for me. At the end of Romans that he wrote in Corinth, he begs those guys, please pray for my journey, because he knows what’s going to happen in Jerusalem, in fact, in the next chapter, in chapter 21.There is a fascinating conversation that Paul has with a modern day prophet. The guy’s name is Agabus.

I’ll read to you this passage while we’re staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and he tied up his own feet and hands and he said this is what the Holy Spirit says. This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the people urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul answered, what are you doing, crying, breaking my heart. I’m ready not only to be in prison, but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Since he wouldn’t be persuaded, we stopped, we said let the will of the Lord be done. That is crazy, but you know what, Paul signed up for this when Paul got saved back in Acts 9. Look at this, Paul gets saved and God sends Ananias to minister to Paul and it says, Ananias answered, Lord, I’ve heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem and here he has the authority from the chief priest to bind all who call your name, but the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings of the children of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name, you all, this is a man who is aware of the pain ahead, he doesn’t know exactly what the future looks like, but he knows there’s pain ahead,

But, he counted the cost in the beginning and he counts the cost today, reminds me of that missionary, James Calvert, you all heard of him, he’s the missionary to these cannibals in Fiji. If you haven’t heard of him, you’ve heard his quote where this captain tried to stop and he’s like, they’re going to kill you and eat you. You’re going to die and James said we died before we came here. That was Paul’s mindset. That’s why he can say verse 24 I do not account my life of any value or nor is precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. That’s not an empty statement, let it sink in, because real pain, real imprisonment, real beheading, are in his future. I don’t count my life of any value. If only I may finish the course, you all, Paul’s goal is not to live a long time and let’s be real, if he was going to take his foot off the gas. We’d probably, all of us would probably be like, Paul, you did great, at this point we think about Paul’s life, you’d be real, he’s written books already, he’s converted basically an entire continent, he’s been through hard things, he’s already built up his bench like he’s got the next generation ready to go. We would say, Paul dude, kick up your feet, let the young bucks go.

Send Timothy out there, they’re ready to roll. Paul has a different goal, a better goal than living. Think about this, his goal wasn’t to stay alive; his goal was to stay on course, maybe this weekend we need to refocus our goals, its tax season. You all, excited? Hey, maybe we need to do an audit. That’s what Paul did in Philippians, he does this big audit where he counts everything is loss and the only thing in the gains column is Christ, Philippians 3 whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for his sake, I’ve suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, maybe we need to refocus our goals and I know. We got men of all different stages of life, here. Paul as a younger man and as an older, he’s got a razor, sharp focus on just one thing, which is Christ and I think it’s important to know that his course and our course, they’re not done at retirement. They’re done when we see Jesus. I read a crazy verse this week that I’m sure I’ve read before, but, it’s never hit until like yesterday and I read this verse and I was like, What? Proverbs 4: 18 it’ll be on the board, but the path of the righteous; is like the light of dawn.

Which shines brighter and brighter until full day, think about it. Before Snowbird’s property, I used to come over here and read the Bible over here and it was a beautiful place to read and then, later on, I used to bring my daughter out here. So, my daughter’s 16 now, but when she was little bitty, she’d be in those little footy PJs and we’d go to Hardee’s and I’d get her a hot chocolate. I’d get me a coffee and we park out there because the sun rises over there and you can see over the mountains right here and basically we get out here when it’s dark and we just tell jokes and listen to music and we just have fun or whatever and then, little by little, but look, it’s getting brighter. It’s getting brighter and it get brighter and brighter and brighter and you could see where the sun’s probably going to come out and then, all of a sudden, we wait oh, here it comes, here it comes and the whole valley would just with all this light and brighter and brighter until the day. Look at this verse, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, brighter and brighter until the day. See the Christian is to shine brighter and brighter throughout life, being at its brightest right before we see Jesus and it’s fully day. So, I say to you, older men, it don’t matter if you retire from your job as long as you don’t retire from the course, may it never be that our light shines brightest in our 20s.

Your light should shine brighter and brighter and brighter through retirement, because you have the hours. It may take a lot more effort, but you got the hours to pour into younger men, to pour into grandkids, the race continues until that day. So, even if you’re stumbling, keep stumbling towards the finish line. I don’t want to count my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, If only I may finish the course. John Piper sums it up this way. Faithfulness is better than life, or better to lose your life than waste it. We’ve heard him say lot, but for Paul, faithfulness is more important than avoiding suffering, faithfulness is more important than comfort, faithfulness is more important than living and my question to you all and to me is, does my life say that? Not my mouth, our mouths say all kind of, things. AW Tozer said, Christians don’t tell lies. They just go to church and sing them. Do our lives, preach faithfulness is better than life or do they preach life is better than faithfulness, or something more trivial, comfort is better than faithfulness? We got to have bigger goals than a lake house, we got a bigger goal than just paying the bills and going to practice and taking our vitamins. We know our culture is pushing in the opposite direction, even our bodies.

Your brain is wired so that you use as little effort as possible in daily tasks, so you don’t fully give into that. We can’t get lulled to sleep with these daily tasks and TV shows and I will just scroll through my phone again tonight, we got to dive in the word and sharpen the sword every day. Keep reminded of the goal you all, if the sun shined on your face today instead of your grave, you’re still in the race, be faithful, verse 25 and now behold, I know that none of you among who I’ve gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again, remember, he’s talking to these Ephesian elders and he’s saying, I will never see you guys again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I’m innocent of the blood of all I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood, Paul, he’s leaving the church in capable hands, he’ll never see these guys again, but it’s important to remember before he gives these elders instruction, take care of the flock, first, he says, pay careful attention to yourselves, every pastor, every leader, every, needs to hear this, he said this to Timothy, keep a close watch on yourself and the teaching.

Richard Baxter had a great quote on this, take heed to yourselves lest your example contradict your doctrine, lest you lay such stumbling blocks before the blind as may be the occasion of their ruin, lest you unsay with your lives what you say with your tongues and be the greatest Hinderer of the success of your own labors. Whoa, pay careful attention to yourselves and then, the flock. Don’t get it twisted. Don’t get it backward. Yes, absolutely. It’s crucial that we are holy, that we pay careful attention to ourselves, but then it leaves them with this charge take care of the flock because, the Holy Spirit made these guys elders over it, for these guys, it’s the church they’re the elders, for many of you guys, you’ve been entrusted with that sort of, flock. Some of you guys are pastors. I know I’ve talked about three of you all that are like; I got to preach in the morning, some of you guys are pastors. Some of you guys are youth pastors. Some of you guys are bi vocational and for those of you guys that are here and are in that category, I would say, Pay careful attention to yourself and then, pay careful attention to your flock, but if you’re a man and you’re not in ministry, you’re still a shepherd, you should have a flock, you should be investing in family, your family. If you’re not in that stage, you should be investing in young men in your local church, I would say pay careful attention to yourselves.

Then, to your flock, because pulpit work is crucial, but it’s not enough. We need men in the trenches who are leading their families, who are having hard conversations, if you’re past that stage or not to that stage, yet, you need to find yourself, a Timothy, a younger guy, mentor him and then, burn brighter and brighter until the full day. How do you do it? With humility, with tears through trials, with courage, being in tune with the flock, teaching and ministering publicly and privately to all repentance from sin and faith in Jesus, I don’t account my life as of any value, nor as precious to myself, If only I may finish the course, Paul’s got his entire life sharpened down to one fine, razor sharp point, which is Jesus the Gospel, when we read stories like this, when we read speeches like Paul’s given, it seems like movie magic, it’s so exciting because he says, I’m going to Jerusalem to preach, even though God told me there’s going to be pain, he says, my life doesn’t matter. Money doesn’t matter, the mission matters and then, he says, goodbye, I’ll never see you again, we love this. It’s written on our hearts when we see somebody living out this razor sharp focus on Jesus and the spread of the good news comfort and life be damned. Our hearts are charged,

Let’s don’t settle back in to just mundane, pay them bills. Take them vitamins, another ball practice. I’ll read this and we’ll close, Paul’s giving us a template here. This isn’t a profession for Paul, he has a profession. He’s a tent maker. This is a calling. This is shepherding. This is personal. This is faithfulness. So, I say to you guys, you might be a medical worker, a medical professional. You might be a camp worker, a builder. You might be an investor or a trust builder, or a tractor driver or a house flipper or a retiree or a coffee pour be faithful towards the end, it’s going to take a razor, sharp focus on Jesus and the spread of the Gospel. Counting that more precious than our comfort, our money, our image, even our lives, even our kids, faithfulness is better than life, even a comfortable life, even a rich life, even a healthy life, shepherd the flock of God that he’s entrusted to you, No matter how small and burn brighter and brighter till the end, finish the course.