The Leaders of the Church | John Piper

So my task is to speak on leaders, the leaders of the church. "I will build my church and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against him." I'm going to do it through leaders. And I would like to invite you into a five-step pathway into a biblical understanding of Christian leadership. I'll summarize the steps, and then we'll take them one at a time.

Step one: I'll try to show that it is God's will that there be leaders in all the churches. Step two: I will try to formulate a definition of Christian leadership, or what do they do? What do we do? Third: I'll point to some biblical cautions that Jesus and I want to raise about leadership. Fourth: I'm going to zero in on what is it that makes leadership effective, or successful, or fruitful. And finally, end with two practical implications or applications that in my own personal experience of of leading a church have helped me a great deal.

So if you like one-word summaries of those five, it would be: a justification for leadership, a definition of leadership, cautions about leadership, implementation of leadership, and illustrations, two illustrations of leadership.

So let's take number one. It is God's will that there be leaders in all the Christian churches. We know this, that it is God's will because God himself, in seven different ways, has described the leaders of his church in the New Testament. Number one, here's the seven names for leaders. Number one, leader. The word leader, it's first found in Matthew chapter 2:6, that says, "From you Bethlehem shall come forth a leader." This is the present participle of hegos, that's why it's always occurs here. And three times in Hebrews, "shall come forth a leader who shall shepherd my people Israel."

And then in the book of Hebrews chapter 13, we read, "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith." Chapter 13:7 of of Hebrews. We're going to come back to that, that will be a pivotal text later. Just illustrating seven words for leadership right now. "Or obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." Verse 17.

Second, the word sometimes translated govern. It literally means one who stands before. 1 Thessalonians 5:12: "We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, or stand before you in the Lord and admonish you." Or 1 Timothy 5:17: "Let the elders who rule stand before you." Price to may govern well be considered worthy of double honor.

Third, overseer, episcopos. "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood." Acts 20:28. And then Titus 1:7: "An overseer, as God's household manager, must be above reproach."

Fourth, household manager, oikonomos. The Lord said this, Jesus. "Now who then is the faithful and wise manager, household manager, steward, whom his master shall set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?" I always love that text while I was in the pastor because the the point of the larger context is when Jesus comes back, what he's going to look for is, have you fed your, have you fed the house? I said, "Yes, yes Lord, I fed them. I fed them." That was very comforting to me. I just, he just wants me to be found faithful feeding his house. Or Titus 1:7: "An overseer, as God's household manager, must be above reproach."

Fifth, shepherd, both in the verb form poimaino and the noun form poimen. "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood." Or 1 Peter 5: "I exhort the elders among you, shepherd the flock of God that is among you." Or the noun form, Ephesians 4:11: "God gave the to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers."

Sixth, the word elder, presbyteros. "They appointed elders for them in every church." Acts 14. "This is why I left you in Crete so that you might appoint elders in every town." Titus one. "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching." 1 Timothy 5.

Finally, number seven, didaskalos, teacher. "Christ gave to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, the shepherds, teachers." Ephesians 4:11. "And an overseer must be able to teach."

So I conclude from these seven God-given designations of leaders that there should be leaders in all the churches. Those seven names, designations, all refer to the same kind of people, the same people by and large, and they get at different aspects of leadership and they connote different angles. So for example, leader, hegos, connotes direction or guidance. One who stands before, proistamenos, connotes a chairman-like governance of a meeting group. Overseer, connotes watchful supervisory role. Household manager, connotes administration, organization, stewardship. Shepherd, connotes protection, nourishment, and guidance. Elder, connotes maturity, exemplary responsibility. Teacher, connotes the impartation and explanation of truth.

And I believe that as I look out now on you, almost everybody in this room, that's you. That's you. Either you're there, or you're on your way there, or you've been there, you're thinking about going there. That's you. Which means that the rest of this message is very relevant for you.

Let's move to step number two, a definition of what this leadership is, or what leaders do. So from those seven designations and descriptions or names, I infer three things about the meaning of of leadership. One, when you see these designations: guidance, governance, supervision, organization, modeling, application of truth to people's lives, it seems obvious to me that one of the meanings of leadership is getting people from where they are to where God wants them to be. You're here, and God says, "Be there." In your thinking, be there in your feeling, be there in your action, maybe be there in your geography. And leaders say, "Okay, my job, get them there. I'm going to get them there. That's my job to get people from where they are to where God wants them to be." Uh, in other words, a goal is implied with leadership. God doesn't put leaders in a group for them to aimlessly go in circles. That's not the point of leaders. The point of leaders is, put them in a group and go somewhere. Move from here to where God is calling that group of people to be. He puts leaders in a group to get them to a goal in their thinking, in their feeling, in their action, and maybe in their geography. That's number one. Leadership implies a goal and getting people from where they are to that place.

Second, when you see these seven designations: watchful supervision, governance, administration, organization, protection, nourishment, teaching, being examples, it's obvious when you just think about them. God has ways and means and methods that he wants you to use to get people from here to there. Christian leaders key off of God, not only for the goal, but for the method. We don't look to the world to learn the main, the means, and the ways, and the methods of getting people from A to B. We look to God because he has ideas about how he wants this to be done. We don't look mainly to the world.

Number three, even though it's not explicit in any of these words, it's clear, say from 1 Peter 4:10 and 11, that the banner flying over these words and this function is that we do it in reliance upon God's strength. So here's 1 Peter 4:10 and 11: "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks, as one who speaks Oracles of God. Whoever serves, even in a role of leadership, whoever serves as one who served by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belongs glory and dominion forever and ever."

So essential to Christian leadership is a gifted leader, God's goal, God's gifted leader, God's goal, God's methods, by God's power. So those four things go into the definition of Christian leadership. And there's one piece missing, and that is, it's not Christian leadership if nobody's following. Followers, God's appointed followers. I'm not a leader if I know exactly where God wants people to go and nobody is following me. I'm not a leader. And I'm not a leader if everybody's following me and I'm not going where God wants me to go. I'm not a Christian leader. Might be a leader and leading people straight to hell, but you're not a Christian leader if you got a great following and you're taking them in in the wrong direction. That's not Christian leadership. I'm not a Christian leader if the place where I'm going is exactly where God wants them to be, and there's a big following, and my methods stink. They're worldly through and through. That's not Christian leadership. And I'm not a leader. I'm not a Christian leader if I'm going where God wants me to go, and everybody's following, and I'm using Christian methods, and I'm totally self-reliant. That's not Christian leadership.

So those are the elements that go into the definition of what it is. And the sentence would go like this: Christian leadership is, uh, knowing where God wants people to be, taking the initiative to get them there, using God's gifts, God's methods, by God's power, with God's appointed people following. That's Christian leadership. Might be 10 people, might be a Sunday school class, and it might be a 10,000 person church. It might be a ministry, a mission, it might be a business, whatever God calls people to be. You should get out in front of them and take them there. When you go home, that's what you're supposed to do. Discern where God wants your people to be, get out in front of them and take them there. If God calls them to be trusting in his promises, you get out in front and take them to that trust. If God wants them to have unshakable hope in the face of cultural collapse, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to be radically God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated, you get in front and take them there. If God calls them to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all people through Jesus, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to be happy in all their suffering, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to love their neighbor and make great sacrifices for the needy, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to be pure and holy and separate from the world, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to be self-controlled and dignified and sober-minded, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to be childlike and meek and gentle and humble, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to be bold as a lion, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to be generous and sacrificial in their giving, you get out in front and set the great example of giving most in the church. If God calls them to be world Christians and with a global mindset and a burden for the unreached peoples of the world, you get out in front and take them there. If God calls them to lay down their lives for Jesus, you get out in front and take them there. That's leadership. You feel that? That's your job. You get out in front and take them there. Christian leadership in our churches is knowing where God wants people to be. You, I'll take in a minute how, how we learn that. Knowing where God wants people to be, taking the initiative to use God's methods and God's gifts to get them there, and reliance upon God's power, with God's people joyfully following your leadership.

Step three, some biblical cautions about leadership. And we start with a caution about the wording of that last three minutes. "Get out in front." It's a metaphor. It's not a geographic mandate. It's a metaphor because, in fact, you might be behind them, pushing with all your might. You might be beside them, protecting them from a horrible assault on their flank. You might be underneath them, building a foundation so they don't fall through to hell. You might be hovering over them, saying, "Up here, up here." You might be smack dab in the middle of them, suffering everything they suffer. So it's a, it's a metaphor. Got this? "Get out in front." Do what you have to do to get them there. That's the first caution.

Here's caution number two. I think I have three. Second caution comes from Jesus. Oh, did he care about this caution? So this is Luke 22:24-27. "A dispute arose among them, among the apostles, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest." Now, that word "regarded" is very important. "I think I want to be regarded as the greatest." He didn't say, "Be the greatest." The argument was, "How can I be regarded as the greatest?" Verse 25: "He said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called—that's important—are called benefactors. Not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table like a guest, an honored guest, or one who serves? A table server?' Which is greater? Is not the one reclining at table greater?" "Yes, obviously. However, I am among you as one who serves."

So the unmistakable point of that paragraph, that interaction, is: let the leader become as one who serves. Which means leaders lead for the good of the people, not the glory of their name. Okay, this is so clear. Leaders lead to get their people to the place of their good. For for your good, it's not about my glory, it's about your good that we lead. Not to get glory for our name, but get good for our people. He's not to be out for, "Regard me, regard me, regard me as a benefactor, regard me as the greatest." It's just not about regarding you. Rather, it's about the good of the people, their temporal good, and especially their eternal good.

Now, Paul, I, I think gives a commentary on this text in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 24, as he uses the very same word, kuriein, "lord it over." "Not that we lord it over." That's the same word Jesus used about the Gentiles. "Lord, not that we lord it over your faith. We we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith." So Paul, the leader has a goal. What's the goal? The joy of faith. That's the goal of your ministry. I hope the joy of the faith of my people. Not just faith, joy of faith. It's a genitive in Philippians 1. The joy of faith. Just bound together. If you got real faith, you got joy in Jesus. If you got joy in Jesus, that's real. It's rooted in faith. These are one thing. That's the goal of your life. I want to get my people there. Going, "I get them there." And to do what I have to do to get my people to the joy of faith. And and he said the way to do that is not by lording it over them. Will never work. It's what Jesus was saying. It's what Paul was saying. Rather, you you work with them for their good. So that's caution number two.

Caution number three is a caution about the cautions. We live in a day where we need cautions about the cautions of leadership. Luke 22:26: "Let the leader become as one who serves." Is meant by Jesus to make leaders humble and loving. And for 50 years, ever since I've been embroiled in the conflict surrounding complementarianism and egalitariansm, which goes back for me 50 years, ever since the beginning of that conflict, for my personal experience, this verse, Luke 22:26, has been used to cancel leadership and make it all service and no leadership. Now today, this 50 years later, um, the MeToo movement and multiple pastoral abuses and the indiscriminate disparaging of all male leadership as toxic masculinity has just about turned this text into a means by which any call to leadership is silenced and nullified, and servanthood is elevated to the point of striking down leadership.

Now, here's, 50 years ago, here was my answer to that criticism. I said, "You know, in that room that night before Jesus was crucified, when he, he took off his outer garment and bound himself with a towel, and he got down on his knees and he washed his disciples' feet, and they were thunderstruck. Nobody doubted who the leader was in that room. There wasn't the slightest whiff of doubt that, 'Oh, he's not my leader anymore.' That's a crazy conclusion to infer from that text. That because he became a slave to get under his people and save them, somehow he stopped being the leader of the pack. He, he didn't. He was the leader all the way home, and is today. It isn't true. It just isn't true that to become a servant is to stop being a leader."

So, for example, you're in a staff meeting, or maybe it's more realistic, say, not an elder meeting, but let's say a congregational meeting. And someone goes to the microphone, say there's 200 people there, or 100, or 50. Someone goes to the microphone and they start making a case for a position in the body. And you can see immediately there are factual mistakes in what they're saying. It's incomplete information in what they're saying. Unbiblical assumptions are weaving their way through what they're saying, and they're drawing illogical conclusions, and they're using ad hominem arguments to emotionally manipulate the congregation. And and you're sitting there as the pastor, and you're watching your people, got an angle on them, and you can tell they're buying this. They're buying this. What do you do? What does a servant leader do? Um, if you do nothing, if you sit there in silence, you're not a leader, and you're not a servant of this people. Meek as you may seem, honoring everybody's opinion, it's a failure. It's either a failure of discernment, or it's a failure of cowardice, or a success of cowardice, I guess you could say. It's not leadership.

So what's your job at that moment? And you'll see in a minute, I mean, some of you are ahead of me, and you know why this is so explosively relevant. What's your job at that moment? Your job at that moment is to hear them out, and then to take your prerogative and go to the microphone. There may be 10 people lined up at the microphone, and you go to the microphone. You're the pastor. You're preempting. You're going to the microphone and say, "I just need to make a couple of comments here." And you point out two or three things in what was just said that are correct, and you thank them for that correctness. And then you point out the problem, and you set the record straight with facts. You set the record straight with biblical truthfulness and principle, and you set the record straight with clear logical thinking. And you can see the 150 people that were leaning in, suddenly they're swaying back to the truth. Dozens of them out there could smell the problem. They could smell it. They couldn't name it. That's your job. They're not leaders. That's why they're not up there. They smell it. You name it. That's what leaders do. They smell and name. They see it. They see the wolf. They see the problem. They see the misled, good-will person, and they set it straight. And those dozens of people are so thankful. They're whispering, "Thank God. God, thank God we have a Shepherd."

Now, if you sit there and you think this, "If I stand up and go to the microphone and correct this person in public, you know what that's going to result in? They're going to call it shaming, and then that will become the accusation of abuse." Now, at that point, you're thinking, "I'm, this is a no-win situation here." That's not true. Because you're sitting there, and you're thinking, "Okay, I want to be a humble, caring, servant leader of my flock here, and they are being swayed in a terrible direction. It's unbiblical, it's unfactual, it's misleading, it's damaging to the people, and very few people are seeing it. Some are smelling it, they can't name it. I see it, I name it. I know exactly what's going on here. My job is to do something." And then you think, "Jesus said, 'Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of things against you falsely. Rejoice in that day and be glad.'" Jesus, this kind of situation does not take Jesus off guard. You just have to be willing to take it. And if you get fired, if they go on Twitter and you're crucified, that's the price you pay. I'm a faithful Shepherd.

So my caution about the cautions is, don't be overly cautious. So be biblically cautious, just not ego-cautious. That's the end of step three.

The caution step. Step four, how do leaders lead successfully? Let's zero in on the heart of the matter now. Uh, what, what's the heart of what makes this successful or effective or fruitful? When I take these seven designations of leadership: leading, governing, overseeing, managing, shepherding, modeling, teaching, every one of them cries, "God, I need to hear from you. I need to hear from you." In leading, I need to know from you, God, where I want this, where you want these people to go. Governing, I need to know from you, God, how to govern. Overseeing, I need to know from you, God, what I'm watching for, what I'm supervising here, how to do it. In managing, I need to know from you, God, how, how I'm organizing these people. What is this organization all about? In shepherding, I need to know what I'm supposed to feed my people, and what are the enemies I'm supposed to protect them from. In modeling, what kind of example am I supposed to set, God? In teaching, what truth am I supposed to apply, God? I got to have a word. I can't do this without you're telling me all about this leadership.

So we're back to Hebrews 13:7: "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith." Now, wouldn't you agree that a simple summary of that verse would be that the author is drawing out two things about leaders? They spoke the word of God, and they lived the word of God. So that you can watch them. I think the outcome of their lives means they were faithful all the way till they died. Might have been martyrdom, might have not been martyrdom, but just all the way to the end. You can trace their lives all the way to the outcome, all the way faithful. Watch that, everybody. Watch that. What's your leader all the way to the end? You can't quit at 65, that's cheating. All the way to the end. What happens between 65 and 85 that matters. All the way to the outcome. You watch them and you imitate the faith that you see played out in that leader's life. They spoke the word of God. "Remember your leaders who spoke to you the word." And then, secondly, "Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith."

So my answer to the question, "How, how do you lead successfully, fruitfully?" is: Speak the word and live the word. Speak the word and live the word. The implications of both of those are huge, and this conference has been much about that. But that's my summary of Christian leadership.

So I move now to two illustrations that might flesh that out a little bit, so that you can be encouraged. I hope, by the way, I experience the the the weight of those two mandates. They are weighty, right? To speak the word of God to people and to be the life of God before the people is a weighty calling. So fleshing them out. Number one, if effective leadership speaks the word of God and lives the word of God, then your lifelong calling, priority, unwavering vocation is to handle the word of God, the Bible, in such a way that you penetrate through its carefully construed sentences. You, you do the careful construing. So you come to the Bible, you do your hard work of construing historically, grammatically, these sentences, and you penetrate through them to ultimate reality, which God is intending to communicate through the words. That's a long, convoluted sentence, but it's not, it's not complicated if you just think about it for a moment. Your lifelong calling is to handle this, deal with this. And by dealing with it, I mean, you work with the propositions and the narratives that are here so assiduously and so prayerfully and so dependently upon God that you, you go through them to ultimate reality. And the people will know. The people will know whether you're terminating on words or you're going to reality. They'll know. They don't need more words. You got plenty of words. Everybody's got words. They need a use of words that get through the words to reality. For example, 1 Samuel 3:21: "The Lord appeared at Shiloh." Now, get that word "appeared." It sounds like, "Oh, oh, he showed up. The sh kind of glory showed up." No, that's not what happened. "The Lord appeared at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord." Oh, I love that text because it doesn't leave any doubt in my mind how I know him, how I meet him, how I fellowship with him, how I see him. And this, so much of this conference so far has been, "You got to see him. You're gonna be changed if you see him." You lift your people up into the glories if you see him. And that leaves us say, like, "Where do I see him?" He's not visible. Let me read it again. "The Lord appeared at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord." Or take Ephesians 3:4: "When you read this, mark the word 'read.' When you read this Ephesians, you can perceive my apostolic, God-given, inspired insight into the mystery of Christ." I didn't even see that verse until Tom Stellar showed me. If you, if you read Ephesians right, you actually penetrate through the words with a spiritual perception, joining Paul in what he saw about the mystery of Christ. So knowing ultimate reality and being formed by ultimate reality are not two distinct pastoral acts. Right? This just goes back to Michael Reeves' comments on 2 Corinthians 3:18: "Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed from one degree of glory to the next." So knowing God through penetrating through the words to the ultimate reality, and being shaped by that ultimate reality, are not separate tasks. Here's where I study, and here's where I become like Jesus. Your encounter with the word, I hope this is happening in all of our classes at Bethlehem College and Seminary, is the kind of encounter that students walk out thinking, "Whoa, I met him today. I saw more of him today. I will be changed. I'll be a different person because of what I saw of God today." 2 Corinthians 3:18. And four verses later, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul tells us where you look like beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed. Where, where, where's the glory? You say, "Well, the sky." Yeah, that's true, but that's not what he has in mind at all. He has in mind New Covenant glory. The kind of glory that happens when Satan's blinding effects are removed, and we are able to see. What I'll read it to you. This is verse 4: "When satanic blindness is removed," in verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 4, "we see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Gospel of the glory of Christ. So where do you see the glory that changes you from one degree of glory to the next? You see it in the gospel of the glory of Christ. It's the gospel. It's the word of God. If Satan takes away the, what did he call it, the smear? Takes away the smear, the blinding smear of worldliness off of off of our eyes, or deadness off of our eyes, what we see as we read the gospel, we read the narratives of the gospels, as we read the prophetic word that's pointing to Christ, as we see that, we see right through it to glory, ultimate reality. That's your lifelong vocation as a pastor. I'm arguing that's what you do every day. That's your job. That's your main job. Is to see it. Is to handle the word in such a way that by rightly construing the sentences, you penetrate through them to ultimate reality, and then you speak that and you live that before your people. That's implication or application number one.

Here's the last one. We need to know, this is going to sound complicated at first, but I'll try to come back and explain it. We need to know or realize that what we know of God and the world, and the degree to which we become like him, uh, in this lifelong encounter with ultimate reality through God's word, is very limited in this life. Yet, it is without limit in its relevance and application to everything. What in the world does that mean? Your knowledge of God, your knowledge of the world, your conformity to God, and your conformity to impact the world is very limited in this world, and it is of such a nature that it is without limit in its relevance to everything in the world. Let me try to explain, because this, brothers, has been a lifeline for me and my survival in the work during my 33 years as a pastor, and now lot longer than that in just ministry in general. Few things threatened to paralyze me in ministry like the endless stream of proposals for how I should do the ministry. A constant stream of articles, seminars, lectures, courses, degrees, programs, books, videos, conferences, telling me how to do it, proposing every imaginable technique. Not to mention the whole universe of knowledge of culture, politics, business, industry, education, philosophy, geography, anthropology, history, physics, chemistry, astronomy, sociology, psychology, literature, entertainment, medicine, and and and and. And it is utterly paralyzing compared to what can be known of God in the world. You don't know anything. I mean, compared to what can be known of God and the world, what, what you know compared to what is, you wouldn't be able to see it. It's just, and that's, that's demoralizing. That's just demoralizing. It, it's paralyzing for a leader whose job is to take people from here to where they're supposed to be, except for this. And this kept me going for all those years, and still does. Keeps me going today. Our, our encounter with God, with ultimate reality through his word, is without limit in its relevance and application to everything. Let me say that again. Our encounter with God and our knowledge of God and our being changed by God is without limit in its relevance to everything. If you know God, if you, if you know God through his word and have insight into the mystery of Christ, then what you know and what you are becoming is without limit in its relevance to everything. For this reason, why is that so? Ultimate reality has a crucial relationship to all of reality. So obvious, so glorious. Ultimate reality, what's his name? God. Has a crucial relationship to all reality. If you get ultimate reality, you have the most significant thing for all reality. You know the most important thing about all reality. Let me say it again, brothers. If you know God, you know the most important thing about everything. I mean, whoa. Freedom. I don't need to know everything. I know the most important thing that relates to everything. I know the most important thing about everything. You talk about boldness, you talk about confidence. Good night. Which means that you walk into any conversation anywhere in the world, on any topic in the world, you walk into that room. You have the most important thing to say in the room. Let me say that again. Any room, anywhere, on any topic being discussed, you walk into that room. You tonight have the most important thing to say about what's being discussed in that room. I, I don't care what it is. It might be Rick, I've been listening to these podcasts you steered me to. It might be Mondrian. My goodness. It might be microscopic machinery inside the human cell. That's what they're talking about in this room. It might be mathematical calculations that gets a rover to pinpoint land on Mars. It might be bizarre cultural customs of a tribe you never heard of. You think you're a small player in those discussions? Come on. Do you think that you're a small player in those discussions? You're not. If you have penetrated through the Bible into ultimate reality, to God, to creation, to providence, to Christ, to redemption, if you just penetrated through to ultimate reality, you know the most important thing in every conversation on every topic everywhere in the world. Here's what you say: "Hello. Uh, God made this. He made it to reveal his glory to you. Men, his aim is that you would see his glory and worship him. If you don't see it, brothers, you're blind. You're blinded by your sin. He has taken care of that blindness and sin problem in Jesus Christ. And if you would believe in him, that your blindness could be removed, you could see reality for what it really is. And all these cells that you're talking about in this machinery inside the cell, and all these equations that get to Mars, and all these customs for anthropology would be turned into an enterprise of worship." That's the most important thing that needs to be said in every discussion in the world. You know the most important thing about everything. You don't need to cower. You don't. Piper is a slow reader. How was I talking to? Oh, yeah. Jonathan Leman. Jonathan, did you make it back tonight? No, he's still traveling back from South Carolina. Bless his heart. Um, so we were talking about Tim Keller, right? In the new, in the biography that Colin Hansen and and he's saying Tim Keller is was a super high-level cultural commentator and apologist, just so effective. And I knew Tim really well. We talked a lot. We were, we were very different people. We both love, we both love Edwards and we both love Lewis. And I always said, "You became Lewis, I became Edwards." That's what it did. And what, what that meant was that Tim Keller subscribed, I think he said, to about 10 different cultural magazines. Read everything. Read everything. He knew everything that happened in Manhattan. Knew all the latest philosophical stuff. Piper doesn't read anything. Piper can't read. So he maximizes his strength, and I maximize mine. I just know one thing. It's the most important thing in the world. I'll say it anywhere to anybody and not be intimidated in the least by anybody. That I know the most important thing in this conversation. God. God's the most important thing here. Redemption is the most important thing here. Worship is the most important thing here. Can I help you guys get your act together? Look, that may sound funny. It saved my life. I'm just, I, I know most of you are like me. You're just ordinary. Think I'm not ordinary? I know that. But I am. I'm really ordinary in so many ways. And I'm, I, I've found a way to maximize my ordinariness, and you can do this too. You just, you figure out a way to trick everybody into thinking you're smart. And then you, you, you do as well as you can do this little slice of reality that you're good at. I know my Bible. I know my Bible. And I know my God. And I love my God. And I'm going to show people the Bible. I'm going to show people God. And guess what? You will lead people. You will take them from here to there. Because that's what they want. They don't want you to be another expert on anything. They got experts in the New York Times. They got experts at Fox News. They got experts, CNN. They got experts coming out of their ears. They're not, they're not coming to church to hear the latest smarts politically or economically. They want to know, "What has God said? Pastor, tell us something for our lives." And oh my, this is inexhaustible. This is inexhaustible. So take heart. Take heart from this. And glory in this. Your people need from you not that you know everything, but that you say the most important thing about everything. What God has revealed about himself, and how you are being shaped by it, and how that works. Speak the word of God and live the word of God. And if you do that for a lifetime, I hope I hope I make it to the end saying it and living it. If you live it for a lifetime, maybe somebody will say, "Remember your leader. Remember him. He spoke to us the word of God. You consider the outcome of his life and you imitate his faith." Wouldn't you love for somebody to say that about you?

Let's pray. Father, there may be a a tiny handful of people who are who are the the wonderful Tim Kellers who can do that extraordinary, important work of cultural apologetics. Most of us aren't going to be able to read that much. We're not going to operate at the level of philosophical assumptions. Bless those who have that calling and that gift. But most of us are are not. What can keep us going when we're paralyzed and demoralized by the endless possibilities of things we couldn't know? What's going to keep us going? And the answer, I think, is our job is to know one book really well, to dig into people's lives and know them really well, to speak the word of God, be the word of God, and say the most important thing about everything, everywhere. And so I ask for these brothers that they would be granted the patience and the humility and the courage to do that. In Jesus name, amen.