WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.360 You can be seated. 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:14.240 Clyde in Fox's Book of Martyrs, which is a book about people who died for their faith, which that day may be coming to America sometime soon. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:21.440 And so if it comes for you, Clyde, just uh uh I hope that you get martyred like people in that book got martyred. 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:22.800 Don't be a coward. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:28.160 The body of Christ is not served by cowards who look out for their flesh and their checking account. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:43.200 But in Fox's book of martyrs, Clyde, he tells the story of these two old men, Ridley and Latimer, the martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer, two old men who God graciously delivered from religion into relationship and they couldn't keep their mouth shut. 00:00:43.359 --> 00:00:53.119 And the church, which is ruled by fear of men and money, hated them and told them, if you don't stop preaching this gospel of grace, we're gonna burn you at the stake. 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:57.039 And they couldn't help themselves, and so they burned them at the stake. 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:10.799 They marched these two old men out there in their nightshirts, they chained them to a post back to back, surrounded them with a pile of wood, and they drove a stake in the ground so that when the fire got hot, they wouldn't try to get away. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:19.920 And Ridley, one of the old men, grabbed it and he pulled on it and he said, Pound it in deep, friend, because the flesh will seek to have its way when the fire gets hot. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:22.799 And the same is true of you. 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:26.879 Your flesh will seek to have its way when the fire gets hot. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:31.840 So because I love you, I've come to pound three stakes into your flesh tonight. 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:37.359 And because your mom doesn't know me, she may want to fight me when this is over, and that's okay. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:44.079 But I want to pound into your flesh, first of all, the responsibility of the call from Isaiah chapter six. 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:45.599 This is what the Bible says. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:55.760 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, or lofty and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:02.400 And above him stood the seraphim, each with six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:08.159 And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:10.639 The whole earth is full of his glory. 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:22.560 And at the sound of their voice, the doorposts, the foundations, and the thresholds shook, and the house was filled with smoke, and I said, Woe is me, for I am lost. 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:30.159 I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:44.159 And then one of the seraphs flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:49.680 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:53.120 And then I said, Here I am, send me. 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:57.759 See, the responsibility of the call cloud is twofold. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.319 It's to see the Lord and to hear the Lord. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:06.319 Isaiah begins by saying, I saw, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:15.039 You gotta have a glorious vision of God that is bigger and better and then beyond all the other things that ministry is gonna bring you. 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:19.280 You gotta have a vision of God that's bigger than people's vision of you. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:25.599 And there's not many people in ministry these days that have that Clyde, and that's what kills them. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:45.919 They have a steady diet of affirmation and confirmation and all this stuff, and they begin to get a vision of people, and they lose this lofty and exalted, transcendent, holy other than God, who's imminent, but it's gloriously different from his people. 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:53.199 And the responsibility of the call is to have a vision of God and and to hear the voice of God. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:58.960 Isaiah says, I saw the Lord, and then he says in verse 8, and I heard the voice of the Lord. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:03.199 It's vision and voice, Clyde, otherwise you ain't gonna make it. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:14.479 You gotta hear, you gotta see God, and you gotta hear God because you get addicted to people liking you, and then one rainy Monday, they don't like you. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:16.879 You didn't sing the songs they like. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:23.680 You did too many news songs, or it was too loud during communion, and we couldn't hear at our communion stations. 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:37.839 And you gotta go to your office and close the door and close your eyes and have a glorious vision of God burned on the back of your retinas, or else you're gonna begin to grumble and murmur against people you love and you should lead. 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:42.879 The responsibility, Claude, of ministry is vision and voice. 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:47.199 It's a vision of God that's as big as the Bible says God is. 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:52.959 And you've got to hear the voice of God above all the other voices in your life. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:54.879 Not that you don't need those other voices. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:58.240 Nothing wrong with being affirmed, nothing wrong with being liked. 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:02.720 You don't get up and poke people in the eye with a sharp stick and say, I'm your pastor. 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:07.360 No, you just you just have, because that's what sustains you. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:13.839 It's when all the other stuff in there, the vision and the voice, that's what sustains you. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:18.399 So, first of all, I want to just say to you, I want to just drive the stake into your flesh. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:23.120 The responsibility of the call is vision and voice. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:27.519 Secondly, I want to put this stake in you, Clyde, the reciprocity of the call. 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:29.120 The reciprocity of the call. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.480 Paul says this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 7. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:37.680 He says, But whatever uh gain I had, I count as loss for the sake of Christ. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:45.600 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:50.720 For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:58.480 You can tell, Clyde, how much people value things and how they really feel about things when they lose them. 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:01.680 Not when they buy them, but when they lose them. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:14.240 Like when your car conks out on the way to preschool day in the country, and you got a pregnant wife, and you're tempted to feel sorry for yourself and go, don't you know we need two cars? 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:27.279 That's where you gotta have a vision, a glorious vision of God that's bigger than your circumstance, or else you're gonna begin to feel sorry for yourself, and you're gonna self-medicate and reward yourself. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:57.199 He says, For this sake I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:00.639 We like to read verse 10, Clyde, but we don't like to experience verse 10. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.639 Paul says that I may know him. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:04.959 That's the safest part of this whole deal. 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:06.079 Knowing him. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:08.560 And he says the power of his resurrection. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:13.439 You don't know Christ unless you die to yourself. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:16.160 That's what makes the power of the resurrection personal. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:18.240 And he says that I may share in his sufferings. 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:22.079 You don't get to know Christ, Clyde, without suffering. 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:27.519 Not just for yourself, but you suffer for these people in this church that you serve. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:29.120 You suffer for them. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:34.800 You pour your heart out and leading and planning and thinking and praying. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:37.199 And 36 people show up. 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:42.879 And you just think, I don't want to do this anymore. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:47.519 But you gotta ask yourself, is 36 people enough? 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:53.040 Does that validate everything? 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.600 He says, I may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. 00:07:57.839 --> 00:07:59.040 You don't get to know Christ. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:00.480 You don't just, it's not just suffering. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:02.480 You get to know Christ by dying. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:08.240 Not just once, but every day, sometimes hours within the day, fixing to get two kids. 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:09.680 You're gonna go home someday. 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:13.279 You're gonna be mad at me because I said something that kind of tweaked you, made you mad. 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.319 You wanna go home in the cold and say, you won't believe what he said today. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:20.560 She's gonna meet you at the door and say, Here's a newborn, and here's Evie Kate. 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:24.560 You gotta spend some quality time together because mama needs a break. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:30.560 And there, right there in the entry hall of your house, you're gonna have to fall to the ground and die. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.840 And nobody's gonna be there to watch it either. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:39.679 That's the best part. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:41.759 You gotta die. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:44.720 You know why men disqualify themselves from ministry? 00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:47.120 They think they got over dying. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:54.320 The day you get over dying, you should resign and go teach music at a high school. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:00.639 Because you don't get to be like Jesus without dying, becoming like him in his death. 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:02.480 That by any means possible. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:05.200 Those are the means possible, is what Paul is saying. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:09.840 It's suffering and it's death and it's the power of his resurrection. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.799 Those are the means that make it possible, Clyde. 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:16.240 I may somehow attain a resurrection from the dead. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:18.559 And we hadn't even gotten to the reciprocity part yet. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:19.440 You said, What do you mean? 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:20.240 Reciprocal? 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:20.799 What do you mean? 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:21.600 Verse 12. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:27.600 He says, Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on. 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:29.759 You hadn't attained it. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:31.120 You're not there. 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:32.159 You're gifted. 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:32.879 You're Scott. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:38.639 Remember, you walked up to me the first time right over there, and you said, Hey, my name is Clyde, and I've been coming to church here. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:44.080 My wife has uh got a job, she works for BP, she's a geologist, and I I I I need to be doing something. 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:45.279 I could be helping out in the band. 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:46.799 And I was like, Well, go talk to Ross. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:47.759 Ross is leading the band. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:48.480 I'm tone deaf. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:49.600 I don't think about a band. 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:52.080 I like to sing loud, and it's not good. 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:55.600 And so you went up and talked to Clyde, and then you started playing in the band. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:56.639 Remember those days? 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:01.360 And then when Clyde, and then Ross said, Hey, I I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm done. 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:02.080 I gotta go back. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:03.759 I can't keep driving down here. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:06.480 He said, Clyde can do this. 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:14.000 And I thought, to quote that great theologian Mark Brooker, why not get a third-year football coach? 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:17.279 Worst case scenario, we just gotta fire him. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:18.960 How hard is that? 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:27.200 You're gifted and you're good at what you do, but you haven't already obtained. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:28.320 You're not there yet. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:30.080 Paul says, I press on. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:32.000 And here's the reciprocity. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:37.440 I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:39.519 Here are the tense of the words. 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:42.000 I press on to take future tense. 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:45.200 I'm not there yet, I haven't arrived, I don't have it all figured out. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:47.600 I'm I'm not the best I could be at this. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:50.399 The best parts of this are still to come. 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:58.240 I take hold of that future tense for which Christ Jesus took past tense hold of me. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:01.120 That's the reciprocity of the call. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:04.799 You never, ever, ever you don't get there. 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:07.679 You're pressing, you're always taking hold of that. 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:10.559 But see, here's what makes it doable, Clyde. 00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:14.159 Because he took hold of you a long time ago for this. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:16.000 He took hold of you. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:20.080 So you can't teach music back in Georgia. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:22.639 Because if you can, we ain't doing this. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:26.399 Let's just go to the warehouse and eat finger sandwiches and go home. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:33.200 Because when God calls a man to gospel ministry, he ruins him for everything else. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:37.919 Because there's something in you that took hold of you, and you have to reciprocate. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:42.320 You have to say, I gotta take hold of this or I'm gonna go crazy. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.279 That's the reciprocity of the call. 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:49.120 That you take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:58.399 So you better have a clear picture, Clyde, uh, and a clear sense of the texture of that for which Christ is taking hold of you. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:06.639 The last thing, the last stake that I want to drive into your flesh is just the expression of the call. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:09.519 I brought me a Baptist hymnal. 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:13.039 I know you're a hymn man, and you know that I'm a hymn man. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:15.600 So I begin to ask the Lord, what hymn do you want me? 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:19.279 Uh I want to use a hymn at Clyde's ordination service. 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:26.159 And just a couple days ago, I was led to page 268, hymn number 268 in the Baptist hymnal. 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:30.559 It's a two-stanza hymn called Rise Up, O Men of God. 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:32.399 And this is what it says. 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:37.600 This is the expression, this is what I want to charge you with when it comes to expressing your call. 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:38.720 This is the first verse. 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:42.480 Rise up, O men of God, have done with lesser things. 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:49.440 Give heart and mind and soul and strength to serve the King of things of kings, the King of Kings. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:56.720 I just want to draw your attention to that first line when he says, Rise up, O men of God, have done with lesser things. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:00.000 Cloud, I charge you to not be done with lesser things. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:05.440 Like personal preference, pet sin, people addiction. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:07.200 Those are lesser things. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:09.279 You're not a child anymore, man. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:10.799 You're not a child. 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:14.960 When you were a child, you spoke as a child, you reasoned as a child, but you're no longer a child. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:16.799 So you put away childish things. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:20.000 Those are lesser things, they don't fit you anymore. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.080 Rise up, O man of God. 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:23.360 Have done. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:25.200 Have done. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:29.600 Not be done, but just get to a point where I'm done with that. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:32.879 Have done with lesser things. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:37.679 The second verse says, Rise up, O men of God, his kingdom tarries long. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:42.480 Bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong. 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:48.399 And the Paris bombings that happened last Friday in the aftermath. 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.000 I saw a father and a son. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:58.960 His little son was down there with uh he's about three years old, and he's speaking French and they're translating, and he said, Daddy, I'm scared because the bad people might get us. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:04.159 And his dad said, This is crazy, Clyde, and yet you get to do it every Sunday. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:09.279 Sometimes it's with that war horse of a black piano there, and sometimes it's with a guitar. 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:14.000 But you get to do the same thing his dad said, where they had all these flowers and candles out there. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:18.480 And the dad said, Well, all they have is guns, but we have flowers and candles. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.360 Leave it to a Frenchman to say that. 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:28.799 And yet the little boy looked at his dad and said, So the flowers and the candles protect us? 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:31.200 And his dad said, Yes, son, they protect us. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:33.679 He said, Okay, I feel better. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:43.759 God's called you, Clyde, as a worship pastor, to end the night of wrong with something that sometimes feels like flowers and candles. 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:58.080 Sometimes you gotta get up and you gotta, when when all hell is breaking loose in the world, you gotta get up and lead your congregation to say things like, though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:02.720 And you gotta be the guy that means that more than anybody in the room. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:10.240 You gotta have that crazy look in your eye that says, either I love Jesus a whole bunch, or I'm gonna kill all y'all as soon as the music stops. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:15.600 Let me just play and you guys sing along and we'll figure out which one it is. 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:23.840 Otherwise, your people are gonna lay down in bed at night and they're gonna have unnecessary fear on them because you didn't believe what you were saying. 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:27.759 You didn't trust the flower in the candle over the gun. 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:33.120 The third verse says, Rise up, O men of God, the church for you doth wait. 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:38.399 Her strength, unequal to her task, rise up and make her great. 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:42.080 The church is not here to make you great. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:47.600 Way too many people your age that use the church. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:51.519 And God is gonna lay the wood to them on judgment day. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:16:00.399 Because they think the church is about, the church owes me, I need to work at a church within 20 miles of my parents so I can get free babysitting. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.919 I need to, I need to be off because I'm tired. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:05.519 I don't get enough time with my kids. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:07.360 Manage your own schedule. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:09.840 Don't come to work and steal from your church. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:11.759 You're here to make the church great. 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:14.799 The church is not here to make Clyde Copeland great. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:21.200 And I know you kind of twitch when I refer to you as a millennial. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:25.759 I don't think you're a millennial. 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:28.960 I think you're in that age group, but you're not the typical millennial. 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.519 And believe it or not, I don't dislike millennials. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:36.720 But I hate men who think the church is supposed to make them great. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:40.080 Because God doesn't like them either. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:43.279 And they'll have their due on judgment day. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:47.840 But I say to you, at your ordination, you rise up and you make the church great. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:51.039 Be done worrying about yourself. 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:55.840 Just make the church great, and everything else will take care of itself. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:57.360 I promise you. 00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:03.440 You want to stand before God on judgment day and look at him and say, I did everything to make her great. 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:06.400 I exhausted myself to make her great. 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:11.279 That's the men that God says, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:13.599 Enter in to your reward. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:20.880 These rest of these people that work a 31-hour week and think that God doesn't know that they're slackers. 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:24.319 There will be no such pronouncement on them. 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:32.880 Last verse says this lift high the cross of Christ, tread where his feet have trod, as brothers of the Son of Man. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:35.119 Rise up, O men of God. 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:39.920 Lift high the cross of Christ. 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:43.119 Tread where his feet have trod. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:48.880 I just want to close my charge to you, Clyde, by saying, Lift high the cross of Christ. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:58.799 Worship is not to be entertained, it's it's not a sermon that we sing before we hear a sermon, but it ought to have theological integrity. 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:06.880 It ought to be God-centered, it ought to be gospel-driven, it ought to be available where the harlots can understand it. 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:11.920 But also it ought to engage the mind of the most cerebral engineer in the room. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:16.160 And little kids ought to hum pieces of it, walk into the minivan. 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:20.880 That's what it means to lift high the cross of Christ. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:26.400 The Bible tells in 1 Chronicles 20 about a man named Jehoshaphat. 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:32.079 They were getting ready to go to war, and he sought the Lord, and God said, put the worshipers out in front of the army. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:37.599 They're the first fools in the fight, Clyde. 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:46.960 And the Bible says that they sent the worshipers in front of the army and they went to meet the enemy, and God threw the enemy into confusion. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:49.599 Here's the privilege that you have. 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.799 You get to be the first fool into the fight every Sunday. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.960 And there are people in this room right now that are taking up an offense for you. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:18:59.759 Do you know that? 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:06.559 They're gonna come to you out there over a finger sandwich and a cup of punch and go, I'm I'm gonna write Neil an email because he called you a fool. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:10.880 That is the best thing I'll say to you tonight. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:13.519 You better be foolish. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:16.960 You better be so all in on the gospel. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:22.079 Because the Bible says it was by the foolishness of preaching that Christ chose to save some. 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:35.599 It's foolishness to say to humanity today, to cocture certain depraved human masses, to say to them, your only hope is that Jesus died on the cross as payment for your sins. 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:37.759 That's foolishness, Clyde. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:46.160 And you get to celebrate it in music and in song, in reading, in admonition, and encouragement. 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:50.720 You get to be the first fool into the fight to go before the army. 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.720 Because God trusts those people. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:03.359 When they divided the land, the Levites didn't get any land. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:10.160 God said to them, when they got up there, everybody else got land, and they were just thinking, Oh man, we're gonna be. 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:13.839 They got up there and God said, I'm your inheritance. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:16.960 You get me. 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:20.319 And they didn't fall on the ground and weep. 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:22.720 They started singing, We are the champions. 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:32.880 Women started shrieking out, Bingo! Bingo! See, God's always had a foolish relationship with worship leaders. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:43.279 And be careful that you want to change the timber and the tenor and the tone of your relationship as a worshiper of God with God. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:47.680 Because he likes to keep it in the realm of the foolish. 00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:51.839 To say to them, You don't get land, you get me. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:53.359 I'm your inheritance. 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:56.240 Oh, and by the way, get out in front of the army. 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:00.319 I'm gonna use you to make a statement about myself. 00:21:01.039 --> 00:21:09.279 And every Sunday you sit down at that piano or you stand over here with your guitar, you're the first fool into the fight. 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:16.880 You're leading this army that looks at you every Sunday, and you're saying, come on, our God is a great God. 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:23.920 Let's sing and make much of God with gusto and gravity and gladness. 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:30.960 And he asks you to do that, Clyde, because he, like the rest of us, knows that it's in you. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:33.920 And that's what I charge you with. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:35.759 Let me pray. 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:38.000 God, thanks for this man. 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:42.799 Thanks for the privilege that is ours because of the gospel. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:50.160 Thanks for the reality that is settled deep in the marrow of his bones. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:56.319 There's nothing that's been said about Clyde or two Clyde tonight that he doesn't understand. 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.359 And so we don't want to. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:05.599 Waste our words just uh baptizing the status quo. 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:10.079 We want to love Clyde enough that we we spur him on to love and good deeds. 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:11.920 And so thank you. 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:16.720 The Bible says that when you ascended, you you descended, you you you gave the church gifts. 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:22.160 And we believe that he's one of the gifts that called men like this are one of the gifts that you've given to the church. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:38.240 And so we uh we come together as this faith community tonight on an inconvenient weekend, the weekend before Thanksgiving, when our kids are out of school, there's people in this room that all inconvenience themselves to say, I want to stand and say yes to this man's calling. 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:42.160 And so, Lord, thanks for this opportunity. 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:47.519 Thanks for this privilege, and thanks for this man in Jesus' name. 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:50.000 And everyone said, Amen. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:52.880 Clyde, I'm gonna ask if you would to come and take your position. 00:22:55.119 --> 00:23:03.279 Clyde's gonna come and Nicole's gonna sit behind him, and he it is a the tradition of a called man to kneel before his congregation that he's called to serve. 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:08.640 He doesn't stand before you as one of your leaders, he kneels before you as one of your servants. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:17.119 I'm gonna ask the elders of our church and any other ordained men that are in the room if you would come forward at this time, and you'll be the first ones to lay hands on Clyde. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:21.920 And you can just come, you don't have to just come on from one side, you'll line up over here. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:30.079 But if you're ordained or if you're an elder in this church, I want you just to come and lay your hands on Clyde and pray over him out loud, all at once. 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:33.200 You don't have to wait, and when you're done, you can go back to your seat. 00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:37.759 And in just a minute, I'll I'll invite the rest of you to come and pray over them. 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:40.880 Nicole, would you stand beside your husband? 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:48.720 We put this man forward tonight for ordination to the gospel ministry. 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:52.240 Not because he's a good man, but because he's a gospel man. 00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:54.720 And there's a difference. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:04.880 And so we acknowledge before God and those assembled Clyde Copeland, Robert Clyde Copeland Jr. 00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:09.759 is an ordained gospel man. 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:14.640 All those who stand in agreement, would you stand right now? 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:27.519 These are the people glad that God's given you the privilege of making great. 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:35.039 We're here tonight to say that we love you and we believe in you, and we want to be led by you. 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:42.000 On the rainy Thursdays, when you wonder about that. 00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:49.119 You look into these people's eyes and remember this night. 00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:53.839 You and Nicole can come over in the front row over here and take your place where you were earlier. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:55.039 Stay standing if you would. 00:24:55.200 --> 00:25:00.079 We're gonna close this part of our service by singing an old hymn, a few verses of an old hymn. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:03.759 Lindsay's going to lead us, and then I'll come and give you some instructions. 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:05.440 Let's let's say this together. 00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:52.720 Oh you smile. 00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:49.359 God's own hand shall guide us there. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:56.079 Soon shall close this earthly mission. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:02.160 Soon shall pass these pilgrim days. 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:07.759 Hope shall change to glad fruition. 00:28:09.359 --> 00:28:14.559 Feed to sight and pray, sweet.