2024 State of the Union Address:

Enduring Faith for Our Future - Mark Prater

We are now going to move to the State of the Union and in your packet you do have a State of the Union outline. My outlines are really unimpressive, but there's some stats in there you might want. There's some quotes in there you might want to keep or have. So in the kindness of my heart, I give you an outline.

You can open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11 if you would. As you're getting that outline, Hebrews 11. I always look forward to giving the State of the Union, but I must say especially this year, I am looking forward to giving this one.

I recently heard on a podcast someone say that they were bullish about their denomination. And even though their denomination has a lot of imperfections, they said this, I think this denomination is the place to be. And when I heard that, I thought that's exactly how I feel about Sovereign Grace. I am bullish about Sovereign Grace and despite our own imperfections and weaknesses, I unashamedly think that Sovereign Grace is the place to be.

Now, there's a number of reasons for that, but at the top of the list, the reason I think that way, is because of you men. You men are just some of the most amazing pastors I know and have ever met. I'm always affected when I'm around you by your consistent love and zeal for Christ, your ongoing pursuit of godliness in your life and in your home, your abiding faithfulness to scripture, including your faithful preaching of God's word and just the countless ways I don't see that you lay your life down to lead and serve your churches. I just think you're some of the most amazing pastors I've ever known and ever met. And it's one of the reasons it really is an honor and a privilege. Those words feel overused, but they capture my heart. It's an honor and a privilege to labor alongside of you.

And here's another reason why it's so good to be in Sovereign Grace. Why? I think it's the place to be. We build relationally, don't we? So we're together here to do business, but we're together as brothers and as friends. That's how this meeting started, with a lot of warm greetings. And we are brothers who in the good times and in the challenging times, stay together to labor for the work of Christ and his gospel. I'm bullish about Sovereign Grace because, I want to say it again, you're not just amazing pastors, you are friends and you are brothers that the leadership team and I love and respect and we pray for. So thank you for giving the leadership team and me this wonderful privilege to serve you. We do exist as a leadership team to serve you and to serve alongside of you. Every guy on the leadership team carries that heart towards you and we just love you men.

Alright, Hebrews chapter 11, title of this State of the Union is Enduring Faith for Our Future. I think I put in your outline verses 1-7. I changed my mind this morning as I went through this. We're going to read 1-6, one less verse. So Hebrews 11, I need my reading glasses. Sorry about that guys. Hebrews 11 verses 1-6, A familiar passage that I'm sure you've preached from and have read, but it never gets old.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Able offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."

God bless the preaching of his word and of this State of the Union.

There is a cross of iron and stone embedded into Broad Street, in Oxford, England. It marks the place where Hugh Latimer and Nicolas Ridley, leaders of the English Reformation were burned at the stake on October 16th, 1555 during the reign of Queen Mary the first. Latimer at one time opposed the Reformation speaking against it as a Catholic priest until he heard the confession of a man by the name of Thomas Bilney who told Latimer that his justification before a holy God was by faith in Christ alone and in his trust in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross. That confession, it shook Latimer and shortly thereafter he was born again. And from that point, he spent the rest of his life preaching the true gospel including justification by faith alone, which he was arrested for two months after Mary ascended to the throne and Latimer was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

It was there in the tower that he met Nicolas Ridley, also a leader in the English Reformation who was arrested for preaching the true gospel like Latimer and for bringing about biblical changes to the worship services in the churches in England. Latimer and Ridley were eventually transferred to a prison in Oxford, charged with heresy and put on trial. The chief reason for their trial was a commitment to the belief in the sole sufficiency of Christ's atoning death for salvation and their refusal to compromise with the Catholic traditions and views of the Queen for which they were both found guilty. On the morning of October 16th, 1555, the day they were executed, Ridley arrived at the stake first. Latimer arrived shortly thereafter and Ridley said to his friend this, put this in your outline.

"Be of good heart, be of good heart, brother. For God will either assuage the fury of the flame or else strengthen us to abide it."

Again, after refusing to recant their beliefs, both men were chained to a stake and as the wood around them was set on fire, Latimer yelled out to Ridley this: "Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man! We shall see this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Three years later, Queen Mary, as you know, died and the throne, the kingdom, was passed to her half-sister Elizabeth who was a Protestant queen, and Latimer and Ridley's candle, it burst into a flaming torch. So I'm going to ask you, why would Hugh Latimer make such a bold hope-filled statement about a future he knew he would not see? Because he had faith in God; that God would continue the good work of the Reformation and the good work of the gospel believing that it would survive even bloody Mary's persecution.

See, that's the kind of faith that we find here in Hebrews 11, a faith that has assurance of the things we hope for and a conviction of things that we do not yet see. Now I chose this text for this State of the Union because this State of the Union is filled with hope, with hopes regarding our future as a family of churches, and like Latimer, even though we don't see all these things right now, we need to possess, brothers, an enduring faith that God will act for the good of our churches, for the advancement of the gospel and for his glory now and for years to come. It's that kind of faith that the saints of old were commended for in Hebrews 11. And most importantly, it's the kind of faith that pleases God. Verse 6 is very clear; and without faith it is impossible to please him.

And verse 6 serves as a wonderful reminder for us ultimately why Sovereign Grace exists. Sovereign Grace exists for the ultimate purpose of giving God glory. It's not about us, right brothers, it's about him. And one of the ways that we make much of him is by possessing an enduring faith that has an assurance of things that you and I hope for and a conviction of things not yet seen for our future. And it's that kind of faith that pleases God. So in this moment, in Sovereign Grace, brothers, I believe we need Hebrews 11-like faith. I believe we need Hugh Latimer, Nicolas Ridley-like faith and enduring faith because this is how I would describe in one sentence where we are at as a family of churches and where we are headed over the next decade or so as a family of churches. I put this sentence in your outline, this is how I would describe where we're at and where we're headed: During a time of God-given global expansion, moving from a small denomination to a mid-size denomination, we are beginning a phase of generational transfer of primary leadership of our churches, in a culture that is shifting further away from God's word, making gospel ministry and gospel mission more challenging. That's how I would say it. That extended sentence, as you might notice, contains both God-given blessings and God-ordained challenges which reveal our need to lead our churches with an enduring faith so that our future would be all that we would hope for by the grace of God and for the glory of God.

See, to lead our churches well, brothers, we need to lead with an enduring faith in God to do good gospel work for God, all for the purpose of pleasing God. That's what we want to do. There is so much good that God is doing in our churches right now that makes us hopeful about the future. Those are things that we see that makes us hopeful. And at the same time, there are challenges we face and vulnerabilities that we have that reveal our need to have an enduring faith, to trust God for his power and his provision and his protection.

So five ways we must lead with enduring faith. Number 1, Enduring Faith for Future Pastors. Now I'm encouraged personally by the number of young pastors that I see in Sovereign Grace who are serving our churches effectively, some of them who are senior pastors. And so if you're here, by the way, if you're here and I'm defining young as under 50, alright? So if you are here and you're an ordained elder under 50, would you raise your hand? Alright, that's encouraging. Those are things that we see. Jeff. Jeff, did you raise your hand because you're not, he tries to do that. Did you raise your hand? Jeff Purswell, did you raise your hand? Oh, okay. All right. Just checking.

I'm also encouraged by the number of younger extra-local leaders. I mean by that under 60. Things change as you get older, right? In terms of your numbers, I'm encouraged by the number of extra-local leaders who are under 60 serving as our regional leaders, on national committees, at the Pastors College, with Sovereign Grace Music, in evangelism, and in so many other ways beyond their local church. Additionally, I'm encouraged by the number of young men in our churches who are aspiring to pastoral ministry. So what we see is evidences of God's provision of current young pastors and young men interested in pastoral ministry, which does give us hope.

Now at the same time, we must be honest, there are vulnerabilities we have which reveal that we need enduring faith for future pastors that we currently don't see. So I gave you these stats last year: 27% of our pastors are in their sixties, 20% are in their fifties. So in other words, about half of our pastors, 96 of our pastors are in their fifties and sixties, which means that over the next 10 to 15 plus years, about half of our pastors will transfer primary leadership of their churches over to the next generation. And as I said last year, and I still feel this way this year, I believe this is a transition we are not yet prepared for on a local, regional, national, and global level because I'm not aware we got 96 guys sitting in the bullpen, right, ready to go. So that's a vulnerability we have, something we don't see, which is why we need an enduring faith in God by asking him to give us more young men called to pastoral ministry, confident that he will provide because as the verse says in verse 6, he rewards those who seek him. Amen. Thank goodness for that.

So beyond praying, here are two steps of faith that we can take to prepare for our future. Two steps. First, I said this last year, I want to say it again. I'm saying it again intentionally. First: recruit, evaluate, and send men to the Pastors College. The leadership team and I believe that the most effective way that a young man can be equipped to be a Sovereign Grace pastor is through the theological training he receives, and through the Sovereign Grace values and virtues that are instilled into him at the Pastors College. And Jeff, thank you for leading the Pastors College that way. Brian, thank you for pastoring those Pastors College students. Steve, I don't know if Steve Whitacre's here, for academically advising those guys because you have built something good and I want you men to take advantage of that. Send them and they will be good Sovereign Grace pastors. Sending them to the Pastors College also helps you to better evaluate a man for ordination and for pastoral ministry because you've got more eyes on him, men at the Pastors College, and you want to do that before he serves in a pastoral residency after graduation.

Now the leadership team and I, we feel so strongly about this, we've created ways to help you, to aid you in this. The first way is something we've had for a few years. The Summer Internship Grant Program, we created that several years ago. It's a grant program where high school, college, men in their twenties and thirties can serve in a summer internship and you can apply for funding from Sovereign Grace. And this past fiscal year we gave out $15,000 to 15 different churches where men served in those summer internships and some of those men are now PC students.

This year I'm also excited to announce a new program that we just put together as a leadership team. We have a new, what we're calling Pastoral Development and Deployment Grant Program that the leadership team and I, we just created. The purpose of this grant program is to help you financially fund pre-PC internships, PC expenses, and post-PC residencies. We want to throw our money where our mouth is and encourage you in that way. Now all churches can apply for these grants, but we especially have small churches in view who may have fewer financial resources. Now here's why we're doing this and you know this better than I do, to serve the members of your church in making good pastoral leadership transitions in the future, the members of your church need to see these younger men actually serving in pastoral ministry before they can say, I think that guy can be my pastor. I think I can follow him. And so that's what this new grant program is about. It is about helping you to find funding to get guys on your staff so they can function in pastoral ministry before transitions occur. And I'll tell you more about this grant program later in the Council of Elders meeting, but I want to give you evidence that God is at work. I want to stir your faith that again, as he typically does, God goes before us. So two weeks ago, the Northeast Regional Assembly of Elders voted unanimously to give, to take $50,000 from their regional reserves and give it to this grant program as seed money. See, they have faith that they want to invest into churches who are going to go through transitions, whether it benefits churches in the northeast or not. And so to the northeast region guys, thank you for that wonderful generosity on your part. Amen.

And if you're a region that's interested in giving to that program, we'll take your money of course, but we want to help each other in that, which gets to the second step of faith. And this is something I feel very strongly about, very keenly about right now. I want to create in Sovereign Grace a "culture of interdependent cooperation", a culture of interdependent cooperation. What I mean is this, that even though the number of young men that we have in some of our churches who aspire to pastoral ministry is encouraging, that's not uniform across all of our churches. And so we've got to help each other in that. So therefore, if you're a church that has a growing number of young men who are aspiring to pastoral ministry, be willing to send them out, be willing to send them to a church who doesn't have young men like that, and a church that may need to transition before too long and they need young men to help them in pastoral ministry. Send them to those churches so they can get to know them and equip them. Or you may have a young man that you decide you want to send to the PC, you want 'em to get equipped at the pc, but you're willing to say, he doesn't have to come back here. I'm willing to send him to another church that could serve another Sovereign Grace Church who may be staring at a transition. Or you may have a young man you think, I think this guy can be a senior pastor and you're not ready to transition that yet, as a senior pastor, and there's a church that needs a senior pastor, be willing to send that man potentially to that church. That's the kind of interdependent cooperation I want us to cultivate. And for it to work, it's got to be grassroots. I want you guys to be behind it and it requires real sacrifice and that sacrifice requires faith.

But that kind of enduring faith, it pleases God. Iit pleases God and is necessary for us to prepare for our future. Alright, second way we lead with enduring faith. Number 2, Enduring Faith for a God-glorifying Generational Transfer of Leadership. You probably know this, one of the effects that studying Hebrews 11 can have upon you is it makes you feel small. It makes you feel small because it's written in a way that reveals God's work throughout redemptive history. Peter T. O'Brien makes this observation. It is noteworthy that in the list of Hebrews 11, attention is given not only to the faith of the Old Testament examples, but also in particularly to the salvation historical events themselves. The examples are set in historical sequence so as to provide an outline of the redemptive purpose of God advancing through the age of promise until at last in Jesus' face, pioneer and perfecter, the age of fulfillment is inaugurated.

So take Sovereign Grace and you lay us into redemptive history and you find that we are small not only in numbers, we know we're small, but we are small, but we're also playing our small part in redemptive history, advancing the redemptive purpose of God in this age of promise as we all look to the age of fulfillment. So Hebrews 11 reminds us of this; that gospel ministry and mission advances throughout the age of promise as the gospel has passed from one generation to another generation. And because we are a young denomination, we're only 42 years old, the first generation of pastors, we now have this unique opportunity to transition pastoral leadership to the next generation for the good of the gospel so that future generations can continue gospel ministry. Here's the reality, let's be frank. In 10 years, approximately half of our churches will be led by younger, the next generation of pastors. In 10 years, the next generation will be leading Sovereign Grace regionally, nationally, and globally. In 10 years, someone else will be the executive director and the composition of the leadership team will be different than we have now.

And let me give you some stats this year that I didn't give you last year to illustrate this on a local church level. Thirteen of our senior pastors are in their sixties and 22 of our senior pastors are in their fifties. So that's 35 senior pastor transitions in the next 10 to 15 years, roughly. Those numbers speak to the opportunity we have over the next decade, brothers, to do something foundational in Sovereign Grace, to model a biblically informed God-glorifying transition of primary leadership on a local, regional, national and global level. And we do that in a way that serves our churches, brings God glory and allows us to continue to advance the gospel through the age of promise and to make those transitions in a God glorifying way.

I believe whether you're old or you're young, is going to require an enduring faith. So I want to speak to my first generation brothers first that are in this room. We need faith brothers, those of you that are around my age to make our transitions with joy and with humility and with encouragement that communicates our support for the next generation as they step into leadership, they're not going to do things the way you did them. So temptations will come and so you must have faith in God that they might do them better than we did 'em and a faith in God that communicates your support for them and that kind of faith brothers, keep in mind, that kind of faith pleases God. We must also have faith brothers to initiate these transitions believing that we will still bear fruit in old age. Psalm 92:14, and I want to lead by example in this area.

So I have been talking to the leadership team and the executive committee about my transition out of the executive director role sometime in the future. The leadership team and the executive committee and I, we share this common desire to transition in our new polity in a way that serves our churches and may it bring God glory, and I'm praying, we're praying, that it leaves an example for future generations to follow. That's what we want. That's what you want. Now, a God-glorifying transition doesn't happen just like that. So we're talking and we're planning and we're praying together and as the leadership team and I, as we talk about my transition, we're trying to put together some sort of leadership transition resource that we can send out to our churches that we hope may help aid you as you begin to face those transitions in your local churches. Now to my brothers who are the founding generation, you have built Sovereign Grace well. You're to be commended. Let's finish the job by transitioning it well, amen. Let's do that.

Now I want to speak to the second and third generation of Sovereign Grace pastors, brothers. You need to transition into leadership with joy and humility and an appropriate respect and appreciation for what you are being handed. Now as I talk to younger pastors in Sovereign Grace about that future transition, there's a common fear that I hear from them. It goes something like this. You realize that you're being handed something that the first generation built well and you fear you're going to blow it and disappoint those who went before you. That fear must be met with an enduring faith that knows, that has assurance, that has a conviction, that the same God who helped the first generation is the same God who will help you. Amen? That's our God and he is good and we must have faith in him. Brothers, let's make these transitions with an enduring faith. Why? Because enduring faith in God continues good gospel work for generations to come for God, all for the purpose of pleasing God.

Third way that we must lead with enduring faith. Number 3, Enduring Faith for Theological Fidelity. Now our statement of faith, here's something that we see our statement of faith is providing for us wonderful theological clarity and theological unity in our family of churches. As you men know better than I, new people are coming to Sovereign Grace Churches who've never been in a Sovereign Grace church before for many reasons. But one of them is that they like the theological clarity that is found in our statement of faith. And again, thank you to the theology committee and Jeff for leading that committee so well to give us that statement of faith. It is serving us big time, it's giving us theological clarity and theological unity. Now as you know, our theological convictions must not just remain on paper, they must function daily in our lives and it's important that they function daily in our lives so that we maintain our theological fidelity, especially in the current culture. So given the trends in our culture, we must lead with enduring faith by staying vigilant for how those cultural issues may subtly erode our theological fidelity either now or in the future. You know the issues; gender ideology, complementarianism, the current therapeutic creep that's making its way into the biblical counseling world.

You may have heard this spiritual formation, if you haven't, I want to make you aware of it. There's a book written by John Mark Comer that was published in January entitled Practicing The Way: Be With Jesus, Become Like Him, Do as He Did. The name of the book, the book is basically about building the spiritual disciplines into the normal rhythm of your life so that you can become more like Jesus and do what he did. And spiritual disciplines are a good thing, that's not a bad thing, but the problem with the book is that it lacks any good gospel connections, really gospel at all and any good gospel connections. I first became aware of the book from Riley Spring. He was aware of it being read in Australia by college students and since then we've heard of it more, at least in our area, in the states, of college students reading this book. And so I asked Riley to do a book review for me, and this is part of what he said. This book emphasizes our need to participate in our growth in a way that seems as if the gospel of Paul is at odds with the way of Jesus, rather than as Romans 6 makes so clear the gospel or justification by faith is the basis of our sanctification. The unfortunate side product is that if you don't know the true gospel, well you will never encounter it in this book as anything other than a straw man, a truncated gospel of personal salvation. Thank you for that review. College students are reading this and it's gospel plus works. It is a way that our theology can be eroded and our justification by faith alone in particular.

Now despite these cultural and evangelical trends, there's no need for us to panic. You see panic in the culture and I think you see panic in the evangelical world. Let's be pastors that don't panic. Rather, we must prepare our churches with an enduring faith in God's word expressed in ongoing fidelity to our theological convictions.

Now because theological compromise, you know this is so subtle, I want us to be aware of three vulnerabilities that I see presently. So 3 vulnerabilities where we could be vulnerable. Number 1, Our global expansion. Number 2, An unbiblical kindness or niceness that keeps us from having hard conversations. And number 3, Polity technicalities.

So let's start with our global expansion. Given our current rate of expansion: in 10 years, we will increase the number of partner churches from 95 now to 280. By 2034 in 10 years, we'll potentially have more ecclesiastical nations other than the US and Mexico; in the Philippines, possibly in East Africa for example, where you might have ecclesiastical nations. What the Lord is doing in Sovereign Grace throughout the world is wonderful and encouraging mostly because this is the Lord's doing. We can't take credit for this and it is marvelous in our eyes. Just some of the things we see you'll be hearing this week about a new church plant in Nairobi, Kenya, Sovereign Grace Church in Nairobi, Kenya. You know why that church plant's happening? Because the Louisville pastoral team had faith to invest into Michael Granger, which takes a lot of faith by the way. Faith to invest into Michael Granger and Josh Pannell, equip them for pastoral ministry and then that pastoral team had faith to send them to Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Michael and Joshua had faith to go; Michael to plant a church and to work with Joshua to start a Pastors College who had a first year class graduated Brian Kiama, who's now an ordained Sovereign Grace pastor. Now Michael and Joshua have faith to send him to Nairobi. That's a wonderful example of faith. So thank you to the Louisville elders and to Michael and Joshua for that example of faith.

You're going to hear this week that we hope in two to three years to plant a church in Ho Chi Min, Vietnam. Who would ever think Sovereign Grace would plant a church there? Why is that happening? Because in God's sovereign kindness, he had us meet Jeffrey Jo, a brother from a different mother, right? That's who you are buddy. And he has the same heartbeat for gospel mission that we do. He equips young men for pastoral ministry and then in faith he sends them, he's going to be sending people to Ho Chi Min to Plant a church. So, Jeff, thank you for your faith. It's a wonderful example to us.

Now those are wonderful evidences of things we see where God is being good to us. But as you know with expansion comes challenges. If you study denominations, you find that when some expanded over time, conservative factions and liberally progressive factions formed threatening their theological fidelity and consistency and unity. And we've been talking about this as a leadership team because we carry a burden of responsibility to lead in a way that those factions don't form in Sovereign Grace. So we had a long discussion about this at our June leadership team retreat and in typical "Purswellian" fashion, Jeff said this: factions occur when you see either denominational leadership that is disconnected from seminaries, and or denominational leadership that goes astray theologically. As well said, Jeff, as a leadership team, we must keep a close watch on our doctrine as a team and we must continue to keep a close watch and oversee our Pastors Colleges regardless of where they're located globally. And so we are working on a global Pastors College certification proposal that helps ensure doctrinal fidelity and consistency for any Pastors College that wants to call itself a Sovereign Grace Pastors College. You'll hear more about that in the future.

Additionally, as we expand by adopting churches, we must look for ways to improve our adoption process. There are lessons we need to learn from La Grange and Liberia, right? And so I've asked Dave Taylor and Jon Payne to work together to evaluate how we can improve our adoption process so that we can consider any things that we learn, either for the BCO or for our best practices in the future.

Okay, second vulnerability to our theological fidelity is this, we can have this unbiblical kindness or niceness, choose your term, that keeps us from having hard conversations. Now I'm glad Sovereign Grace are nice guys. They're kind guys. Kindness is a fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5:22, and for pastors, we are to be kind to everyone and we are to correct our opponents with gentleness; 2 Timothy 2:24 and 25. But note what Paul's saying there. Kindness characterizes the correction. Kindness doesn't remove the obligation to have the hard conversation to correct and that's what we must realize. Kind yet clear correction is necessary to protect and defend the truth so that error doesn't creep in and we lose our theological fidelity.

So when you have a new member come to your church and they tell you they don't need a pastor, they need a therapist, you need to have a gracious yet hard conversation explaining why they need a pastor to skillfully bring God's word to bear in their lives in a way that a therapist is never equipped to do. You got to have that hard conversation. It's why we've asked Josh Blount to do this breakout session this week, "competent to counsel" because we want him to speak into that. So if a college student comes to your church and they happen to mention they're reading Practicing the Way, then have the hard conversation and encourage them to stop reading the book because it lacks real gospel connections in their life and will not produce the kind of godliness that they hope for. You've got to have that conversation. If you have a young man in your region who is theologically astute in pursuing ordination, yet you have real questions about him being an elder, whether those are character questions or theological questions, you have an obligation to graciously go to him and to his senior pastor and to the regional ordination committee and make your concerns known. We want to be kind guys, but we've got to have hard conversations because we have to protect our theological fidelity.

Third vulnerability I see, and this is my term, polity technicalities. I watch and study other denominations because I just want to learn from them. And you're familiar with the Christian Reform Church in North America, the CRC, it was founded by Dutch immigrants in 1857, theologically conservative denomination. It grew hitting its peak in 1992 of a thousand churches and about 300 members per church. But it was in about the mid-nineties that the CRC began to make theological compromises over issues like women becoming ordained for the pastoral office and then a few years later, some of their churches becoming LGBTQ affirming and same-sex marriage affirming. In part, here's why it happened, in part because the same theological drift was happening at their seminary, Calvin College, which is to Jeff's point that he was making before. Then two years ago there was a surprising move in the CRC In 2022, the Synod, the Council of Elders, the Synod of the CRC by a vote of 123 to 52 affirmed that unchastity in the Heidelberg catechism includes adultery, premarital sex, polyamory, pornography, and homosexual sex. It was a remarkable shift and a remarkable step for the denomination to turn back to sound doctrine. Then in 1993, liberal progressive delegates brought the issue to the synod floor again for debate. And again, the unchastity definition came for a vote and it was again affirmed as it had been the year previous. However, this time, this time, some of the LGBTQ affirming, same-sex marriage affirming churches, those delegates used what is called gravamina which is in their CRC Book of Church Order to keep from being disciplined and removed from the CRC. Gravamina essentially means that while affirming the overall confession of faith, they have time to discuss with the synod where they have difficulty with that portion of the confession. And so LGBTQ affirming and same-sex marriage affirming churches now remain in the CRC. And this has caused a lot of confusion in the denomination. Now I'm telling you this because I'm glad we don't have gravamina in our BCO. Do we? Okay, good. I'm just wanting to make sure we don't have that. I know we don't have it in our BCO, I am telling you this story because I think there's something here for us to learn. We do have A BCO and we have to be aware of how any polity technicality could be used to weaken our doctrinal convictions and cause confusion in Sovereign Grace. So brothers, if something like this ever happens, and I hope it doesn't, in the future of Sovereign Grace, we should avoid the polity technicality area and move to peaceful separation so that we can protect our theological fidelity. That will require a hard conversation and that will require a hard decision by regional assemblies and by this council. But let's commit to do it. Amen.

See, the unbiblical trends in our culture will require that we expand wisely. We'll be willing to have hard conversations and avoid polity technicalities so that we maintain our theological fidelity. But there's one other thing I want to say under this point. I think given the cultural trends right now, we're going to need each other more and we got to help each other more. Here's what I mean by that. I would guess, and you probably will agree with this, that as the culture trends the way, churches are going to have a much harder time to rent government owned, public owned, buildings to meet in. It's probably going to happen. Therefore, I've been talking with Tommy Hill, Tommy and I've had several hard conversations about this topic and I've talked with the executive committee at our retreat in August about developing some sort of church building grant program or church loan program. I'm not sure which way we're going to go yet that would be available to churches to help them buy an existing building or to buy a piece of property or potentially to construct a building for the first time. This is going to be difficult to pull off, but I'm going to do my best to try to get that done for us because I think we're going to need each other. Okay?

Fourth way to lead with enduring faith: Enduring Faith for Church Planting. So faith for planting churches expressed and sacrificially sending our best. It's been a part of our denomination for 42 years now and it's our hope that our enduring faith to plant churches will continue so that we can do this so we can reach the lost with the gospel, which is why we plant churches. I want to remind you of that through a couple of really quick stories. The next Sovereign Grace mission video, probably out in the next week or two, I can't wait for you watch. It is about Grace City Church in Frankfurt, planted by Stephen Bowne, that's the northeast section of Philadelphia. And in that video you'll meet a man by the name of Michael Morris, who was in a rehab center, strung out on drugs and was invited to Grace City and the gospel shared with him. He's born again and he's an active member helping to spread the gospel in that community. Stephen, thank you for planting that church in a hard place. That's why we plant churches.

I was just interacting with Matt Gray who leads Living Hope Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Just two weeks ago, baptized two men, one, age 24 named Jordan, who made a mess of his life, made a mess of his marriage. And just about four months ago, when he came to the church, someone shared the gospel with him. He's born again and he was baptized two weeks ago. And then on that same day, a young man by the name of Ian, 19 years of age grew up in your church, realized he wasn't a Christian, he's born again and he testifies to the saving grace of Christ. That's why we plant churches. And Matt, thank you for leading Living Hope Church. Yeah, come on man. Give Matt a clap. That's why we plant churches.

And those stories remind us why we plant churches. And I hope those stories stir faith in us to continue to plant churches in the future. Now, what's encouraging here is what we see. God is giving us this wonderful opportunity to reach more people with the gospel by planting over the next two years, 15 churches in Sovereign Grace. Yeah, amen. Six of them here in the States. I mentioned one already. One in the North Knoxville area, thank you Cornerstone for planting yet another church. Columbia/Spring Hill, Tennessee. Thank you Dave Odom, Redeeming Grace, for planting your first church. Tampa, Florida. Thank you Mario for the faith you have to plant and lead a bilingual church. Galloway, New Jersey. Thank you Greentree Church for planting your first church and sending your brother Eric Kyle. North Manchester, Indiana. Thank you Mark for planting your first church out of Christ's Covenant Church in Winona Lake. And Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Thank you to my Covenant Fellowship brothers for planting yet another church.

Those are the six in the states, nine globally: Oaxaca, Mexico; Reynosa, Mexico; Torino, Italy. Ed is in that process right now, is here with us. Nairobi, Kenya that I mentioned. Windhoek, Namibia. Josh, thank you for planting your church in Thailand. Won't say more there for security reasons but it's happening. And then in the Asia Pacific part of the world, Tanza City, Philippines, Trece Martirez City, Philippines, and Ho Chi Min, Vietnam. Jeff, thank you for your faith to plant those churches. That's wonderful. Isn't it wonderful evidences of God's activity that do give us hope that we will continue to plant well into the future. And that's why you must continue to take thoughtful, prayer saturated risk to plant new churches. And it tells us why the hiring of Joel Shorey is very timely in the new Director of Church Planting role. So Joel, thank you for stepping in that role and good luck with those 15 church plants.

Even though we are encouraged by the numbers that we see, I think we have a couple of vulnerabilities where we need enduring faith. The first is being too tentative to plant more churches. Last year I said that it's time for us. Is this a little mood lighting, for this part? That was very interesting. Maybe bring those back up, Jeff, if you could. That would probably be helpful. Especially for my old eyes last year, I said this to us last year, it's time for us to take risks, thoughtful prayer informed risks to plant more churches. And I've been surprised by the number of you that have come to me throughout this year and say how much that really impacted you.

I was just a few weeks ago in Tucson, Arizona at Sovereign Grace's Church in Tucson with Derek Overstreet and Tim Lambros and Tom Wilkins. And he was giving an update on the church. The church is growing, the church is wealthy and due to an estate gift from an untimely death of a dear member, they were able to pay off their building. So man, time to cruise right? Church is doing well, it's grown, got the building paid off. And Derek said to me what you said last year about taking risks, it really affected us as a team. And so we are praying and now preparing, we believe to plant a church in another part of Tucson where we're not reaching people with the gospel. And they said this to me, Tim and Tom and Derek, this really affected me. They said we would rather have two churches of 100 each than a church of 200 and reach more people for Christ. That's the kind of risk. Thank you Derek for your faith to do that. That's the kind of risks that I want us to take. Let us not be complacent brothers. Let's not be tentative. Rather let's seek God in prayer and take thoughtful risks to plant more churches knowing that God rewards those who seek him. I want to remind you of what scripture says, your sacrifices for the gospel, they will not go unnoticed for God says in his word, those who so bountifully will also reap bountifully. Good news. 2 Corinthians 9:6. So brothers, let's take thoughtful risks by sowing out bountifully, sowing out our best, believing that we will reap bountifully in this life and in the life to come.

Alright, here's the second vulnerability. How are we going to financially support all these church plants? I have no idea how this is all going to happen, but with an enduring faith, we must ask God for his financial provision believing what verse six says that he rewards those who do seek him. And with an enduring faith, I want to call you and your church to give generously to our church planting efforts. Now the council today will rule on a new business motion regarding the church planting fund. The leadership team is proposing that we take it and divide it into a global and US church planting fund because we believe we can spend our money more strategically and more effectively by having two separate funds. And again, I want to stir your faith. I want to stir your faith that God is going before us to provide for us to plant churches. So yet again, the northeast region two weeks ago in their regional assembly voted unanimously to take $100,000 out of their regional reserves and to give it to our church planting fund because they want to see churches planted, whether it's in the northeast region or not, so that the gospel would advance and again to our northeast brothers, thank you for your generosity to Sovereign Grace, thank you guys. Thank you.

I want to ask your region or your church, your region to consider taking some of your funds and giving it to our church planting fund. Or maybe you have members of your church, you want to see churches planted, whether it's here in the States or globally. Those church planting funds are available for them to give to. Giving requires faith, but it's enduring faith in God that does good gospel work for God by planting more churches all for the purpose of pleasing God.

Okay, fifth and last way that we must lead with enduring faith. And this is something I put last because it's something I'm excited about because I see God doing some amazing work that can only be explained by his doing among the pastors and members of our churches right now to give generously and joyfully to our mission in Sovereign Grace. I was just recording a podcast last week with Ben Kreps. I was telling him about how excited I am about this work of God. It's what I see. And he said, we just had a member over here that our budget was tight and this member wrote a check for $10,000 on the spot. That doesn't happen every day. I was at our regional assembly and heard that somebody just gave $750,000 to the Souderton Church that Jeremy Bell leads and you probably wouldn't know that person's name and Jeremy's not going to give that to you. Last fiscal year, this fiscal year combined, we've had a gospel patron give $640,000, one person, to our development funds. God is at work, brothers. I want you to have faith to stir what God is doing. God has went before you, you're coming behind him. But I want to challenge you to have an enduring faith, to teach people the generosity of God from scripture. Show them from scripture how generous God is, especially in giving of his son. And I believe that as you preach that and teach that and equip people for that, this is going to spread in Sovereign Grace to more and more people. Will you pray with me that God would continue that work? And what's amazing about this work of God, it coincides with these wonderful opportunities we have to advance the gospel all which need financial funding.

So brothers equip your church, call your church to be joyfully generous. And in doing so, I want to give you a few recommendations to do that. First recommendation, be a generous pastor, be a generous pastor, lead by example. Jill and I have prayerfully and consistently given more than 10% to our church for years now, always looking to increase it annually because we have a conviction that God has called us to be generous. We're not satisfied with where we're at. We're always wanting to increase it. And the more we increase it, you know what we find the more we want to give because it's such a joy. We also, Jill and I, give to Sovereign Grace monthly and we want to increase that where we can. In fact, as I was putting this together, I thought, I just thought the Spirit moved me. I thought I got to increase that right now. So I increased our monthly contribution. So Tommy, you have more money coming your way. It's not a lot, but you got some more money coming your way. Brothers, lead by example and let your people see how joyful you are as a generous pastor.

Second recommendation, senior pastors lead your churches, your church and the members of your church to be generous, and for your church to give 10% to Sovereign Grace. Now those churches giving 10% to Sovereign Grace right now, if I have my numbers right, 33 of our churches are doing that. And if you're doing that, thank you for your joyful generosity. But if you're not giving 10% and you've grown a little bit complacent there and are just satisfied with where you're at below 10%, I want to graciously ask you to take a step towards 10% because that's what we've partnered to do; is that where we can a church is giving 10%, and then prayerfully consider if you're not doing so where you can take a Sovereign Grace mission fund offering in your church. See, the reason we make these Sovereign Grace mission videos is that you can use them on a Sunday to keep your church members connected to our partnership, but it also can afford you the opportunity at least once a year to take a Sovereign Grace offering.

And so if that's not a regular part of the rhythm of your church's life, I'd like you to ask you to build that in. And one great example I think is Steve Teeter. Steve Teeter who leads Living Faith Church in Franklin, West Virginia has built this into the life of his church for what, 40 years now, Steve, and you annually do it and probably more than annually do it. And this church has given thousands and thousands of dollars from the members of that church to Sovereign Grace. If you want to know how to do that, talk to Steve. Raise your hand, Steve, back over there in the corner. Get off your email for a moment. Raise your hand. Yeah, you're on ESPN. I know you're on ESPN. Just raise your hand. I might even have Steve share about this in the future.

Third, this is something new. Consider having a Journey of Generosity retreat. They're called jogs. It's an acronym for journey of generosity. Consider having one in your church or in your region where members or several members of churches in your region can participate. Now here's the purpose of the retreat. The purpose of the retreat is simply to stir generosity by hearing stories of generosity and talking about them. The facilitators of those jog retreats are trained not to tell people where to give their money. They don't do that. That's a violation of a rule they have. So this is not a Sovereign Grace fundraising strategy. It is a strategy though, to stir generosity. And that's what God's doing among us. He's stirring generosity. So let's get in on that. And you know what? Because you men teach that your church is the dearest place on earth, that means your church probably is the one who will primarily benefit from a jog retreat, and we hope Sovereign Grace as well. But the point being, let's stir generosity. And as founding members of Covenant Fellowship, Bob Wright, he and his wife Val, are trained jog facilitators. And Bob and Val led two of these retreats in the fall, one in August and one in September that were primarily filled with Sovereign Grace Church members. And one of the guys that came was Mike Seaver. Mike came with a couple from his church, went through this retreat, was so affected by it. Mike has now reached out to Bob again and has a jog scheduled in Somerville, South Carolina for your church for next March. And if we have time, I want you to hear from Mike later why he did that and his experience in that retreat. So if you'd like to have a jog retreat, talk with me or if you know Bob Wright, talk with him and we'll help you try to facilitate that.

And then lastly, my fourth recommendation, which I think I brought with me, is to give this out to your people. This book by Sovereign Grace, Joyful Generosity. We don't make any money on this. The PDFs are online for free. Use that. But this is a biblical, accessible, biblical theology of the generosity of God and the joy we have in giving in God's mission. So give that out as well.

Alright, let's end with this. Those are things I hope for. Those are things we hope for regarding the future of our family of churches. And regardless of whether we will see them come to fruition or not, we must pursue them, brothers, with an enduring faith in God for the purpose of doing good gospel work for God, all for the purpose of pleasing God. And it's not just the work we do.

Now, here's my other hope. It's my hope that our enduring faith itself, we'll leave an example for future generations to follow. William Lane says this,

"He (the author of Hebrews) brings before his audience, a long series of exemplary witnesses to an enduring faith. The catalog shows that throughout redemptive history attestation from God has been based upon the evidence of a living faith that acts in terms of God's promise, even when the realization of that promise is not in sight. Such a faith is able to move beyond disappointment and the sufferings of this world and to bear vibrant testimony to future generations regarding the reality of the promise blessings."

So may our enduring faith in God to do good gospel work for God, all for the purpose of pleasing God, may that faith leave a vibrant testimony for future generations to follow in Sovereign Grace. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for all the good work you're doing in our family of churches right now. It's amazing the work you're doing and we give you all the credit and all the honor. I pray for us together here today and ask that you would impart faith and enduring faith in each of us to lead our churches into the future with an assurance of things that we hope for and a conviction of things that we don't see. Work and act on our behalf for the good of our churches, for the furtherance of the gospel and for your glory we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.