How could I possibly do what I feel you're calling me to do?

Yeah.

And I think there's a sense in which every faithful servant of the Lord is has a sort of similar perspective the apostle paul wrote about it in second corinthians and he's talking about the call to and commission that he had from the lord to preach the gospel uh which he he begins to say to some people who hear it it's an aroma of death unto death and to other people it's the aroma of life unto life and then he says this who is sufficient for these things he's he's actually amazed at the the the breadth of his calling and the profound importance of what God has given him to do.

And then a chapter later, he says, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but then he says, our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant.

That's the way he describes it, and that's a common theme, actually, with the Apostle Paul.

When he compares himself to the other apostles, he says, I worked harder than all of them, and then he immediately says, yet not I, but Christ within me.

and that's how we're supposed to see it I think that we are not in and of ourselves really able to do anything that would advance the kingdom or please God I mean there's a famous scripture in Romans 8 that says those who are in the flesh cannot please God so that's talking about the unregenerate people in our native unredeemed state we are in the flesh and And it says they cannot please God.

So even, you know, to make this even a little bit more personal, how have you wrestled with that to entrust your very health and your future to God?

Well, I want to say, first of all, congratulations to Nathan and especially to you at Grace Church.

[audience applauding] I, uh, I'll give you a little inside information.

The, the elders of Grace Church are, if anything, meticulous to a fault, and so this was a very long and detailed process.

But I'll confess to you, I was ready to vote for Nathan months ago.

[audience laughing] So no one is happier about this than me.

And Nathan, Nathan is my...

And so it is a joy to

Well, it is both a joy and a privilege for Darlene and me to be here this morning.

And I want to start by saying how much I appreciate Justin Peters and especially the courage he has shown for dealing with difficult doctrinal and ecclesiastical matters.

Hang on a second.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

Anyway, I appreciate his courage, the way he has gone to battle when necessary to defend doctrines and practical issues in the evangelical church.

And in fact, I also suspect that

How challenging is it, though, to all be aligned going into the next big challenge?

Well, Sir Alex was also famous for racehorses.

And in a way, symbolically, this is a two-horse race between Arsenal and Man City.

And when you've been a leader in the race and you're getting closer to the line, the jockey can just keep on going and heading and keeping the focus on the line.

But once you start looking back over your shoulder, in that moment, you're starting to lose some of your focus.

And then you're becoming more aware of the competition behind you.

And then that can influence how you experience yourself.

Phil, talk to us about the work you've done with players and what goes into this, helping the players with their mental strength at these times of intense pressure at the end of a season.

Thousands who grew up hearing his teaching and being educated at the seminary he founded, The Master's Seminary, took his model of expository preaching back to their own towns and states.

I became a Christian in 1971, and immediately began to look for a church.

As a brand-new Christian, I didn't have any, any knowledge of what to look for in a church other than one thing.

I wanted a church where the pastor would open the Bible and, and preach from it.

And in Tulsa, there weren't a lot of churches like that.

I finally found a small fundamentalist church where the pas- pastor did just that.

He opened the Bible and preached from it, and uh, and he baptized me the first Sunday I came, and um, uh, and then I went off to college and, and all that, and people would often ask me, "What church do you recommend in Tulsa?" And I didn't have any recommendations 'cause there just weren't a lot of, they were either charismatic churches, of course-

Mm-hmm.