It's been my privilege over the years to be involved with different parts of this church,
with John Gemmel for many years, with Graham, actually Ali Chalmers is one of my students
at Faith Mission a few years ago, and Peter also attended the course.
So it's just a privilege to be involved with different preachers from different kinds of
churches and different situations, and also to be involved in teaching at Faith Mission
and also at Edinburgh Theological Seminary.
I'm sure you'll enjoy Daniel, who's the Old Testament professor this evening.
So we come to God's Word.
Let's just pray briefly and ask God to speak to us.
Gracious God, we pray that you might, by your Spirit, take your Word,
use it to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable.
And may we be ready and willing to respond to whatever you might say to us.
And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Almost three weeks ago, on July the 11th, 2017, a 93-year-old Scotsman died in a hospital
in a town in North India.
I think you'll look in vain to find any record in the Scotsman or in any other media,
but Andrew McCabe was a remarkable man, among the finest Christians I've ever been privileged
to encounter.
He was born in a missionary family that originally came from Dalkeith,
and Andrew was commissioned as a missionary from Charlotte Chapel in 1950.
And so for 67 years of his life,
he devoted himself to providing hope to tens of thousands of young boys
from impoverished backgrounds in India and also in Nepal,
through schools that he established.
He believed the only difference between a street kid in Calcutta and a privileged child
was opportunity.
However, what underpinned all of this was his Christian faith.
Awarded somewhat to his surprise in MBE by the Queen in 1992,
he told me the story of what happened.
He said,
I was told that when I went in there, I was not to say anything.
I was just to bow.
And if Her Majesty wanted to say anything to me, that was her prerogative.
Otherwise, bow, get your award, and get out.
He had apparently the longest conversation of any of those who were awarded anything that day.
And Her Majesty spent quite a lot of time talking to him about the boys in India
and asking what their needs were.
And Andrew said,
I told her,
Your Majesty, these boys need education,
but most of all,
they need Jesus.
And what he believed,
he lived out.
My wife and I witnessed this firsthand.
We traveled with him through the jungles
on the border with Nepal in northwest Bihar,
which is the poorest state in India,
seeing how he related to the people
and the great love and esteem in which he was held.
Countless numbers of boys received a Christian education.
We will never forget watching 3,000 boys in a school playground at assembly.
Boys from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, tribal backgrounds
reciting together in English the Lord's Prayer.
Many of the boys went on to careers as doctors, teachers, bankers, army, government officials,
pastors, many other careers.
Indeed, I think somewhat wonderfully,
the doctor who treated him in the hospital in Fisabad
and his final illness was one of his own boys
who had grown up in the home he had provided.
You see,
the great thing about Andrew was
his Christian service was matched by his Christ-like character.
And there was no credibility gap between the two.
Now, I know that over these past weeks,
you've been studying this little letter
in the New Testament, part of the Bible,
written by a Christian missionary
named Paul,
who was on trial for his life.
He addresses this letter to these Christians
in the Greek city of Philippi,
which was a Roman colony
in that Greek setting,
which had come into being
when Paul had visited the city
on one of his journeys
and preached the good news to them.
And he is keen to remind them
that what they believe
must be matched by how they behave.
How their talk is to be matched by their work.
And if you have a Bible,
it would help to turn to Philippians
and look at chapter 2.
Let's just touch on what you looked at last week.
I listened to Graham's great message last week
from the first part of the chapter.
So if you've got a Bible or a phone,
I'm very suspicious about phones in church,
that people are reading the Bible
or are they looking at text messages.
I'm trusting you here
that you're reading the Bible.
So Philippians 2.
Things have changed, haven't they?
I'm getting old.
Look at what he said.
Do everything without complaining or arguing
so that you may become blameless and pure
children of God without fault
in a crooked and depraved generation
in which you shine like stars in the universe
as you hold out the word of life.
Here we find a picture and a challenge to them
and it's a challenge to us
if we claim to be followers of Jesus.
The challenge is this,
I want to leave with you to focus on and develop,
is that we're to shine like stars in the universe.
If you have a modern version,
it says shine like stars in the sky,
which is just the same,
but I kind of like universe.
But anyway, shine like stars in the universe.
If you look at the night sky,
you will see that some stars shine more brightly
than others.
Some shine very faintly against such a black,
dark background, indistinct.
And some Christians shine more brightly than others.
Some, sadly, are hardly distinguishable
against the background in which we live,
which is becoming, I believe, increasingly dark.
Others, like Andrew McCabe, shine brightly,
stand out clearly.
So, what are the characteristics
of a shining star in the church?
In this next section, as we come to it now,
I'm to suggest that Paul describes two men
who are known to these Christians in Philippi
who are shining examples,
two stars who shine more brightly than the rest.
Paul describes the first one of them
as one of a kind.
He says, I've no one else like him.
He says, of the other, he's extremely valuable,
should be held in the highest honor.
So, let's look at these two shining stars
in Philippians 2, 19 to 30.
What I want us to do
is to look at each one of them
and compare, maybe even contrast,
our own attitude and behavior
and ask if we too are shining brightly.
So, let's look at the first section.
And Paul mentions here a man named Timothy
who he describes, I want to suggest,
as the soulmate.
Look at verses 19 to 24.
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon
that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.
I have no one else like him
who will show genuine concern for your welfare.
For everyone looks out for his own interests,
not those of Jesus Christ.
But you know that Timothy has proved himself
because as a son with his father,
he has served with me in the work of the gospel.
I hope, therefore, to send him
as soon as I see how things go with me.
And I'm confident in the Lord
that I myself will come soon.
Timothy, if you don't know the Bible,
if you do, just a bit of review,
is a younger man who's been Paul's closest colleague
for many years.
He was the product of a mixed marriage.
His mother was a Christian Jewess.
His father was a Greek.
Timothy came from a town called Lystra,
a town in the highlands of the Roman province of Galatia.
I like maps if you don't just ignore that.
But Lystra is right in the middle of there.
And it's likely that when Paul first visited this town
on his journey,
that Timothy maybe became a Christian
through hearing Paul preach the good news about Jesus.
Because Paul describes him as his son.
He's not literally his son.
He's his son in the faith.
And a few years after this first journey that Paul took,
he took another journey,
which is commonly known as Paul's second missionary journey.
And there's the map there going the opposite direction.
When he came to Lystra,
he discovered that Timothy was maturing,
developing in his faith,
well respected,
and he invited him to join his missionary team.
And so Timothy joined Paul's missionary team
and they traveled on further over.
They crossed over into Europe for the first time
with the good news of Jesus.
And the first place they came to
where they preached the good news
was this town called Philippi.
So the people in Philippi knew who Timothy was.
Now, here we are a dozen years later.
Timothy has become Paul's right-hand man.
He's been entrusted with several important commissions.
And so Paul is about to send him back to Philippi.
And Paul explains why he's the right man for the job.
The only man who fits the bill.
Look what he says.
He says, this thing is working here.
He says, Timothy is one of a kind.
He says, I have no one else like him.
The word translated there, like him,
is an unusual word.
It's only found here in the New Testament.
The Greek word, I mean.
It literally means of equal soul.
Paul says Timothy is the only person
who has the same soul,
the same essential passions, concerns,
attitude, ambition.
That's why I've described him as his soulmate.
And Paul describes two particular ways
in which Timothy shows this scene in his life.
The first is focusing on the needs of others.
He says, I have no one else like him
who takes a genuine interest in your welfare.
The word translated genuine is in Greek Genesis.
It's to do with your nature.
Something natural.
But in Timothy's case,
it is something supernatural.
When you become a Christian,
when you turn from your sin,
you put your faith in Jesus,
God puts his spirit within you.
You're born again of the spirit of God.
And the Holy Spirit begins to produce
the fruit of the spirit.
And one sign is that it turns
our natural self-interest,
looking out for number one,
to that of the welfare of other people.
In fact, the New Testament constantly says
one of the hallmarks
that you are a genuine Christian,
that God is at work in you by his spirit,
is that you have a genuine concern
for the welfare of other people.
And especially fellow Christians.
But not exclusively.
That should be a characteristic of Christians
in any local church.
Now, that's what it should be like.
But Paul goes on to say,
it's not what everyone's like.
He says, for everyone looks out
for his own interests,
not those of Jesus Christ.
One commentator writes,
the general run of Christians,
as far as Paul saw them,
put themselves first and Jesus next.
But it was not so with Timothy.
And that was why Timothy stood out for the rest
and could be described as a soulmate,
sharing a similar attitude to that of Paul.
Now, let's pause a moment,
be practical and direct.
If Paul was writing about this church,
and I only know one or two of you,
so I'm not pointing the finger at someone
I've just suddenly heard about,
you know, been told about,
but let's be direct.
And what proportion of us would be in the category
of those who look out for their own interests,
not those of Jesus Christ?
Some of us?
The majority?
A minority?
How many Timothys are there among us
who genuinely concern for one another,
not primarily our own needs?
So Paul says he's like that,
focusing on the needs of others,
but he also says,
he shares a common concern,
slaving in the work of the gospel.
But you know that Timothy has proved himself,
the word is used of proved an experience,
because as a son with his father,
he has served with me in the work of the gospel.
Paul says, in fact,
Timothy is my son in the faith,
and he shares with me in the family business.
But this is not the kind of business
in which son and his father sit in a plush office
and employ other people to do all the work,
the hard and menial task.
No, Paul says,
Timothy has served with me,
the Greek word is literally,
slave with me.
And the work in which they are involved
is the work of the gospel,
making the good news of Jesus known to all.
And the very nature of this work
means that you have to adopt
the attitude of that of Jesus himself,
the attitude and practice of slaves,
those who have no rights,
but slave for their master
to whom they belong.
Now, Timothy has seen what this is like for Paul.
On the first visit Paul made to Timothy,
to Lystra,
he would have seen how Paul,
after preaching the gospel,
was stoned,
dragged outside the city,
and left for dead.
Thankfully, he survived,
but such things were the common experience
of Paul and of all who joined him.
So Paul reminds the Christians in Philippi
that Timothy had proved himself.
He'd shown his mettle
as he had slaved alongside Paul,
co-slaves in the service
of their master, Jesus Christ.
And Paul says,
he's therefore the ideal person
to come and visit you.
Now, the job description
has not changed in 2,000 years.
The terms and conditions
for a slave and servant of Jesus Christ
is gospel work,
and I tell you that gospel work is hard
and it is costly.
For you abandon your rights
for those of the gospel
and the Savior whose gospel it is.
So again, let me practical.
Let me ask you,
as I ask myself as I prepare this,
what is it costing you
to serve Christ?
Or have you opted out?
Well, we all want to know,
as Paul puts it later in chapter 3,
then we all want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection.
But along with it,
we're a little more apprehensive
about sharing in the fellowship
of his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death.
What did Jesus become like?
Well, if you've been following this series,
just a reminder of how the chapter begins.
He talks about the way of Christ.
And he says,
notice the relationship to one another.
In your relationships with one another,
have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God.
Something to be grasped at,
to be used to his own advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness,
being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death,
even death on the cross.
So again, to be practical,
what are your plans?
Are you sitting there saying,
I'm here, here am I, Lord,
whatever you want me to do,
I'm available.
I'll serve anywhere.
I'm wanted.
Whether it's got a title or not,
whether it's seen or not seen,
I'm prepared to serve others
and be a slave in the work of the gospel.
Or are you thinking,
and as I get older,
I find what a temptation it is.
Some of you who are my age,
or maybe even older, who knows.
Now is the chance to let someone else take over.
I deserve a break.
It'll be a relief not to have to be here every week
to teach those children,
count that money,
steward of that door,
make that coffee,
attend that meeting.
I'm looking forward to retirement.
I'm glad to hear that Ian is not retiring.
He's just being,
what's,
you say,
retire as a retread.
I think it's no way.
So,
now you're Timothy.
Paul plans to send Timothy
as his valued representative
to the church in Philippi
for their soulmates.
But he says,
Timothy can't leave immediately.
We need to wait the verdict of the court
because Paul is on trial for his life.
He will be needed.
Instead,
Paul says,
I'm going to send someone straight away.
So,
turn back to the Bible
and here we have the second person,
a man called Epaphroditus,
who I've described as the risk taker.
I'll explain why in a moment.
Verse 25,
but I think it's necessary
to send back to you
Epaphroditus,
my brother,
co-worker,
and fellow soldier,
who is also your messenger,
whom you sent
to take care of my needs.
For he longs for all of you
and is distressed
because you heard he was ill.
Indeed,
he was ill and almost died.
But God had mercy on him
and not on him only,
but also on me
to share me sorrow upon sorrow.
Therefore,
I am all the more eager
to send him
so that when you see him again,
you may be glad
and I may have less anxiety.
So then,
welcome him in the Lord
with great joy
and honor people like him
because he almost died
for the work of Christ.
He risked his life
to make up for the help
you yourselves
could not give me.
Of all the churches
that Paul founded,
only this one church
in Philippi
supported him financially
in his missionary endeavors.
And when the Christians
in Philippi learned
that Paul was
a prisoner in chains in Rome,
they decided to send him
some practical help.
Now, you need to know
a bit about the background.
In those days
when you were put in prison,
they didn't put TVs
in your prison cell
or give you nice meals
and other meals
or reasonable meals anyway.
There were no amenities
provided by the authorities.
Relatives and friends
had to bring in
food and provisions for you.
If you didn't have any friends,
you suffered or even starved.
And even if you had friends,
they might be somewhat reluctant
to identify with someone
who was on trial before Caesar
for a capital offense.
But the Philippian Christians
were not worried
about such things.
Instead, they determined
this church,
and it's a wonderful thing,
they got together
and decided,
we're going to send
a gift to Paul
and we're going to send
one of our members
with the gift
to give it to him.
And so they chose
one of their members,
a man named Epaphroditus.
Now, unlike Timothy,
we know nothing else
about Epaphroditus.
It's quite a common name
or the shortened form Epaphras.
We know nothing
about this Epaphroditus
except what is found here.
He's named Epaphroditus
after the Greek goddess
of love, Aphrodite.
Presumably, he came
from a Greek background
like that.
His name, the name means
charming, lovely, amiable,
and it suited him well.
And the task of which
he was assigned
also suited him well.
For we learn that Epaphroditus
was not the type
who settled
for a comfortable existence,
but rather we learn
in verse 30
that Epaphroditus,
he risked his life
to make up for the help
you could not give me.
Now, again,
the word here,
translated risk,
is a very unusual word.
Again, it's another
of these words
that's only found here
in the New Testament.
What you have to do
if you're a student
of the Bible,
you have to find
other literature
from the first century
written in Greek
to try and work out
what it means.
Its meaning is
somewhat obscure,
but most people think
it refers to a gambler
staking everything
on the shake of a dice.
Now,
gambling with dice
is not a practice
that is endorsed
in the Bible,
not least because
you're risking money
on an uncertain outcome.
But the gamble
that Epaphroditus takes
is commendable
because what was at stake
was of the utmost importance
and the outcome
is sure to be favourable.
So what risk
did Epaphroditus take?
In these verses
we see that,
first of all,
he took a risk
to his physical health
his sickness.
Read in the verse there,
indeed he was ill.
Somewhere on the journey
to Rome,
carrying this gift
for Paul,
or maybe after he arrived,
Epaphroditus got seriously ill.
We don't know
what the problem was,
all we know
is that it was
life-threatening.
Now,
there must have been
a strong temptation
to turn back
in the face
of such adversity
or to return home
as soon as he arrived.
But Epaphroditus
was determined
to fulfil his commission
no matter what the cost,
even if it cost him
his life.
And as it turns out,
as we read,
indeed he was ill,
almost died,
but God had mercy on him,
not on him only,
but also on me
to share me sorrow
upon sorrow.
As with the illness,
we have no idea
how he recovered.
But whatever the means,
Paul attributes it
to God's mercy.
Still the case today
with any healing,
whether directly from God,
naturally through the body's
healing processes,
or medically,
through the skill
of doctors and nurses,
God is the author of life.
He's also the author of death.
What is important to see
is that Epaphroditus
was prepared to take this risk,
his life for the sake of Christ,
because he was following
in the footsteps of Christ.
The Scottish professor
William Barclay comments
that in the early centre
of the church,
there were a group of Christians
who adopted this name
for themselves.
They called themselves
the risk takers.
Let me read what he says.
It was their aim
to visit the prisoners
and the sick,
especially those who were ill
with dangerous
and infectious diseases.
And he says in AD 252,
plague broke out in Carthage.
The people there
threw out the bodies
of the sick and dying
into the streets
and fled in terror.
Cyprian, the Christian bishop,
gathered his congregation together
and put them to work
burying the dead
and nursing the sick
in the plague-ridden city.
And by so doing,
at the risk of their lives,
they saved the city
from destruction.
He then concludes,
in all Christians,
there should be
an almost reckless courage
which makes them ready
to gamble with their lives
to serve Christ
and to serve others.
Is it a justifiable risk?
Only if we believe
that the gospel
is the power of God
for the salvation
of everyone who believes,
Romans 1.16.
And only if we believe,
as Paul does,
as we've studied previously,
that for me to live is Christ
and to die is gain.
For the Christian,
it's a win-win situation,
whether you live
or whether you die.
And Epaphroditus
was prepared
to take that risk.
But notice the second risk
that was also involved here,
not only to his physical health,
his sickness,
but also,
you can miss this,
but also to his emotional health,
his sensitivity.
Somehow, perhaps,
with a messenger
going back in the opposite direction
to Philippi,
the church there
learned that Epaphroditus
was desperately sick.
And so,
when Epaphroditus learns
they know this,
he feels it deeply.
For he longs for all of you
as distressed
because he heard you,
he heard,
you heard he was ill.
The word translated longs
is one of deep desire,
not just homesickness,
but a deep,
gut-wrenching feeling within.
And the word distressed,
again, a very interesting word.
It is only used elsewhere
in the New Testament
on one other occasion.
The word distressed
is the word used
to describe the agony of Jesus
in the Garden of Gethsemane
when he faced death himself
and we're told,
sweat as it were,
great drops of blood.
That's in Matthew 26, 37
and the parallel in Mark 14, 33.
You see,
Epaphroditus is one of those
rare people
who feels what other people feel.
He's distressed
when other people are distressed.
It's another Christian trait.
And while there is clearly
a physical risk
to serving Christ,
there is always
an emotional risk
if you take the risk
of involving yourself
with other people.
I've been involved in
Christian ministry
overseas
and in this country
for, well,
a good part of my life
for 50 years.
And one of the great,
great challenges
is involving yourself
with other people.
There is an emotional
involvement.
There is an emotional demand.
It's very painful.
And I tell you,
if you are in full-time ministry,
in so-called full-time ministry,
the great danger
is to treat it
as a professional thing.
But you can't do that
in Christian ministry.
If you're going to be genuine
about being involved
in Christian ministry,
it means emotional pain.
And there's only one way
to avoid it,
which is to avoid
involving yourself
with people emotionally.
And some of us feel
this more deeply
than others.
I have a wife
who is a very good counselor.
Sometimes I have to stop
talking to too many people
because it just
emotionally exhausts her.
It's just so painful.
I have to be honest,
I'm a sort of guy
who can switch off
and put it somewhere
in the back of my mind.
But when someone
someone talks deeply to you
and talks about
some of the pain and agony
and whatever it is
they're going through,
it's a very painful
and demanding experience.
It was a risk
that Epaphroditus
was prepared to take.
I wonder if you and I are.
But Paul is very concerned
as he sends Epaphroditus back
that the church there
don't regard him
as some kind of failure.
And so he commends
Epaphroditus,
uses three lovely
increasing terms
to describe him.
He says,
he's my brother,
one with whom I'm joined
in the deepest affection.
He's my fellow worker,
one who served with me
in the work of the gospel.
And he is my fellow soldier,
a comrade in arms
who has fought side by side
with me against the force of evil.
Epaphroditus says,
Paul,
he's fulfilled his commission
so when he gets back,
give him a warm welcome.
Welcome him in the Lord
with great joy
and honor men like him.
In fact,
think about this.
Epaphroditus is going to go back
and he's the postman
who's going to carry
this letter of the Philippians
back home
and he's going to talk about him
in the very letter
that he's carrying back home.
And sometimes,
wounded soldiers
with physical and emotional scars
return home
to a deafening silence.
Sometimes our missionaries
come home
to a deafening silence.
Many years ago,
when I was a missionary,
having come home,
I heard a Christian counselor,
a doctor,
a missionary for 30 years
called Marjorie Foyle
and she wrote a remarkable book.
I was just looking on the internet
and it's been reissued.
It was first published in 1987.
The book is called
Honorably Wounded
and she talks about those
in Christian service,
not just missionaries,
but in Christian service
who've been hurt
and scarred
sometimes by the experiences
that they have
encountered.
and she says,
we should esteem them highly
and care for them,
not ignore them.
Give them a warm welcome.
Don't leave it
until the funeral service.
I often take funeral service.
I've got a file this big
since I've been in Edinburgh,
probably 200 funerals.
And quite often
when you describe someone
at a funeral service,
people say,
I wish he or she
could have heard that.
And there is a place
to honour one another,
to esteem people,
just to express
our appreciation.
It's good that you've
prayed already for your team
who are going to join you here.
I'll keep praying for them.
Keep appreciating them.
Don't end up
a certain person
when we came to
Charlotte Chapel.
It's a kind of
cultural thing said,
don't expect anyone
to thank you for anything here.
Just assume you're doing fine,
otherwise we'll let you know
know.
It wasn't always like that.
It's improved over the years,
but be careful.
So here we have
Timothy the soulmate,
Epaphroditus the risk taker.
And after this,
there's Paul himself.
He doesn't explicitly mention,
but he's part of that same
fraternity,
how he relates to these men
and how he relates
to the church in Philippi,
which shows that he practices
what he preaches
and he feels
what they feel.
He feels the same kind
of anguish and sorrow.
You see that emotional intensity
in Paul,
which you don't sometimes
see in other places.
In the Bible speaks today,
commentary on Philippians.
If you're following this series,
it's one of the best
commentaries by Alec Matea.
Quite straightforward.
He says,
What Paul was inspired
to imply about himself
and to state concerning
the other two
reveals them as men
who have taken the example
of the Lord seriously.
He goes on,
The Lord so consecrated himself
in obedient service to God
that he poured himself out
for the benefit of others.
They so consecrated themselves
to God that self was subdued
in the service of other Christians.
And here's a key phrase,
The Lord is the Christian's model.
They are model Christians.
So I'm nearly through,
but let me finish with
two questions.
Question one.
Am I a model Christian?
Now I know what most of us say
in this circumstance.
If I came to you and said,
Are you a model Christian?
You would say,
Oh, don't follow me.
Follow Christ.
Paul says,
Follow me as I follow Christ.
Am I a model Christian?
I don't mean,
Yeah, I'm a perfect Christian.
You want to see the best example
of perfection.
Here I am.
No, but am I walking
in the way of Christ?
Am I following Christ?
Am I serving Christ?
Am I living other people?
This is a very practical section,
isn't it?
If not,
if against a dark background,
you are indistinguishable
from anyone else.
If someone was told me,
a Christian said,
I've just discovered
that someone in my work
is a Christian
and then I never would have guessed.
That's pretty scary, isn't it?
That gets about you?
If we are indistinguishable,
maybe some of us here this morning,
maybe one or two of us,
I don't know.
Second question is,
am I a Christian?
Because you see,
if you've turned from your sin
and put your faith in Christ,
if God is at work in you
by his spirit,
then he should be producing
the same kind of characteristics
that we see in Timothy
and Epaphroditus
in Paul,
those characteristics
should be growing
and increasing
in Christ's likeness
and if that's not the case,
maybe this morning
you need to put your faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the challenge
to us all.
The challenge we began with
is to shine like stars
in the universe.
I'm going to finish
with a prayer.
Now,
this is an interesting prayer.
This is a prayer
by John Wesley,
founder of Methodism.
I would hate you
me saying that.
My father's family
are all from a Methodist background.
I began preaching
as a young man
in Methodist churches
and they have
a covenant prayer
that they use
to renew their covenant
before God.
I'm going to read
the words of it.
It's quite a sobering prayer.
We're going to use it
as a final prayer
before I hand back to Ian
for a final song.
I'll put the words
on the screen
because I think
it's important
that you see
what you're going to pray
if you want to say
Amen at the end of it.
We could all stand up
and say it together
but maybe that's...
Let's just read it.
Okay, here's it.
Read it slowly.
Lord,
I am no longer my own
but yours.
Put me to what you will.
Rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing.
Put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you
or laid aside for you.
Exalted for you
or brought lobe for you.
Let me be full.
Let me be empty.
Let me have all things.
Let me have nothing.
I freely and wholeheartedly
yield all things
to your pleasure
and disposal.
And now,
glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
you are mine
and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant
now made on earth,
let it be ratified
in heaven.
Amen.