We're joined one more time by Burke Parsons, who is the editor of Table Talk Magazine, the monthly magazine of Ligonier Ministries, and senior pastor of St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida, a church founded in 1997 by R.C. Sproul himself. R.C., of course, passed into glory 38 weeks ago now, back on December 14th.

Burke, today I would love for you to share with us the legacy of R.C. on your own ministry, and what it's like now for you pastoring without your friend alongside you. Maybe you begin by telling us where you first came in contact with R.C. himself. I first came across R.C.

Sproul and began to sit under his teaching in 1992. I first met him, if I'm not mistaken, in 1997, and then began working for him in 1999. Now, before meeting R.C., and it's very important, is in all our lives, we have numerous men and women that the Lord has raised up to help us and come alongside and encourage us and mentor us.

And I had numerous men from the time I was converted to the time I went on staff of a Baptist church at the age of 19. I had numerous men, not only from the Baptist church, but even from some sort of Pentecostal churches, an independent fundamentalist Baptist church, and then numerous godly men that mentored and shepherded me from the Mennonite church.

And so not growing up in any one tradition and not growing up really in the church at all, I came in and was immediately surrounded by godly, loving, gracious men that mentored and taught me. And so when I came to hear R.C. and sit under his ministry, I thought, you know, this is a guy that I believe.

You know, I had begun to listen to a lot of different pastors and preachers and had begun to study and to read. And of course, there are many fine men that God had raised up and has raised up. But there was something about R.C. when I heard him and read him, I thought, I believe this guy.

He's the real thing. He doesn't care at the end of the day. He doesn't care at the end of the day if he offends men so long as he honors the Lord. He cares about, he cared about what people thought, of course, but he was less concerned about offending men than he was offending God.

And so in 1999, I went to work under him at Ligonier Ministries. In 2001, went on staff at St. Andrew's Chapel. 2004, was ordained to the gospel ministry of the pastorate. And really from that point on, we were preaching together and leading worship together and the church continued to grow and the Lord continued to add to our number as we just really, honestly, Tony, as we just strive to be faithful to very ordinary things.

And what we say is the ordinary means of grace, the word and prayer and baptism in the Lord's supper, not being really a program driven church or an attractional church, really just striving to be faithful to those ordinary means of grace that the Lord has given us and trusting the sovereignty in their use in the church.

And so as I began to serve under him, then over the years, what became very strange for me is I began to sort of serve along beside him. And so that was a very strange thing, especially for such a young man, young in ministry, learning to preach, learning a whole host of things about life, growing into adulthood, really, in my twenties of course.

And so learning under him, he really became not just a mentor and then in some ways like a father, and Vesta like a mother to me. He really then in time, as I got older and as I grew and as we became closer friends, he really became more and more of just a buddy.

And honestly, Tony, it's been a number of months now, over six months now since RC went to be with the Lord. And I felt that it's just been recently where I've begun to really talk about him because it's like, I didn't just lose a mentor, a father, I lost a friend, I lost a buddy.

And we would get together throughout the week and we were of course together on Sundays and we were together for lunch on Mondays. And that was such an encouraging time because as any pastors listening to this podcast, as any pastors know, Mondays are very difficult. The emotional roller coasters that we're on, what the devil is trying to do to us and getting us to doubt and getting us to feel the shame and the weight and the burden of everything.

Meeting with RC and Vesta on Mondays was really such a great encouragement to me over the many, many years that we did that. And so to your question regarding RC's sort of impact on my ministry and life, I mean, it's so hard to even put into a few words because the truth of the matter is, is that I've been so impacted and influenced by him.

And of course, by many others, many other preachers and many other teachers and many other pastors. Sinclair Ferguson has been a long time friend and mentor of mine. And at the end of the day, if I could sort of sum it up and boil it down into just a few words, RC's life and his example gave me the picture of a man striving to be faithful with the stewardship that God has entrusted to him, doing what he was gifted to do and called to do by the Holy Spirit, striving to help people and to point people, not to himself, but to Jesus Christ, to get eyes off of him and to get eyes on Jesus, to help those that we're serving, those that we're teaching, to get their eyes on the Lord, our holy, gracious, loving and sovereign Lord, to know him and to love him more and more with all their heart, souls, mind and strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves so that people would really feel free, assured as they're resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

You know, it's really very simple. And RC lived that very simple life of a pastor, churchman, theologian, striving to work with any that he could at the same time, being willing to draw the line and do what needed to be done to say what needed to be said at times where I believe, and I believe rightly, things needed to be said, where lines needed to be drawn in the sand to say, "This is right.

This is biblical." Or even the antithesis, which is much harder to do, to say, "This is not right. This is not biblical. This is not in accord with our confessional standards and with the faith once delivered to the saints." But that tension that RC had, or if you will, that balance that RC had of striving to be at peace with others, striving to have a unity of spirit and a bond of peace while at the same time contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

That example, that legacy of RC's, I think is going to be passed down by the work of the Lord and by the power of the Holy Spirit, not just to me, hopefully, but to thousands and hundreds of thousands of men and women throughout the world. One of the chief aims of RC in his life, in his ministry, in his preaching and teaching was to give God the glory.

That God would be the one glorified and not the man, not the messenger. That in preaching the word of God and the whole counsel of God in season and out of season and not wavering, but remaining steadfast and on course, that the Lord would use RC and that the Lord would use all faithful ministers to draw the attention to the Lord.

And so, RC detested this idea, as do I, all this language and all these notions of the celebrity pastor. No good pastor, no faithful pastor likes that or idealizes that. Every faithful pastor wants to get the eyes of all people upon Jesus Christ and not upon himself. Amen. RC did that and he was a gift and his legacy carries on in men like yourself.

Brooke Parsons, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Tony. It's great to be with you, brother. Amen. That was Brooke Parsons, senior pastor of St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida, editor of Table Talk Monthly Magazine of Ligonier Ministries. And he's on Twitter and he's really good at Twitter too.

You should check him out on social media if you haven't. I really appreciate Brooke and am grateful for his time. Next week, John Piper is back in the studio with us. And on Monday, he'll talk with us about the five types of biblical promises we can hold onto when depression hits our lives.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we'll see you on Monday. Have a great weekend. 1 1. What is the most important thing that God has given you? For those who have not yet