Elder Installation Service

Well, everybody can make your way over here to find some seats. Thank you for joining us tonight. This is an exciting night.

A little over three years ago when 12 .5 Church started, one of the main prayers that we had in the midst of wondering where is

God leading, what's God doing, is he truly calling us here to establish a body of believers?

And so one of the main prayers was God, we asked that if you're calling us to this, raise up leaders, raise up men that are qualified overseers to help with the shepherding of whatever people that you bring to this congregation.

And knowing that Christ said he will build the church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

And so he was most certainly going to provide. He was gonna provide the leadership, he was gonna provide deacons, he was gonna provide men and women and their giftings and servings.

And so tonight is an exciting night of just seeing God's faithfulness and his provision in the life of this church.

Many of you, if not all of you, already know Brother Keith very well. Brother Keith has already been shepherding, he's already been caring for people, he's already been walking with you and living life with you.

Him and his wife Karen and their family faithful to this body. And so tonight we are thrilled to present him for installation as an elder of this congregation.

But before we do that, I would like to pray and then I'm gonna ask Pastor Jeremiah to come up. He's got a few words for us about the office of overseer that I think as we gear our minds towards what's happening tonight, we can clarify and understand the immense weight and the calling of what it is that we're doing tonight.

So please pray with me. Dear Heavenly Father, oh Lord, thank you. Thank you for your providence in our lives.

Thank you for your provision, for all of our needs. King Jesus, you are building the church.

This is your bride, this is your people, this is your work. And so we are grateful to you.

We're grateful that you have brought the Hennick family this way. You have providentially raised

Keith up in this body to join Pastor Jeremiah and myself in the oversight of your bride here at 12 .5.

God, we know that it is you that is working. So Lord, be honored in tonight.

I pray that Christ would be shown magnificent and in his glory in all that we do tonight.

Not us, but you and you alone. We thank you in Christ's name, amen. Right, testing.

Can y 'all hear me yet? Yes, close, close, testing. Well, tonight is a very special night at 12 .5

Church. We are officially commissioning and ordaining Pastor Keith.

So, as I was talking with Pastor Nathan, I just said,

I'd love to be able to share biblically why this is so important. That's why we did it on a

Saturday evening because we wanted to set aside special time to show our church family, we are gaining another pastor.

And so here at 12 .5, you're gonna hear Pastor Nathan, I emphasize this all night, but we don't have a senior pastor, right?

We are unified in our leadership and we are bringing unique giftings to the table.

And so we've seen this in Keith's life. And so, as I was thinking more about what to share about eldership,

I wanted to just tell you some of the joys that I've been able to experience over the past year, I believe it was last summer around there where I was officially commissioned to be an elder.

And I've been in ministry for many years and I've been able to be a part of those joys of seeing people that are newly converted to the faith that are looking to King Jesus for the first time in faith.

That's one of the things in ministry as a pastor and elder that we constantly are praying for.

And I've been able to see it a number of times here at 12 .5. I've also been able to be a part of baptisms, those special times in people's life where they get to declare their faith to the church body and to the world.

And so that's so good. Like when you see someone coming to the faith and being baptized, this fills your tank back up.

Because as we're gonna talk about, being an elder is not easy. It's a calling from God.

It's not like one of those jobs where you punch in the clock and get paid a certain wage. It's a whole life and it comes with great difficulties, but it also comes with great joys.

Some of these joys are also teaching, preaching, and discipleship.

Something that I pray that you've experienced here at 12 .5 is being poured into by older men and women looking to their faith as they are looking to King Jesus, imitating them.

And I just wanna tell you how much of a joy it's been serving side -by -side with Pastor Nathan.

I can't think of anybody else I'd rather be in the trenches with than Pastor Nathan. And now,

Keith will be a part of this plurality. And so we're making it official. We're going to commission him formally and ordain

Keith as an elder here at 12 .5 Church. I've been personally observing

Keith for the past two years. I want you to know something. Keith has been in pretty intense training for two years to be an elder.

This particular office is not just somebody we pluck someone off the street or just somebody that's able to lead a pep rally, stir emotions.

No, this is something that is done carefully and methodically. And so I've been observing

Keith for the past two years. I've seen his absolute love for the Lord. And this man loves the word of God.

It's so evident. He has a learner's heart and he desires to show himself approved, rightly handling the word of God.

What I'm saying is Keith is the real deal. And so the installation of a new elder is both wonderful and it's very serious.

In every church, the quality of the spiritual maturity of the people directly reflects its leaders.

The office of elder is a sacred office. The Bible does not take lightly this office and it's up to the members of 12 .5

to guard the office of eldership. And like I said, we don't just pick somebody off the street.

We have to call, we have to receive someone who is called by God. Okay, it's a calling.

And if it is a calling, then other people, the people of 12 .5, we will be able to see and attest, yes, that is true what

God has placed in his heart. And so the biblical model for leadership in any church is a plurality, meaning more than one.

Okay, a lot of churches have what's called a senior pastor model. This looks like Moses in the

Old Testament that bore the weight of every detailed responsibility. Moses couldn't even handle that, right?

This is somebody that desires to be a jack of all trades and becomes a master at none. We are not meant to carry the weight, the intricate details of everything that goes on in a church.

Rather, a church has to be led by multiple pastors as a plurality.

And so this is, we believe this is the biblical model for leadership. We are under shepherds that unite together in the spirit, pointing everybody to the chief shepherd,

Jesus Christ. And so that term elder originates from the Old Testament. And so it does go back to the days of Moses when he figured out that he couldn't lead the people of God by himself.

Eventually, there became 70 elders, those that were helping in leadership, making decisions that served as judges.

They resolved conflicts and exercised general oversight. And so that word elder is also used many times in the

New Testament, over 70 times, and half of them refer to the office of overseer.

And so elder simply is referring to somebody who is spiritually mature. A lot of times we think of the word elderly in the biblical sense as talking about someone who is spiritually mature.

Remember Paul said to Timothy, don't let anybody despise you for your youth. But a lot of times, elder does refer to someone who is older and carries many life experiences that's interwoven with wisdom from God and his word.

And so we're gonna be also laying hands. You won't be seeing any of this going on up here. We are putting hands on Pastor Keith to show that we are in unity.

This was an Old Testament practice where the people would give a sacrifice to God and they would lay hands, signifying that they were all in this together.

And so that's what we plan to do, is to lay hands on Keith to identify his calling as pastor and elder here at 12

Five Church. And so in the New Testament, the apostle Paul focuses on the character of an elder.

He doesn't really focus on the function and all the things that he's accomplished in his life. He's saying an elder has a state of life that has a completely different character than the rest of the world, and has shown that to be one that emulates

King Jesus. A man of God, an elder, a man can only be an elder unless these three things are true.

Number one, that he has the greatest love in his life for the Lord and the word of God. Psalm 138 verse two says,

Oh Lord, you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

So an elder cherishes the word of God in his heart.

Number two, a man of God that's seeking to be an elder must love the bride of Christ.

There is an unquestioned loyalty for the bride of Christ because an elder actually serves for the rest of his life.

I've heard of other churches having elders that take turns and will step down and rotate. And you have to understand, if this is a calling from God, then you can't do anything else.

In fact, we read in Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus says he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

This is the only institution that God created that will be sustained forever.

The church is the manifold wisdom of God. And if you are called to shepherd and care for the church, this is a lifelong pursuit.

And so number three, a man should never be an elder unless he believes he is called by God.

You have seminaries that can help equip people for positions, you have boards and committees that help prepare people for opportunities, but only

God can call a man and make him fit. And if he calls somebody for eldership, then he will make sure that he is qualified for it.

First Timothy chapter three, verse one says, the saying is trustworthy. If anybody aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

It's a noble task because that desire is God given. It's a calling from God. But Paul also says that he has to aspire.

Very interesting word that means to stretch oneself out in order to touch, in order to grasp something.

This means that a person that's aspiring for the office of elder is taking active external steps and becoming an overseer of the church.

Others will be able to visibly see the calling in this man's heart and in his life. This protects the church from men that say, well,

I'm called to preach no matter what anyone says. A lot of people say that. Well, how do we know that that calling is true, right?

If someone just says they want it, okay, we understand internally that has to be true, but that has to be demonstrated for other people.

If you truly are called by God, then it'll be evident that you have a love for the Lord, that you care for the people of God.

And hear me with this, you must be diligent to study, to teach and preach the word of God.

And I can tell you, this is true with Pastor Keith. Been observing him for two years and even more than that, seeing that yes, this seems that God has been working this in his life.

Me and Pastor Nathan have seen these external disciplines that Keith is a learner at heart.

He is a studier. And when we have those conversations, bounce ideas, you can tell that he's listening to wise counsel.

And so we asked Keith over two years ago to prayerfully consider if this is a calling that God is working in his heart.

And so after some time, Keith said that he did believe that this is a desire that he has, but he had to give it time, which, you know, some people are really quick to jump an opportunity to have some level of authority, oversight in the church.

He said, let me pray back. And so we were able to come together and affirm that this was truly what God is calling him to do.

And so the New Testament calls the office of elders to a really high standard.

And I want us to ask this question, why are the standards so high? It's because the people of the church will most reflect the leadership of its elders.

The prophet Hosea in the Old Testament said, the people of God will be like their priest. Jesus said in Luke chapter six, everyone after they are fully trained will be like their teacher.

The man of God who is called to this office as to be an elder, to oversee and pastor the flock sets an example for everyone else to follow.

Think about it like this. The way that the leadership goes is the way the rest of the church goes as well.

And so I want us to be informed that we're gonna be using a lot of different terms that are all pointing to the same office.

You're gonna hear us use words like elder, bishop, overseer, and the word pastor. These are all synonymous with one another and depend a little bit on the translation that you use in the

Bible. And so I want us to look at one passage. I'd like for you to hear me read this passage in first Peter chapter five, where the apostle uses three of these terms to refer to this office of eldership.

Peter says, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder, Peter says, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that's going to be revealed.

Shepherd or pastor the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight as an overseer, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock.

And listen to this. And when the chief shepherd, right, we are under shepherds, pointing you to the chief shepherd, when he appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory.

Likewise, you who are younger be subject to the elders, clothe yourselves, all of you with humility towards one another for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And so if you do have a Bible with you, I'd like for you to turn with me to 1 Timothy 3. So many of you are aware that this is where we see many qualifications of what it looks like to be overseer in the church.

And then here in a minute, after we go through these qualifications, I want us to cycle back and look at that phrase to be above reproach.

And as we're going through these qualifications, I want you to think of Pastor Keith. I want you to think about these qualifications.

Does this reflect the life of Keith? So number one, we see that the elder, the overseer is to be the husband of one wife.

This means that he is sexually pure, right? His devotion is to his bride.

He is called to love her like Christ loved the church. And I have to emphasize this, nowhere in this passage do we see anything about female elders.

Nine times we see the pronoun he. It's never mentioned of it or she, always he.

And he is to be the husband of one wife. Number two, he's to be sober -minded, which means that he never lets anything cause his mind to be unclear.

Why? Because there'll be times in overseeing and guarding the flock where you will have to make a decision.

Your mind needs to be clear and filled with the spirit, filled with the principles of God's words to make decisions.

We are called to be sober -minded. Number three, self -control. This means that he must be prudent, self -disciplined.

Number four, respectable means that he is orderly, steadfast, systematic thinker, especially in how you relate to one another.

Number five, hospitable. You know, this word means to love strangers.

And so if someone says, well, I'm really hospitable, but I'm not really into reaching out to people

I don't really know. Well, you're not very hospitable, right? And all Christians are called to this to some degree because we have been loved with a transcendent love that has changed us from the inside out and that should cause us to love strangers.

And so the overseers of the church, elders of the church, they are called to be distinct in being able to show this to the body and to outsiders.

And number six, this is what ultimately distinguishes deacons from elders. Elders must be able to teach.

An elder must be a gifted teacher, which presupposes that he is a learner and studier at heart, not just someone that uses deep phrases and words with no substance.

We are called to shepherd the flock. I'm reminded of the words that Jesus told

Peter kind of towards the end of, before he ascended. He said, he said, feed my lambs,

Peter. And what he's saying is he's saying, feed my people. How would Peter do that? Well, he would feed them with the word of God.

Earlier in the same gospel, he says, sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.

And the point is, is a elder is able to teach the word of God, to exhort, to feed the flock and to guard by contending for sound doctrine.

Number seven, not a drunkard. This means that he's not addicted to alcohol that leads to the sin of drunkenness.

Rather, he is like we said, sober -minded and filled with the spirit. Number eight, not violent, means that he avoids fighting.

He has a gentle spirit and has a forgiving spirit and easily pardons mistakes from others.

Number nine, he's not quarrelsome, he is a peacemaker. Number 10, not a lover of money, meaning that he does not have greed and he does not covet, right?

He desires to be a good steward of what God has given him. Number 11, he manages his own household well.

He desires to love his bride like Christ loves the bride and he desires to rear up his children and in Keith's case, also his grandchildren in the fear and the admonition of the

Lord. Number 12, not a recent convert, meaning that this must be a mature

Christian with growth and spiritual wisdom. And I can tell you this, that is true of Keith.

And then number 13, he has a good reputation. People on the outside look at him and realize that he is a walking testimony of integrity.

Okay, now I believe all of these qualifications are really pointing back to the main one of being above reproach.

In 1 Timothy 3, verse two, we see a verb that says that he must be above reproach.

Must be, means that this is required with no exceptions, absolutely necessary.

This verb is in the present tense, meaning that this isn't just true at one time in his past life, but this is the ongoing demonstration and quality of his life.

Above reproach means that he has unquestionable character. He's living in a state of blamelessness.

There's nothing in his life that would indict him against scripture, not just in actions, but also in attitude.

And I want us to hold the brakes and say we're not talking about perfection, right? Because only

Jesus would be the only elder if we're talking about perfection. We're just saying that there's no obvious lingering character issues that he's not actively seeking to take care of.

Rather, he sets an example with his life to bring the Lord honor. And so this is a picture of Pastor Keith.

As I was looking through some of these notes that Pastor Jerry did at my ordination, he quoted

Richard Baxter, the English Puritan pastor from the 1600s. This is a quote that he said, "'Take heed.'"

So he's talking about men of God. "'Take heed to yourselves, "'lest your example contradict your doctrine, "'lest you unsay with your life "'what you say with your tongue, "'and you be the greatest hinderer "'of the success of your own labors.'"

I believe this Puritan writer is saying, practice what you preach. And Keith, as you already know, when something goes wrong in the church, where is

Keith, by the way? Right there. Keith, as you already know, when something goes wrong in the church, people are gonna blame you.

They're gonna blame me. They're gonna blame Nathan. They're gonna blame the leadership. The elder is one of Satan's chief targets in trying to undermine the church.

He goes after the leadership, and then he goes after the families. Elders must carefully guard against wrong thoughts because those thoughts lead to actions.

The elder must be resolute and unashamed regardless of what is thrown at him.

And so how does an elder protect himself against the onslaughts of the enemy? We have three tools that I want us to be mindful of,

Keith. And so I'm talking with Keith here. Y 'all just get to kind of listen in to this conversation. Keith, the first tool is scripture.

Psalm 119, verse 11 says, your word I've treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you.

The psalmist is speaking or saying that the Lord's word must be embedded in our hearts so we do not yield to temptation.

It doesn't guard us from temptation, but it will help us put up defense barriers and not yielding to the temptation.

A daily dose of scripture will help us prevent the enemy's attacks and being complacent in ministry because that's easy to do, to become complacent.

And that's what Satan wants us to do. He wants the leaders for us to be complacent so everybody else will become complacent.

So the first tool is the word of God. And number two is prayer, the second tool. You'll always find the elder in the word of God, in prayer.

And so that's the first thing out of his mouth. And when someone needs prayer, it's not that you have to go to the elder to say, hey, will you pray for me?

You just gotta let him know what the problem is so he will be able to pray about it. And so we utilize prayer.

And something that's wonderful about Keith is on Tuesday mornings, I've seen him pray for the body, intercede for the rest of the saints along with other men and women of the body.

So thank you for that because you know how important prayer is. And number three, the third tool is fellowship.

It's hard not to help somebody that's family. In 12 .5, we're a family, aren't we?

I feel it. I know I can call any one of you, whether something good that's going on or something bad,

I know that I'm gonna have prayer and we're gonna rejoice with one another, we're gonna weep with one another, and we're going to intercede for one another's needs.

And so ministry togetherness is a byproduct of doing eldership properly.

And so when we're talking about being above reproach, these are characteristics that we're striving after.

With unimpeachable characteristics, understanding that we're looking to the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ.

And so I want everybody to hear this again. It's so important that the future of any church depends on the quality of its leaders.

The elders are the leaders of the church. These are the means that Christ is using to build his church.

And so we are blessed to have Keith join the eldership of 12 .5 Church. So those were three tools, but I also have five instructions for you,

Keith. Number one, stay true to the gospel. No matter what anyone says or what kind of pressure is thrown your way, don't listen, stand firm on the gospel.

And number two, shepherd the flock. Treat the people of God as you would treat yourself or your own family.

Number three, intercede for the people. When you see a need, take care of it. You're right there, you'll love them.

And number four, be a caretaker, be a volunteer. Whenever there's a need in someone's life and you see it, it's your role as an elder to care for that person, regardless of they ask for you, you're there, right?

And we do this in unity with one another. And number five, be a protector. Be a protector from the naysayers, people outside of the faith that will try to sway people from the truth.

You have to be a great protector and throw scripture in Satan's face and saying,

I'm standing on this, no matter what you throw it. So I also have instructions for the members of 12 .5.

Number one, I would say be submissive to Pastor Keith and the rest of the plurality of the elders.

We have a calling from God to serve you, but listen, ultimately, we are called to serve the

Lord first. If you do something that veers from scripture or the will of God, we are called to bring you back to the truth because we have to give an account one day for your souls.

And so I wanna mention that scripture that comes from Hebrews chapter 13, where we read, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their life, imitate their faith, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to one day give account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage for you.

And so number one, be submissive to Pastor Keith. Number two, clothe yourselves with humility.

Get to know the word of God and we will all share in the mind of Christ and we will be unified together in the spirit.

And lastly, number three, allow your elders to serve you with joy. Pray for us, please.

There's so many things that we don't tell you about that we wanna guard you from. So just know that when you're like, man,

Jeremiah's being really direct right now. Hey, I love you, right? Sometimes that's couched within other things that you don't always see or know about and that's okay, right?

If you ask my wife, sometimes we start talking about certain things. I'm like, hey, this is probably all that's sufficient for you to know, because I'm called to love and protect her as well.

And so this is the heart of a pastor, to equip you for the good work. And the last thing

I wanna leave you with is I wanna share with you something that's expressive of the heart of the apostle

Paul, because he too was an elder, trying to equip the saints that God was putting in his life to be salt and light in this dark world.

Paul said in the book of Philippians, he says, among you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith.

And pause, right? This is not just something you clock in and clock out. This is a lifelong calling to be poured out as an offering.

And he says, let's do this with joy. I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, very excited for this evening.

What a special day to be able to officially ordain and commission and install

Pastor Keith as a pastor and elder and overseer of 12 Five Church.

Lord, we love you. We pray for your blessing. God, just please shine brightly in our hearts as we go out into the world.

We praise things in your name, King Jesus, amen. Pastor Jermiah, thank you so much.

Brother Keith, come on up here. So if any of y 'all were a part of the last installation service that we had with Pastor Jeremiah, you'll be ready for this moment.

This is a time of examination. Me and Pastor Jeremiah have walked with Keith over the past, well, now it's been about two and a half years, hasn't it,

Keith? Karen probably knows. It's been about two and a half years, right? So we have been walking with you and we have been examining you.

Just so you know, there's a reading list. In the past two years, Keith has read,

I think it's 34 books. How many of you have read 34 books in two years? He did it.

And we're not talking novels. We're talking theology books. We're talking lofty things.

And every single one of them able to communicate about that information back and forth with us in dialogue.

He has written papers. Keith has written a number of papers. As a matter of fact, it was pretty extensive.

We were pretty impressed with how precise he was trying to get with each one of the questions.

And there are hundreds of questions. And so it has been a lot of long hours. I don't think you could have done it in that short amount of time had you not been retired, could you?

No, I don't think, no way. So it was quite the challenge. But for your sake, y 'all haven't been in those meetings.

You haven't been watching over his shoulder late at night while he's trying to consume these books or write these papers, do this research.

You haven't been a part of that, understandably. And so what a great time for us to be able to hear just a few things from Brother Keith.

And so I'm gonna ask just a few questions. First off, I'm gonna ask your personal testimony.

I'm gonna let you share that here in a moment so everyone hears the standing that Keith has first and foremost with his savior,

Jesus Christ. And then we're gonna ask a few more questions related to some theological matters so you can hear from him, hear how he responds, how he handles the word, how he handles truth.

And then we, if we have time, we're gonna open up a moment where y 'all can ask questions and kind of put him on the spot here.

That's, that all right, Keith? All right, all right, well, Keith, go ahead. I plan to make my answers real long.

Real long, drag a few more questions. Well, why don't you go ahead and share with everyone your personal testimony in Christ?

Okay, can everybody hear me okay? Okay, sorry, it's hard to hear back here. You know, when

I was young, I was raised in a middle -class family in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Not really wanting for much. We went to church every

Sunday, to an Episcopal church, and we would come home and the

Bible would be put on the shelf and wouldn't be taken back off until the next week. The only time we prayed as a family was when we were having a meal.

So I really didn't have a really good understanding. I mean, I knew who Jesus was, but I really didn't know

Jesus. At the Episcopal church we attended, I went through confirmation, and I can't remember what age that was.

I think it was around 10 or 11, somewhere in there. And you memorize the

Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed, all these different things, and then you're confirmed. And so, you know,

I got to check that box. I'm confirmed, I believe Jesus is the Son of God, so I'm a

Christian. And that's the way my mindset was, is I grew older.

But when I graduated high school, or my senior year, actually,

I ran into something that would control my life for a long time, and that was drugs. Drugs took a hold of my life and turned me into a completely different person than I was.

I went to school, met Karen, we got married, had two children, and I became a very hard man.

I was hard, I was selfish, I wanted everything for myself. I wanted to do it my way, and when

I wanted to do it, and how I wanted to do it, and everything else was second tier, including my job, the church we attended, my two sons, and my wife.

Everything I wanted was for me. And this went on for quite a long time.

Karen and I started having some problems because of this. She woke up one night and told me that she had had a dream, a vision, and the

Lord had come to her, and basically, long story short, said he was gonna take

Chris if she didn't start taking him to church. And she told me that, and I told her, you know, I don't know if I wanna be married to a woman that goes to church.

That was my attitude, that was what I did not want.

So she started going to church with Chris, and so eventually

I figured I was gonna have to play the game if we was gonna have a good marriage. So I started going to church too, and I became pretty adept at playing church, you know, putting on the show, knowing all the right words to say, and I even convinced myself still that I was confirmed.

I knew who Jesus Christ, I believed Jesus Christ was the Son of God, so I was saved. So anyways, we went on, and things did not get better, of course, because I remained who

I was. And one day she came up to me and said that she didn't think, she didn't love me anymore.

And so we started looking at lawyers. Then one day she came in after counseling and said, well,

I can't leave you, because our pastor says that there's no biblical reason for me to leave you.

Of course, not only did I wanna go to church with a woman, or be with a woman that went to church,

I didn't wanna be with a woman that didn't love me either. So we kind of parried back and forth, and about this time, something in my mind told me

I needed to get a little bit better control on my life, because all the cracks were starting to get really big, and separate, and my life was starting to fall apart.

I realized that of all the things I thought

I could control and make happen, I couldn't do anything.

I couldn't keep anything together. I was about to lose my marriage. I was about to lose my sons.

Everybody at work had come to know who I was. I was about to lose my job. Everybody at church knew

I was putting on a sham when I came to church. And I can remember one day

I was riding in the car, and I said, this is gonna be a day I'm not going to do drugs.

I'm going to get control of this. I can make it happen. And five minutes later,

I was doing drugs. That night, I was in the bathroom, and I looked in the mirror, and I saw these dark, lifeless eyes looking back at me.

And I can remember saying, I hate you. I hate what you've become.

And somewhere in between the bathroom and laying down in my bed, my life changed 180 degrees.

I cried out to the Lord, and I knew I was different.

I knew that I didn't have to worry anymore about who I was, because I was now somebody different.

I knew Jesus Christ, and He was

Lord of my life. I woke up the next morning and told Karen, I got saved last night.

And she looked at me and said, let me see, that's lie number 563.

And I told her, I said, we're going to talk to the pastor, and I'm getting in front of the church Sunday, because I want you to know that this is not just some words coming out of my mouth.

And ever since then, it has been totally different. Following Him has been the love of my life.

And it's just, that's how I came to know Christ. I was at my wit's end. I hated myself, and Jesus gave everything back to me.

He gave love for myself, love for my wife, love for my children. He gave me blessings at my job, and He now,

He's given me the privilege of being a member of this church.

So I just praise Him for everything that He's done. Man, powerful.

Yes, I think it was

John Piper who said, a thousand sorrows prepares a man to preach. And so if we don't struggle with the weight and scars of sin, it's nearly impossible for us to apply that and see the brokenness in the lives of our brothers and sisters.

And so it's, I mean, God has just been molding you and preparing you, I believe. Praise God, thank you for sharing that.

Well, quickly, before we jump into some of these theological questions, would you like to speak to what you believe to be

God's calling in your life to this particular office now? Yes, I had served in other churches in different positions of leadership.

And even an elder in one church was mostly different than a plurality of elders.

It was more like a deacon. It was closer than deacon to what the biblical truth or what scripture says an elder should be.

And there was a lot of problems and stuff. And so when that ended, there was a certain, you were there for,

I believe it was four years. And I think actually they kept me on a little bit longer. But when

I stepped off, we ended up eventually going to another church because a lot of different reasons, but one was our family.

And I can remember thinking, I really don't wanna ever do that again. I don't wanna have that responsibility.

I don't wanna have that heartache in my life. And so when we came to 12 .5

Church, that was the furthest thing from my mind, was a position of leadership.

And we had been here probably close to a year and you asked me if I would be interested in teaching on Wednesday nights.

And we talked about it and ended up teaching out of First John. And I love to teach.

I mean, I just, for a lot of different reasons, but I just really love to teach. I love the accountability. I love the knowledge.

I love getting deep into the word and learning. And so I really jumped at that opportunity and found a theologian that I'd actually never heard of before was

Martin Lloyd Jones. And going through his book on First John, which was my main source that I used for teaching, my main resource,

I learned so much about life in Christ. That's actually the title of the book.

So I was in the middle of kind of teaching, but it almost took a year to go through the book.

And Nathan kind of came to me and talked to me. I remember one night and you didn't ask me if I wanted to be an elder.

You just kind of was hem -hawing around a little bit. Have you ever thought about it and stuff? And I said, yeah, I've thought about it.

And really it's not on the radar. So time went on and different things happened.

I mean, it was like the Lord was, this may not be the right way to say it, it was moving the chess pieces around.

And one night Nathan came up to me and said, hey, I need to talk to you a minute. Come in here, I want to look at a calendar. And right then my little radar was going off.

Danger, Will Robinson. And so we went in there and he said, what about this date here?

I would like for you to consider preaching. And really the alarm bell was going off by that time.

And I don't know, I was just sitting there going, I was in a panic. How do I say no? And so the best thing

I could say was let me pray about it. And so we live about, we live almost to Harrisburg.

So it takes us about 30 minutes to get home. Well, three quarters of the way home, it's just like the Lord was saying, yeah, you need to do this.

And so I got home and called you back and I said, the Lord wants me to do it.

And so I preached, I preached several other times. Things just kept on falling into place.

It got on my mind. I pray, I was praying about it. Lord, is this really where you are moving me?

One night we came on Wednesday night, Nathan had come back from River Bend and brought a whole bunch of books.

One of the books laying on a different table, because he said here, these books are for y 'all to take.

And one book was off by itself laying on a different table was Biblical Eldership by Robert Strach.

Is that how you pronounce it, Robert or? Alexander Strach. Alexander Strach, okay, yeah.

And I picked it up and I was looking at it and I go, I think I like this one. And so Nathan walked by a few minutes later and he said, are you stealing my book?

And I said, oh, I thought these were a giveaway. And he says, well, what do you think about it? And I said, I think the

Lord's leading me to become an elder. I really do. And he said, yeah, but do you aspire to be an elder?

And I said, if the Lord's leading me to be an elder, then yes, I aspire to be an elder.

I wanna follow my Lord and what he wants me to do. So he said, read that book and let's talk.

And it was actually one of those required books. It actually is at the top of the list. And I read that book and by the time

I got to the end of it, I knew two things. What he was talking about in that book was

Jesus Christ. And I could not meet that standard, but that's one of the things, one of the chapters was he talked about that.

You are growing, you are being sanctified into eldership to use a Biblical term.

And the second thing was that this was what the Lord wanted me to do. This is what he was leading me to do.

So we had a meeting and I told you, yeah, I aspire to be an elder and I'm ready to go through the process.

What's the next step? And my next question was, what does

Karen think? Well, right. I mean, I'd already, we had, cause she knew about from before.

So we had prayed about it and we talked about it and she was a hundred percent. And I told her,

I said, this isn't going to be the same thing. It's going to be a little bit of a different animal.

It's going to require more of my time, not only away from home, but even at home and on a daily basis.

But by then I was retired. So I did actually have more time, but she's always been a hundred percent.

There's no way I could do it. I don't think there's any way any elder could do it that was married and did not have full support of their wife.

I mean, that is integral to it. I mean, just the support, the prayer, the backing, the encouragement, just everything that they provide.

Amen. Absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm going to go through here and I'm going to list,

I have a list of some theological questions that I think gives you an opportunity to speak to some of these things.

You know, Pastor Jeremiah did a great job of really driving home the need for men of the word, men who know the word, men who understand doctrine.

This is essential. And so part of this process has been a growth.

Honestly, Keith, I've seen you grow in your knowledge and it's interesting because as you've grown in the knowledge, that knowledge has been renewing your mind and I've seen even spiritual maturity coming out of that, of course, but growing in that knowledge.

So let me ask you a few questions here. First, what is biblical theology? Well, in the

Bible, the Bible is God revealing himself to us. He is showing us who he is.

And biblical theology is the study of that, is the study of the Bible, the study of who

God is. But it's not just going in and cherry picking out different scriptures that you think fit what you want to know.

It's taking the whole Bible in context and supporting the different scriptures with other scriptures, letting other scriptures define what you're studying.

All pointing to Christ, right? Yes. Amen. Can you describe Christ's office of prophet, priest, and king, or offices,

I should say? Yes, offices. Okay, well, the first is prophet.

And in the Old Testament, if you look at what a prophet was, the prophet was one that declared the word of God. The Lord God says, is typically when you are reading a prophet and he is speaking prophecy, he is, when he is speaking

God's word, it usually begins with the Lord God says. Well, Jesus not only brought us the word,

I speak what my father speaks, but he was the living word too, which is explained to us at the first of the

Gospel of John. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was

God. So that's the way Jesus is the prophet. He is the word of God. He brings us the word of God.

He is the new revelation of God. Not that the Old Testament passed away and does not have importance, but Jesus is the revealed word of God.

And that word, that canon has been closed. Okay, prophet, priest.

In the Old Testament, the priests would, they would pray for the people and they would bring the sacrifice for sin.

It had to be done repeatedly because it wasn't forgiveness of sin or it didn't do away with sin, it just covered their sin.

That's why they had to do it over and over and over again. But when Jesus came and he died on the cross, that was once and for all.

That was forgiveness for our sins. It was a better sacrifice, a better promise, it says in Hebrews.

It talks about the better promise. And that's the way Jesus is our priest. He has offered that ultimate sacrifice for our salvation.

Prophet, priest, and king, when Jesus arose from the dead and was resurrected, he went into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.

He was exalted as king. In Psalm 2, which this is a little bit of a teaser, and I may refer to this often, which

I'll be raising as a teaser as I'm preaching in two weeks and that's what I'm gonna be preaching on.

It says, ask of me and I will give you the nations.

And I will give you the ends of the earth. I will give you the nations as your inheritance and I will give you the ends of the earth as your possession.

What God is talking about there is from the nations, he's gonna give

Jesus Christ an inheritance and that's us. And so when he went to the cross and he died, he received that inheritance and he is our king.

He is now the kingdom of the king of the kingdom that we are in, the kingdom of God.

Amen. Hey, that's good, prophet, priest, and king. Can you tell us what is the

Ordo Salutis? Ordo Salutis is

Latin. I know Adam's back there. It's Latin for the order of salvation.

What is the logical order of how salvation is done?

Or comes to somebody? Where would we primarily find that?

What's a good passage that would really give us a screenshot of that? In Romans, I believe it's

Romans eight, the end of Romans eight. Do you want me to talk about some of them or? You're welcome to, if you want to.

Okay. Well, the first order, and I do not believe it's in that passage, is the decree of God.

And this was in eternity past. It's typically called the council of the

Trinity, but that's a loose word because you got to remember we're talking about deity here.

But it's where the God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ, even saying came together is kind of strange because we're talking about deity.

But anyways, the decree went out that, and this is actually out of Psalms 2 too.

When Jesus says, I will tell of the decree. My Lord said to me, you are my son, whom

I have begotten. And then he went on to say what I explained just a little while ago, and that was the plan of salvation.

That was done before the foundations of the earth. And within that plan of salvation, within that decree of God, within that council was also predestination.

That's where God predestined those who would come to salvation. And he predestined those who would not.

And this was all done according to his pleasure, according to his glory, and according to his purpose, his divine will.

So then after you have the decree, you have predestination. Then you have effectual calling is next.

And a lot of people call that regeneration. That's where the Holy Spirit actually comes into your life.

As natural man, we do not have the ability because of original sin to even understand spiritual things.

But in regeneration, in 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Corinthians 2, 14 is kind of my red letter or blue letter verse that talks about the natural man cannot even understand spiritual matters.

So in regeneration, the Holy Spirit comes in your life. He convicts you of your sins. He gives you an understanding, a mind that can understand spiritual matters and the will to know the

Lord Jesus Christ. So then you have regeneration. And now we're all in the grace category here, starting with regeneration.

After regeneration, then it's justification. We are justified. We are justified by grace through faith.

And this justification is where we are declared righteousness in the court of law, in God's holy court of law.

We are declared justified, we are declared righteous. And this is all done through imputation.

Our sins are imputated to Christ when he died on the cross. He died for our sins.

And his righteousness, that's one of the reasons why it's so important for him to lead a perfect life as man and God so that that righteousness then can be imputed back to us.

And therefore, we are now just before God. Then after that, or I say after, but at the same time, which is another thing that is done as a legal process, we are adopted.

I taught on this a few weeks ago and I coined the phrase, Jeremiah, you wouldn't hear, after justification comes adoptification.

I said, we might as well have a whole bunch of vocations. Brian knew we were making up words. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, so we are adopted, which is a legal proceeding.

God adopts us as his son. It says in scripture that Jesus Christ was the first among many brethrens.

Well, we're the many brethrens. We're brothers and sisters of Christ now and we have full inheritance into the family of God because we are adopted into him and into his kingdom.

After that is sanctification. We are sanctified. It's initial sanctification and there's also progressive sanctification where we are actually shedding off sin and becoming more and more like our savior.

It's like we're regaining the image that was lost at the first sin at original sin.

And then the final stage is glorification. And of course, that is when we go to heaven, we will have the glorified body.

I really like, and where's Jeremiah? Okay, and I might not say this exactly right.

He spoke a couple of weeks ago and he said, the natural man is in the grips of sin.

When you're sanctified, you've been released from the power of sin and when you're glorified, you're in the absence of sin.

And I really, that just really stuck to me. I said, that is so true and that's such a wonderful truth. Praise God.

Well, I have a whole nother list of questions. We're not gonna get to them. I would like to maybe take a couple of questions from y 'all if there's anything that you wanna know.

It can be a personal thing. It can be a theological thing, whatever it may be, if there's a question that you wanna hear from Brother Keith before we go to an affirmation, right now would be the time to ask it.

And he did give me one phone a friend. Yeah. So Jeremiah's back there, there's Adam, there's a couple of others,

I'm just kidding. Hey guys, I wouldn't worry about the microphones.

I'll repeat the question if somebody has one. So anybody got any questions? You have a question.

What's your question? I can't hear,

I'm sorry. Is God the master? That's a great question.

What do you think, Keith? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. And I'll tell you, we talked,

I'll just spend a few minutes on this. The other day, I think it was Wednesday, about some of the, call them the big ticket items, the things that just really have jumped out at me and affected me and what

I believe and how I believe in the last two years. And God being master, my dear grandchild, was one of those.

And that's how everything that we do and we talk about in doctrines all filters back to the first of Genesis.

How God is sovereign. In the beginning, God was master.

He created, he's sovereign. Hey, that's a great question. Adam, what areas do we need to pray for you for?

Throughout the two years, there have been moments that have been quite overwhelming. And that may not be the right phrase to use, but it's typically when we're in a gathering like this and Jeremiah or Nathan is saying, the elders have done this and Keith.

And it just, the weight of what is transpiring I could really,

I really feel it. And it's the weight I know. And I firmly believe that if God calls, he equips.

But I do not wanna fail my savior. And I do not wanna fail his body and his bride.

And I want to be able to give him my uppermost. And so that is the way you can pray for me is that I will be wise in my counsel and I will be able to honor him in all that I do and all that I say.

I just gotta say, how much do we love these people? The fact that they have an opportunity for a gotcha moment and their question is, how can we pray for you?

Like that's a blessing, right? Awesome, Chris, talk about the difference between will and nature and the power that it holds over us.

Well, the nature is something that we're born with. They say that, they say scripture says that because of the fall, because of original sin, we're born with sin nature.

And it is what guides us. It's what drives us. It's what controls all that we do.

It's our passions. It's our knowledge. It's our feelings.

That nature controls us, controls how we think, how we resolve things, how we react.

I think our will is more of a driving force of what we want and how we want to live.

I think that's about as good as I got right now. That's good, great question.

You wanted a gotcha, there you go. Well, we'll take one more question if anybody has one. All righty, well,

I know that I'm probably not gonna be liked for this, but I would like to ask

Karen to come up here. Keith, if you could stand up here, watch your step with the lights.

It's hard to see once you get up here. It's easy to fall. You wanna stand over here next to Keith. Before we go to this next step,

I want to, I know you've asked for, how can we pray for you, Keith? But I want to remind all of you that Karen is agreeing to share her husband with this body, his time, his energies, and she just got him in retirement, and she's basically sharing him now.

And so this is a sacrifice, and we are so grateful to her that she's been willing to step into this along with her husband.

And our wives carry a burden of being seen, knowing maybe some things in the church that others might not know, and all that comes with that.

And so I am asking the church, and I know you will, to be praying for Karen specifically by name, praying that God would guard her, that God would be gracious to her in these moments.

Because as my wife can attest, as every pastor's wife can attest, there comes moments where that having to, having to lose your husband in the evening to phone conversations of someone who's in a broken circumstance, or all that comes with it, that bears on them.

And they sometimes begin to feel like they're setting a second fiddle. And it's not fair at times.

So pray for her. But Karen, we want to thank you. We love you. You are a great helpmate to Keith, and he is blessed.

He's a blessed man. So thank you for that. And so what I want to do right now is you've had a time to ask questions.

You've heard from Keith. You've been able to watch him. We've given you a month to bring any accusation against Keith.

So for right now, Pastor Jeremiah and myself are presenting

Keith officially for affirmation into this body as an elder of this congregation.

And I want to make sure you understand the weight of it as Pastor Jeremiah has been crystal clear. He is as much pastor as myself and Pastor Jeremiah once this happens.

And so church members of 12 .5 Church if you affirm

Pastor Keith being a pastor of this congregation, please stand. Praise God.

Praise God. And we are so thrilled for this and this moment.

So typically what would happen here at this time was it'd be me and Pastor Jeremiah laying hands on him.

And we're going to do that in a moment. But Keith has actually asked specifically if the deacons, if you could come lay hands on him and pray.

And once the deacons are up here, any man in the church that feels led to come and lay hands on Brother Keith and pray over him, we're going to have a few moments where you have that opportunity.

Karen, thank you. We love you. And I'm not going to make you stand up here with us any longer, but watch your step.

It's hard to see with those lights there. Keith, as a matter of fact, Jonas, can you grab this chair real quick and set it right up against the stage on the ground?

And I think this would be a good spot. Keith, if you could go around and you could sit in that chair. We are going to bring the deacons.

Deacons, come on up here. And like I said, any man in the church that wants to come and lay hands on him right now is the time for you to do that.

Keith, you can remain seated right there. As Pastor Jeremiah, if you want to come up here.

Pastor Jeremiah and myself, here in this moment, we are going to officially commission him into this office through as what

Pastor Jeremiah mentioned earlier, the laying on of hands. So thank you men for coming and praying over him.

That was something he specifically asked for. He said, I want the men to pray over me.

And so we are trusting the Lord Jesus that this is the calling in Keith's life.

We have seen the evidence of it. It is something that he has aspired to, that he meets the qualifications and the church as a whole has affirmed this.

So this is true. And so we now, as in this moment, we'll bring you on Keith.

It just got real, didn't it? Alrighty, if we could just have some music for a moment so that not everybody's staring at us in silence here.

♪ Blessings flow ♪ ♪

Praise Him all creatures dearly know ♪ ♪

Praise Him above the heavenly host ♪ ♪

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪