Recognizing And Valuing Church Leadership - [1 Thessalonians 5:12 -13]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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May 28, 2006

00:00: Before we come to the lesson, let's take a petition to the
00:06: Lord, let's pray together and ask the Lord's blessings upon our time, not only here together, but in the service and throughout the day, that we might be able to just come aside, that we might be able to hear from the
00:19: Lord to be blessed and to be taught and to be equipped to be able to serve
00:24: Him as we should. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you again for just the precious gift of life.
00:34: We know that because of you, we live and move and have our being. We know that you are always caring for your people, and we are just so grateful for that.
00:46: We're thankful that you think upon us. We're thankful that we have a God who loves us and cares for us, not only to save us, but to keep us.
00:55: And Lord, we know that we are kept by the power of God through faith in Jesus Christ. We know that you are underneath us, all about us, around us, above us, and in us by the presence of your
01:09: Holy Spirit. And Lord, we rejoice this morning to be called the people of God, and Lord, even to have the word of God, to be taught of our
01:18: God this morning is our prayer, or that we might learn that we might be able to grow and to know our place, to be able to submit to you and to obey your word, and all of that, that we might bring glory and honor to Christ.
01:34: We want our lives to be a testimony of your wonderful grace, your amazing love, and that we may exhibit such a life and such a behavior, such a conduct, such a way of thinking and such a way of acting and speaking, that we would show to the world that we are trophies of your grace.
01:55: We praise you, and we thank you for this time. Please, Lord, as our mouths are open, feed us with the finest of wheat, in Jesus' name.
02:04: Amen. Well this day is, as you know because of the announcements that have been made, is we're having an installation service this morning to where Pastor Cooley will probably be seated on a chair like right here, and we'll all watch, no it won't be like that, but he'll be up front here, and Pastor Mike is going to be preaching a message that will be a charge to him, and basically as we hear the message, it will help us to be able to understand once again the role of the elder, of the pastor, of the leadership in the church, and that will be kind of like what the
02:45: AM service will be about, and I thought what might be good for us this morning is
02:50: I'll do a little review of that, of leadership in the church, but I also thought it might be good to compliment here in Sunday School, what is our role and what is our responsibility as a church, a member of the church, when it comes in relation to the leadership in the church, what is it that we ought to do to please the
03:13: Lord when it comes to being a member of a church. Let me do some review though, some of you that went through the new members class
03:21: I taught on this, so it will be a little bit of a reiteration of what I brought there, but I'll just touch on a few things.
03:30: Godly leadership within the local church is necessary. It's necessary for the building and for the protection of a church that will glorify the
03:41: Lord. God intends for a church to be led, not just to haphazardly go in every which way, but God has, like in a family, given the husband to be the head of the home over his wife and to lead and to guide and to protect his wife and children, and also in the church,
04:02: God has given leadership. God has given men that will be in that position. And when you look in the
04:08: New Testament, you will see the same group of people in the New Testament being referred to by the words elder, by the word bishop, you will see the word pastor.
04:23: And an elder, as I was just thinking about this, an elder is who the man is. An elder is, that's the
04:29: Greek word presbyteros, which means authority or responsibility, and it has to do with who he is, that position of authority, that position of responsibility.
04:41: When it comes to the word bishop, that's episkopos, that has to do with caregiving, guardian, overseer.
04:51: And then when it comes to pastor and the bishop, of course, is what he does. He oversees. He is a caregiver.
04:59: He's a guardian in the church. And then a pastor or shepherd is how he does it.
05:07: And pastor is how he does it means he is taking care of the flock, feeding the flock, watching over the flock.
05:17: This is his responsibility. And in the scriptures, we see in the New Testament that when we look in Acts chapter 14 and in Titus 14, like verses 21 through 24, it speaks of how that when they went out to preach the gospel in the early church, they went about to the different cities.
05:36: And in those cities, they established churches. And in those churches, they appointed elders.
05:43: It's singular church. It's plural elders. We see that as the pattern in the
05:49: New Testament. The qualifications, of course, for the elders are given to us in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1.
05:56: And we see there as D .A. Carson said, the list of elder qualifications is most notable for being not very notable.
06:08: Because if you look through those qualifications, what he means by that,
06:14: I believe, is that those characteristics, those qualities, those qualifications are expected of all believers when you consider the blameless life that they ought to live and not be under the control of anything, to be self -controlled and so on.
06:28: They're notable for not being most notable. And really, they would be generally recognized for all
06:34: Christians except for, of course, when it comes to the teaching and that authority that the pastor, the elder, the leader has when it comes to teaching.
06:44: Now, what about this man? What must the elder be? What is this? What is as far as the type, the quality, the equipping?
06:55: Well, first of all, the man is a man of authority. He is God -equipped.
07:01: He is God -gifted, God -called. He's a spirit -filled, a spirit -controlled man.
07:07: God has made those men, those men who he gives to the church to be in the position of leadership, they are unique in a way in that they rise above others when it comes to this giftedness, in this hand of God upon them, this calling, this authority that God will give them in the church.
07:31: They are men that are separated under God for this particular purpose, to lead in the church,
07:37: God -called men. That's why it's so important for those who are to be in the position in the church to have come to a place where they are absolutely confident that God has called them and God has put them in the ministry.
07:50: That's what the Apostle Paul said. God put him in the ministry, not Paul saying,
07:56: I think I ought to do this. This is a great thing. Other people say that I ought to do this. No, it has nothing to do with men's calling or men's appointing.
08:06: It's a God's appointment. And not only men of authority, but they are men of maturity.
08:12: Not the novice, as the scripture says, not the beginner, because tough times are going to come and there are going to be battles, there are going to be struggles in the church, there is going to be great difficulty, and these men are to be spiritually strong, as I said, not novices, and possess a sure and a strong foundation.
08:31: They are going to have to refute heresy. They are going to have to discipline in the church. They are going to have to teach. They are going to have to endure difficulty and the burden, as the
08:41: Apostle Paul said, with all the different things that he went through. And then he says, and above all these other things, the care of the church, to hold the burden of the church and the cares in the flock is of a tremendous weight and the man cannot be and ought not to be immature or just a beginner.
09:00: And then he is also a man of responsibility. He, as I said, will bear the weight of the ministry and he needs to lead well.
09:08: And in order to do this, he is going to have to be a man who has a track record, a man who has proved himself to be without reproach, blameless, and someone who has been in the trenches, fighting in the
09:23: Lord's army, as we heard last week. He has enlisted and enrolled. Well, God has enlisted him.
09:29: God has enrolled him in that position in the army and he is a leader amongst the people to lead the flock.
09:36: And what are some of the things that he does? He teaches. It is impossible to pastor the sheep without teaching.
09:43: You cannot feed the sheep without bringing them to the field and giving them some of the different grasses that the shepherd does to take care of the flock and to bring them to the waters that they must drink from to be nourished.
09:54: And the main responsibility, of course, is to teach the flock. But they also lead.
10:01: The Apostle Paul says to others, follow me as I follow
10:06: Christ. They are to protect. They are to oversee, direct, feed, guide, comfort, care for, equip the saints.
10:21: They are to correct, to discipline, to tend to, to care for, to watch over the flock, to pray for the flock, to keep order, to build up, to encourage, shepherding the flock.
10:34: And of all the analogies that the Lord could have picked from when it came to describing what it was like for the leader in the church to be in the analogy as far as those that are the members of the church, he picks the shepherd, sheep and the flock.
10:54: And it is just a wonderful picture that was, of course, something that could be identified with in New Testament times.
11:03: And for any who have ever read of or heard any stories or accounts of what sheep are like, and all of us, of course, being sheep, who can easily go astray, my brother raised sheep for many years and he told me that during lambing season in the spring, many times the ewes would be just walking along, give birth to a little lamb and just keep walking along.
11:30: And they had to be careful to make sure that they came along behind, they were very busy, didn't get much sleep during that time, and to hook up the little lambs with the ewes because if not, they had a lot of work to do because they'd have to care for this because there wouldn't have been the bonding there.
11:46: And so they're not brilliant, and neither are we, and we're all sheep, and we all need to recognize that and God knows what he's doing when it comes to describing us.
11:59: But in that also, you get that great picture of, great understanding of that for the flock to be led and fed and cared for and taken care of, they need a shepherd.
12:10: And of course, when it comes to the church, all the shepherds, all of the elders, all of the pastors in the church are equal and there's only one that is above them, and that is the chief shepherd, the
12:25: Lord Jesus Christ himself. So that's just a real quick flyby as far as elders and some of the things that we should keep in mind and maybe some of the things that Pastor Mike will get into when it comes to the message this morning.
12:40: But what I wanted to look at was some points when it comes to the responsibility of the church members or the flock to their elders or to the shepherd, the under shepherds.
12:53: And the first point that I'd like to make is that when it comes, and some of these I had taken from Mark Dever's book on the basics of church structure.
13:03: The first point is that there ought to be amongst the membership a clear recognition of the elders, a clear recognition of the elders.
13:14: And what I mean by that is that the elders are to be recognized by the church body as gifts from God, as I already said.
13:24: In Ephesians chapter 4 and in verse 11, it speaks of the men that God gives to the church and among them is the pastor teacher, the leader of the church, the leaders of the church, the leadership.
13:37: And we see this elsewhere that under the direction of the Apostle Paul and even to Timothy as he was to go about what he was doing, they were to appoint elders in all the cities.
13:50: When they went on the missionary journeys, they did the same thing. They preached the gospel. God raised up churches. And then when they went around the second time to confirm the saints and to make sure that they were well taken care of, one of the things that they needed to do to make sure that the flock was protected and the flock would be able to go forward was to appoint elders, leadership in the church.
14:13: And this is not something that is man -made. This is ordained of God. This is
14:19: God's intent. And isn't it wonderful just to think about it, if you just kind of look at this, that God has such a great concern for his church and God has such a great concern for his people that they will not just be willy -nilly doing whatever man pleases to do in his own eyes, whatever thinks is right.
14:38: Anybody can call the shots. Anybody can do anything. But God lovingly, as he does in a family when he puts a husband as the head of the home, and as he does on the workplace when
14:49: God places the employer and the boss in that position, as he does when it comes to the family, when it comes to the parents and the children,
15:00: God lovingly appoints authority. And he's done the same thing in the church. God, in his wisdom, has appointed men to lead in the church.
15:11: Now, not that these men, and we as the elders, when we gather together almost every single time when we begin a meeting and go to the
15:22: Lord in prayer, we are humbled by the fact that God has put us in the position that he has put us in.
15:28: We are praying constantly that God would keep us and give us wisdom, wisdom beyond our years to be able to maintain and to be able to handle the responsibilities that he has appointed to us so that we would be good stewards and be good caretakers and caregivers in the church.
15:47: But first and foremost, when it comes to the members, there must be a recognition by the church that the members understand what
15:56: God is doing in the church. And it's biblical, and we understand that. And we read through the
16:01: New Testament, and we see that there are men in this position who do lead, who do make decisions, who do love the body and love them enough to tell them the truth.
16:12: And there is discipline that is taking place. There's instruction and there's encouragement. There's rebuking.
16:18: And there's just a watching over and a care for. And hopefully I'll show you some of the examples of that.
16:25: And then because of this, if the church recognizes that this is
16:30: God's intent, if the church members, the flock, recognize that God has given them under shepherds, it's easy for them to submit and then delegate to them the duties of teaching and leading.
16:45: Because if you can trust the men that God has given to you, if you can look to these men and say that, yes, we have recognized them.
16:53: We have affirmed their gifts. We have affirmed their calling. We have in instances where when there's a, like we only have four elders at this time.
17:06: Not that there has to be any certain number. We as an elder board are praying for more.
17:12: And that God would in his time raise up other men to bear the weight of the ministry of the church in that position and will wait for God to prepare men, to call men, to equip men to be in that position.
17:29: And when that happens, those men or that man will be presented to the church as a candidate and you will affirm him.
17:39: You will ask questions. You will examine him. To see if he meets the qualifications.
17:46: And then if you do affirm him and you do agree and you do recognize that God has raised this man up for this position, then you will give your consent and you will, and then if you do that and you understand that he has met the qualifications, spiritual, godly, has the foundation, can lead, has already a track record that he is already serving and God is working in his life and he is the one to be or he or them are the ones to be leaders in the future, then when you do that, it will be easier for you to trust and to submit and to obey.
18:22: And that's exactly what will follow and must follow. It's God's intended way so that the duties, and the duties when it comes to an elder would be revoked if the elders are no longer qualified.
18:41: And that might be of course the first and the quickest one would be if they were to leave this world of course, they're no longer qualified to be here and they're there absent from the body present with the
18:53: Lord and that one's easy to see. But what about physical impairment?
19:00: That can happen. And sadly, what about immorality? If a man falls in his moral conduct, then he's no longer qualified to be able to be in that office.
19:14: And you know what that really puts the responsibility on the church members to do? What do you think we ought to be doing?
19:20: Begins with a P, ends with a Y, has an RA in the middle. Pray, pray for those that are in the leadership as we pray one for another as we ought to be, but pray for us as we pray for you.
19:34: Pray for the leadership that they might stay strong and stay pure morally and have fidelity in their marriages and all their relationships be true and honest.
19:49: So the first thing is that there must be this clear recognition. God gives these men as gifts to the church,
19:58: Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11. But secondly, there must be a heartfelt trust and I've already kind of alluded to this.
20:09: Well, you know what? Before I go there, I'm going to take you to another passage. Look at first to a passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
20:16: This kind of deals with this recognition, this point of recognition, recognizing the elders.
20:26: 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and beginning in verse 12, 1
20:38: Thessalonians 5, all your Ts are together in the Bible, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, you'll find that there.
20:45: Chapter 5 of the first epistle and in verse 12, here's the words to the, to the church member, to the flock and we beseech you or we urge you, this is important.
21:04: We urge you brethren to know them which labor among you and are over you in the
21:10: Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at peace among yourselves.
21:20: The first thing we see here is that this is important and really not optional. This is something that is, that is brought to us in a, in a very, very strong way to the brethren in the church.
21:34: He says that we ought to know them or your translation might be to recognize them.
21:42: And this means that we just don't know their name. We can look in the bulletin and we know the names of the elders.
21:49: It's not just facial recognition either. What this means is that, that you as a church member should know your leadership personally and you should know them intimately, have an intimate relationship so that you know something about them, not just hi and goodbye or not just everything that you get through the teaching and preaching.
22:12: Although you will, if you listen enough, you'll hear about the quirks and the likes and the dislikes of those who teach because they bring out their personality, bring out their likes and illustrations and things like that.
22:26: I mean, you probably know more things about Lewis and Mike and Steve and I that we probably didn't want you to know because we probably stuck it in as some illustration because we're grasping to fill a point.
22:39: But that's, I mean, we're human and you need to know us. And that's what this word speaks of.
22:47: Know us well enough to appreciate and respect your leadership because of their value, because of their worth, because of their position, because of God's placing them in the body and not just placing them there just so that you'll keep your distance.
23:08: And what will this, what will this mean to get to know them? You're going to have to talk to them, going to have to open up to them and they to you, and maybe they'll open their homes to you and you open your homes and your lives to them.
23:21: But just, just to be able to walk up to them and speak and not just say, hello, you know, good day, great message,
23:29: Pastor Mike, and gone. It's going to, it's going to be that there's a relationship that builds and you begin to share in the things of God and begin to share what it is that Christ has done in your life and what
23:41: God is teaching you and what troubles you might have and, and, and what woes that you're going through, your prayer requests and begin to, to, to, to converse in that way so that, so that the relationship deepens.
23:56: You've all heard the stories of shepherds with their sheep and, of course, the intimate relationship that they have.
24:03: You've all probably heard that, that one account of, of in the Middle East where all the sheep are put in a big pen and it's all the different flocks and the shepherd comes up and he calls and a bunch of sheep come following him.
24:16: And then out of the same group, another shepherd comes and he calls, basically says the same thing and they follow, and they follow that shepherd out.
24:24: And there's this recognizing this relationship that they have, recognizing the voice of the shepherd.
24:30: And of course, as under shepherds, of course, we all, as, as God's sheep are to listen to his voice, to follow him and to go where he bids us through his word as the
24:41: Holy Spirit directs us. But when it comes to, when it comes to the under shepherd, we should hear the voice and know the voice and know the love and the passion and the pathos and the, and the heart that's being poured out and the desire to be great caregivers and, and, and to, to love enough to tell you the truth and you recognize that.
25:05: And it's not that, well, Pastor Mike or Pastor Dave or, or, um, well,
25:10: Louis or Steve, they, they are, they are just, you know, beaten, beaten us with this club of the same message keeps coming over and over and over again.
25:19: It's only because we love you. It's only because we care for you. And what your response ought to be is
25:26: I would love to be able to not only hear what they say in their messages, but to get to know them too, in their, in their whole character, in their whole behavior and become closely associated with them so that the relationships deepens and we can just see the beauty of this thing as far as being able to, to, uh, as we lead and as you follow, uh, it's, it's on a, on a deeper level.
25:53: If you understand what I'm saying, it's a, it's, there is a true, uh, love that is displayed there.
25:59: And, um, what I was just talking to somebody about, I think it was two weekends ago when
26:07: Pastor Steve went through his, um, examination. I talked to somebody after that and, and, uh, some, cause
26:17: I heard that some, some folks might think, well, what is all this about? Why would we even do that? Why would we do that in front of the church?
26:23: I mean, you know, that's, it's tough enough that Steve's got to go through that, but, uh, and Steve was probably wondering why, yeah, why do we have to do that in front of the church?
26:32: Um, it's very important for us as a new Testament local church to be able to do and to practice what the new
26:42: Testament says. And that was a perfect example of, of the qualifications for an elder, a man being examined to see if he meets those qualifications.
26:53: And, and then after that, and this, that was done in the past, of course, we examined, uh, Pastor Steve before when they had come on the trip before he even come in from California.
27:02: But then the scripture says that we are to ordain elders. We are to appoint them.
27:07: And that's that process of the examination. And then this process today of the installation, but it's kind of neat to think that we as a new
27:16: Testament church could do the things that the new Testament says. Do you realize that there are, there are people who come like to Bethel, to, to BBC and they'll walk in the doors and they'll come from churches that have never had anything and never had any examination of elders.
27:33: Maybe don't have any deacons. Um, they've never witnessed church discipline, never seen it happen because anything goes today.
27:42: Anybody can do whatever they want. But here at BBC, we've had, we have, um, um, uh, a godly membership.
27:51: We have something that God is doing to keep us together in unity. We have elders in a plurality thereof.
27:58: Um, we, we ordain an elder and we're going, we w we've just going through that process.
28:03: Now we've exercised church discipline. I mean, there are, there are marriages, there are funerals.
28:10: I mean, just, you just think of the whole gamut of what God has done. We are a blessed people because you might talk to other people and they, that have gone to other churches and they're hurting.
28:21: I mean, they don't get the teaching, they don't get depth, they don't get encouraged, they don't get rebuke. I mean, they don't, you know, they don't get the whole counsel of God and they don't see it.
28:31: They don't get it not only in teaching, but they don't get it in practice. And, um, and that's, what's so special about what, what
28:40: God is doing in the midst of us is that we get to see what God is doing and it's biblical and that's refreshing and it's a blessing and we're a part of that.
28:52: And that's something that we ought to guard and that's something we ought to protect. It ought to humble us that God has allowed us to be put in a, in all of us in particular, being chosen to come from the different backgrounds that we are and God has saved us and God has brought us here and plugged us in and knit our hearts together in this unity to be able to go forward for the glory of God and the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the local
29:18: New Testament church. And to be able to see it before our very eyes for our generation, to be able to see this, um, something that people have longed for, and some folks do pray for and long for, and we're not perfect.
29:32: We haven't, we haven't arrived and that's why we just continue to teach. And what, what the subject here this morning is, as far as the church's, the, the, the flock's responsibility to the shepherd or the, those that are, that are following in the church, the leadership of the church, they are urged, they are, they are, uh, besought here to recognize the elders and these are men who are recognized for what, what is it, uh, that they are known for?
30:02: Well, it says that they labor here in, uh, first Thessalonians five, verse 12, they labor.
30:08: This deals with a physical effort. This is a working to the point of exhaustion.
30:14: It is an all out effort. And you'll notice the example. If you turn back to chapter two, first Thessalonians chapter two, and notice how
30:23: Paul describes his ministry amongst the church in Thessalonica here with these words in, in chapter two, notice what he says in verse seven, he says, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse or a nursing mother cherishes her children.
30:45: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls.
30:58: It's easy to love, to preach the gospel. It's easy to, it's, it's, you can, you can love preaching.
31:06: It's a different thing to love the people that you're preaching to. And, and that goes two ways.
31:13: It's easy to love the, the pastor or the, or the leadership's preaching and teaching.
31:19: And it's another thing to love them. And it's a, it's, it's both ways. And Paul said here, not only did we, we were willing to, to bring you the gospel, but we were also willing not only to impart the gospel, but to impart our very souls.
31:37: And another place in Corinthians, Paul says that he was willing to be spent like a candle being burnt on both ends, like a, like a vessel being poured out.
31:46: He says, I'm willing to be spent for you. And that's this desire. This is what the, what the elders are to be recognized for.
31:53: And that's why when, when the membership looks at the leadership, there ought to be this, this, this, this, this, this wonder as far as not for the man, but for what
32:06: God is doing in the church to bring people together in this relationship so that you have men that are gifted and qualified to be able to teach and to bring all of the church along, not leaving anyone behind, not stepping on anybody, not looking to promote themselves, but the leadership saying, look, you follow us as we follow
32:28: Christ. And we love you enough to teach you to, to, to equip you to come along, to be able to, to minister and to serve in that, in that way, based upon the ministry of our lives being poured out into your, our, your lives, our souls being poured out into your very souls.
32:46: He says here also, not only to impart their own souls because you were dear unto us verse nine for you remember brethren, our labor and travail for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you.
33:04: We preach unto you the gospel of God, your witnesses, and God also, how wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, and you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his children, that you would walk worthy of God who has called you unto his kingdom and glory.
33:26: So you see the description here of the past of the pastor, the leadership in the church is that they are like a nursing mother who cherishes and loves their child so much to hold them close, to provide the nourishment and the protection that they need to care for them for the purpose of what, so that they'll be, so that they'll be healthy and so that they will grow.
33:46: And that's the desire of the leadership. And that's what God intends when he puts leadership in the church is that those men will equip and teach those that are in the, in the church, like the shepherd who brings the sheep to the different fields so that they will be fed so that they will grow as they ought to, so that they will be cared for those so that they can be nourished so that they will stay healthy and they'll be able to grow.
34:12: Also, he says he was like a father and this, these words, gentle and affectionate in the imparting of the souls.
34:19: That's why back in chapter five, first Thessalonians five, he says to them, not only
34:25: I, to you to recognize them, not only should you know them personally and intimately, but he also says in verse 13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake, to esteem them.
34:44: That word there means to consider them or to hold them in high regard is a responsibility of the flock.
34:54: To recognize not only first that there are God given, God set us, set apart for the work of God.
35:01: They are laboring for the master in the midst of you. They are equipped in with the abilities to be able to teach the word of God, to handle it carefully, to handle it properly and rightly, to teach us all in the way that we ought to go.
35:18: And because of that, they are to be esteemed. They are to be held in high regard. This means that you must think properly about the leadership in the church.
35:28: There is absolutely no call, not only for anybody in the church, brother or sister, towards a brother or sister, to be speaking about them behind their back.
35:41: But when it comes to the pastor, when it comes to the leadership in the church, there's no place for the pastoral roasting.
35:48: You've heard about that, right, at the afternoon meal. You know, I cannot believe what so -and -so, so -and -so did or what
35:55: Pastor Mike said again from the pulpit. Can you believe that? You know, and there's just no place for that because they are
36:03: God's man for this time to be able to lead this church.
36:09: And it ought to be recognized that God has done that. And also, it ought to be that we think properly and rightly and lovingly about the leadership in the church.
36:21: And we esteem them or count them worthy of this. You notice in Timothy, you remember in 1
36:28: Timothy chapter 5, I think it's around, let me just take a peek there quick, 17.
36:36: Yes, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.
36:42: We're not going to go there, but these, basically what they're saying is take care of them.
36:49: Provide for their needs. They're giving you the gospel and you're living spiritually from their efforts.
36:55: Some of you being born again from above, God has saved you through the ministry of the leadership in the church.
37:05: And therefore, those that are laboring in the prayer and in the word of God ought to be those who are taken care of by the church.
37:14: Provide for their needs. But it also speaks of that they are here worthy, it says, of double honor.
37:23: There's this place, this position, this uniqueness about this position of leadership that God says that we must be very careful to hold it in high regard.
37:37: Not that the man is anything, but God has made the man something, and it's that position of authority.
37:43: Not that we're better than you, or not that a husband is better than a wife when it comes to that relationship, being
37:49: Christians together, or children and parents, not one is superior than the other. The whole idea, brethren, is we need to know our place.
37:57: We just need to know where it is that God has put us. It's not inferiority.
38:03: When it comes to recognizing or esteeming the eldership, I mean, you don't esteem us because we're always right.
38:11: You don't esteem us because of our good looks or our charms or our great personality or our impressive gifts.
38:22: It's not because of those things. The esteeming comes mainly first by the fact that God has placed the leadership in this position, and the under -shepherds work for the chief shepherd.
38:37: We're God's special servants. And you see here in this verse, it says that you ought to recognize them, and you ought to esteem them very highly for their work's sake.
38:50: There's this respect, and there's this honor. And I believe that in our day and age,
38:58: I can remember from even as a young kid in high school,
39:05: I remember that whenever you looked at movies, whenever you looked in society, in the culture, they always portray the pastor, the reverend, as milquetoast, as weak, as feeble, as not being able to stand on their own two feet and make decisions and be firm.
39:31: And that is a sad thing because those are the men that God uses to lead the flock and to teach them.
39:41: And the authority that comes from the preaching and the teaching that is demonstrated in the church is missing today because the position is not valued.
39:51: The position is not honored. It's not respected as it ought to be. And again, not because there's inferiority and superiority.
39:58: It's just place in the church. It's the place that God plugs us in, and we recognize that place, and that's where we ought to operate.
40:07: And if we don't, and it says here at the end of verse 13, and be at peace among yourselves.
40:13: As the flock submits to the pastor, to the elders, to the leadership, they do that so that peace will prevail in the church.
40:21: And again, it's no different than the relationship of submission in a marriage or in the parent -child relationship.
40:29: If you don't do that, notice in verse 14, a thought continues on, and it could be applied in this respect.
40:40: We exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. That very first part of verse 14.
40:46: That word unruly, I don't know how it might be translated in your Bible, but it has to do with being out of step.
40:54: Like in a military marching commandment, you're out of command.
41:00: That there are some that will be out of step because they don't want to listen to or submit to the commanding officer.
41:07: And when there is that disobedience, that unwillingness to submit, then you've got trouble in the ranks.
41:15: And it's just a matter of, you know, you've heard the phrase, you're out of line. Somebody starts talking about, you're just out of line.
41:23: Well, that's what this means. And we're out of line when we don't submit and we don't obey as we ought to when it comes to the positions that God has put in the church called the leadership.
41:35: Are there any questions? Yes, Daniel. So the question is, you have men who are in the position that ought not to be because maybe there was nobody else to pick from, there was no desire from anyone else, and he had someone that he had been talking to that asked him, asked
42:28: Daniel if he should be an elder. What's wrong there? Yeah, if you have to ask, you're not qualified and you don't understand because a man doesn't ask another man if he's to be an elder or a leader in the church.
42:44: God calls the man to be that. And the man is absolutely confident of that.
42:49: He knows it in his heart that that's what God would want him to do. And then he examines the scripture, the qualifications and it's biblical and it's presented to the church and he's affirmed.
42:59: Brother, the only answer that I would have there is what we just talked about, is that you go to the biblical example and share with him what does it mean to be qualified,
43:09: God called, gifted and how it was meant to be in the scriptures and say, don't come to me for your confirmation or affirmation and your confidence.
43:18: Go to the Lord and pray to him. Sadly, when it comes to elders and deacons in many churches, there's a blurring of that.
43:26: Sometimes you have elders that are in a church that really are not elders, but they're deacons, but they're functioning under that title.
43:33: But what they're doing is the work of a deacon because it's just a total misunderstanding of what the two different roles are.
43:40: The deacons are spiritual God called men also, but they support the eldership who the elders main function is to pray and to teach the word of God and to lead spiritually in that way the church and to exercise that authority over the church with the teaching of the word of God and following and for the folks to follow them.
43:59: When it comes to the deacons, they handle a lot of the physical aspects of the church, but even when it comes to handling the building and the landscape and the utilities and all of that, the physical aspects, it's a spiritual work and they are supporting the elders in their labor.
44:14: Any other question? No question?
44:20: Okay. There should be a clear recognition. There should be a heartfelt trust.
44:27: And we didn't get, we touched on it, but you can write this down. Hebrews 13 verses 7 and 17 are two verses that you can look at that speak to the fact that the membership are to obey those that have the rule over them, the oversight over them, to, to obey them, to yield and submit.
44:46: I can remember when I was in the, in the military and I did not question what the commanding officer said.
44:53: Our company commander, if he came in and he started barking orders, you know, that, that phrase you, he, he, he says, jump and you ask him how high on the way up, you know, you just do it.
45:05: And when it comes to the church, you'll notice that in that verse, Hebrews 13, 17, it is not a submission of the eldership to the whims or the ways of the, of the body.
45:18: Although there is going to be a mutual submission to each other in Christ. But when it comes to decision -making, the direction of the church, the spiritual outlooking, overseeing the feeding of the church, there is this yielding, even if you don't agree, even if, even if there are differences, you trust those men that God has put there and you lovingly place yourself under their loving care for your souls.
45:41: I want to, I want to close by reading out of Deborah's book, a phrase that he had put in there.
45:47: I just think it's so beneficial for us. He says, it is a great privilege to be served by godly leaders, to have godly authority modeled and practiced for the church's benefit.
46:01: That is a great gift to reject authority as so many do in our day is short -sighted and self -destructive.
46:11: A world without authority would be like desires with no restraints, a car with no controls, intersections with no traffic lights, a game with no rules, a home with no parents, and a world without God.
46:27: It could go for a little while, but before long, it would seem pointless, then cruel, and finally end up being very tragic.
46:37: I'll close with this one last remark. Godly and biblical leadership is crucial to the building and protection of a church that glorifies
46:47: God. And if we all know our part, and we are faithful to remain true to the word of God and, and, and be in that place as, as a member in the church, submitting to the loving leadership of the church and obeying and following, it can do nothing but glorify the
47:05: Lord, because that's the way that God intended for it to be. And I just wanted to give you just a few things, a little bit of a charge for us as the, as the members of the church when it comes to looking at our relationship to the leaders.
47:18: And I think in the AM service, we will see maybe a little bit more of the leader's responsibility to the flock.
47:25: Let's pray. Father, thank you once again for your great care to us and the way that you work all things well.
47:34: And in your great wisdom, you have given us the analogy of, of the shepherd with the sheep and the under shepherds under the chief great shepherd, the
47:45: Lord Jesus Christ himself, the head of the church, and how we so want to honor him by, by living and practicing the, the word of God as we should help us as leaders to labor, to love, to be an example that the flock would be willing to imitate.
48:07: And Lord, we pray for, for the members, for the flock that they would love you and keep your word and follow those that you have put in that position, that they would esteem them highly, that they would recognize them and, and know them and learn to know them over time to speak and to open up and converse and to share their souls with them as their leaders pour their souls and impart their very lives into the flock.
48:38: Lord, may all of it glorify and honor Jesus. We pray that, that his name would be magnified in all that we do in this church.
48:46: Lord, that we might be different, that we might be a people called by God, peculiar in New England, desiring to live the scriptures and to be a local
48:57: New Testament church that thinks and speaks and behaves itself wisely and properly before you.
49:05: We pray that you would help us even as we go through this day to reflect on these things and to be strengthened and equipped to honor