Imitate and Obey

Our Old Testament reading is Ezekiel 34 1 through 10 Please stand for the reading the word if you'd like to follow along in a few

Bible, it's a page 722 The Word of the

Lord came to me son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel Prophesy and say to them even to the shepherds thus says the

Lord God Shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves Should not shepherds feed the sheep you eat the fat you clothe yourselves with the wool you slaughter the fat ones

But you do not feed the sheep The weak you have not strengthened the sick you have not healed

The injured you have not bound up the stray you have not brought back The lost you have not sought and with force and her out and harshness you have ruled them

So they were scattered because there was no shepherd and they became food for all the wild beast

My sheep were scattered. They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill

My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or seek for them

Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the Lord as I live declares the

Lord God Surely because my sheep have become a prey and my sheep have become food for all the wild beast

Since there was no shepherd since there was no shepherd and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep

Forgive me. I'm gonna go back. Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the

Lord as I live declares the Lord God Surely because my sheep have become a prey

And my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts since there was no shepherd and because my shepherds have not searched for my

Sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep Therefore you shepherds hear the word of the

Lord This says the Lord God behold I'm against the shepherds and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding of the sheep feeding the sheep

No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths That they may not be food for them

Today's New Testament reading is 1st Peter 5 1 through 5

That's on page 1016 in your P Bible So I exhort the elders among you as fellow

Elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight Not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you not for shameful gain, but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock and When the chief the chief shepherd appears

You will receive the unfading crown of glory Likewise you who are younger be subject to the elders

Clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble

Please remain standing Invite you to take your

Bibles now and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews chapter 13 you follow as I read this section verses 7 through 17

Hebrews 13 verses 7 through 17 Remember your leaders those who spoke to you the

Word of God Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace

Not by foods which have not benefited those Devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat for the bodies of those animals whose blood is

Brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate In order to sanctify the people through his own blood

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and he bear the reproach he endured

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come through him

Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account

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

Let's pray Father now open your word to us. This is your voice in the texts of Scripture.

Not mine I pray Lord that you would that we would have hearts that would be

Listening and willing to change. I pray father that you would guide us in our thinking as we hear your voice

Help us now Lord to be attentive to you in Jesus name Amen, I've always kind of dreaded the day.

I would preach on two verses in this section verse 7 and 17 You say why well, they're difficult because I realized that preaching on those two verses invites you

To examine Greg Dan Andrew and me because these verses are about the shepherds that lead this flock

They also tell you that you have a duty to obey and submit to our biblical authority

That's not a comfortable thing to do just is it? I'm gonna tell you now you got to obey us.

I'm gonna tell you now these things but you know what here we are We're in this exposition of the book of Hebrews.

You can't get around it So here it is These two verses that I've dreaded so maybe

I won't dread them from now on after today. I don't know. We'll see Now, of course, you remember we've entered into the epilogue the very last chapter of this book

And it appears to us to be a series of short commands that that catch our attention they just seem to be a number of Random a random collection of short commands

But it connects us to the rest of this book as a series of distinctives that should

Distinguish us distinguish us from all others. It also provides for us again connected to the theme of this book the means that we use to Continue to persevere in the faith to not give up and not give in to not abandon

Jesus It gives us the means by which we can Find the strength to remain faithful to Jesus even in the midst of persecution

We saw last week in verses 1 through 6 that brotherly love and hospitality will encourage others to remain loyal We saw that identifying with those who suffer for the faith will encourage perseverance on their part and in our part

We saw last week that marital and sexual fidelity will keep you from the immorality that so easily entices you

Away from Jesus and finally God uses freedom from greed and the love of money to promote

Perseverance so that when we lose our livelihood for the faith, we will not be shaken

Now the writer turns your attention to your leaders as a means of encouraging that endurance

Turns your attention to your leaders notice in verse 7 he opens this section by encouraging you to remember your former leaders and Then in verse 17 he exhorts you to remember your present leaders

Those are the two groups that he deals with and that is why I chose to examine these two verses together

We're gonna look at verse 17 and verse 7 and 17 this morning We'll get all this stuff in between next next week

So then God uses your leaders to foster endurance but how

How here's the first thing he says in verse 7 imitate your leaders imitate your leaders

Well, I should more accurately say imitate your pastors Imitate your pastors.

Why pastors do you say it says leaders? Why pastors? These are the ones who spoke the Word of God to you.

That is the shorthand description of what elders? Shepherds pastors do that's the very description of the shepherds who watch over you

These are the ones who shepherd you by ministering the Word of God to you publicly from the pulpit in public

Venues they minister the Word of God to you and privately as they meet with you one -on -one

Face -to -face ministry where we minister the Word of God to you in in in private settings whether it's counseling or Visiting with you or in fellowship.

It's it's the ones who shepherd you by ministering God's Word to you publicly and Privately he says remember those men

I believe that he's talking about a generation of leaders who are past who are gone who have died he says remember the

Outcome of their way of life as if they reach the end of their lives now and you see the outcome of it all

So I think he's talking about leaders in the past He says don't just remember their words

But remember their lives Don't just remember their words remember their lives

He says remember the lives exhibited in their outcome and in their faith

All right, remember their lives in their outcome And in their faith outcome, what does he mean by outcome the results the record of a faithful life?

the details of how they lived life and obedience, so here's a here's a couple of family members a brother and a sister and they're they're having coffee together and and they're talking and and one of Them says remember how pastor showed up when

Janie died You remember how he came alongside you remember how we spent two days in the hospital with us?

When we couldn't figure out what was going on with mom And and and the hours he spent with Joey during his difficult years.

Do you remember how much time he invested in him? You think back and you look back and you say that's the outcome of his life.

That's what it looked like That was the result of it And then he says

Remember a life lived believing the promises of God look at their faith

How did they trust God? How did it happen? And and so these two are still talking and they say, you know

I'll never forget those two years in the 90s when the church seemed to be just falling apart.

You remember that? You remember how how pastor just kept saying, you know what

Jesus says he'll build his church. This isn't my church This isn't your church. This is Jesus Church.

He's gonna deal with us as he sees fit We may be small but God's still here.

I'm just gonna keep preaching. You remember how he just kept ministering the Word of God That's the kind of faith our pastor had

But he says don't just remember that what does he say? What's the operative term here in this verse? It's imitate imitate

Their lives imitate their faith don't just remember but imitate that kind of life

Now, I know some of you are saying how can that be doesn't that encourage pride? I mean, aren't we just supposed to follow the

Word of God? I mean, let's face it. I've been told endless times never follow

People they'll disappoint you every time You know what

I say about that that's wrong That's not what the Bible says What the

Bible says here's one from 1st Corinthians chapter 4 1st Corinthians chapter 4 verses 14 through 18.

You hear what the Apostle Paul says there. Here's what he says I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children

Even if you had 10 ,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers

For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel

Therefore I urge you to imitate me For this reason

I've sent to you Timothy my son whom I love who is faithful in the Lord He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus with which agrees with what

I teach Everywhere in every church four times in the New Testament. Paul says that Imitate me follow me do what

I do Imitate you say what what's that all about?

It's what you call Discipleship, you know what discipleship is. It's learning by show -and -tell

So here's your shorthanded way of remembering discipleship. It's show -and -tell It's not just telling

It's showing it's not just saying here's what God says to do It's also and this is how you do it.

Look watch how it can how it can happen you see That's what discipleship is

It's learning by show -and -tell and what the what the Apostle Paul is doing and what the writer to the

Hebrews is doing here is simply Saying imitate those kinds of lives. They're worth imitating

Of course now Paul adds an important qualifier right imitate me as I imitate

Christ that's important to see but again It's just discipleship.

One of the guys who really taught me Biblical counseling and a man I will forever

Respect and hold dear is pastor Bill good And he made this point.

I remember no one ever learns. No one ever changes in the abstract. They change in the concrete

No one ever changes in the abstract they change in the concrete and so we can talk about what

God says But in the concrete, what does it look like? What does it look like and so he says imitate those imitate those

You know what? When I read this verse, I think of one person. I remember my own dad who was an example a

Faithful ministry of the word I can look back on his ministry and little churches smaller than this one

Little churches faithful minister of the gospel. I can look back at my generation in that little church

We had a youth group in that little church He had an incredible influence almost all those kids today kids, you know, we're 68 to 71 now

But all those kids Most of them most of them are following Jesus, you know, since I graduated from high school, we've had two youth group reunions

We grew close together. We grew in the Lord. I think it was because of my dad's influence I saw a man who had an influence on pastors other pastors who recognized his wisdom

I saw a pastor who loved his congregation. Well But you know what?

There are no monuments to Jerry Pazma No special acts of the

Wisconsin Legislature ever took note of his faithful service You'll find no buildings named after him on some

Christian College campus. You won't But you will find an outcome of life and a deep faith.

That's worth imitating If you do not want to give in if you do not want to give up Then imitate those leaders who have a proven record of faithful following of Jesus imitate them

Now that also says a great deal to your shepherds Greg and Dan and Andrew and me

It says to us That we do not exhaust the responsibility of shepherds

By merely teaching the Word of God publicly and privately We have to live lives that are worthy of imitation

Not as if we're gonna walk around saying, okay, it's gonna be worth imitating. It's just being faithful to Jesus Being faithful to him so that there's a record.

There's something that you can say. I know what Jesus wants me to do I know what he's told me to do.

I saw how they did it That has to be part of our responsibility So he says imitate your pastors you don't want to give in you don't want to give up on Jesus imitate your pastors now verse 17

Verse 17 he says obey your leaders and submit to them For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account

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

Advantage to you What does he say the next thing to do is obey your pastors now

It's clear that pastors exercise authority because you can't get away from those words submit and obey.

They're very clear It's no getting around that Question is why in the world should you submit to your pastors?

Why would you do that? Well, here's the first reason he gives us to here's the first for they are keeping watch over your souls

They have the responsibility of keeping watch over your souls now the idea the idea of the word translated keeping watch is that of vigilance through tireless efforts

Self -discipline great care and concern even sleepless nights That's what it means that's the kind of vigilance

I we have the responsibility of keeping watch over your souls Okay, you know there is there's let me tell you what the tendency of pastors are okay

Here's the tendency of pastors is to to not be joyful, but to walk around like this, man

You just don't know how hard it is how hard it is to be a pastor Right, there's that tendency and you could turn this verse into that easily, you know, they keep watch over their souls your souls

There's their sleepless nights. Do you know it? We're not gonna go there, but it does require those sorts of things

It requires that Well, why is such care necessary? Why is that necessary?

Well, what have we seen already in this book? Why is that necessary what we see in this book to help you

Understand and handle hardship to walk you through hardship to say this is the discipline of the

Lord take heart God's at work in your life. It's to help you live in peace chapter 12 verse 14

Right live at peace with everyone We were to help you live in peace to help you be holy to help you deal with bitterness if necessary To help you be pure sexually

That's our job. That's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to come alongside and help you not come along as a top sergeant

But come alongside to help not to demand obedience from you, but to come alongside and They have to keep watch over your soul so that you will not give in and you will not give up What are we supposed to do when we see you heading for the exit?

What are we supposed to do when we see you saying I don't know if Jesus is worth it We're supposed to enter the picture and say no

No, we're in this together Where is your struggle? How can we help? Now, how do they do that?

They do that by the public and private ministry of God's Word the you know my theme versus The verse that I've adopted as my pastoral theme versus Colossians chapter 1 verse 28 if you want to look at it

Colossians chapter 1 verse 28 him we proclaim who's him

Jesus we proclaim Jesus Warning, that's the next word. Now. That word warning is an interesting word.

It's the word new to Tao It's the closest word we have to our concept of counseling

It's the private ministry of the word it means face -to -face ministry It means helping some person personally to avoid a path a certain path and go down another

All right, so we could translate this him we proclaim counseling everyone and Teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ whenever I enter this pulpit

I have this verse in mind My job to preaching the word is to help you change every time

I get up here to minister the Word of God or when Greg gets up here or when Dan gets up here or Andrew gets up or whenever we minister the

Word of God It is that you will be able to give a good account of yourself to Jesus on the day.

He returns. I Mature in Christ so that you can give a good account of yourself

I'm not up here to impart facts I'm not up here to give you a good Bible story.

I'm not even here to make it so that's really interesting to come to church It's to help you change so that you are what

Jesus wants you to be That's what our job is We want to minister

God's Word so that you become like Christ and that requires tireless effort Sleepless nights much prayer and faithfulness and bringing to you

God's Word Bringing to you God's Word or bringing you to God's Word both public and private

So that's the first reason Why should you submit because those who are in the office of Shepherd keep watch over your souls

Here's the second reason Because they are those who will have to give an account

We will have to give an account each one of your elders These four that you have right now and any that that will come on in the future

Everyone will someday give an account for how they shepherded you frankly

That alone is enough to give me sleepless nights To think that someday I'm gonna have to answer for the way

I Along with my colleagues have shepherded you You have to understand you're not our sheep

You are not our sheep. You don't belong to us Jesus is the one who bought you with his blood and you are his sheep and He's left the shepherds in charge to take care of his property

I don't know about you, but that kind of Tells me something about the responsibility we have

We're taking care of Jesus sheep not ours So we can't tell you what we want you to do

We have to tell you what your shepherd wants you to do acts 2028 are some awesome words

Acts chapter 20 verse 28 in Acts chapter 20 the Apostle Paul it's talking to the elders or that is the shepherds of the

Church of Ephesus and Here's what he says to them in the 28th verse of Acts 20

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the

Holy Spirit has made you Overseers be shepherds of the

Church of God which he bought with his own blood

Be shepherds of the flock which God bought with his own blood someday before the judgment seat of Christ the elders of LaRue Baptist Church will have to give an account to Jesus the

Great Shepherd and the Lord of this church What did you do?

To preserve the faith and the obedience of the members of the Rue Baptist Church. What did you teach?

How did you live? What steps did you take in the case of the straying sheep?

How did you handle rebellious sheep? What did you do for my grieving and suffering sheep?

How did you care for the perplexed the lonely the aged the teenagers and the children?

what did you do for all those people and most of all How did you help those who were ready to give in and give up?

What did you do then? Did you go after them? Did you come alongside?

so Because your pastors keep watch over your souls because they'll have to give an account someday.

You must obey That's what he says Now that just rankles us as Americans because we have this rugged individualism that says no one and nobody

Is gonna tell me what to do Right submission is for weak babies Not for me

I'm the man of my own making or a woman of my own making. I don't have to submit to anybody

What business is it of yours? It's between me and God. You know many times I've heard that one

What business it of yours it's between me and God that's not what the Bible says God commands you to submit to and obey your elders who have given themselves to keeping watch over your souls now listen

It doesn't mean That you have to check in with us and say I'm gonna buy a new car

What should I buy you have to buy a Honda because that's where everybody works And my salary depends on Honda Right it doesn't mean that what does it mean let me give you some examples

So Joe goes to the hospital and the doctor finds that he has cancer and it's terminal

And he only has six months to live, but he says to you to your family. Don't tell him

Don't tell him that'll dishearten him All right, that'll dishearten him

I remember sitting with a family and their doctor as he talked about cancer, and I was just jotting down some notes

Right okay, I need to remember this so I can help this family, and he very clearly made it made it clear to me

Stop that I Want anybody taking notes here, but let's say that the doctor says you can't tell

Joe. He's he's got a short time to live Don't do that So the family goes along with the doctor guess what?

The elders at least one of them has the Responsibility to them and says God says lying is wrong and besides that you're keeping

Joe from dealing with some relationships He needs to deal with before he dies And you're not giving him the opportunity to get things squared away before he leaves this life you have to tell

Joe, what are you gonna? Do you have to tell Joe? What that elder has done is simply minister the

Word of God and say what you're doing is wrong It's contrary to God's will this is what you must do submit obey

Or marriage problems are detected there's a couple thinking of separating and if you're a good shepherd you're gonna

Take them aside and say look we need to talk we need to spend some time together you need help

God doesn't give you the option of separating God doesn't give you the option of Calling it off doesn't give you that option

You need to come and we need to talk about that guess what you need to do You need to submit and as you're sitting there, and he says to you listen

We'll call him Joe different Joe Joe listen you gotta love your wife.

You're not loving your wife I'll tell you right now from what I've heard It's not happening, and you have an obligation to love her it doesn't matter how difficult you think she is you got to love that woman and Here's how you can love her and I start lining out some very practical thing.

This is how you can love your wife This is how you can love her do this and this and this you know he has a responsibility to his responsibilities to men

Why because that's what God calls him to do and the elder the pastor is just the conduit of that submit you've not been in church for some time and Your pastor elder comes knocking on your door and saying brother.

We haven't seen you in church for months. Are you gonna get mad about that? When he says you're cutting yourself off from life giving grace you need to be there

Are you gonna be angry about that, or are you going to submit? You see what I'm saying here

The submission is submitting to the Word of God that they minister to you, but submit you must

Because they will give an account I remember pastor good also saying one time

There are some people who I won't have to give an account for they didn't let me be their shepherd submit and obey

Is the Word of God? submit to them willingly it says Submit to them willingly

Don't make it hard for them Do not submit grudgingly you know how it is isn't it fun to be a parent when you say to your daughter look

You need to clean your room and she responds with hey I'm not the only one who sleeps in this room

Why are you always asking me to do it? What do you think

I am all right? I'll do it Isn't it fun to be a parent right then

Is it that great? She's actually cleaning a room Yeah, she's actually cleaning a room, but she's not happy about it

That does not make your job any easier is it and it's not to her advantage is it?

She obeys, but she does it grudgingly the Bible says do it willingly if you submit grudgingly or you refuse to submit the task of shepherding becomes a burden and That's of no advantage to you

Some of you again may refuse to submit Well won't have to give an account for you then

Well, I will in terms of how I handled your rebellion or how we handled your rebellion. That's true

But listen submit willingly. It's of no advantage to you if you

If you submit willingly to your pastors to your elders, that will be of great advantage to you

Now think of this he did this in chapter 4. Do you remember chapter 3 in chapter 4 this epistle?

He told you about the people of Israel. They're standing on the banks of the Jordan. They're ready to cross over But what happens they refuse

They refuse they say no, we can't conquer the land you remember Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb pleading with them and saying to them we must go

God has promised us that and they refuse to submit what happened

They missed the rest Remember the rest that God had for them. They missed it

They missed it because of their grumbling and because of their rebellion the whole congregation of God's people

Suffered for a generation in the desert. Is that not right? Why? It was no advantage to them to grumble and to be rebellious against their leaders

It was no advantage to them at all. They ended up what a whole generation dying in the desert

Because they refused to submit And today when God's people are proud and stubborn and disobedient to the leaders in Christ Church there's little peace or joy or progress in the congregation and In fact like the children of Israel when you refuse to submit you are in danger of missing the goal

You're in danger of making it to glory. You're in danger of giving up and giving in I can

You know what? being nearly 40 years of ministry

I Can think of a number of people? Who did not submit and who walked away with Jesus?

It's not theoretical for me I can put names on that on those cases if you will

They did not submit and it was of no advantage None so submit for your advantage there's great spiritual advantage to you if you submit and obey so how do we keep from giving in and giving up Imitate those in the past so you can look back those who've had a proven record of following Jesus imitate those lives

Find their ways of learning look and see how did they follow

Jesus? How did they follow Jesus and walk that same path and obey

Those whom God has set over you Obey them submit to them because they will give an account and they do watch over your soul

How do we keep from giving in and giving up if we imitate and obey that's one way

Father thank you for your word Father my prayer as I close this twofold first of all that this congregation would imitate and would obey

The leaders you set over them, but my prayer also is

That the leaders of this church past and present particularly present would be worthy of imitation and Would not see the responsibility of demanding obedience

But the spiritual responsibility of keeping watch God help us all

As we walk this pilgrim way to glory Help us to do it.