Truth in Love... Eph 4:15 (Elders)

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Elders

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Ephesians 4 15 But speaking the truth in love We are to grow up in all aspects into Who is the head even
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Christ? Good morning. It's beautiful outside a Few clouds it's cold outside, but it's sunny.
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It's not raining right now. Imagine that I Want to talk with you pray with you
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So whenever you join in let me know that you're there and If you would like for me to pray for you or with you type me so that I can pray for you
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I was doing the video Thursday night. I was messing around with my program and I'm not able to stream through my program to Facebook like I like I wanted to do
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And I couldn't fix it again this morning. So We're going with the original
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Facebook live but We're going with truth and love again
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Don't know why I need a title. I just just wanted to throw one out there and But I still want to talk with you want to pray with you.
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If you have any questions ask a question If you want to chat interact, I'd love to interact with you.
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Let me know that you're watching if you want prayer So that I can pray for you and with you that's the main reason that I wanted to get on Facebook on a regular basis is to let you know that Someone is there.
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I'm here Wanted to be in your community wanted to reach out to you and pray for you if you need a prayer
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Hope you're doing well Let's see if anybody joins us If you caught the post
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Earlier in the week where I said that This was coming up on Saturday morning and the subject that I wanted to talk about It's gonna be different than the subjects.
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I've talked about before This is this is one of those subjects that I Think there's a lot of folks that That don't understand and I think that it the subject gets neglected that it's not talked about in church among Christians But I think we need to talk about it because it's biblical and I wanted to share it with you
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And maybe it will start a conversation and I wanted to speak this truth from Scripture in love it's one of those aspects that verse 15 talks about that we are to grow up in and Because it represents
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Christ and who he is and how he wants to do things And we want to represent him.
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We want to glorify God by doing things His way and not our way no matter how hard it is to change or how hard it is to to admit that We may be wrong
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We had to do that at salvation, right? When the Holy Spirit opened our eyes and we realized that that we are sinners that we've sinned against him that we are wrong
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And how we live We had to admit that we had to repent of that apologize for that and and turn towards Christ in his way which was
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Trusting in him for our salvation and not ourselves and Trusting in his way of doing things and part of that is is reading scripture learning scripture and And doing things his way
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And we should be doing that and growing all throughout our lives And the Holy Spirit says that's the scriptures.
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That's part of the Holy Spirit's role is sanctification Growing us through his through God's Word Inside out
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Changing our hearts changing our minds and then changing our behaviors into More like Christ into him the head even
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Christ the Messiah So good morning
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Again, ask me questions chat interact with me if you would like prayer type me
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I want to talk with you want to pray with you and I kind of just talked from the Bible just to have conversation and and just to encourage you
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But the main reason I wanted to get on here is to pray Pray for you and pray with you and and reach out to you throughout the week
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If you're there say hi, let me know that you're there Morning, mom and dad morning
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Pam. Good to have you with us This is an important topic that I want to talk about this morning,
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I hope it will spark discussion So let's go ahead and get started so that I don't ramble on and on but The subject that I want to talk about this morning from scripture is the subject of elders
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I'm going to give you two stories Before we talk about what the scripture says about elders
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Kelly and I have started watching a show together one of the shows that we watch together and I'm not going to give the name of It but one of the shows that we watch together is one of the new
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Hospital shows that that's on TV. I think it's in season two now and We watched we asked what's the episode for for this week together and there was
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The hospital has a counselor there I'm sure I don't know the protocol, but I'm sure most hospitals have a
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Counselor psychiatrist someone to work with with people outside of a chaplain or a pastor this particular hospital has
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Has a counselor that works there and a couple Came in and and they were recommended to them this counselor was
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And they wanted they needed some counseling for their relationship so the the couple comes in and he has them sit down and this couple
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Was actually engaged they met in college they they dated and they become engaged and And obviously to to progress that far in your relationship you begin to know each other
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They had written their vows they were they were going to be or they're supposed to be married in 16 days and So they had written their vows they had grown in a relationship the morning
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Sean and Gail They had read their vows. They had progressed in their relationships where they they knew each other enough to where they could write their vows
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They knew they knew why they loved each other and they knew for what reasons they loved each other
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They began to know each other very well So much that they they knew why and and for what reasons they loved each other
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Well, there was a wrench thrown in this relationship The counselor began to ask well, you know, what what's the real problem what's going on and The the girl in the relationship she said
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Well for a wedding gift my uncle sent Sent us a
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DNA test Can you imagine where this story is going So the couple
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Both took a DNA test. They sent it off and then they got the results back And guess what?
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The problem is they found out through the DNA test That they were actually brother and sister
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So I can imagine why they needed counseling why they needed to to work some things out because the
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DNA test Revealed that they're brother and sister so with that information revealed
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You've got two options You you continue to walk in the same path or based on this new information.
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You begin a different path Right, I'm not going to tell you how the story ends in the
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TV episode because I think maybe Television shows and Hollywood today have a hidden agenda
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And so maybe you can under maybe you can guess which direction this couple chose to go and how the counselor counseled them to go but here you have a couple who
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Dated became engaged. They knew each other They knew each other so well that they they knew that they loved each other while they loved each other
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But they dug a little bit further with the DNA test to get to know each other even more and They found out that they were brother and sister
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And so based on that new information, they had to make a decision continue on the same path or go in a different path
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And I thought how fitting is that Example for Not just this
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Bible study Or studying this subject, but but any part of Scripture as you study
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Scripture And the Holy Spirit reveals things to you Things that you didn't see before new things the
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Holy Spirit Decides that you're ready for wants to change in your life, you know
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Do you apply that you go in the same direction that you were going or do you follow? And they're beating to the
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Holy Spirit and go and in the new direction with the new information So that's what we have to decide when we're in Scripture And what we have to decide with the subject and the subject this morning about elders
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The the second story that I want to tell you is not really not really a story just more of an example
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The If you've ever been to The city within our hometown of Lincoln County the city in the middle there is
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Lincolnton If you've ever driven down Main Street You'll see that there are several churches or church buildings
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You'll drive by one that looks like a church And It actually used to be of the first Baptist Church of Lincolnton but if you look at the sign, you'll see that it is now the
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Lincoln Cultural Center and But on the outside it looks like a church
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But on the side and if you go on the inside You will see that it is not a church anymore
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Worship is not there by the first Baptist preaching Sunday school giving
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Churches not practiced assemblies are not gathered there for for church of the first Baptist anymore but on the outside You could be mistaken.
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I think that that looks like a church that looks like churches that we build today
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Morning Amanda, if you're watching, let me know that you're watching if you want to ask questions if you want to chat
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I'd love for you to do that. Love to interact if you would like prayer type me. I'd love to pray for you
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That's the reason why I'm doing it. This is is to reach out to you and pray for you and with you
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You don't have to say what it is. We don't want to air out dirty laundry. We don't want to gossip The Lord knows what is on your heart
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So if you'd like me to pray for you with you just type me and I'd love to do that but the the
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Cultural Center, which is formally the first Baptist Church of Lincolnton On the outside looks like a church inside.
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It's not anymore. They've moved locations So what does that have to do with our subject?
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well Imagine this we have Maybe you go to a church.
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There's churches Everywhere here in the South here in America churches everywhere and just picture
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Your church building or the closest church building if you don't attend just imagine it morning
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Robert Just imagine your church building in your mind Has the name of the church out front and you can you can see the bricks and the roof and the steeple and There's actually folks that assemble there as a church congregation for worship
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But if you observe the practices We can look like a church
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But we can also as we assemble as we gather Not follow
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The biblical practices like we should It's just like our life.
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We grow on sanctification We're not going to be perfect The Holy Spirit will grow us and and change us and we have to be willing like I said to to change
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Direction to go in that different path with the new information But overall all
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Christian churches Their practice comes from the same book the
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Bible God's Word and so there should be Some similarities between our churches in in how we practice and what we look like From scripture we get our mandate from Christ and he he created the world and he gave us his word and that's where we should
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Get our mandate from from him Not ourselves not our ideas not from somebody that we hired that has a wonderful vision
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We should always get our mandate our practices how we do church from scripture one of those things
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Is elders this is going to be new information to a lot of people Because it's not talked about and we're going to talk about why at the end
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But It's new information and so we've got to decide what we're going to do with that information
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I wanted to share with you My first experience with the word elder in scripture, and I don't remember how old
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I was I don't remember how many years ago it was Thank You Pamela But it was a long time ago when
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I was a lot younger and I looked at scripture And this this verse is used in other ways
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And you'll see why when I read it, but this was my first introduction to to the word elders And it comes from James 5 14 and says is anyone sick among you
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Then he must call for the Elders of the church and they are to pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the
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Lord So you can see why this verse is used In a different way other than focusing on elders we go to this verse when
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When we're sick our loved ones are sick and and we want the church to pray for them and anoint them with oil and We want the
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Lord's blessing and hand on those who are sick And so that's that's the direction that we usually go with this verse, but it was my first introduction to the word elders and so back then younger young Christian Just Beginning to read the word.
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I asked myself. What what does elders mean? And I I never asked
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I never investigated I just kind of always assumed that elders using
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Common sense common knowledge meant maybe the the older more mature folks of the church would go and Lay their hands on anointing with oil
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Those who are sick. So that was that was my understanding and the Lord has grown me in in this area
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And it took a while. This is this is not something that Don't learn right off.
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The Holy Spirit revealed this to me through other ministries That that maybe you or maybe your pastors are familiar with one of them is nine marks ministry
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And I have a couple of their books here Who we try to explain
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Scripture and and practices from Scripture So it
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It wasn't always Knowledge to me the Holy Spirit grew me in this and I want to share the truth in love so that Maybe a conversation can be started
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So that we can our practices can be more biblical the way they should be the way
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Jesus mandated for them to be So if what does elders mean here do we see the word elder or elders other other places in Scripture Yes, we do the answer is yes
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The word And this is information I'm just going ahead and turning to a different text so that I'm ready for it the word elder
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This is from By whose authority elders in Baptist life and Of course,
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I'm I'm a Baptist So I'm gonna kind of speak from it from that perspective
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But as I said before all Christian churches, no matter what your your name is on the outside We all get our mandate from the same place so It talks about here in this section
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The the Greek word the Greek root from which the word elder comes from Occurs 75 times in the
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New Testament nine times It speaks about the those who are advanced in age that the elderly nine times four times
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Speaks to ancestors of the Hebrew nation John uses Such words 12 times in Revelation to refer to the heavenly elders or rulers 29 times all in the
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Gospels and Acts the word is used to refer to Jewish non priestly leaders
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Get that Jewish non -priestly leaders either in the Sanhedrin or the local synagogue and The remaining 20 uses refer to elders in churches in Jerusalem Lystra Iconium and Antioch and Epsos and the towns of Crete and other general references
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So the word elder comes up other places in Scripture Not just there in James 5
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So this briefly kind of gives us an idea that there's more uses for the word elder than Just the the elderly that the mature and aged
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It has a different usage in Scripture and that Greek root that Greek word
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Also is the root for for other words and so Whenever the word elder is used in Scripture and it's in it's not referring to the mature and aged
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But it's referring to church leaders There are other words that you could put in its place and it would mean the same thing morning
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Sherry So, let me give you the list of those words whenever you see the word elder in Scripture and it's referring to leaders
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You can use the word shepherd pastor Bishop or overseer
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All of those words are interchangeable So whenever you see the word pastor, you can put in elder whenever you see the word bishop
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You can put it overseer They all mean the same thing and they're interchangeable and all all the people in Scripture that hold this office are also
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In in one verse called bishops and then the next verse they're called overseers. All these words are interchangeable
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So Elders used in Scripture That doesn't mean mature and aged that means when it's referring to a church leader
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We can use any of these words Our most common word that we use today is pastor
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But we can also use the word elder and be biblical Okay, so they're the morning
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James and Karen so there's no difference in meaning or word or title So you're your pastor at your church could be called elder bishop overseer or shepherd
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We just we're just used to calling The pastor at our church the pastor or the preacher.
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That's what we call them in the South the preacher So we've got that out of the way
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And that part of this topic is not controversial
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Because From my understanding all all pastors all scholars
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Bible students They would recognize they would agree that all these words are interchangeable
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There there's no disagreement there You can use any of these words for those positions
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Here's where the controversy comes in and this is This is the this is the part that That will cause us to think this will be the new information and this is where we need we'll need to Begin our conversations begin our thoughts.
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Good morning Jean Jenny So I want you to be open -minded to Scripture Closed -minded to Our worldly influences, but open the scripture and Test it to see if it's true study it and have the conversation.
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But here's the controversial part of Elders and having elders and what the scripture says about it
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The question is do we have one? Or do we have a group multiple pastors multiple elders in our church
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That's the question and that's where it becomes controversial So what is what is the practice in scripture?
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What is the mandate from? From Christ for our churches through scripture
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Again looking at the same book The the practice in the
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Old Testament was Was for Jewish towns be typically be governed by multiple elders
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The this practice of calling the local town leaders elders had its roots in the
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Old Testament so It's not new to the New Testament. It's it's a practice that was that was in the
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Old Testament that began that was also practiced in the New Testament and Here when you when you leave the
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Old Testament and go to the New Testament The statement from this book says the normal pattern in the
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New Testament is for congregations to have more than one elder This is where it gets tough because we're thinking about our church
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We're thinking about the church that we go to and remember the word elder can be replaced. It's the same word same meaning
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For pastor shepherd overseer bishop, so When you think when
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I say elder think pastor when I say pastor think elder and this is where it gets tough
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This is where we have to engage our brains and and open up our hearts to Scripture The pattern for the
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New Testament For New Testament congregations was to have more than one
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Elder or pastor Isn't that interesting? we the typical practice for us is
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We we have an open position We we let that be known We receive resumes or recommendations.
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We conduct interviews. We listen to trial sermons And then we pick a pastor and then that position is filled and our churches.
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We have one pastor That that's been the typical practice that most of us are familiar with But that's not the normal pattern that we see in the new the
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New Testament, let me read to you some some New Testament verses And you may have a question
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That that I had and I we wouldn't have discussed that question after I read these verses But I want to read these verses from the
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New Testament that when you hear the word elder They do not use the word in singular.
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They use it in plural The author is writing to a church and he uses the word elder and it's plural form elders as As it's the common pattern for there to be more than one elder there at the church so 1st
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Peter 5 1 through 2 Therefore I exhort the elders among you
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Remember James 5 14 is anyone among you sick? We're speaking to a congregation
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Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder
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Remember that this is from Peter and he's saying your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ a partaker
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Also the glory that is to be revealed shepherd the flock of God among you exercising oversight
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Not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God not for sordid gain but with eagerness
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And there's another key section of this verse that is so important when we're talking about this subject or any subject that has to do with Leading our church according to scripture
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Peter is speaking to the elders and he says Shepherd the flock that congregation shepherd the flock of God among you.
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There's that among you again according to the will of God Listen to that mandate shepherd the flock of God among you according to the will of God That's where our hearts have to be
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As a as a member of a congregation I want my leaders to to live in this verse
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That they shepherd the flock according to the will of God That's the kind of church
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I want to go to That every aspect of their ministry not just the pulpit ministry, but their leading of the congregation
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Their shepherding of the flock is according to the will of God and this This subject of elders
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Is a part of that So do you we want our shepherds our elders our pastors
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To Lead us biblically Into what church leadership should look like Not to be silent
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Not to not to hold on to that truth But to reveal that truth from scripture and lead us according to the will of God that is so important And that's why
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I wanted to start with this verse Even though it speaks to our subject. He's speaking to the elders there among you
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He's giving them a mandate as well to shepherd according to the will of God Uh Toss one five
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For this reason I left you in crete that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city
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As I directed you So he leaves them there in crete To set things in order
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He putting things in place putting the ministry in place. Um Having a certain order a way of doing things and one of those
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Ways of doing things is he was to appoint elders in every city Leaders pastors of the congregation
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Used in the plural acts 21 18 Excuse me and the following day
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Paul went in with us to james and all the elders were present
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Acts 20 17 from elitist. He sent to ephesus and called to him the elders of the church
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Act 16 4 Now while they were passing through the cities they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders
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Who were in jerusalem? for them to observe in acts 14 23
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Paul and barnabas appoint elders for them in each church
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And with prayer and fasting committed them to the lord in whom they had put their trust
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So here we have examples from the new testament Where elders are are put in place in each church?
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As the normal pattern practice of the new testament So why today here's a question that that maybe you had or it's a question that I had
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In our churches today, like I said, uh earlier The most common practice that we have is we have we have one pastor
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But the other office Is what? What's that other office? Is the office of deacon
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That we have in our churches and we're familiar with that. We practice that the other biblical office.
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Um But in our churches, what's what's the common pattern today we have one pastor, but we have a
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Board of deacons a group of deacons So, why do we do that why do we have um
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Why do we have a a group of deacons but only one pastor Um First timothy 3 8 says deacons.
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It's You know, there's there's nowhere no verse in scripture that says um, you must appoint
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A group of deacons a group multiple more than one
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It does the scripture does the same thing as it does with elders. It just uses it in the plural form not the singular
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So when in first timothy 3 8 when you're looking at qualifications of pastors and elders and deacons
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It says deacons likewise must be dignified not double -toned not addicted to much wine not greedy and for dishonest gain.
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So The the scripture mandate is to have deacons in your church using the plural uh
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Just want to take a second to uh Say hey to to those who are watching. Let me know that you're watching say.
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Hello Um ask questions chat interact with me Uh, the main reason why i'm doing this
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Uh is to pray for you and with you to let you know that that i'm here that somebody's here. Um that I want to be a part of your community um,
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I know that we We don't ever see each other Hardly ever uh, we're on our
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We're doing our own things. We're going to work. We're at home. We have our own responsibilities Uh, but we we do get on facebook
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And I want to let you know that somebody's here that will pray for you and pray with you If you watch this during the week
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And you would like prayer Just type me And uh, the lord knows what it is, uh,
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I don't need to know nobody else needs to know Um But I want to be able to pray for you and pray with you
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So let me know that you're there talk with me And and let me know that you would like prayer and i'll pray for you and with you.
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I'd love to do that So back to deacons Why is it our tradition today to Elect a group of deacons
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And then but not follow the same pattern that we see from scripture and Have a group of come on engineer have a group of elders
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Like we do with deacons, um So one of the answers
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I thought that that some might say um And I'm gonna have to put my coffee aside because it is getting cold um
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Act six Act six two through five
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This is appropriately used I think for deacons But this is this is where we would come to and say well the reason we have multiple deacons is this church is because our our example in scripture comes from acts and they elected or voted upon or chose
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Uh, good morning, uh, good morning, um theresa Uh Good morning, trent.
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Um, if you want to interact um Interact chat with me have to have any questions if you would like for me to pray for you
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I'd love to pray for you. So just let me know that you're there. Let me know that you're watching Uh, so we would go to acts
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And we would say they they elected they chose a group of deacons to um
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And we're we're all in agreement that deacons are to serve Uh, that's their position.
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That's their role That's the meaning of the we're there to serve and they elected chose multiple deacons here in act six two through five um
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It says and the 12th summoned Um The congregation of the disciples and said it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of god in order to serve tables
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But select from among you Hear that language from among you brethren
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Seven men of good reputation full of the spirit and of wisdom Whom we may put in charge of this task
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So this is this is why we we choose multiple deacons and and only one pastor, uh, because this is our example
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We need to look at it in context Who gave the command to the church
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To choose from among them brethren to be deacons who gave them that command
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And Was it one pastor the 12th summoned the congregation
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And said it is not desirable for us To neglect the word of god and in order to serve tables us the 12th so the group
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Of leaders Informed the church To choose another group to serve
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And you say well That was the that was the apostles. That was the apostles.
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They're not pastors. They're not uh, They're not uh, yeah elders. They're not pastors. They were the apostles
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But think about this What were they before they were apostles? They were the disciples, right?
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And after they were the disciples They're known as the apostles
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Are they also known by any other title They are you remember our verse in first peter first peter chapter five
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Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder
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And john in second and third john refers to himself as the elder
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So in that context You have they were disciples. They were apostles and they were also known as as elders
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So these apostles these elders this group of leaders informed the church
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To choose another group to serve so that they did not neglect the word of god
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Which Quickly informs us of what the role of elder in distinction between deacons is
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The role of the elder or pastor Is the word of god leading us in the word of god leading us spiritually that is their role
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So what's the new testament pattern in the church? To have a group of elders group of pastors
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Who lead us in the word of god? all all elders in that group
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Must meet the same qualifications as that one pastor that you would hire from first timothy and titus
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They they all must meet those qualifications And their role is to lead us in the word of god and lead us spiritually
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To inform the church of Um what practices uh from scripture
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They they should lead us in scripture in all things as first peter says they should shepherd us
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According to the will of god which is found in scripture And the role of the deacon
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The role of the deacon is to serve and that's common knowledge. There's no disagreement there.
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However, there's Uh, that doesn't translate into practice a lot of times from my personal experience from what i've seen
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We we elect a group of deacons And and before each election there's usually a sermon that says all right before you choose your deacons
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This is the qualifications and this is their role. Their role is is to serve the church however, once they're elected uh, the church allows
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Them to gather as a group And and lead the church in these decision making the decision making processes which is designated
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For the elder board the group of elders And so once they're elected they take on a role that is not given to them from scripture instead of serving as it as Which is informed in scriptures what their role is
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They take on that role of leading spiritually and making decisions
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Spiritual decisions of the church How do we handle this situation spiritually?
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How do we handle this situation biblically? Those decisions conversations are handled by the deacons
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And we get the roles mixed up If we follow the new testament pattern the elders
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Lead us according to the will of god Lead us in scripture and lead us spiritually and the deacons serve
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That's what the new testament pattern looks like And you may ask Well, well we're baptist or we're this we're that um
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That that's not how we do things And and we've always done it this way. So it's got to be right
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I just wanted to point out to you that that's not always the case just because that's the way we
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We've done them in the recent past That's not always how it's been done.
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Um, there's another book Um And it's called polity which means
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I guess another way to put it would be church politics how we Uh how church, uh leadership should look like is a better way to put it and the
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The rest of it says biblical arguments on how to conduct church life
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Biblical arguments on how to conduct church life. And what is this book? It's a compilation a collection of historic baptist documents from the 1600s 1700s and 1800s
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And in baptist life Baptist had a plurality of elders and they had a a group of deacons
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And didn't practice the one pastor model Not every church
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But it was it was common for baptists to have a plurality of elders at one point
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In the 1600s 1700s and 1800s At some point it changed i'm not familiar with the history of How it changed and why it changed but it was a practice in baptist life that we would have a plurality of elders
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So It makes us think right
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It makes us think We've got new information
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We've got a path to uh to follow the same path or the path that with this new information
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Um Just wanted to hit on one last thing.
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I thought about the the dangers of of having a single pastor um, and there there's
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You know so many things that we could say um On this this subject this issue, um
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Um But just a couple of things mainly two things that I thought about When you think about the the dangers
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Of having just a single pastor And this doesn't come from scripture it's just the repercussions of Not following the biblical model and just having the the one pastor model
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One of the dangers is when you just have one pastor Guess what can happen and you have probably seen it
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In both of these examples that i'm going to give When you when you have just the one pastor model and they
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They don't go in the direction of a certain The way a certain group in the church wants you to go there, there's a lot of churches that have a lot of Family influence and they want the church to go in a certain direction
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And the pastor doesn't go in that direction or the pastor begins to to preach on certain topics that he shouldn't
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Preach on hit certain issues that he shouldn't talk about in that church and so What is the danger?
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The danger is that they are ready to get rid of him and they run him off and they seek for another pastor that Molds to how they want to do things
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Yeah, it has happened. It happens too many times and then on the flip side
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Another danger of having the single pastor model is
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They become the man Everything has to come and go through them
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And they become they become the leader of that church. They become the face of that church and they
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They're they're the man and That is not the biblical model
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The leadership is to be shared when you have the new testament pattern is when you have that plurality of elders
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They are all equal if you are an elder you are one among equals
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There's not one above the other and it it keeps Keeps the humility.
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It keeps the the power from being centered into one person
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Which is a danger when you have the the single single pastor model um
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If if your church is is active on on the internet Uh And you have a presence
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On a website or facebook or or social media where there's places for reviews
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Take a look at your take a look at your church's reviews What do the reviews say
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Are the reviews mainly jesus bible jesus bible jesus bible
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Biblical reasons why this is a wonderful church Or are the reviews
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The pastor the pastor the pastor the pastor the pastor It is it is a very real and present danger
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With the single model that everything revolves around the pastor and the church grows
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And and then the pastor leaves and what happens when the pastor leaves Membership drops dramatically just as it grew dramatically
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And so when we when We I would like Excuse me for the stumbling.
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I would like for You who watch this video Just to take this in and digest it, uh, be like the berean search the scriptures see if these things are true
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And if they're true We should have the conversation We should speak the truth in love and um
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If we have the truth and know the truth, we should not neglect to inform.
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We shouldn't hold it back If if we want to be biblical, um, and and we should not fear and I and I understand the fears of pastors
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We have mortgages We have bills But so we don't want to we don't want to disrupt things and bring up these topics
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But that's on us congregation That's on us The pastor should feel free
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To shepherd the flock among them according to the will of god to bring up these biblical issues and say hey
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This is what we see in scripture We need to have a conversation about it
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We should allow our pastors to be free to do that without fear of losing their job
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Because that is their job To shepherd us to lead us to inform us to move in the biblical pattern
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So congregation church member, please be in prayer about your attitude towards your pastor
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About how your reaction is when he begins to speak on things that Are unfamiliar
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That you're not sure of Give him the freedom to do that Study it
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Test it make sure it's biblical But give him the freedom to do that To lead us biblically according to the will of god
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If you've stuck with me this long, um And you have no idea
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Why this is important um I don't know what your thoughts may be um, and you're not a church member or Maybe you are um
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I want to I want to present the gospel as well
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We all have sinned and fallen short of god's glory james chapter 2 verses 10 says that If if we've kept the whole law against stumble at one point we're guilty of all
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None of us are sinless. None of us are good. No, not one. We've all missed the bark
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And none of us are righteous We cannot obtain salvation We cannot be a part of god's kingdom go to heaven
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On our own in our own goodness or righteousness So We need someone outside of us to step in and god sent his son into this world to don a cross
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For our sins so that all those who would believe in him Would not perish but have everlasting life
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So have you repented of your sins? Turn from your sins apologize from your sins and turn towards christ
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In faith trusting in him to save you And Giving over your life to him in obedience submitting to him
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You know, jesus told the disciples to go you into all the world. Um To preach the good news to to every creature
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Baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you And that's that's part of part of the command
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To obey all that christ has commanded us And the holy spirit will give us those desires
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Once we've been born again, so Please consider that today Repent and trust in christ if you've not done so If you have any questions
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If you want to chat Send me a message write a comment if you would like prayer throughout the week.
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Good morning. Wanda If you like prayer throughout the week, uh, just type me Uh, you don't have to say what it is or or what it's for the lord knows
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Um, we don't want to air it out or gossip. Just type me. I'd love to be able to pray for you
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That's why i'm here, uh to reach out and let you know. Somebody's here That will pray for you
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And I would love to have the privilege of doing that so There it is a tough subject on elders elders in the church
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Something to think about something to study something to have a conversation about um
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Be free in christ To let your pastor shepherd and lead without fear and be open to god's word and The direction that god wants to lead us
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I'm going to go ahead and pray for us as we close and so if you will if you're with me
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Please join me in prayer father. We are so thankful That you've given us this day
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A day to worship you praise you and give you glory And we thank you for for who you are and what you do
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And You're so amazing. You're so wonderful And we're so thankful that you communicated to us and you didn't leave us
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You didn't start the world spinning and and took off but you are You are here.
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You are ever present You are ever in control And we can trust you we can rely on you.
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You are trustworthy. You are faithful You keep all your promises and we worship you and as we've studied before You have the victory you have the victory
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Through christ your son whom you sent who obtained the victory you disabled all enemies
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And we can live in that victory And so father help us to live in that victory I pray for all those who who scroll by and stop by to join me this morning
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Um, I pray that you would bless them and help them and draw them to yourself I pray for pam this morning that you would help her guide her give her wisdom and strength and blessing
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And and whatever and all things and in her life that that she is going through draw her close to yourself
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And father we we pray that you would be exalted honored and glorified in what we do here
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And as we live out our lives in jesus name. Amen I appreciate you watching.