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- Good evening. So this was the first Shepherds Conference I had been to. I had heard about Shepherds Conference for years because I'd been listening to Phil Johnson.
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- And I listened pretty intently last year when the men that had gone to the 2011 Shepherds Conference, and I listened to their testimonies.
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- So I was actually pretty excited because I had years of buildup before my first one. One of the things that was most encouraging to me being there was just being surrounded by godly men that have a passion for the word of God, men that take seriously the charge to be faithful teachers and preachers of the word and proclaimers of the gospel to their congregations and to their families.
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- And this was actually very palpable to me and in stark contrast to the view of scripture that's held by many members of my family and by my former church.
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- So just being around that was very encouraging to me. There was a number of great sessions that really struck me but there were two that really hit home for me.
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- And those were the two of the general sessions that John MacArthur preached on restoring the worship of the
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- Holy Spirit. The first part, which is on Wednesday, the first day, he had a lot of kind of the history of some of the
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- Pentecostal and charismatic movements and some of the ways that the Holy Spirit is being defamed by them, including things like a second apostolic age in the new apostolic reformation, things like that.
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- And unfortunately, all of that stuff is actually something that I've been pretty familiar with because of some of my family members.
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- And so a lot of it was actually kind of review for me and I was glad that he was calling attention to it. And he was passionately confronting these false teachings about the
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- Holy Spirit. And he even went so far to say that some of the members of this holiness movement were attributing the work of Satan to the
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- Holy Spirit. So he was really calling them to task for some of this stuff and for some of the more wacky manifestations that they talk about.
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- And he exhorted us to, that part of the mark of us loving God is that we feel pain when he is defamed.
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- And MacArthur wants to start this new Holy Spirit movement that's really based on what the word says.
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- So that first session was on Wednesday and he didn't finish it until Friday. So there's two days of waiting for what this was.
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- And in that second session, he mostly focused on the last part of Romans eight.
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- And that's part of what a lot of charismatics use with the groanings too deep for words.
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- They point to that and say, that's speaking in tongues. And MacArthur was really trying to focus on what is that passage really talking about?
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- And it's talking about the Holy Spirit's ministry in preserving us and securing us to eternal glory.
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- And just how, if you focus on tongues, that's just totally not what that's about. And so he did an exposition of Romans eight 26 and following.
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- So it was just really great to have him, get us the background of here's the false stuff, but here's what the word really says about the
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- Holy Spirit's ministry. And I remember last year when all the guys are talking about the shepherds conference and oh, 3000 men singing and how just powerful that was.
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- And that was very powerful to me this year, but I think the sound that was more powerful was when
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- MacArthur was preaching this and he was focusing on the ministry of the spirit and preserving us that and living inside of us and interceding for us against our sinful and fallen nature and Christ in heaven interceding for us against any accusations brought against us.
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- And the realization that we have two members of the Trinity whose full -time job in what he was talking about is to preserve us.
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- So we have two full -time intercessors and just the kind of the realization of that, all 3000 men gasped for air.
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- And I think that to me was a starker sound than the worship time.
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- So Eric had asked us to share based on what was most impactful to us, what is our resolve?
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- What are we gonna take away from this? And so there's two things that I wanted to or that I've resolved to do and one, which was the focus of MacArthur's message is,
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- I need to worship the Holy Spirit better in my life to be gratitude or with gratitude and praise for his preserving work in my life.
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- And then the other resolve is with my charismatic friends and family members is to, they pointed this passage a lot and I wanna point them to what the text really says and encourage them to really view the
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- Holy Spirit in a correct way. So that's it.
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- Thank you. Right, for those who were here last year would remember
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- I had drank a few bottles of water up front so I only bought one bottle of water so it will be brief hopefully.
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- It's kind of different when you stand here and you have to give a message versus just doing presentations. I could have gone into how good the food was and how the worship and all those kinds of things but I know that my brothers have done a great job of doing that.
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- Based on what was the one thing that was really profound to me at the Shepherds Conference was a session that was led by basically a chairperson of the
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- Board of Elders which is Chris Hamilton, geez. And Chris basically, the speaker had spoke, the topic that he had spoke about was called to lead, being someone that others can follow.
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- And obviously my first impression was, well, this is gonna be around Timothy or Titus or maybe
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- Hebrews 13 verse 17. However, he went to scripture, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7 and I'm gonna read it to you.
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- Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
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- So with that said, it was interesting because I thought, okay, well, where's he gonna go with this?
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- Imitate their faith, we have an example, Christ and all of these things. So how's he gonna take this and how he's gonna address this?
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- Well, he first off started by giving a definition of what is spiritual leadership. And I'm not gonna go through all of that because I can keep you here for two hours.
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- But being someone that others can follow, he gave five points.
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- He gave, first of all, you need to be able to lead. That sounds kind of reasonable.
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- Speak the word of God. Now that's definitely what I could see a leader do. But then he made a point, live an exemplary life.
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- And he said, that would be the crux and we're gonna spend some time on that. And then he said, keep watch over their souls.
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- And I thought, well, that must be for the elders and the deacons, that's not really applying to me. However, he did quickly put that notion and he corrected that by saying, if you're a father, if you're a deacon, an elder, you have people that's been entrusted to you, be it your family or the congregation, and therefore you're called to lead.
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- And then he also said, serve with joy, was the fifth point. And then one thing he mentioned here is, who you are, are your function.
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- So be it a dad, be it a leader in the church, that is who you are. And if you are men, you are called to lead.
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- So speaking the word of God, how many times do I have? Okay, gotta make it, step it up. Speaking the word of God, it's inseparable.
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- We know we're dealing with sinners and we're gonna have to deal with them on a day -to -day basis. But when we do deal with sinners, if it's conflict or issues or error, what's coming out of our mouths?
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- Is it the word of God? Because that's what should. And one thing that was interesting, he said, if you have kids, this is what was interesting.
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- He said, your kids can do what dad lives or they can do what dad says. Now, we know the world says, your action speaks louder than your words.
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- So we know what our children's gonna follow. What does my life speak of?
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- Exemplary conduct. I mean, here he went into what is it to mean to have an exemplary conduct.
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- But I think to me, the key two points I wanna take away there was, if you're not exemplary in public and in private, you are not qualified.
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- And he was talking about the elders and the deacons, but he was also talking about that. Because he said, you are not qualified if you don't live that life the same.
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- And he said, this is contradictory to what the world is saying. Because the world says how
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- I live in the outside and how people see me, that's what matters. What lives in my private life is private.
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- What he says for Christian is the opposite. We are to live a life of thinking that we are under the magnifying glass all the time because we are.
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- There were six explicit behaviors he went through. And I'm just gonna mention them here. I would love to go through them and maybe I'll get an opportunity to teach a
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- Sunday school class on this because I thought it was really profound. Just a hint, hint. So the behaviors of a leader was that there were six behaviors that he mentioned.
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- And if you have taken a human ethics class here at BBC, you'll notice that it's always context. You gotta go back to where he's reading.
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- If you read Hebrews 13, verse seven, you gotta read Hebrews verse one to six as well. And if you read it tonight,
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- I would encourage you to read that. But go back and find these words, love, compassion, marriage, moral purity, contentment, and courage.
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- And those are the things that you're about to embark on if you're a leader that you have to imitate.
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- And that will be the things that your family will look towards as well as those in the church that look.
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- And I'm gonna lead you with this last word. We are not called to be perfect as leaders, but we have to be exemplary.
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- And the question I wanna leave you all tonight is, are you living a life that is exemplary and reflecting
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- Christ? Don't tell
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- Eric, but I might go over by a minute. But if you're in Sunday school this morning, you realize that Harry did offend me a few months ago, and so he won't mind if I borrow a minute from him.
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- 2 Timothy 2 .2, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
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- These words represent final instruction from the faithful Pastor Paul to his beloved student
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- Timothy. And they are words of life for proper church leadership today. Faithful men training men who want to be faithful.
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- Kind of like what happens here at our church. At the Shepherd's Conference nearly six weeks ago now,
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- I had the privilege of attending Jerry Ragg's seminar entitled Exemplary Spiritual Leadership.
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- It was an exhortation for the attending pastors and lay leaders to ensure that future leaders are always being trained so that there is never a void in godly leadership in the local body.
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- The bride of Christ must be protected and nurtured so that error never will be tolerated.
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- So this seminar focused on training men to come alongside to help with the burdens of ministry.
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- Paul says in Acts 20 to the Ephesian elders exhorting them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how
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- I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the
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- Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly.
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- For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for the flock among which the
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- Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his blood, his own blood.
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- I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
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- And from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.
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- Therefore, be on the alert. Exemplary spiritual leadership requires the trainer, the pastor to be available and as Jerry Rags said, inconveniently available, compassionate and as he said, with flesh defying compassion and sacrificial, literally the death of self.
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- Interestingly, no one is excluded from this training in his church, you have to be a man. But at Jerry Rags church, the training lasts for two years and meets every week.
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- He's now in the midst of his six two year training program and he hasn't stopped the training classes regardless of whether or not he has satisfied the leadership needs in his own church.
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- I'm trying to skip. It's just like if we apply that principle in terms of sharing our faith, in terms of discipling someone, we don't know what
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- God has in store for that person. Likewise, Jerry Rag could very well be raising up future pastors and church leaders who may take their talented learned skills and faithful service and commitment to other churches.
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- An important reminder is that these training efforts don't come without disappointments. He mentioned a few, he said after working with a man for five years, the man denounced his faith and began a homosexual lifestyle.
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- Another man who he had known and worked with for 15 years as a fellow pastor exposed himself as a fraud in the faith and bowed out of the ministry.
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- And he's been the focus of many lawsuits. Let's not be naive. These types of disappointments just don't happen to other pastors and other churches.
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- We here at Bethlehem Bible Church have experienced the same sorts of disappointments with people who have turned on the leaders here and worse attempted to shipwreck this bride of Christ.
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- So what kind of non -negotiable qualities is he looking for? And maybe we should be looking for?
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- The person must be reliable and faithful in the little things. Must be willing to accept and acknowledge failure.
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- He must be comfortable around other gifted men, maybe more gifted than yourself. He must be aware of personal limitations.
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- He must be solution not problem focused, enthusiastic and optimistic, enjoying serving people and trusted by one's friends.
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- And likewise, the leader must be patient with the immature and long suffering.
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- Jerry said you keep preparing each weekly meeting for each weekly meeting regardless if no one shows up and he said he's experienced that.
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- You can't be numbers driven. One man is truly enough. The leader must have doctrinal convictions that are derived from scripture.
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- The leader must have a consistent philosophy of ministry, courageous in times of conflict, patient with the process and alert in prayer.
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- So what did this seminar mean to me and what do I resolve to work on and change? Well, I need to be aware that my life is often out of balance, that my faith and commitment are sometimes lacking and that sometimes
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- I fail mightily as a leader in my own household and I need to make some changes. You see, seven people in my household are counting on me.
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- They're counting on me to be the provider, the protector and the spiritual leader that exemplifies the qualities
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- I just stated. I need to be a better example because that's what I want my boys to be also.
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- And because of that, I need to be inconveniently available with flesh defying compassion and death of self sacrifice.
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- Those are the things that I need to work on. I do also want to thank the guys that I had the pleasure of spending six days with.
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- They may not realize it, but they were a great encouragement to me in terms of their seriousness, dedication and conviction of their faith.
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- It was also a great blessing to room with and spend time with my dad. It felt like being a kid again.