An Exhortation to the Elders

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We have quite a bit of sermon today, quite a bit, I'd like to say on the subject that we're going to be dealing with.
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And the title of the message is an exhortation to the elders.
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This being the morning that we as a church have a privilege to ordain to the gospel ministry, one of our own members, I wanted to speak on this particular subject.
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This is a blessing, and I hope that we all understand that this blessing applies not only to the recipient of the ordination, but also to the church that is recognizing God's call on an individual to ministry.
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We all share in this recognition, having affirmed our belief that this person is qualified.
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We now stand together as witnesses to the laying on of hands by the elders and to the public proclamation of ordination.
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And as we begin this morning, we need to remember an important truth, that when we recognize a person's call to the office of elder, we are recognizing a call to the very gospel ministry itself.
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As I have said on many occasions, the position of pastor and the position of elder are equal from a scriptural viewpoint.
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I, as the senior pastor, am equal with my fellow elders in the scope of authority and the position that God has placed us in.
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Yes, we are all gifted differently.
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God has just happened to gift me with the ability of exposition and preaching.
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However, all of our elders share different gifts that we all bring together in the leadership of this church.
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And we share together the role of the pastorate and we share that together in service as it is prescribed in Holy Scripture.
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The Bible always talks about the elders of this church and the elders of that church.
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And the reason why I bring this up again is the importance of the position of which we are ordaining this morning.
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It is an ordination to gospel ministry.
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In fact, I went and made sure that the same certificate that I received was the same one that I got when I purchased it for Byron, because I wanted that to sort of continue on to show this is the ordination to gospel ministry.
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Now, I point that out again because I want to reiterate the weight of the calling with which we are recognizing this morning.
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And because of this, I want to give an exposition this morning on a passage of Scripture that speaks directly to the responsibility of the elders, the pastors of the church.
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And this exposition is not for Byron's benefit alone, even though it's somewhat for his benefit.
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It's for all of our benefit because we all have the responsibility to understand what God expects from our elders.
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And likewise, we have a responsibility to understand what God expects from us in regard to the elders.
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So as we look to Scripture for words of instruction on this special occasion, it is in the small epistle of 1 Peter that I want us to focus our attention.
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So please stand with me as we give attention to God's word.
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1 Peter 5 verses 1 through 5.
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Peter is writing, So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.
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Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.
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Not for shameful gain, but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
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And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
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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.
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Our Father and our God, as we examine this text of Scripture this morning, I pray that you would empower me with your spirit, that you would keep me from error, that you would open the hearts of the people to understand better your word.
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And that in all that we do and say, your truth will be proclaimed and your name glorified in this church.
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We pray this in Jesus name, O Lord.
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Amen.
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My Sunday school class, we have been doing a course on how to study the Bible.
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We have been doing a very low level type of what we would call hermeneutics or the method in which we use to interpret Scripture.
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And one of the things that we had pointed out early on is that when we approach any passage of Scripture, that we must understand it within its context.
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And since our passage this morning comes to us at the end of the epistle of first Peter, I want to simply start by giving an overarching context of the book of first Peter.
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Peter wrote the first epistle to believing Jews who had been scattered from Jerusalem all throughout Asia Minor.
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Many of them had been abused and were being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ.
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This persecution climaxed with Rome determined to rid the empire of those who, because of their allegiance to Christ, refused to bow the knee to Caesar.
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So Rome was determined to rid itself of this upstart called Christianity.
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Peter was no stranger to persecution.
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He had already experienced beatings.
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He had already experienced imprisonment for his faith.
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But because he had seen the risen Lord, as I mentioned in our communion time this morning, because he had a belief in the risen Lord whom he had seen with his own eyes, he had a confidence that his present sufferings were nothing to be compared to the glory that he was going to be revealed in the end.
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So in this letter, Peter's goal was an attempt to encourage his readers to have that same level of confidence that though you are going to face trials, though you are going to face persecution, be confident in the risen Lord.
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And the first portion of the book, Peter deals with the need of believers to live holy lives.
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He then moves on to how a believer should live during difficult times.
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He then outlines how believers should deal with persecution.
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He said you should expect persecution.
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He said you should be thankful for the privilege of suffering for Christ.
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How many of us have ever done that? Be thankful for the privilege of suffering for Christ.
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And you ought to trust God that in the end he will ensure that it all works for his glory and for your deliverance and for your good.
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That's where we are when we get to the end of chapter four.
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Then we come to chapter five.
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Peter has been dealing with how we are to adjust to persecution as we face it.
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And he then follows with a word of exhortation to the leadership of the church, the elders.
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That makes sense if you think about it in context, because really the elders, the leaders of the church are the ones who are the daily encouragers of the people.
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Their job is to be there as shepherds, to encourage the people, particularly in times of great distress.
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So as he ends this portion about persecution, he begins there with an encouragement to those men who are on the front lines of ministry.
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And that's why in chapter five he begins with, so I exhort the elders among you.
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He's focusing and refocusing his attention here on the elders.
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And this morning I want to look at five points from these five texts.
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And yes, I alliterated them.
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And if you want to write them down, this is they all start with the letter C.
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We are going to look at the credentials, the charge, the crown, the command and the citation.
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So let's begin by looking at the credentials.
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Verse one, Peter writes, so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.
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One of the most interesting things that I find about this portion of the passage is that the person who is writing is Peter himself, that among Christians there is scarcely an individual who needs less of an introduction than Peter.
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When you imagine that among Christians, I mean, who, you know, maybe Paul would need maybe a little less of an introduction.
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But even him, Paul didn't come on until after Jesus had already died and been resurrected.
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Peter is Peter.
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I mean, really, do you need an explanation of whom he of who he is? This is Peter.
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This is the guy who saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
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This is Peter.
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This is the guy who walked on water, albeit for only a moment.
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But he did it.
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This is Peter.
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This is a guy who, with Jesus, every year, every day of the three year ministry, had walked with him.
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This is Peter.
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This is the man who rejected him in a moment of weakness, yet Jesus came back to him and restored him.
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This is Peter.
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Why do we need a credential? Why does he have to explain who he is? Well, the reason why I think and I believe and I think the passage bears this out.
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The reason why is because Peter is here identifying himself differently than is what is usually his identification.
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We normally identify Peter as the Apostle Peter, but here he is identifying himself as Peter the Elder.
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And that's different.
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And it's making a statement of his position within the local church.
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He calls himself, he says, I exhort the elders among you as a sumputeros.
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Whoa, that's a weird word, sumputeros.
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It is what we know the word presbyteros, right? We remember when we went through that long series on what elders are supposed to do.
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What is the word presbyteros? It's where the word Presbyterian comes from.
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It means overseer, elder, one who leads.
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Right.
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Well, when he says here, some presbyteros, that word sum, the prefix there means it's co or together.
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It means he is a co-elder.
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He is a fellow elder.
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He is one who works alongside the other elders in the church.
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He is, as I said earlier, he is an equal with the other elders.
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And somebody say, now, wait a minute.
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Peter is hardly an equal with the elders.
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I mean, come on.
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Peter is Peter.
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He's the apostle.
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But but at the same time, he does not stress his apostolic position in this passage.
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Instead, he stresses his position as elder.
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And this provides an important understanding for us, for the importance of the role.
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It is not a position that is to be taken lightly.
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It is the position that Peter defined as being his very own among the churches.
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This is why when the Apostle Paul describes eldership, he said, if anyone aspires.
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To the office of elder, to the office of bishop, the office of overseer, it's all the same, it's all the same.
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If anyone aspires to this position, he just he aspires to a noble task.
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Consider the position as one that even Peter said among the churches he took part in.
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And again, it amazes me that he would call himself elder.
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Because, again, he is aligning himself with that position of leadership within the church.
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Now, after Peter describes himself in the position of being an elder.
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And describes the blessings of both being a witness of Christ's sufferings and a participant in the glory that is coming, he moves on to the charge.
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Now, the charge I have starting in verse two, we see him give from verses two and three.
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He gives four commands to his fellow elders, four charges that they ought never forget if they are in this position of elder.
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The first charge is that they realize they are tending God's flock, not their own.
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Look at the first part of chapter five, verse two.
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He says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you.
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Beloved, the word, the key word in that sentence is the word of God.
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When a person is called to the office of elder, he is being called to the position of being.
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Or the position of watch care over the very people whom God has chosen and whom Christ has died for.
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The congregation of the faithful is God's congregation, they are God's flock, you are God's people.
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And when an elder is is called, he must understand the value of whom he has been placed over as a steward.
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When an elder oversees the flock, he cannot make decisions independently of God's commands.
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Hear that again, an elder cannot make decisions independently of God's commands.
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This is God's flock.
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This is God's church.
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This is God's word.
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The elder has a responsibility to remember that, to remember that he is shepherding the flock of God.
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There is a passage in Scripture that calls the elders stewards.
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What does that word steward mean? We normally use it when we talk about finances.
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We talk about stewardship, right? The ministry of stewardship usually involves something to do with our money.
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Because we say that God has given us a certain amount of money with which we are to be stewards over.
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We are to watch over it.
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We are to manage it.
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That's what the word steward means.
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It means to manage it and that we are to manage it in such a way that it would glorify him.
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And that means giving a portion back to his service and using the rest of it in such a way that even our activities glorify the Lord.
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We talk about being stewards.
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Well, that very same word is used for the elder.
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The Bible says the elder is the steward.
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Of God's people.
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The steward, meaning that we are not to simply manage it any old way that we want to.
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But we are to manage it in accordance with the word of God.
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We are simply doing the commands of God and we are simply seeing that the commands of God be met.
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The elder is entrusted with the leadership of God's people and they are responsible to seek out God's will and never superimpose their own.
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This is God's church.
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Another key word that we should look at in that passage, it says in verse two, it says shepherd the flock of God that is among you.
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That word shepherd is so important.
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In fact, that word shepherd would have had very important significance with the apostle Peter, because I don't know how many of you remember when Peter rejected Christ.
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How many times did Peter reject Christ? Three times.
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How many times did Jesus ask for his repentance? Three times.
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That's an important correlation there.
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A lot of people miss that when Jesus met him there on the shore of the sea and Peter came to him and Peter was sitting there with Jesus, Jesus looked at him and said, Simon, Peter, do you love me? And he says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
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He says, feed my lambs.
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And then he said again, he said, Simon, Peter, do you love me? And Peter said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
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And he says, tend my sheep.
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You know, that word tend is the exact same word that Peter here uses when he says elders are to shepherd the flock of God.
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He was repeating the command of Christ to him to shepherd the flock.
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It's the same word.
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It's the same language.
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Has the same meaning.
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The elders have the responsibility to shepherd.
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That means what does a shepherd do? A shepherd feeds the sheep.
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A shepherd leads and guides the sheep.
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The shepherd protects the sheep.
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The staff has a twofold purpose.
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What does the staff do? It keeps the sheep in line.
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It also keeps the wolves at bay.
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And the elder carries the sword of the word of God to do the very same thing.
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We teach from the word.
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And I know many of you have told me, Pastor, every time you preach, you step on my toes.
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That's good.
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That's good.
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I step on my own toes when I'm writing a sermon.
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Might as well give you some, too.
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Truth of the matter is, though, that's the job of the elder to lead, to feed and to protect.
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So when Peter is told by Christ, tend my sheep, and then he turns around and reiterates this to the elder, he says, he says, shepherd my flock.
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That's the command that he's being given.
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So the first command elders should never forget that the flock that they have been entrusted with is God's flock.
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The second thing they need to never forget is that they lead out of eagerness to serve, not out of obligation.
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Look again with me at verse two.
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He said, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not out of compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.
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A person who is called to the office of elder should never accept it out of compulsion or obligation.
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They should never accept it because there's a hole that needs to be filled.
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No, the reason why we are called to the office of elder is because we have a desire for the Word of God, a devotion to the Word of God.
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And God has put a desire in our heart to teach and to lead by the Word of God.
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In fact, in Paul's letter to Timothy, eldership is a position that the person is supposed to seek, but it's not something that we seek because we want a position of authority or because we want our voices heard or because we want to be able to stand up among the other elders and have our way.
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Rather, the reason why we seek it is because we desire to do a noble task for God.
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That's what he says.
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If anyone seeks the office of elder, he is desiring a noble task, a beautiful task.
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In fact, the same word that's used here when it says not under compulsion, it's the same language that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 9, 7.
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I know you're all familiar with that verse.
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When Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, 7, each one of you must give as he has decided in his heart, not under compulsion, but what? With a cheerful heart.
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That same way is the way the elder is supposed to serve.
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Not under compulsion, but out of a desire to serve.
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And it's the same language used there.
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The elder should never forget that the flock that he is shepherding is God's flock.
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The elder should never serve out of obligation, but out of a desire to serve God.
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Number three, an elder should be concerned with what he can give, not for what he can get.
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Look at the verse three.
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I'm sorry, we're still in verse two.
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It says, not for shameful gain, but eagerly.
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Beloved, an elder is not to be a greedy person.
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As such, their service should never be done with a desire to extort the congregation.
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Now, that does not mean that an elder cannot receive a salary, because the Bible clearly says that those whose living is made with the Word, that that is their vocation, that the church is rightfully to give them a salary.
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And that's a biblical truth.
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However, at the same time, we all know that there are those people out there who call themselves pastors and preachers, whose one goal and one goal only is to fleece the flock.
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We watch them on television.
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We see them spending all their time talking about how much the church can give so that they can live in the lap of luxury.
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And direct contradiction to this passage, which says that eldership is never to be done for shameful gain, the NASS sordid gain.
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I once saw a preacher.
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He wasn't a preacher, but he was at one time known as being a preacher.
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But now he had come out and said that he was a con artist.
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One of the things that he said he would do was that he had a radio show.
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He said it went out to about 100,000 people in a tri-state area.
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And he said, and every once in a while on the radio show, about once a week, he would say, now, right now, there's a woman who has ten dollars in a cookie jar.
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And if she would just sow the seed of that ten dollars to my ministry, God is going to increase it tenfold.
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Now, he said that and later he said this in actually admitting what he was doing.
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He said, I was just playing the odds.
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He said, most likely out of the 100,000 people that are listening to me, there might be 100 people out there that have a cookie jar with ten dollars in it.
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And likely out of that hundred people, I might could get 50 of them to think that I was talking to them directly and they would take that ten dollars and send it to me.
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And just for making a 20 second statement, I made five hundred dollars.
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But you see, he's not alone.
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He's just one of the few that actually admitted it.
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As an elder, we have a great responsibility to make sure that what we are doing is not to encourage our own egos and not to line our own pocketbooks.
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The fourth in the charges is that they lead by example and not by force.
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Look at verse three, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
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Beloved elders are leaders in the church.
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That is their job, but they are not supposed to lead by force, but to lead primarily by example from wisdom gleaned from the word.
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The word domineering here in the simplest way to put it, it means to lord over.
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And no elder is to lord over the people of God as if he is sort of a religious despot.
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We've seen that, too.
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We've seen entire religious cults been based in the personality of singular individuals who have risen up and called themselves preachers and pastors of God, have led people into great destruction.
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Yet the Bible declares that the elders leadership is to be one that is a leadership of example.
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Primarily, he is to lead as the Bible assigns.
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And he has he has been given prerogative to make decisions in the church.
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We know that from Scripture.
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But that is a far cry from being the lord of the church.
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Christ is the lord of the church.
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And any authority at all that the elder exercises is authority that the lord has given.
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It is not authority on his own prerogative.
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A domineering elder is one who has lost sense of who is really in charge.
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Because the one who is really in charge is Christ.
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So we see the credentials.
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Paul Peter says, I'm writing to you as a fellow elder.
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I exhort you as a fellow elder, one who shares the office.
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I give you this charge and the charge is simple.
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Be concerned for God's flock and know whose flock it is.
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Desire to serve it.
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Never use God's people for profit and always seek to be an example to them and leadership.
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And then he says in verse four, he talks about the crown.
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He says, and when the chief shepherd comes, who is the chief shepherd? Jesus Christ.
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That word chief shepherd.
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That is an important phrase, because here he's making a distinction between the role of the elder and the role of Christ.
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He's saying, look, you are you have been committed as the steward of God's people.
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But remember, there's a chief shepherd.
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There's somebody who is over all and particularly over you.
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Remember that the chief shepherd is there and he's coming.
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And when he comes, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
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Now, I don't want to go into the crown discussion because there's an entire set of doctrines and things that people talk about when you talk about the rewards in heaven and different crowns, meaning different things.
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And some people look at this word and this crown and they say this is a crown that's specifically laid aside for men who have served in the position of elder and pastor, that this is a particular crown for them.
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Others say this is just a this is just speaking of the crown of life that all believers will receive.
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I really don't want to go into that right now.
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I think that that discussion is better left for another time.
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The point I want to point out is who's coming to give it.
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The chief shepherd is coming.
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The chief shepherd is the one who is going to evaluate our work, just like that steward.
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You remember the story of the stewards when the man went away to a far country and he left three in charge of his estate? He said, here's some here's some money for you to use.
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Here's some money for you to use.
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Here's some money for you to use.
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And he came back and the first one had increased.
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And he said, because you have increased much, you'll be given much more.
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The next one had increased.
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And he says, because you've increased, you'll be given more.
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And the third one had buried it in the ground.
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He says, why did you do that? He said, because I knew you were a harsh man.
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Which, again, speaks to what he felt about the character of the master.
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If you ever think about that parable, the third one didn't think much of the character of the man he was serving.
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I think about that, about the elder.
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What do you think about the God you serve? Where's that desire coming from? Do you just think he's a relentless task master? Or is he a loving God who has called you to his service? But anyway, that third steward, he said what? He said, I was afraid.
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I just hit it in the ground.
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And he says, he says, you wicked servant, wicked servant.
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You could have at least put the money in the bank and it would have drew interest.
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You didn't even do that.
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The point of the matter is we will all be evaluated.
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And I think sometimes we forget, you know, we get upset sometimes.
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And I think sometimes we forget the great charge that the elders have been charged with.
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The Bible says it is not good that all desire to be teachers.
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Because teachers will be held to a higher standard.
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Beloved, if God has called you to the gospel ministry, if you're here today and God is calling you to the gospel ministry, read that verse over and over.
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That kept me out of the ministry for a while because it scared me.
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What does it mean? Because we have been charged to watch over God's people.
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That's important.
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And I think we forget that.
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The fourth thing I want to point out is the command.
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We've looked at the credentials, the charge, the crown.
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Now, let's look at the command.
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Verse five, he says, likewise, you who are you who are younger be subject to the elders.
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Now, that might seem kind of confusing.
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And there may be some of you want to debate this.
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But just let me just hear me out on this, because eldership does not have to do with a specific age.
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In fact, what did Paul say to Timothy? Don't let them despise your youth.
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I used to have that verse written down.
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Started ministry, senior minister, 26 years old.
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That's that's pretty young.
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And I used to write that verse.
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Don't let them despise your youth.
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It's easy.
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It's easy.
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I know some of you have a very difficult time sometimes considering the fact that you have shoes older than me.
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But that's that's fine.
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You know, the point of the matter is, though, the general.
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The general thing for an elder is that we see an older person in this position.
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Very, very infrequently do we see a teenage pastor.
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And even less, you know, I mean, even maybe a little bit more frequently, but you rarely see someone in their early 20s and the pastor, you know, it happens.
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But the maturity that is the call to eldership usually denotes elder.
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And that's what we think of elder.
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Elder is older.
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Right.
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So here, when he talks about the younger, he says, likewise, you are younger, be subject to your elders.
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I don't think that he's necessarily denoting specifically the age in context, a context.
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Rather, I think the phrase is not only people who are younger than the elder, as if somebody who's 31 and older doesn't have to listen to what I'm saying because they're not younger than me.
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I think what is being said here is that the normative situation in the church is that the elders are the older men.
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And generally, when you speak to the congregation, you're speaking to those who are younger.
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However, whether older or younger, the congregation does have the scriptural responsibility to be subject to the leadership of the elders.
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Whether or not older, younger, it doesn't matter.
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The Bible says in Hebrews 13, 17, and write this down, if you if you've never read this verse, if you don't know this verse and you have a question about whether or not the elders ought to have leadership in the church, think of this verse.
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The Bible says in Hebrews 13, 17, it says, obey your leaders and submit unto them.
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For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.
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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
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Says obey and submit because these men who are called to this position are called to the position of caring for you.
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And it ought not be a position where they have to groan to care for you.
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They shouldn't have to.
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It shouldn't be work.
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To care.
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Some people make it work, though.
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Some people make it tough.
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And that's what this is, as much as the elder is called to shepherd correctly.
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The congregation is called to follow correctly and say that again, as much as the elder is called to shepherd correctly, the flock is called to follow correctly because these men have been called by God to this position to lead.
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Now, let's look finally at verse five, be the last part of verse five.
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I know you don't have A's and B's in your Bible, but I put them in my notes.
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The last part of that verse.
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Clothe yourselves, all of you with humility toward one another.
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For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and I added this as the citation I put this, I added this, I was I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go on into this.
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As I looked at the context, I said, here is what Paul is or Peter is doing here.
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He is summing up the entire situation.
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He is citing a proverb that to him is bringing all of what he has just said.
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To a point.
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He's saying in all things that we do.
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We are to behave humbly.
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The elders should behave humbly as they lead.
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They should be humble leaders.
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The congregation should behave humbly.
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They should submit in humility and in doing so, God will honor our congregation with his blessing.
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The problem that is most prevalent and dangerous in the church today, it is the greatest sin of mankind.
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It causes wars.
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It causes battles.
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It causes strife between even friends.
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It's the sin of pride.
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It is what caused the very first sin.
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When Satan approached Eve, Eve said, no, we are not to eat of the tree for we are not to eat or even touch of it or we will die.
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And the serpent said, you shall not surely die.
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But God knows that when you eat of it, you will be made to be like him.
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And what did Eve want more than anything else in the world? A promotion.
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And that's what Adam wanted.
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They weren't satisfied with what God had called them to.
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They wanted to be God himself.
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Beloved, that sin continues to be our undoing.
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The sin of pride.
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Pride keeps us from hearing one another.
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It keeps us from submitting to one another.
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It can keep a young person from hearing an old person and an old person from hearing a young person.
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It can keep a man from hearing a woman and a woman from hearing a man.
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It can keep the congregation from hearing their pastors.
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And the pastors from hearing their congregation.
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Pride is the most devastating sin that has affected mankind.
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and particularly God's church, which is why Peter tells us, elders, I exhort you, shepherd the flock of God, and congregation, submit to your leadership and do it all in humility.
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Beloved, as we have our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I pray that the goal, the desire of our heart would be humility in our actions to one another.
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Let's pray for that today.
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Our Father and our God, we come to You in Jesus' name.
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We thank You and praise You for Your Word.
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And we ask now that as we consider the truth of the Word and those things that we have been taught by it today, that You would remind us of our need to humble ourselves.
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I pray, O Lord, for our elders.
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I pray for the one for whom we are about to ordain.
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And I pray for the congregation that we as a church would recognize Your model for ministry and that we would humbly seek to follow after that model.
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We love You.
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We praise You.
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We thank You, O Lord.
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In Jesus' precious name.
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Beloved, we are now going to have a time for introspection.
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And if you do have a need for prayer, we're going to give you a moment to come.
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Following that, we will have our ordination service.
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Stand with us as we sing.