-
I've had some neat
opportunities in my life
-
to preach in some different places,
-
different countries,
-
different venues.
-
I regard getting to be here
-
for the weekend as perhaps
-
the highest honor of my life
-
to get to participate and have this pulpit
-
to proclaim God's Word to a church
-
that has been so massively influential
-
in my life.
-
And so I thank God deeply
-
for the privilege of getting to open
-
God's Word to you this morning.
-
And I thank you specifically Garrett,
-
for giving me this opportunity.
-
I hope it won't be one that you regret.
-
And you'll know whether it is
-
in just a short hour.
-
Yesterday, I found myself "amen-ing"
-
the faithfulness of Charles and Dick;
-
that God had given grace to them
-
to keep them faithful all of these years,
-
and I found myself filled with tears.
-
I have a 13 year old daughter,
-
so she kept giving that embarrassed look,
-
like would you stop
gulping back those sobs?
-
But I've pastored the church I pastor now
-
for twelve years,
-
so I've gone a quarter of the distance
-
of these men.
-
And I suspect that the next three legs,
-
the next three decades
-
are harder, not easier.
-
And when I just amass and think
-
about all the difficulties
-
that a person goes through
in the course of a year,
-
just to keep preaching the Word
-
and keep loving the people,
-
it just gives me tremendous
-
respect and love for Charles and Dick.
-
Where is Dick this morning?
-
I want to be able to look at him.
-
There you are.
-
I have the privilege of having served -
-
I have a number of co-pastors,
-
but I have the privilege of serving
-
beside one co-pastor in particular,
-
Jeff King, who is one
of my dearest friends
-
on the planet
-
who is the opposite of me in every way.
-
And Steve Welch, who's a friend
-
of this congregation says that
-
he looks like Dick.
-
I don't look like Charles,
-
but that's where the similarities end.
-
And I know what it takes to put up with me
-
in the course of a week or a year.
-
I think if he were here would say
-
he knows what it takes to put up with him.
-
It's a miracle when
people can stay friends
-
and stay side-by-side in the ministry,
-
and when Mack Tomlinson got up yesterday
-
and said: think about church history.
-
How many have labored side by side
-
for forty years.
-
And I'm not expert in church history,
-
but I kind of thought -
-
my first initial reaction was, well Mack,
-
that's easy - there must be a lot.
-
And then I couldn't think of any.
-
And so, no small task.
-
And you ought to pray fervently
-
and in an informed way
-
for the four men who are graced
-
to be your elders,
-
that the Lord would give them
-
a supernatural unity.
-
I have the privilege of laboring aside
-
some very faithful brothers,
-
but I know that unity among the pastors -
-
even pastors as like-minded
-
and as godly as the ones
I serve alongside of -
-
it takes work.
-
Nothing short of work.
-
I have spent way more time in Denny's
-
than I ever wanted to working
-
to keep that unity at times.
-
And it's a miracle that it's kept.
-
I was delighted to be here yesterday
-
just because what you did yesterday
-
for your pastors was right.
-
It was just right at so many levels.
-
We're to respect those who labor among us
-
and are over us in the Lord
-
and admonish us and esteem them
-
very highly because of their work.
-
And people are afraid of doing
things like you did yesterday
-
because it might make the pastor proud.
-
And I'm not denying that
there are proud pastors,
-
but I'll be honest with you,
-
I think the general tendency of pastors
-
is not to be proud,
-
but to be discouraged.
-
Most of the pastors I meet
-
are mildly to severely depressed
-
about who they are.
-
And so for them to get a season
-
where they get to hear what God's grace
-
is doing in their life,
-
it is a sweet, sweet thing.
-
Don't make it every Sunday.
-
You'll spoil them,
-
but it can be a really great treat,
-
say, every forty years or so.
-
The gift I want to give you
-
this morning is a text.
-
And it's a text that I believe
-
that if it's heard and obeyed,
-
will give, I hope, another forty years
-
of tremendous blessing to the church.
-
Dick and Charles are probably not hoping
-
for another forty years,
-
so I'm talking about even beyond them.
-
I'm hoping that this passage
-
that I'm going to share with you
-
becomes a catalyst;
-
becomes a spur;
-
becomes an encouragement
-
that sets a culture
-
where the pastors of Lake Road Chapel
-
are full of joy,
-
and where the people of Lake Road Chapel
-
are benefiting from them
-
and profiting from them
-
for a very, very long time.
-
And then I'm aware that whenever I
speak at Lake Road Chapel,
-
that James Jennings is going to make sure
-
it goes all over the planet.
-
So let me just say it's my hope
-
that this message, this verse,
-
would be used by God
-
to fill more and more
pastor's lives with joy,
-
and to see more and more people
-
profiting, taking advantage of,
-
reaping a harvest from their pastors.
-
Would you open your
Bibles to Hebrews 13:17?
-
Hebrews 13:17
-
Like most of you,
-
I knew nothing about what
was going to unfold yesterday.
-
I just got the emails that promised me
-
I wouldn't get any more emails.
-
And so I had no idea this was going to be
-
a theme verse yesterday.
-
But I think it's a good verse
-
for an occasion like this.
-
It comes in the book of Hebrews.
-
It comes in the last chapter,
-
which is the chapter that covers
-
all kinds of exhortations
-
from not being covetous,
-
to not letting your
marriage bed by defiled,
-
to remembering past leaders,
-
and in the midst of all these
-
various exhortations in
the book of Hebrews,
-
the author to the book of Hebrews
-
says these words,
-
"Obey your leaders and submit to them,
-
for they are keeping watch over your souls
-
as those who will have to give an account.
-
Let them do this with joy
-
and not with groaning,
-
for that would be of no advantage to you."
-
Let's pray.
-
Father, we want to ask
You that this one verse
-
would be impressed;
-
would be branded;
-
would be tattooed;
-
would be glued to the very fabric
-
of our souls, Lord God.
-
That You'd shed light on this Word
-
so that it sticks with us through life
-
and Lord, that even
pastors who are not here
-
this morning, but who may pastor
-
Lake Road in the future,
-
or maybe children in this very room
-
who may grow up to be some
of the future shepherds,
-
that they would inherit a culture
-
of joyful pastoring.
-
And Lord God, we pray for Charles and Dick
-
that the gift that they receive
from this congregation would not be
-
a special day once every few decades,
-
but a joyful congregation to pastor.
-
We pray, Lord God, that You would create
-
in Charles and in Dick
-
and in Garrett and in Mason
-
the kind of ministry that would be
-
tremendously profitable -
-
eternally profitable
-
to Your people knowing Jesus.
-
I pray this in Christ's name,
-
Amen.
-
If you were going to give
this sermon a name,
-
you could call it:
-
"How To Get the Most Out of Your Pastors."
-
If you were going to give it
a cynical name, you could call it:
-
"How to Take Advantage of Them."
-
And I say that because the word advantage
-
is right there in the text.
-
The whole idea is that the writer
-
of the book of Hebrews wants you -
-
each one of you individually -
-
to get some advantage;
-
to get some - the NASB translates it
-
some profit, from the men
-
who God places over His church.
-
So it says, "obey your leaders
-
and submit to them,
-
for they are keeping watch over your souls
-
as those who will have
to give an account.
-
Let them do this with joy
and not with groaning,
-
for that would be of no advantage to you."
-
And so the very simple idea
-
pulsing at the core of this passage
-
is that when pastors are finding joy
-
in their congregations;
-
when their joy is maintained
-
and they are strengthened
-
by the joy of the Lord,
-
then the congregation is benefited.
-
They are given a tremendous
-
and eternal advantage.
-
Sometimes we come at this
from the pastor's end.
-
We remember the verse that says,
-
"watch your life and
your doctrine carefully,
-
by so doing, you will save
-
both yourselves and your hearers."
-
That passage says, hey, pastor,
-
you watch yourself,
-
and then you'll be of eternal advantage
-
to your people.
-
This passage comes at
it from another angle
-
and says, hey, congregation;
-
hey, sheep;
-
hey, people of God,
-
watch your pastors.
-
Watch your attitude towards them
-
and your actions towards them,
-
so that they may be filled with joy.
-
If you do that, it will benefit you.
-
It will help you
-
if they are full of joy.
-
And this passage is not like some passages
-
in the Bible.
-
Some passages in the Bible are
-
very hard to understand.
-
You know, like when the Gospel was
-
preached to those
who were dead in 1 Peter.
-
You kind of scratch your head.
-
Or when it speaks of baptism for the dead
-
in 1 Corinthians 15.
-
I think I read recently there's
-
something like 52 possible interpretations
-
of that passage.
-
I understand that passage,
-
but there are 51 other people who don't.
-
And so it's a difficult
situation sometimes.
-
This passage isn't like that though.
-
It's easy to understand.
-
It's just hard to hear.
-
It's got that four-letter word in it
-
that our culture loves so much:
-
obey.
-
"Obey your leaders
-
and submit to them,
-
for they are keeping watch over
-
your souls as those..."
-
That's easy to understand.
-
It means submit yourself to;
-
obey your leaders.
-
And come up under them.
-
So that's not hard to figure out.
-
We don't really need a massive
-
Bible commentary lesson this morning
-
on exactly what this means.
-
It's abundantly plain what this means.
-
What's difficult though is doing it.
-
And not just doing it,
-
but loving it.
-
And it's hard for many in our day
-
to value a call to obedience,
-
but if we're honest,
-
it's even often hard
for a mature Christian
-
to value obeying their pastors.
-
One of my co-pastors says
-
everybody loves being elder-led
-
until they don't.
-
There's a sense in which everybody loves
-
this idea of good, strong leadership
-
in the church.
-
We need strong leadership in the church,
-
until the leadership gets
all up in your business.
-
And then somebody else
needs strong leadership.
-
That leadership needs leadership.
-
And yet the passage tells us
-
that we are to obey our leaders -
-
the leaders of our local congregation,
-
and submit to them.
-
And I want to begin by just giving you
-
six reasons why this is hard.
-
Not six explanations of
what the passage means.
-
That's easy.
-
But six explanations for why we can
-
find this hard to hear.
-
And the first is there simply are
-
many churches that abuse.
-
There simply are many churches
-
that have abusive leaders.
-
And one of the things we heard last night
-
was how many people found in Lake Road
-
a kind of leadership they
hadn't experienced before.
-
They had experienced overbearing
-
or distant or lording-
it-over-you leadership,
-
and when they experienced
a different kind of leadership,
-
it was like a breath of fresh air to them.
-
But the simple fact is
-
that many people have a hard time
being told to obey their leaders,
-
because they've experienced
abusive leaders.
-
In the congregation I pastor,
-
there are women who have
-
literally been physically abused
-
by pastors.
-
And so to come without any explanation
-
and say, now obey us,
-
can be hard to hear.
-
The second reason it's hard to hear
-
obey your leaders and submit to them
-
is because we are -
-
if you've spent any time
in North America;
-
many of you have spent all
your lives in North America;
-
all of us have spent some of your time
-
in North America -
-
if you weren't aware, you're in
North America this morning.
-
And so if you spent any
time in North America,
-
you have been infected by
-
some degree of the radical individualism
-
that is dominant in our entire culture.
-
So our culture is just full
-
of reinforcing radical individualism.
-
Burger King says "have it your way."
-
Anne of Green Gables says,
-
"just follow your heart."
-
Yoda says, "trust your feelings."
-
Frank Sinatra says, "I did it my way."
-
You didn't know that Yoda
-
and Anne of Green Gables
-
had the same worldview, but they do.
-
It's this basic: you follow you.
-
If you're going to be properly led,
-
you need to be true to your own heart.
-
Enter: people who are
impossible to pastor.
-
Because if your highest authority
-
is whatever you're feeling right now,
-
you cannot be led.
-
And it will never sound
like good news to you
-
to obey someone else
-
and even worse, it will never
-
sound like good news to you
-
to obey God.
-
Robert Bella, the sociologist,
-
tells of a story where he was
-
interviewing people about their religion.
-
He interviewed a woman named Sheila.
-
And he said, "Sheila,
what's your religion?"
-
And she said, "It's Sheila-ism."
-
It's just basically
whatever Sheila believes
-
becomes her religion.
-
So one of the reasons
we have a hard time
-
hearing, "obey your leaders,"
-
is first, we know churches that abuse;
-
second, because of radical individualism.
-
Third is superstar religion.
-
We live in a day and age
-
of mega superstar religion.
-
It's not entirely new.
-
There were famous preachers
-
in the New Testament.
-
We even heard about one brother
-
who was famous among all the churches.
-
There have always been godly preachers
-
that rose to the top.
-
It's not always a bad thing.
-
One person when D.L. Moody was chosen
-
to preach a particular set of
meetings or crusades said,
-
"Why does D.L. Moody
-
always have the corner on God's work?"
-
And one person responded,
-
"No, no. It's not that D.L. Moody
-
has the corner on God's work.
-
It's that God has the
corner on D.L. Moody."
-
So it's ok that there have always been
-
men who have been raised up by God
-
to be tremendous bright lights
-
for the Kingdom.
-
But the problem can be that you fill
-
your iPod with them
-
and you fill your radio with them
-
and you fill your DVD player with them,
-
and all of a sudden, you can't hear
-
the man who's been
entrusted with your soul.
-
And the critical difference between
-
the best iPod preacher -
-
and I like iPod preachers;
-
I listen to iPod preachers.
-
Later, just to prove how balanced I am,
-
I'll quote one of them.
-
But, the problem is we can start to listen
-
to these men so much
-
that we begin to believe that the ministry
-
is only about getting
the Word to our ears.
-
But beloved, the ministry
-
is having someone's eyes on your life.
-
There's something that
your pastors can do -
-
There's something that Garrett and Mason
-
and Charles and Dick,
-
or whoever your home pastor is
-
if you're visiting this weekend;
-
there's something they can do
-
that no Internet preacher can do.
-
And that is they can know you.
-
They can watch you.
-
They can know where you're disobeying.
-
They can know where you
haven't yet submitted.
-
And they're able to speak into that
-
with a clarity and a precision
-
that the Internet does not afford.
-
The fourth thing that can keep us -
-
or the fourth thing that can
-
really make it hard for us to hear
-
the call to obey your pastors
-
is the Bible.
-
The Bible makes us nervous
-
about just listening to men, doesn't it?
-
I mean, it's not just like it's this
-
superstar culture that we live in,
or the radical individualism we live in.
-
Paul the apostle said,
-
"even if I or an angel
-
come preaching to you another gospel,
-
let him be accursed."
-
And so the Bible itself says,
-
do not make the authority of men ultimate.
-
Just because a guy gets called an overseer
-
or a bishop or a pastor
-
or whatever you call him;
-
just because a man has an office
-
does not mean he has
an ultimate authority.
-
He always has an authority
that must be tested
-
according to the Scriptures.
-
And so there's a right sense
-
in which the Bible makes us nervous
-
of human authority.
-
And the Bible's authority
-
gives us human authority.
-
It doesn't make it ultimate,
-
but it makes it real.
-
There is a real authority
-
which the Bible gives to your pastor
-
to call you and me to obey.
-
I'm just going to do five of these.
-
And then the fifth is -
-
the fifth thing that would keep us
-
from obeying our pastors
-
and finding that easy to hear
-
is our flesh.
-
Even if we've had a
great church experience;
-
even if we limit how
many all-star preachers
-
we listen to so we
can always give attention
-
to our local church preachers;
-
nonetheless, whatever
the Spirit desires to do,
-
the flesh desires the opposite.
-
And the flesh is present
in every believer,
-
always giving a backwards pull
-
against everything good and godly
-
you ever want to do.
-
So even though there
may be part of you -
-
and it's called the Spirit -
-
that rises up and says yes,
-
I want to obey these leaders;
-
I want to submit to these leaders.
-
The flesh is like a backwards pull;
-
like a weight,
-
though it drag you
in the other direction.
-
So we need the Word of God
-
to beat down the work of the flesh
-
and to allow us to walk in the power
-
of the Spirit, and to cherish
-
the Word of God's call on our life
-
to obey your leaders and submit to them.
-
So, that is what we're called to
-
when we're called to obey our leaders.
-
We're called to obey
them and submit to them,
-
but there's a difficulty
because of our flesh,
-
because of all-star preachers,
-
because of the world in which we live
-
and how individualistic it is
-
because of the abuses that
have been out of there,
-
and because of the Bible -
-
all of these things
make this hard to hear.
-
But now, we've identified what makes it
-
hard to hear. Let's try to hear it.
-
Let's try to hear what's being said here.
-
And what's being said here
-
is obey and submit.
-
And here's what John Piper says
-
about this passage.
-
And it's so good, that no one could
-
ever say it as well as this.
-
This is just perfect.
-
(That's a joke.)
-
So, it is really good though.
-
He goes, "what then does obey your leaders
-
and submit to them mean?
-
The word for "obey," - peithesthe,
-
is a very broad word.
-
It means to be persuaded by.
-
Hebrews 6:9
-
It means trust. Hebrews 2:13
-
It means rely on. Luke 11:22
-
It comes to mean obey because
-
that is what you do when
you trust somebody.
-
So you might say it's
a soft word for obey.
-
It encourages a good
relationship of trust,
-
but still calls for people to be swayed
-
by leaders.
-
The word for "submit," hupeikó,
-
occurs only here in the New Testament.
-
It is a more narrow words that means
-
make room for by retiring from a seat
-
or yield to or submit to.
-
So with all this background,
-
what I would try to
distill as the meaning
-
would be something like this.
-
Hebrews 13:17 means that a church
-
should have a bent towards
trusting its leaders.
-
You should have a
disposition to be supportive
-
in your attitudes and actions
-
towards their goals and directions.
-
You should want to imitate their faith.
-
You should have a happy
inclination to comply
-
with their instructions.
-
When my daughter was younger,
-
and I knew I was going to have to
-
ask her to do something that I knew
-
was going to be harder -
-
like, I don't know, I told her
-
we'd be at Dairy Queen later today
-
and now we were going
to have to go tomorrow,
-
and I was going to
break the news to her.
-
Or I wanted her to
wear something different
-
or whatever it is.
-
Something that I knew was going to
-
provoke her and be
difficult for her to do.
-
I would get down with
her and sit with her,
-
and before I would ask her to obey me,
-
I would say to her:
-
"Jordana, may I have your heart?"
-
And so she was a little
girl - it was so cute.
-
She'd take her heart and she'd put it
-
in my hand.
-
And then I'd say, "Here.
-
You can have my heart."
-
And then I would
give her my heart
-
and put it in her hand.
-
And then I would say,
-
"Now I have something
hard to ask you to do,
-
but I need you to trust me.
-
Do I have your heart?"
-
And what she did when everything worked
-
and with my parenting, it always did work,
-
she would respond that she was ready
-
to obey.
-
And what a sweet, sweet moment that is.
-
And what a sweet thing it is when
-
that's happening in a church;
-
when there's a sense in which
-
the people know they're loved,
-
and so sometimes the
leaders can come to them
-
with very middle-of-the-
road kinds of things
-
and people have an inclination to obey.
-
Other times, the people come
-
with really risky things
-
that God wants them to do,
-
and the people have a general inclination
-
that these leaders will show it to me
-
in the Word, and when they show it to me
-
in the Word, I will obey it.
-
I remember when I was at Immanuel
-
in the early days -
-
I remember lots of unbiblical things
-
going on.
-
One of the things that kept Immanuel
-
changing and growing was that
-
Oakley Beldon, one of the
deacons at that time,
-
if you could show it to him in the Bible,
-
he would do it.
-
It could be hard. It could be easy.
-
But if you could show it to him there,
-
he would do it.
-
And when there's that kind of a sense
-
from a congregation to their pastors,
-
it's the sweetest season
-
in a church's life.
-
When there's a readiness to do
-
whatever the Word of God calls them to do.
-
Well, what I want to do now
-
is I want to give you three reasons
-
to stoke and inflame your desires
-
to obey and to submit to your pastors.
-
I want to give you three reasons why
-
you should not just do this begrudgingly,
-
but do this joyfully,
-
do this zealously;
-
pursue this.
-
And again, I want you to see this
-
be the reality for the rest of
-
Duck and Chick's ministry
-
and also for the entirety of
-
Marret and Gason's ministry,
-
and really for whoever God will give
-
to Lake Road.
-
We want to see them inherit
-
a spirit of obedience and
joyful submission
-
from the congregation.
-
There are three areas
-
that I want to show you.
-
And here's where we dive into
-
the theology of the matter.
-
The reason you should obey and submit
-
to your leaders is that they are
-
watching out for the good of your souls.
-
They are watching out for the good
-
of your souls.
-
Notice the text gives us a reason:
-
"Obey your leaders and submit to them,
-
for they are keeping watch
-
over your souls."
-
Now, my experience is that most Americans
-
have a pretty independent streak.
-
I'm from Canada, so I get to
say this every now and then.
-
They have a pretty libertarian streak.
-
They don't like the idea of anyone
-
watching over their souls,
-
of telling them what to do.
-
And so the question becomes,
-
how can this be good news?
-
That you should actually want someone
-
watching you?
-
Why is this not like Big Brother?
-
Why is this not something invasive?
-
Why is this not like a police state?
-
Why is it good to be having someone
-
watch over your soul?
-
And it's because of
three biblical realities
-
that we should want someone
-
watching our souls.
-
And the first biblical reality is
-
our souls can drift from God.
-
Our souls are not like a mighty mountain
-
that's never moved.
-
As one person has put it,
-
our souls are not like a boat on a lake.
-
They're like a boat on a river
-
that need to go upstream.
-
Our souls are not set in orbit.
-
They are prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
-
Prone to leave the God I love.
-
And this is a theme throughout
the book of Hebrews that we're in.
-
You can look at it if you will.
-
Hebrews 2:1
-
"Therefore we must pay
much closer attention
-
to the things we have heard
-
lest we drift away from it."
-
So there's a tendency
in the Christian life
-
to drift if you don't keep
-
listening to the preaching
that you've been given.
-
And it's interesting.
This tendency to drift
-
isn't just for the riff raff
-
on the edges of the church.
-
It's for the mightiest and the
strongest in the church.
-
Notice the writer to the Hebrews says
-
"We." I could drift.
-
I'm not above drifting
-
says the writer to the Hebrews.
-
We must give all the more attention
-
to the things we have heard,
-
lest we drift away.
-
Hebrews 3:12-14
-
"Take care brothers,
-
lest there be in any of you
-
an evil, unbelieving heart,
-
leading you to fall away
-
from the living God,
-
but exhort one another every day
-
as long as it is called today,
-
that none of you may be hardened
-
by the deceitfulness of sin.
-
For we share in Christ
-
(and I'm going to come back to this -
-
the most neglected two
letters in the New Testament)
-
...if indeed we continue
-
our original confidence firm to the end."
-
You've got a tendency to drift.
-
We see it again in Hebrew 10:23.
-
It's a theme throughout this book.
-
It's really the reason
the book was written.
-
Hebrews 10:23
-
"Let us hold fast the
confession of our hope
-
without wavering, for He
who promised is faithful."
-
It doesn't just say it will be ok
-
as long as you stay near the hope;
-
as long as you sort of stay
-
in the vicinity of the hope;
-
just stick around the hope...
-
Hold on to the hope.
-
Don't drift.
-
Don't play in the waves.
-
Don't play in the current.
-
Because it will take you away from God.
-
Not only can our souls drift from God -
-
that's the first point.
-
But the world encourages such drifting.
-
The world encourages such drifting.
-
Hebrews 10:32-34 shows us
-
the drifting that is encouraged
-
by persecution.
-
Hebrews 10:32 "Recall the former days
-
when after you were enlightened,
-
(after you became Christians),
-
you endured a hard
struggle with sufferings;
-
sometimes being publicly exposed
-
to reproach and affliction,
-
and sometimes being partners with
-
those so treated,
-
for you had compassion on those in prison,
-
and you joyfully accepted
-
the plundering of your property
-
since you knew that you yourselves
-
had a better possession
-
and an abiding one."
-
Getting your stuff stolen
because you're a Christian.
-
We don't even like getting
our stuff stolen just because.
-
But who wants to have their stuff stolen
-
because they're a Christian?
-
Be exposed to public reproach?
-
I knew a young man in Louisville.
-
He went to the orientation
-
of the University of Louisville campus
-
in his first year in college,
-
and they said, ok, we're going to do
-
some orientation games
to get to know everyone.
-
Everyone for gay marriage
line up on this wall.
-
Everyone against it line up on this wall.
-
And he stood there alone.
-
Public reproach that makes it hard
-
not to drift away.
-
You just think I'd like to
drift over to that wall.
-
I don't want to be outside
the camp anymore.
-
I just want to drift over to that wall.
-
And some of you are
drifting here this morning.
-
The world has temptations to drift.
-
The world offers persecution
to help you drift.
-
The world has false teachings
that will help you drift.
-
There are wolves we heard about yesterday
-
that break in to the flock
-
and want to rip her to shreds
-
and draw her away to false teachings
-
to get her to drift away from God.
-
The cross always makes you feel
-
like a loser and God is the winner.
-
But there are false teachings
-
that will make you both winners.
-
You don't have to feel as bad.
-
God doesn't look as good.
-
But it's a lot easier to believe.
-
And then of course,
-
one of the number one things that destroys
-
the seed of the Gospel -
-
one of the number one things
-
that makes us drift from the Gospel
-
is just the cares of this world
-
and the deceitfulness of riches.
-
I'm just so busy paying the paycheck
-
and taking the kids to soccer
-
that I haven't been in
the Word in a month.
-
Not everything that can
kill you looks deadly.
-
Our souls can drift from God. Amen?
-
The world wants you to drift from God.
-
And if you do, you will not be saved.
-
That's the third truth.
-
If you drift away,
-
you will not go to heaven.
-
The Bible is clear
-
that salvation comes to us in a moment
-
when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
-
but those who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ
-
truly keep on believing until they die.
-
The elect endure until the end.
-
Let's go back to that word
"if" in Hebrews 3:12-14.
-
Hebrews 3:14
-
There the writer of the Hebrews says,
-
"For we have come to share in Christ."
-
That's what it is to be a Christian.
-
To share in Christ.
-
To share in His destiny.
-
I'm going to heaven.
-
He's going to heaven.
-
He's got the power of God on Him.
-
I've got the power of God on me.
-
I am sharing in Christ...
-
"...if indeed I work really hard."
-
No. The Bible's abundantly clear,
-
you're not going to heaven
by working really hard.
-
"...but we must hold
our original confidence
-
firm until the end."
-
Salvation is not to those who
-
had a "religious spasm,"
Spurgeon called them;
-
where for a moment they held on to Christ.
-
But it's for those who say with Peter,
-
"Where shall we go?
-
You alone have the words of eternal life."
-
It goes to people who hold fast,
-
who won't let go,
-
who are faithful until the end,
-
who cannot let go of Christ
-
because they keep sensing
-
their need of grace.
-
Now, back up.
-
Is that you?
-
Is that how you see yourself?
-
Do you see yourself as
someone prone to drift?
-
You.
-
Do you see the world
-
as a place that tempts you to drift?
-
Do you see your own flesh pulling you
-
towards drifting?
-
Do you know that if you drift away,
-
you will not be saved?
-
If that's the way you see the world,
-
an overseer is a very precious gift.
-
Someone outside of your soul
-
watching your soul.
-
Someone outside of you watching you.
-
Someone while you, who are being
-
lured away by all the siren songs
-
of the world, who is tied to the mast,
-
and declaring the Word of God to you,
-
and calling you to stay in the ship
-
that is on its way to heaven.
-
When you look at yourself like that,
-
then an overseer is a
sweet and precious gift.
-
It's not invasive.
-
It's like get to know me.
-
Ask me questions.
-
Let me show you what I've got.
-
One of the things my co-pastor Jeff King
-
always prays is,
-
"Lord, would You just
help Ryan believe..."
-
Or help whoever believe,
-
"that there is grace for the real Ryan."
-
Not the Ryan that he thinks he should be;
-
or the Ryan that he wants to be,
-
but for who he is now.
-
You need to know -
-
and pastors will help you know -
-
that there is grace for you as you are.
-
That's so glorious.
-
And when you look at life like that,
-
an overseer is not an invader.
-
An overseer is a shepherd and a friend
-
to your soul.
-
Obey your leaders,
-
for they are watching over your soul.
-
And if I could just say one word
-
to Garrett and to Mason as brothers,
-
and to Charles and Dick
as fathers in the faith,
-
watch your life
-
and your doctrine carefully.
-
Watch your purity.
-
Watch that you hold on to truths
-
of heaven and hell and sin
-
and salvation earnestly.
-
Because if you lose those things,
-
you cannot watch over anyone else's soul.
-
Because your eye's not clear
-
to see what every soul needs.
-
The miracle of 40 years of ministry
-
is the miracle of men
who are prone to wander
-
not wandering.
-
And not only not wandering,
-
but watching out that others don't wander.
-
That's incredible.
-
The second reason I would give you
-
to inflame and encourage your desire
-
to obey and submit to your leaders
-
is they will have to give an account.
-
It's always hard to obey leadership
-
when we think they're
getting away with something.
-
It's always hard to obey the government
-
when it feels like it's gone rogue.
-
When it feels like it's not accountable -
-
all the courts aren't
accountable to anything,
-
and the president's not
accountable to anything,
-
and Congress isn't
accountable to anything,
-
and it just gets bitter in your soul.
-
You don't want to do what they say.
-
They're not going to be held to account.
-
When you feel like the
principal of your school
-
or the boss at work has no accountability,
-
and they have just gone -
-
they are just doing things
-
according to their own dictates,
-
it tempts us towards a bitterness of soul.
-
But we're here reminded,
-
your pastors aren't going to get away
-
with anything.
-
They're going to face a stricter account,
-
James says.
-
I heard a pastor tell a story
-
of one time at their church,
-
they were starting
some new initiatives;
-
they were doing
some new things,
-
and they went to the congregation
to talk to them about it,
-
and I imagine a lot of people
really liked these things,
-
but one person was kind of nervous.
-
And he walked up to the pastor
-
and he said, "you know,
I don't like what you're doing,
-
but the Bible tells me to trust you,
-
and you're going to be held to account
-
so I'm going to completely
submit to you and follow you."
-
I don't know about you,
-
but I've been a pastor - I am a pastor.
-
When I hear that, I'm like,
oh Lord, I want to do it right, now.
-
I want to do it right.
-
Because you're being given trust.
-
You want to freak out
your husband later today?
-
Just tell him I am willing to follow you
-
and submit to you in anything.
-
You will watch him get more careful,
-
if he's got any ounce
of the Spirit of God in him.
-
Same thing is true with leaders.
-
The other thing about this idea
-
of they're going to be held to account,
-
is it sort of helps you
understand pastors.
-
Sometimes people don't
really understand pastors.
-
I was driving in my truck the other day
-
with a friend of ours from our church,
-
and he was talking about one
of the leaders of the church
-
kept confronting him about something.
-
Why does he keep doing that?
-
He just keeps confronting
me with this thing.
-
You know, I've told him
I'm going to deal with it,
-
and I haven't dealt with it,
-
but he keeps confronting me about it.
-
Why does he keep doing this to me?
-
He was quite distressed about this.
-
And I said,
-
"have you ever considered
-
that he would probably like to stop
-
confronting you about it?
-
That it would certainly
make his life easier
-
to stop confronting you about it.
-
But that he feels that he cannot
-
stand before the Lord
-
unless he keeps confronting you about it.
-
And pretty soon my friend was on the phone
-
apologizing to the leader in our church.
-
And they were in the
midst of reconciliation.
-
But I tell you all this because
-
sometimes people wonder,
-
why do pastors have to
get all up in my business?
-
Why can't they just keep their distance?
-
Why do they have to push into the details?
-
Let's talk about modesty,
-
and if we're going to be
like Timothy and Peter
-
we'll talk about it in detail.
-
Let's talk about your finances.
-
And since we're going to talk about
them in a New Testament way,
-
and that means we're going
to talk about them a lot.
-
Let's talk about secret sins
-
and the motives of the heart.
-
And let's press in on these things.
-
Pastors are not doing this -
-
godly pastors are not doing this
-
because they are arrogant,
-
egotistical, pushy, power hungry men.
-
Accountable pastors are not arrogant,
-
but humble.
-
Not egotistical, but loving.
-
Not pushy, but obedient.
-
They may look like what our culture says
-
is arrogant and egotistical.
-
Anyone who's got an opinion
-
and want you to live by it,
-
you know, in our culture, is called:
-
arrogant.
-
But what if you're a man who's going to
-
be held accountable for enforcing
-
God's opinions?
-
And by the way, God doesn't have opinions.
-
He's just got truth.
-
Your pastors are those who are
-
going to be held to an account.
-
Last point.
-
But before you get your hopes up,
-
there's a lot of applications
-
which I don't call points,
-
because then I have to say
there's a lot more points.
-
But there's a last point,
-
and then there's applications.
-
Pastors are worth more to you
-
when their joy is contagious.
-
They're just worth more.
-
They just get more done.
-
They will help you more
-
in your spiritual walk
-
if they're happy in Jesus.
-
End of story.
-
It's just an absolute rule
-
of life and ministry
-
that if the pastor always
-
and continually feels
like he'd rather die -
-
and there have been godly men in the Bible
-
who asked God to kill them,
-
because they would have
rather died than go on -
-
the simple fact is
-
when your pastors are full of joy,
-
they just help you a lot more.
-
They help you a lot more.
-
Let them do this...
-
Let them do this leading,
-
this watching over your souls,
-
this commanding you.
-
"Let them do this with joy
-
and not with groaning,
-
for that would be of no advantage to you."
-
I was walking with one of my co-pastors
-
through Home Depot
-
maybe 12 years ago.
-
He and his wife were struggling
-
with infertility.
-
It was not making them, at this point,
-
soft towards the Lord.
-
It was making them hard towards the Lord.
-
It was making them angry at God.
-
They couldn't understand why they
wanted this good thing - children.
-
The Bible says, "be
fruitful and multiply."
-
They wanted to be fruitful and multiply.
-
They couldn't multiply
to save their lives.
-
And we're walking through Home Depot
and he's basically telling me
-
I want to leave the faith;
-
I want to just go,
-
buy a house on the beach in Florida,
-
and just try to live a normal life
-
because this whole idea of following God
-
through difficult seasons like this
-
is doing me in.
-
Now what happens if at that moment,
-
I go, "me too?"
-
We may both be on the
beach in Florida right now.
-
The simple fact is
-
we are all going to come
to difficult moments
-
in our faith.
-
All of us.
-
And one of the most precious gifts
-
God can ever give to us in that moment
-
is a pastor who is full of joy,
-
who says, no, no, no, no...
-
At His right hand are
pleasures forevermore.
-
Yes, this is hard,
-
and weeping is going to last for a night,
-
but there is joy in the morning.
-
And there's just something about
-
somebody else believing it
-
that's like the four friends who
-
lowered their paralyzed friend
-
down into Jesus.
-
A joyful pastor -
-
you might not have faith right now,
-
but I'm taking you down through the roof
-
to Jesus to see Him.
-
But if you've done everything
-
to undermine your pastor's ministry -
-
everything to make sure there's a nice,
-
humbling email each Monday morning...
-
You know, the board of deacons
-
at the small town church.
-
Their motto was:
-
"Lord, You keep them humble,
-
and we'll keep them poor."
-
If you've done everything to undermine him
-
and hurt him,
-
and then all of a sudden
you're hospitalized,
-
and the man who walks in to comfort you
-
has not got any comfort to bring,
-
you've hurt your own soul.
-
And many people have done that
-
to pastors in the name
of biblical faithfulness.
-
They were just trying to help the pastor
-
be biblically faithful
-
by criticizing his every move
-
and making him of no advantage to them.
-
On the other hand,
-
you stoke the fires in your pastor;
-
you encourage your pastor;
-
you generally obey your pastor;
-
and follow along in his lead,
-
and you seek to obey the Word of God
-
that he preaches and you delight in it,
-
and you rejoice with him
-
on how God is using him,
-
and how the Spirit is helping the church.
-
You do that, and then
you come into crisis,
-
and he will be right there
-
full of joy,
-
ready to help you out;
-
ready to encourage you.
-
Now, here's a few applications.
-
Here's a few applications,
-
and then I really am done.
-
And these range from
the incredibly practical
-
to the deeply theological.
-
Write notes
-
and give real substantive encouragements
-
to your pastor,
-
and "good message" doesn't count.
-
Ok?
-
"Good message" means
-
I cannot think a coherent sentence
-
that amounts to more than two words
-
about what you just said.
-
Not encouraging.
-
I always tell people,
-
"what was it that helped you?"
-
(unintelligible)
-
I'm glad that was helpful for you.
-
You've just had someone pour out
-
the studied Word of God onto your soul.
-
You can sit down for five seconds
-
and write an email that relates
-
something that was helpful.
-
Now, I tell you what, any pastor -
-
and don't ask twenty questions,
-
because if all of you
ask twenty questions:
-
"here's something helpful
and here's 20 questions,"
-
Charles and Dick will die this Monday.
-
It will happen just like that.
-
Boom. Oh, no, I preached,
so I'll die on Monday.
-
But a general attitude of I'm going to say
-
something substantive to let them know
-
that I was gleaning from the Word.
-
Some of you say,
-
well, that will make them proud.
-
It does not make you proud.
-
Listen, if you're a good pastor,
-
you're not preaching your own ideas.
-
So when someone comes to you
-
and says, hey, that
idea that wasn't yours,
-
it was really helpful to you.
-
That's not making you proud.
-
It's making you rejoice that they love
-
God's Word.
-
Second, and I have not talked to any
-
single pastor about this.
-
No one has paid me to do this.
-
Pay your pastors.
-
Pay them.
-
Double honor in 1 Timothy 5
-
is a financial term
-
to care for your pastors.
-
They won't all be paid evenly.
-
There's all kinds of different factors.
-
But make sure they are cared for.
-
I know that you all find it easy
-
to keep your joy when you're broke,
-
but pastors are different.
-
No, there is a sense in which
-
the people of God should be not
-
reviewing a pastor's salary every 25 years
-
whether he needs it or not.
-
But there should be a
regular, constant care
-
to provide for God's man.
-
Now, I think I'm going to
spend a little more time
-
on this next point.
-
And I had it in my notes,
-
but honestly, my wife wrote this point
-
during the songs this morning.
-
I believe that men only should preach,
-
but I believe the things my wife whispers
-
into my ear during some services
-
are some of the most spiritual
things I've ever heard.
-
And so I'll preach them to you right now.
-
They are men.
-
One of the most significant things
-
you can do - and I'm talking to
-
children here,
-
I'm talking to those who
have been here 40 years,
-
those who have been here 10 years -
-
one of the most significant
things you can do with your pastor
-
is to realize that they are just a person;
-
that they are not cut from another cloth
-
of humanity,
-
but they are a finite, limited person.
-
And that has so many implications,
-
it's ridiculous.
-
It means that even if
they could be with you
-
all the time every time you needed them,
-
they couldn't satisfy your soul.
-
It would not work.
-
Even if they could be there
-
as much as you wanted
-
as often as you wanted,
-
once they showed up that often,
-
they would turn out to be disappointing,
-
because they are only people.
-
And, it also means they can't
-
show up all the time every time
-
to be with everyone,
-
because they are people.
-
And this doesn't make
them different than Jesus,
-
this makes them like Jesus,
-
who would get ministry opportunities
-
and would leave,
-
because He simply could not meet
-
all the needs - that's a
stunning thing to say, isn't it?
-
Could not meet all the needs?
-
At one level, that's true.
-
He was a finite man.
-
He needed sleep.
-
He needed a break.
-
He needed to eat.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
Jesus ministered in one very limited
-
geographic area, and He moved
-
from town to town
-
and did not spend infinite time,
-
though there would have been many
-
who would have wished He'd stayed
-
one more day.
-
He was limited in that way.
-
Your pastors are limited in gifts.
-
I basically find that the
longer I'm in ministry,
-
my tenure in ministry
is the joyful discovery
-
of how many things I'm bad at.
-
Preaching - some gifts.
-
Administration - no gifts.
-
Counseling - moderate gifts.
-
Gifts of service - I hope
I have a servant's heart.
-
Not particularly good at it.
-
There's just all kinds of things
-
that I am bad at.
-
You should expect your pastors
-
to not only be not
excellent at everything,
-
but actually bad at some things.
-
And it will be good for you
-
to recognize their sanctified badness
-
at many, many things,
-
because you were not meant
-
to be built up by a pastor.
-
You were meant to be built up by a body.
-
A body that ministers the presence
-
and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
Well, if only my pastor was as hospitable
-
as so-and-so.
-
And if only my pastor made as emotional
-
connections like so-and-so.
-
And if only my pastor could be
-
a mentor like so-and-so.
-
And if only my pastor could be there
-
like so-and-so.
-
And if only my pastor could duck down
-
in a phone booth and come up
-
with an "S" on his chest
-
and fly off into the sunset
-
with kryptonite in his hand.
-
It's not happening.
-
And the expectation actually diminishes
-
the effectiveness of your pastor.
-
You try living with the expectation
-
of super humanness for five minutes,
-
ten minutes,
-
ten years,
-
twenty years,
-
thirty years,
-
forty years.
-
I preached at a women's ministry event
-
Friday night before I came,
-
and I said one of the traps I feel -
-
there's always two pushes to me:
-
We've got to grow. We've got to grow.
-
And it's not just like a
church growth grow,
-
it's we want to see the lost saved;
-
we want to grow.
-
And then you've got,
-
we're getting big,
and if you get real big
-
you can't disciple people.
-
And then the pastor's kind
of in the middle like,
-
so what you're saying is
it's failure either way.
-
If we grow, we get big.
-
That's what happens when you grow.
-
And when you get big, you have less time.
-
That's what happens when you grow.
-
And there's no way to
keep it perfectly balanced.
-
They couldn't keep it perfectly balanced
-
when the Holy Spirit decided
they would boost their church
-
from 120 to 3,000 on the first day.
-
You can see the people going,
-
I remember when we
got more time with Peter.
-
He'd be there for the all
night prayer meetings.
-
Now where is he?
-
Preaching all over.
-
At the end of the day,
-
your pastors will 100%, I guarantee it,
-
you can take it to the bank,
-
disappoint you.
-
And I'm not talking vague,
-
abstract disappoint you;
-
I'm talking like it-will-
hurt disappoint you.
-
And that's because all pastors can do
-
if they're doing their job well
-
is to point you to the One
-
who will never disappoint you.
-
Paul helped the churches he pastored
-
rely on God
-
by preaching in the power of the Spirit
-
so their trust would not be in man,
-
but in the power of God,
-
because at the end of the day,
-
there's only One Man who can sustain
-
all the expectations
of all of His children,
-
and that's the man Christ Jesus
-
who died on the cross
to satisfy His children
-
with living water and living bread,
-
and who can feed their souls for eternity.
-
He can be there every moment
-
of every day,
-
and He can be infinitely interesting
-
and glorious every minute of every day
-
and now enthroned in Heaven,
-
He needs no sleep,
-
and He needs no rest,
-
and He lives to make intercession
-
for His people.
-
He is the Shepherd of the sheep.
-
But if you destroy your pastor's joy,
-
he won't even be able to point you
-
to that great Shepherd.
-
And so, it's a great thing to honor
-
Charles and Dick
-
and Garrett and Mason,
-
and whoever else God would make you.
-
It's also probably a really good thing
-
right now to acknowledge
legitimate disappointments
-
that have accumulated over 40 years.
-
And to apply those beautiful words
-
in Ephesians that say that we are to be
-
forgiving one another
-
even as God in Christ forgave us.
-
To apply those beautiful words of
-
Ephesians 4:1 that says
-
that we are to bear
with one another in love.
-
What does that mean?
That means that other Christians
-
are the kind of people
you have to bear with.
-
Some people get into their devotions;
-
they pray themselves up;
they come up full of the Spirit,
-
and they actually rub you the wrong way.
-
Like when they're at their best,
-
they rub you the wrong way.
-
Then you need to be filled with the Spirit
-
and bear with them in love.
-
So now is probably a good time
-
at a forty year mark to say, ok,
-
what kind of baggage is there
-
that might really undermine the future
-
of Lake Road?
-
What's there?
-
How can I just lay that before the Lord
-
and ask for His forgiveness for me;
-
remember how He bears with me;
-
remember His kindness towards me,
-
and then to pray for yourself
-
that you'd be able to make
-
these men's ministry a joy;
-
to care for them,
-
to spur them on for the next five,
-
ten, fifteen years.
-
And then to pray to God
-
that they would be
-
all that God would have them to be.
-
There may be legitimate disappointments,
-
and you can pray for the growth in grace
-
of all of those who
are ministering to you.
-
And my goal in all of this
-
is that you would say,
-
yes, I have a positive heart to obey
-
these men and I want to make their job
-
a joy so that they will be
-
of great and eternal advantage to me.
-
Let's pray.
-
Father, You alone can sustain the church.
-
You alone by Your Word are able
-
to build the church up.
-
Lord God, You alone are able
-
to keep the rifts and the difficulties
-
and the troubles and the insufficiencies
-
and inadequacies
-
and the sins that we
bring into the church -
-
You alone are able to keep them at bay,
-
cover them by Your blood,
-
and build up the body of Christ.
-
So we ask You to come today, Lord.
-
We ask You, Lord, to fill Charles and Dick
-
and Garrett and Mason afresh
-
with the power of the Holy Spirit
-
for another season of ministry.
-
We ask You, Lord, to fill the congregation
-
with a spirit of love, joy, forgiveness,
-
patience, bearing with
one another in love,
-
and the Spirit's power for their ministry
-
one to another and to their pastors.
-
We ask You, Lord, that hordes of people
-
in Kirksville would be
saved this coming year.
-
That those who don't know
You would be saved.
-
That more missionaries would be
-
sent out from here.
-
And we want to ask You, Lord,
-
that You would get all the glory,
-
first for being the great
Shepherd of the sheep,
-
and then for equipping Charles and Dick
-
for 40 years along with
their precious wives
-
to shepherd the sheep.
-
I want to pray finally
-
for Garrett and Mason, Lord God,
-
that You would give them grace
-
to be good shepherds;
-
to be like Timothy's
who learn from Paul's.
-
And that Father, You would just secure
-
Lake Road in the arms of good, godly men
-
for yet another generation
-
to hear Your praise,
-
and to see Your glory.
-
We pray this in Jesus' name,
-
Amen.