How To Get the Most Out of Your Pastors - Ryan Fullerton

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.