God Called Pastors

Welcome to the Enduring Grace Sermons Podcast.

This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.

Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with a world in need of hope.

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And now, here is this week's message.

Testing.

There we go.

I turned it off by accident, Stevon.

How are you all this morning?

Good morning.

Indeed, right?

So if you have your Bibles, I'm going to go ahead and tell you that we're not in 1 Samuel.

So we are taking a Sunday off as we go to 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and start making your way there this morning because we have gathered together to worship the Lord and we have gathered together also to ordain clay this morning.

And I want to talk to you this morning briefly about God called pastors.

I think sometimes our society can get what a pastor is a little confused.

And so this morning we're going to take a little time to walk through what it means to be a pastor.

And if you would just turn to the Lord in prayer with me as we begin the preaching of God's word this morning.

Let's pray.

Lord God, thank you so much for this amazing opportunity to be able to talk about the God-called pastor.

That it is a calling from you, Lord, that it is not something that we should take frivolously.

It is not something that is to be taken lightly or without consideration, but it is something of great weight and it is a good and noble task.

So Lord, I pray that you would speak through me, that you would allow us to spend some quality time in your word, that it would encourage us to be faithful both in our pursuit of you and in our pursuit of making sure that the church follows your will.

We love you, Lord, and in your name we pray.

Amen.

So, pastors.

Pastors are an important part of the church.

It is weird as a pastor to get up and talk about pastors.

Let me just tell you, it is a little strange to do that.

But it is also one thing that we always need to keep in mind is that God's word is a definitive word when it comes to who a pastor is and who a pastor is supposed to be according to Scripture.

And so as we gather, I want us to understand the word pastor to begin with.

We get the word pastor from a word that is not pastor in the Greek.

And in fact, translates as shepherd.

It's one who shepherds the heart of people.

And we're going to look in 1 Peter chapter 5 and see that there are three terms that Peter uses that help describe who a pastor is.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

The first one that we will see is the word elder.

Now, you might have family or friends, or maybe you are familiar with churches that have the word elder instead of pastor for their pastors.

Guess what?

It comes from the Bible.

Elder is a synonym for a pastor.

But the second one takes place as a verb and is shepherd.

That word shepherd is how we get pastor.

The third, and it's the one that oftentimes makes people stumble because they're like, how does that connect to being a pastor?

But is giving oversight.

It's a verb, and we get overseer, which we will see in 1 Timothy this morning as well.

But those three terms are what really ends up telling us the big picture of who a pastor is and who they are and what they should be.

And so this morning, what I want you to think about is simply this question.

Who is a pastor?

And what is God's calling on their lives?

Because it is a noble task.

So if you found your place in 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 1 through 4, would you say word?

1 Peter 5:1–4

And would you stand in the honor of reading God's word?

Says, So I exhort the elders among you as fellow elders and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

You may be seated.

Peter wastes no time here in this text to call the elders to a noble pursuit.

He tells them that there is a pastor's calling.

That pastor's calling is one that he defines as being a shepherd.

One that he says is important that you shepherd the flock of God.

Now, when we talk about shepherding, sometimes we get a little confused as far as what God means by that.

Because we have in today's society, especially in Americanized shepherding, shepherding and cattle driving are basically the same thing.

You might be familiar with different shows or movies that have given examples, or maybe you've participated in this where you have a border collie who's been well trained, that their master whistles, and the border collie listens, and they will guide the sheep into the pen and where they need to go.

They have full-fledged competitions around this whole practice.

Now that is very similar to cattle driving, because the dog is scaring the sheep and guiding them to where they need to go.

Cattle driver is going to be behind the cattle, using their instincts against them, that they don't like predators, and if something's behind them, they view it as possible danger.

And so they're pushing the cattle and leading them by pushing them from behind, by scaring them.

But that's not the way shepherding was done in the Middle East, especially during Jesus' day and age.

The sheep knew their shepherd's voice.

In fact, the shepherd would live with the sheep for most of the day, spending great deals of time with the sheep.

And he would lead out in front, and the sheep would follow his lead, because they knew his voice.

We see this unfold in John chapter 10, verses 1 through 5, as Jesus describes this practice.

John 10:1–5

He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he was brought out, all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

So a shepherd would be with his sheep, and the sheep would follow the shepherd's voice.

Just like we are all described as sheep in Scripture, should follow the pastor's voice.

And it's because ultimately the shepherd is under the chief shepherd, that he is not leading on his own, but he's leading from the word of God to a people who should be following as he follows Christ.

We see this in the text.

That there is this responsibility to shepherd the flock of God that is among you.

And in verse 4 he says, And when the chief shepherd appears, the key is that there is a chief shepherd.

That chief shepherd is Jesus Christ.

There is no shepherd without submission to the Lord first.

We are the under-shepherds as pastors.

We are to pursue Christ, and as a result, we are being called to shepherd the flock of God on his behalf.

We've been called and set apart for that purpose.

And it is not one that is easy, let me tell you.

If you know anything about sheep, sheep do some silly things sometimes.

The fact is, there was a popular video that went viral during COVID that I absolutely loved.

A pastor friend of mine shared it first.

And it is of a sheep who is stuck in a deep ditch.

Now you might be familiar with this video, but the shepherd comes out there, he picks the sheep up out of the ditch, gets them to safety, the sheep bays and then takes off running and jumps right back into the ditch.

You know, we oftentimes do that, don't we?

We get pulled out of the ditch, we have counseling, we meet with pastors, we meet with our spiritual leaders that we trust, and you know what we do?

We get the good advice.

We're like, okay, we're on the right path.

We get five steps down the road, and you know what we do?

We get right back in the ditch.

Because we have to keep our eyes fixated on Jesus.

The sheep went on his own and he went back in the ditch.

He wasn't following the shepherd.

The key to being a good pastor is being a good shepherd who feeds the flock, who leads the flock in love and grace.

Just as Christ leads the pastor in love and grace.

But not only do we see that there is this call to be a shepherd, we also see that there is a call to be an overseer, that he is an overseer.

Look at verse 2, once again, right after is among you.

He says, exercising oversight.

Now that word oversight is one that we probably don't really like because it means that someone has to give oversight to us.

It means that we are to listen to others, but it is more than just to be given oversight over.

That word is actually uh indicates that there is a sense of watching over, and also there is an element of guarding in that word of oversight.

It means that what the shepherd is responsible for, the pastor, is to stand guard and protect the sheep from wolves.

Did you know that?

That the part of the responsibility of the pastor is to listen, observe, to teach the word of God in a clarity so that you can avoid the wolves who will come among you.

And wolves come in all different shapes and sizes.

Sometimes they're not as egregious as you might want to think that they are.

But one degree off of truth is off of truth.

Now, if you're familiar with flight or flying, if you get one degree off your flight path in a plane, it doesn't take very long for you to get hundreds of miles off course.

In life, if pastors are not vigilant, watching, and giving oversight and leadership to the church and guarding against false doctrine, what ends up happening is the church can end up way off the course.

In a place that they never intended to go.

The shepherd is there, the overseer is there to guard and to protect the flock.

We see this warning given to the elders of the church of Ephesus in Acts 20, verses 28 and 29.

Acts 20:28

He says, Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock.

So it's not just the flock we're protecting, we're protecting ourselves as well.

We're guarding against false teaching, we're guarding against bad practices, false traditions on our own life and the flocks in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

You notice that it's the Lord who makes them overseers of the church.

To care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

It is the God's church, it is God's sheep, it is God's flock, not a pastor's.

And it says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

There was expectation in the early church that there would be false teaching that seeps into the church, that the pastors were to stand guard, to protect the church from the false teachers.

And we see unfold in all the letters of Paul how false teaching infiltrated the church, how bad doctrine, bad practices, bad faith entered the church and had to be corrected.

We have to remain vigilant as pastors to give oversight, leadership, to guard and protect the church from false teaching.

But not only are they an overseer and a pastor, they are also called elder.

Now, elder is a very fun word because it does not mean age, it means maturity.

It is a mature faith.

It is one that is centered on spiritual depth, dignity, and the maturity of the believer.

A pastor, an elder, an overseer is not someone who simply says, Hey, do this.

There is someone who says and lives out what he says.

He's a person who says, Church, you ought to pray, and he is praying on his knees.

He is a pastor who it says, serve, and he is willing to serve wherever God calls.

A pastor must be willing to do what he preaches and must live by what he preaches.

And it is because we too are sheep under the chief shepherd.

A pastor is a sheep under the chief shepherd, and he is a sheep who gets to lead sheep as we follow the chief shepherd.

If we take our eyes off Christ, guess what?

We take the church off course.

We are called to pursue Christ just as you have been called to pursue Christ.

The pastor is his calling is one of protecting, feeding, tending, and loving God's sheep for the purpose of pointing them to Christ, to equip them for the purpose of ministry, to empower them to follow Christ faithfully as they follow Christ.

But that is not just the only element of being a pastor.

That is one element of being a pastor.

The second is the pastor's character.

We get a lot of that from 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bibles, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you to turn there.

It'll be on the screen if you'd rather just watch or read it there, but it is only one today.

And so 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 7 says this.

Listen closely.

The saying is trustworthy.

In other words, this is true.

If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

It is a good thing to desire to be a pastor, but it is one that is weighty.

Listen to what he says going forward.

He says, Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

There's a couple elements here that are very important for us to remember.

A pastor's character is one that must be above reproach.

Essentially, what he's saying is there shouldn't be any handle that the devil can grab and dump him out.

He must be a person who is honorable.

But secondly, there's also the reality that he is to be a husband of one wife.

This means that no woman has ever been called to be a pastor of a church.

It is God's design that it be exclusive to men, and it is a good thing for women and men alike, that that is by God's design.

But it also means that that man, even more importantly, must be a man who has his eyes only on his wife.

He cannot have eyes for another woman.

He cannot be double-minded when it comes to his love life with his spouse.

He must care and love and nourish his wife.

Because the family is his first priority.

We see this in also in raising his children, that he is to not be one who has unruly children or unsubmissive children.

Now we are not to rule, we can't make decisions for our kids, but what it means is that there's consequences when our children have bad behavior.

It's one where they you see that the children love their father and respect their father and honor their father and mother.

It is a calling that must be remembered, that a pastor's first ministry is always and will ever be to the family first, then the church.

Because if he cannot love and nourish and shepherd his family, then he cannot shepherd the church.

A pastor is called to love his family and then the church.

But more importantly, he is to love the Lord first.

Because if God's love is right in the man's heart, then he can love his spouse as he is supposed to, his children as he's supposed to, and then the church as he's supposed to.

Priorities matter.

In church family, you should support your pastors as you do, and to love their spouses, to love their children as Christ loves the church, so that that pastor can serve you faithfully, honorably, and in love.

But not only is he to be faithful at the home, he also must be someone who is sound in teaching.

And this is where some of my brothers and I get a little uh in disagreement because they have elders in their church, but they have messed up in one regard.

They have put elders who can't teach in elder positions.

That's not biblical.

Just like it's not biblical for deacons to be overseers of the church.

They're servants of the church.

When the offices are done the way God has intended, the church is healthy, vibrant, and everyone's able to serve as they are called to serve.

So an elder must be someone who is capable of teaching God's word, which was why it was so important for Clay to come and preach a few weeks ago to show you that he can handle God's word rightly, correctly, and teach God's word.

Because if we cannot teach, then we are not called to be a pastor.

Doesn't mean we aren't called to serve, it means we were called to serve somewhere else.

So a pastor must be a man who is able to teach God's word rightly, correctly, that he believes that the Bible is the trustworthy, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

That is the living word of God.

That is what it means.

To be a pastor who has character, is one who is above reproach, one who manages his household well, and also one who holds to the word of God with all of his heart, mind, and soul.

Charles Spurgeon talks about the reason that this is so important for the pastor, because the pastor is one who is oftentimes weighted down with those troubles of the world.

Listen to what Spurgeon has to share.

In his 19th, if you don't know who Spurgeon is, by the way, Charles Spurgeon was a London preacher, probably the prince of preachers in his age, the best preacher of the day.

And he himself struggled in the valleys of life.

He was writing to his students, and he titled one of his writings, The Minister's Faint Fits.

He spoke in this text openly about the seasons of crushing depression that he experienced as he carried the burden of caring for souls of those he shepherded.

And what he says in that letter is one that is so true is that a man's talent only goes so far, that his giftedness is not the most important trait of the pastor.

In fact, the most important trait is one that roots deeper in the soul, and that is in the depths of God's grace.

Because without God's grace, you will fail.

A shepherd is one who holds on to the grace of God, because I will tell you, being a pastor, there are days where they're low.

It's one of the loneliest places in all the world, is to be a pastor.

Because you carry the burden of every single person in your church, and you can't share it with anyone without betraying trust.

And a shepherd's only as good as his trust.

A pastor has to rely on other pastors, usually far from the community he serves, to find just some encouragement oftentimes.

Because only there is it truly safe to express all the depths of despair that they feel at times.

But here's the beauty of it is that those burdens are easily laid at the feet of Jesus for the pastor.

And we trust Christ to see to it that those burdens go no further than to Jesus' feet.

A pastor is one of a high calling, it's a weighty calling, it is one that requires great character, but also it's one that is commissioned.

The pastor's commissioning.

We see this unfold really in Acts 13, 2 and 3.

We saw this a couple of weeks ago where we briefly looked at it, where you have Paul and Barnabas in worship in Antioch, and they are all worshiping the Lord.

They've been fasting, they've been spirit, they're spirit-filled, they are sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading, and the Holy Spirit tells them that he has set apart for ministry.

Barnabas and Paul, listen to this in verse 2.

It says, While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

They ordained them for the ministry that they had been called to, the mission that God has called them to.

And it is one that God calls, not man.

God is the one who calls his pastors.

We don't, no one does, except for the Lord.

In fact, if it wasn't for God's calling, I'll be real honest with you, I would not want to be a pastor.

I did not want to be a pastor until the Lord called me.

And it's because it requires God's anointing to pastor well.

It requires God's will to be that path, to be able to live that path.

And so when we gather and we say here in just a moment, we pray over clay, what we're saying is that we're recognizing that God has called him and commissioned him to the ministry, and we are recognizing that call.

We're saying we're worshiping the Lord because he has called a man to the honorable pursuit, the honorable task of pastoring and shepherding people's hearts.

Paul, writing to his young protege, Timothy, in 2 Timothy 1, he tells him this.

He says, I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.

As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice.

And now I am sure dwells in you as well.

For this reason I remind you to fan into a flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling.

Not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace.

It is God's sovereign choice, is what he says, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel for which I appointed a preacher, an apostle, and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

That's our calling as pastors.

To be good stewards of the calling and what God has given us, to fan into aflame the gospel good news so that people get excited about the good news of Jesus.

A pastor is an impassioned sheep that God has given authority to help other sheep see Jesus clearly, effectively, and to walk with them in life.

That's what it means to be a pastor.

A pastor has been called to dedicate their life to prayer and the ministry of the word of God.

Church family.

If you want to support your pastors, pray for us.

Diligently pray for us.

Satan hates God's shepherds.

He hates us.

Every pastor's family is attacked daily.

Pray for us.

Pray for our children, our spouses, and us.

Because if they can't if Satan can't get the pastor to fail, he'll try his hardest to get the wife to fail.

If not the wife, the children.

Because he hates the church and he hates the good shepherd who watches.

Please pray for your pastors.

But also know that when we teach you the word of God, we are doing our due diligence to point you to Christ every single time.

We want you to revel and love being in the Word of God.

Because there is no greater encouragement in all the world than his word.

Because it's a promise, a love letter to us that we have salvation in Christ, in Christ alone, and that he does not delay, but he is coming quickly to redeem that which was lost.

That we have a salvation in Christ.

Do you have that salvation?

Because the reality is, if you don't have the salvation of Christ, then you are not a sheep in God's fold.

You're merely a wolf in sheep's clothing.

But God can turn wolves into sheep through salvation through Christ alone.

Will you surrender your life to Christ this morning?

Will you lay down your life and say, Lord, save me because I know I'm a sinner?

Because the reality is we're all born sinners.

And for those that do know Christ, as we enter a time of invitation, I'm going to ask you to do something a little different.

And that I want you to focus on praying for your pastors, for their families.

But also pray that God would give you a heart that is sensitive to follow.

As your shepherds follow the chief shepherd.

Because that is ultimately our heart's desire is to follow Christ with all of our heart, mind, and soul.

Because that's the only way to truly live.

It's the only true hope.

With every head bowed and eye closed.