Prescription for a Healthy Church

I want you to turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

Everyone have a worship guide?

Anyone need a worship guide?

Anyone?

All right.

After this week and next week, you should have a whole little notebook of worship guides on the whole book of 1 Peter.

So here we believe in clear biblical truth.

Can I get an amen?

Somebody asked me the other day.

They said, Do you preach the book?

I said, Is there any other book?

Amen.

This church was founded on clear biblical truth, the word of God.

That's one of our four key core values.

And I love it.

And we we study it.

We study it verse by verse and chapter by chapter.

And so that's exciting.

The summer is going to be good because in July, Rick's going to be preaching on Abraham.

And what's the topic?

Friends with God.

Amen.

Amen.

And boy, that's a good, that's a good topic.

I've done a word study on Friends of God, and Abraham is the very beginning of being a friend of God.

So I'm sure that'll be a very enriching series.

And we're so blessed to have gifted speakers, preachers with me.

And it's just a joy to see these young men as they're growing and loving God, loving people.

That's who we are, and learning to shepherd people.

We're shepherds here.

We're not CEOs.

Can I get an amen?

We're shepherds.

We care about our people.

We know our people.

And that means so much.

And you're going to see that this morning.

In fact, I'm so glad that I've been in the ministry 40 plus years.

I can remember when God started tugging at my heart at about 17 to 18 years of age at a youth camp calling me into the ministry.

I didn't surrender to about 20.

So I'm now 65 and 20, you do the math.

That's a pretty good while that God called me into the ministry.

So I've been doing this quite a few years.

And I know I don't look it.

Thank you very much.

But I can still whip most of the younger guys.

But anyway, to be able to preach what I'm about to preach is would be hard for younger preachers to preach because it's going to seem very self-serving.

But at my age and in my fourth quarter, it's not self-serving by any means.

But I can actually say that I have personally lived what I'm about to preach for the last 40 plus years.

So not only am I bringing the truth, but I can literally stand before you and say, I've lived it for the last 40 years.

So what I'm about to preach is very true.

If you and I are going to have a healthy church, which we do, but there's a lot of churches, a majority of the churches that I'm convinced that aren't that healthy.

And there's two things in these next, in the first seven verses of 1 Peter, that really gives us two key components that have to be lived out in that church for it to be healthy.

So with that said, let's begin and let's look at the prescription for a healthy church.

And boy, what a beautiful prescription it is.

And he starts in verse 1, and he says, the elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.

So Peter is about to start a whole new section, and in this section, we come to Peter dealing with the issues of two things.

One, pastoral leadership, and secondly, the people submitting to that leadership.

And those are the two most important ingredients in a healthy church.

So let's begin by looking at number one, the pastor.

The pastor, or let's put plural pastors, here.

Number one, he says that there is a reality of pastoral work here in verse one.

Notice what Peter could have said.

Peter could have said, I am Peter the apostle.

Because he was an apostle.

And what was an apostle?

A person that had literally seen and walked with and talked with Christ personally.

I mean, that's powerful, folks.

So we see, Peter reminded us right here, look at verse 1, that he was a witness also of the sufferings of Christ.

Peter had seen the agony of Christ in Gethsemane.

Peter had seen and witnessed the mock trials, and he had witnessed the beatings of the Cat-O-9-Tales of Christ.

He had witnessed the crucifixion of Christ, the horrors of that crucifixion.

And he further states, look at it, that he had also, watch this, been a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.

Wow.

In other words, Peter had witnessed the glorified, and I love that, Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.

He had literally seen Christ taken up in all the Shekana glory of God.

He literally witnessed that.

Wow.

Peter had seen Christ ascend back into heaven.

And we see that in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And in addition to all that he had witnessed, he had received, now watch this.

All that he witnessed, he right there in one little verse tells you all that he had witnessed, all the surroundings of all the things that happened to Christ.

And then, though, what I love, in addition to all that he had witnessed, he had received a charge directly from Christ Himself.

And I want you to see this charge in John 21, verses 16 and 17.

John 21:16

And here's what he said.

He said, Peter, remember what he said?

He said to him again and a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said to him, Then what?

Feed my sheep.

So not only was he a witness of all that Christ was and who he was and what he did, even on Calvary, he receives a direct charge and command from God personally, feed my sheep.

Feed my sheep.

So when Peter speaks of pastoral work, he speaks with great authority.

He is well qualified to instruct us on concerning pastoral leadership.

Would you not agree?

Amen.

If anybody can teach pastors about leadership, following the example of Christ, who walk with Christ, live with Christ, it would be Peter.

And so Peter used the term here, watch, elder.

Presbuti ros.

It's the word that means age, rank, office, and also is substituted with the same word as bishop.

It can mean age.

The elders.

I am now an elder in age, but I'm also an elder in office and rank.

Called and placed by God in that position.

This is not something I chose on my own.

Now I know some do as an occupation, but I'm here to tell you this is not an occupation.

It's not a vocation.

It's a calling from God.

It's a divine appointment from God.

Trust me, I ran for two and a half years as hard as I could run against it.

I didn't want it.

In fact, when people say, How do you know when you're called?

I said, You go try to do anything and everything else but the ministry.

And when you can't, you know God's calling you.

When that burning desire is there and you can't do anything else.

That's the key.

So, again, when we find the term elder in reference to the New Testament, leadership, it has nothing to do with really chronological age, even though that can be part of it, but not really.

Here's what it means the term elder actually speaks, write this down, of maturity.

In fact, look at what Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, 6.

He said, not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation of the devil.

Whew, that's pretty powerful.

So now the question ought to be then what is a novice?

A novice is a new convert.

He's one who is unseasoned and untrained.

So when we talk about an elder, we're not necessarily talking about somebody who's in their 60s or 70s, even though 60s aren't bad.

70s aren't bad either.

Did I make up for that last time?

Okay.

But what are we talking about?

Someone who has experienced the Christian faith, somebody who's been born again, and somebody who has great knowledge and ability of the Word of God.

You just don't get up tomorrow and decide you're going to be a pastor and start preaching.

Now you can get up tomorrow and start preaching.

The woman at the well got saved and went back to the whole city and preached.

But you cannot be an elder without maturity.

And that is the most important thing about an elder.

An elder has proven themselves that they've got good working knowledge of the Bible as well as a great and good testimony.

Can I get an amen?

He's lived and living what he's preaching.

So we see the reality of the pastoral work is that he's saved, he's called of God, he's got a great testimony, and he is living the calling that God's placed on his life.

Now look at the second thing.

Look at the responsibility of this pastoral work.

Oh, this is good.

What is the responsibility of an elder?

What is the responsibility of a bishop?

A pastor.

And by the way, another word that was used a couple of times or implied several times is shepherd.

The word elder is a, not only is an elder, he's a bishop, he's a shepherd in the scriptures, in the New Testament scriptures.

But first of all, the pastor is to preach the scriptures.

Look at verse 2.

He says, feed the flock of God which is among you.

Now that is, again, as I showed you in John a while ago, a divine charge, a divine command.

The command to preach the word in 2 Timothy 4.2, he told Timothy, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

My greatest job, part of my job as a shepherd, as a bishop, as an elder, as a pastor, my number one job is Acts 6.4, to give myself continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word of God.

And that's why we have people like Dave that we've hired as ministrators, and we have associate pastors, youth pastors like Rick that really help to do all the other shepherding and helping me, shepherd.

You know I love shepherding.

You know that's my heart.

I'm gonna be with you.

I'm coming.

If you miss two or three Sundays, well, three Sundays, we're coming.

We love you.

We want to check on you.

When you're there, we we call you, we text you, I email you, I Facebook you.

Why do I do that?

Because I love you.

But that's my want to.

People say I don't like Facebook.

I understand that.

But do you do know there's a delete button on Facebook?

Hello.

That means you can control who's on your Facebook.

And I don't have any.

In fact, I deleted somebody, one of my high school buddies the other day.

He I remembered him vaguely and I'd shared a little bit with him, and all of a sudden he threw up something and had a bad word on it.

I said, delete.

You're gone.

Somebody said, Well, you can do this, and he won't know that you delete it.

I said, I don't care.

I want him to know I deleted him why I deleted him.

He's not gonna talk like that on my Facebook.

Hello.

But but I care.

I want to know what's going on here in your family.

You hear me all the time.

I may not write you a paragraph, and I very seldom will do that, but I'll give you a thumbs up.

Yeah.

That means I'm watching and caring about you and what's going on with your family.

And when I see that, I pray for you right then.

And that's what I do.

All those folks at the beach having a good time.

Put your toes in the water for me.

But when I see that, I pray for you.

I love you.

I care about you.

And that's what we do here.

That's the importance of what we do.

But the primary purpose is to preach the book.

Paul left Ephesus.

As Paul was leaving Ephesus, he called the pastors together.

Look at the charge he gave them.

In Acts 20, this is our charge, verses 24 through 28.

This is powerful.

But none of these things move me.

In other words, Paul said, I'm not going to let anything keep me from doing what I'm about to tell you that I'm doing and you're supposed to do.

Nothing should stop you from doing this.

But none of these things move me nor count my life dear into myself.

In other words, I'm not doing this because, hey, hey, I'm supposed to.

I'm not doing this because it's my job.

I'm not doing this because it's my vocation.

I'm not doing this because I'm mama called.

I'm doing this because God has placed in my heart a calling to preach the word of God and to love you and to shepherd you and to do everything I can to get you to live for Jesus.

Amen.

That's it, church.

He says none.

Then he noticed what it is, so that I might finish my course with joy.

And the ministry, which I have who received from the Lord Jesus, not mama, not your best friends, not a job, choice, received of the Lord Jesus.

Now watch, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

And now, behold, I know that ye all, he was a southerner, by the way.

It's biblical.

And I know that y'all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more.

He says, You may not see me again.

Wherefore I take you to record this day, you can bank on it, you can take it to the bank, that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Not just the good things, but the tough things.

The whole counsel.

Yes, the whole council.

In other words, you hear your pastor preach the whole council.

We preach on hell, we preach against sin.

The whole council.

Why?

Because he didn't want to stand before God.

And he said, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made me overseers.

Not only has God, now watch this, called the pastors, or called Paul, and he's telling Timothy, but now the person of the Holy Spirit who resides in my heart, hey, has now placed me as the overseer, the leader of the church.

Do you see that, church?

Say amen.

That's where God has placed us.

And notice his first thing as a leader, what's my main concern?

Watch this.

To feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Wow.

I'd say preaching's primary, wouldn't you?

Wouldn't you?

A faithful pastor will declare the whole counsel of God.

And God, Paul was saying that he would be free from the blood of all men because he was faithful in preaching the whole counsel of the Word of God.

Churches and Christians are dying because they don't know how to live a faithful, godly Christian life.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you something.

You go to a church and you hear a pastor read some good stories and poems and all that's nice, and there's places for that.

But if they're not feeding you the word of the living God, you need to find a church that is.

You will starve.

But not only will you starve, let me tell you something.

If you can go to church and leave Sunday after Sunday with no conviction that there's some areas in your life you need to change and work on to be more like Christ, you are not in a church that's preaching the whole counsel of God.

I get convicted so much every week.

Y'all don't know how much I y'all think y'all I'm hard on you, you ought to be me.

Ask Susan.

Whoa my goodness.

He takes me to the woodshed.

And then I I gotta live it in front of Susan.

And that means I got two Holy Spirits.

Hello.

But you know what?

I read a Father's Day card this morning.

Mary who spent the last three days with her.

And that card literally said, Dad, thank you.

For loving me and living in front of me the example that we're living right now in front of our kids.

That's it.

That's it.

I don't care if you say I'm a bad man.

Hey, I already got a home run for the day.

That's what matters.

And now their kids are being taught that.

Stephanie, those four kids.

Oh, what a blessing.

What a blessing.

Oh, what a blessing.

Now I need a handkerchief.

Amen.

Amen.

So we see right here.

The call is to preach, and the content of preaching is the word of God.

Now look, God's people are fed.

Listen.

God's let me tell you why it's got to be the primary thing.

God's people are fed and equipped for service through the ministry of God's Word.

What's this?

Look at Acts.

I mean Ephesians 4, 11, and 12.

And he gave some pastors, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

Why?

For the perfecting, the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building of the body of Christ.

That's what we do.

We feed the Word of God, we teach the Word of God.

We teach you your gifts and your callings as far as ministry abilities and giftedness.

I mean, you find where God wants you to be involved in your body.

It's so important.

Everything's important.

And Peter uses watch the analogy of shepherding.

Have you ever thought about that?

Notice what he says.

The shepherd must see to it that the sheep are fed.

Is that not it?

Shepherds have to tend to the sheep.

They have to make sure they're fed.

Now, watch this.

They also have to make sure that they're fed the right things.

Hello?

Sheep aren't very smart.

Hello?

Listen to me.

Sheep aren't very smart.

You let sheep go by themselves, they'll go off into a pasture where they'll have those bad mushrooms called poisonous mushrooms.

And you know what they'll do?

They'll eat them.

Why?

Mushrooms are mushroom to a sheep.

Next thing you know, they're sick.

Sometimes they even die.

So we see right here, shepherds must see to it that the sheep are fed.

Left to themselves, they don't do too well.

When sheep are not fed, or when they are fed the wrong diet, they will not be satisfied.

Listen to me.

You cannot be satisfied apart from being fed with the word of the living God.

The Bible says in Psalms 107, whoo! He satisfies the longing soul, he fills the hungry soul with goodness.

The reason we see so many hurting and wayward Christians, there's no doubt in my mind, in this world is because they're not being fed properly.

When preaching is neglected, the people will suffer.

No shepherd will have a healthy flock unless he feeds them regularly and appropriately from the whole counsel of God's word.

And I believe that.

Shepherds also must be well informed and knowledgeable of the vegetation.

In other words, the shepherds got to know what their sheep need for nutritional values.

They need to know what's best for those sheep.

Thank God for shepherds that get so involved.

Now you may say, I don't want my preacher involved in my life.

Were you in the wrong place?

You're in the wrong place.

Because I want to get to not just know you, I want to know the things you're going through.

That why do you think I'm about to preach when I get back off vacation?

Here's what I'm preaching on.

What happens when your world falls apart?

We've had a lot of people with their worlds falling apart this last year.

Hello.

Last month, there it said.

Hello.

So we're going to be looking at that.

We're going to be looking at eight to ten Psalms.

When my life falls apart.

In other words, seeing past the pain of the present.

It's going to be good.

It's going to be good.

I've already started a little bit.

It's going to be real good.

So we see the shepherd must be able to feed his flock the right things and keep them away from the wrong things.

Can I get an amen?

I can't make you stay away, but I ain't sure preach that you ought not to do it.

Be not deceived.

God is not mocked.

Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he reap.

At least I can warn you.

I can throw up the warning signs from the Word of God.

But not only does the pastor preach the scriptures, look, the pastor is to preside over the saints.

Look at verse 2 again.

Taking the oversight thereof.

The shepherd is much more than a preacher who simply fills the pulpit.

He is the chief shepherd, under shepherd.

In other words, I'm the under shepherd of the chief shepherd.

And Jesus is the chief shepherd.

And we pastors are under shepherds to the chief shepherd.

Can I get an amen?

And that's important.

He is the leader, the under-shepherd of the local church where God has placed him.

Peter speaks of the pastor, watch, watch, as taking the oversight.

He leads the church as Christ leads him.

A lot of modern churches have turned it around, and the pastors are nothing more than hirelings.

That's not scriptural.

The scripture clearly teaches believers to what?

Look at Hebrews 13, 7, that the pastor's a leader.

Listen to what Hebrews 13, 17 says.

This is powerful, folks, for both of us, the pastors and the people.

Watch this.

The scripture here clearly teaches believers to watch.

Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls.

Oh my goodness, what a responsibility.

As they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you as a member.

The pastor of the local church is responsible for the people of that church and will give an account to Jesus Christ, the chief shepherd.

Look at it.

For every Christian under their leadership, do you understand that?

All the people that are covenant members in this church, and more than that are not.

I know a lot of you are faithful as covenant members, you just hadn't filled out the paper or gone through the.

I understand that.

But do you realize, listen to me?

I will stand before God.

Rick will stand before God.

David will stand before God.

The council will stand before God.

But especially us pastors, elders, and give an account for every one of our members of how we've loved you, shepherd you, fed you, taken care of you.

Do you get that?

Now you want my position?

I'll swap tomorrow.

No, I wouldn't.

Because I can't, Robert, I can't.

Because I love it.

I'm called.

It's me.

It's in my, it's who I am.

It's my calling.

Mark Lowry had a song, Don't Quit.

Think about it, brother, but don't quit.

I couldn't quit if I wanted to.

I used to get so mad at her in my early ministry, I'd think I was, I was, oh I could have a pity party.

They don't care what it's me.

I'm doing all this and nobody cares.

Nobody says, I'm just a I'm just going.

And so I said, I'm just quitting.

Susan said, well, quit.

And just walk on about her business, not even comfort me, not come over on the I'm so sorry.

Well, just quit.

Knowing that I couldn't quit.

She'd just be smiling as she's walking away.

Get him, God, get him.

And he would.

Every time.

Every time.

So, that leads me to the second thing.

The pastor is to promote the Savior.

Now, wait, I'm going to come back to that because that responsibility is unbearable, really, when you think about it.

Do you realize I will kneel before an awesome God one day, all the pastors, elders, and I will give an account for every word I've preached from this pulpit, how I've treated you, how I've loved you.

I mean everything.

Do you understand that?

And you wonder why I care about you being faithful.

Because I'm held accountable for that.

That's why when you visit me, it may take me a week or two, but I'm coming.

Because I want to get to know what's going on in your life.

Can I pray for you?

You may not ever come back, but can I at least start praying for you for something?

I pray all day when I'm driving for church members and I go through our little tithe.

And again, I know if you're not on, if you're not on Facebook, if you are on Facebook, befriend me.

I'll befriend you so I can I can pray for you all the time.

I used to hate Facebook.

Now I love it.

The pastors promote the Savior under when I learned I could delete the weirdos, that's fun.

But hey, under shepherds.

Shepherds, we're to feed the flock of God.

Now, whose flock?

God's flock, not my flock.

Pastors must remember they've been given responsibility for tending the flock that belongs to God, not themselves.

It's not my flock, it's his flock.

I'm his under shepherd.

It's all about Jesus, the chief shepherd.

A pastor must lift Jesus up, not himself.

Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw men unto myself.

That's what he said.

So, the reality of the pastoral work, the responsibility of the pastoral work is to preach the scriptures, to preside over the saints, and to promote the Savior.

That's our job.

That's who we are, that's what we do.

Which brings me to the third thing.

See, the requirements of pastoral work.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter lays out some requirements for the manner in which a pastor's lead the church.

There's three or four things here that you've got to look at.

Oh, this is good.

Number one, you've got to have the right desire as a pastor.

Look at what he says in verse 2.

Not by constraint, but willingly, but of a ready mind.

This speaks of Peter's heart to serve.

You've got to have a heart to serve people if you're going to pastor.

You gotta be, you've got to have a heart to tend sheep.

Sheep are dirty.

Sheep stink.

Hello.

All of us.

We gotta love the sheep.

They wander off, they get hurt.

You gotta lead them, you gotta protect them, you gotta soothe them and mend them.

I meant, really, think about it.

You gotta have that heart.

Can I tell you something?

When people are treating, when people act the way they do, the only reason you didn't kill your kids is because you loved them.

Hello.

Amen.

Hello, you know I'm right.

I just said it.

Yeah.

Because we love them.

But they would just get you so upset and so, oh, oh.

Well, that's what sheep do.

That's that's just the way it that's life, really.

But aren't you glad you got a she uh would you rather have a shepherd just say, I don't care what you do, just go do it.

Just go ahead.

I I hey, I'm not gonna care.

I'm gonna do my own, hey, I'm just gonna preach the word, I'm not gonna come see you, I'm not gonna feed you, I'm just gonna, you know, I'm gonna do my little 20-minute sermonette, and I'm I'll go do my thing, you go do your thing.

The only problem about that, one day he's gonna bow before an awesome God and give an account of that.

God help us.

Too often pastors get caught up in a woe-is-me attitude.

You gotta have the right desire.

What a sad outlook on the ministry when all you do is worry about people not appreciating you or caring about or what you do.

If you're worried about what you do, you got a problem.

It's called pride.

And we all have it.

Don't say, Oh, we all have it.

We all want to be told that we do a good job in whatever we do.

Everybody wants, that's okay, that's natural.

But you can't dwell on it.

You can't think you're doing it, you have to reflect that praise to God.

You're not doing it as much as I love you, and yes, I am preaching my heart out to you because I love you, but I'm also preaching my heart out because I want to be pleasing to him.

And I'm not gonna stand before you on judgment.

I'm gonna stand before him and give an account.

That's why I have to, Susan will tell you, I just I have to put the hours in.

I if I hadn't put the hours in, I get on by Friday or Saturday.

I'm, oh, I gotta start, I gotta.

Because I've got to have my heart so full and ready to deliver the unadulterated truth.

And it's gotta be through me.

It's gotta work in me, it's gotta speak to me, it's gotta cleanse me before I can preach it to you.

And that doesn't happen in a few hours.

The pastor does not serve because he has to.

But notice what he says willingly.

He doesn't serve because he can't find better work.

To the pastor, there is no better work than God's work.

He serves with joy because that's what God wants.

Paul said that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which he has called me to do.

Right desire, look at the second thing, the right drive.

Look at verse 2.

Pastor does not serve for filthy lucre.

Pastor does not go into ministry for money.

And out of all the churches, if you saw what they do pay pastors, most of the pastors would not be doing it for money.

But there's some pastors that are fortunate enough to be in larger churches that can pay pretty big salaries, and that's what they do it for.

I've been with pastors Ned say, when I when I used to, when I was dean of the seminary, we had a placement in the seminary there, and we placed pastors every month.

All our graduates and other pastors, and first I'd have pastors call me up and say, What kind of churches are available?

Listen to that.

That right there with a flag would go up.

And then you know the first question after they'd asked me that second question?

Which one's paying the most?

You know what I'd do him?

I wouldn't be ugly.

But you know what I'd do?

I said, I'm not, I'm not giving his resume to anybody.

Maybe Walmart.

Let him be a greeter.

Not that greeting's bad.

But notice the right drive.

Notice what he said in Jeremiah 6, 3.

If a pastor develops a wrong attitude about money, I wrote this to myself, he will become a hireling rather than a shepherd.

A man who cares more about the paycheck, he does not care about his sheep.

Let me tell you something.

All the four or five times God's moved me.

I never, I never asked.

When I went to Liberty, I didn't ask what they were gonna pay me.

I wished I had.

Pretty bad cut, half.

I never ask.

And every time I've moved, it's been for less money.

Every time.

So don't tell me I'm moving for money.

Never have I done that.

Never will I do that.

And I had an opportunity one time, big one.

But God didn't move me.

I was president of the Tennessee Temple at the time, the church in uh Gallatin wanted me bad.

As soon as I had to come, and I had a guy come up, and that's the first thing he said, look, I'm one of the wealthiest men in this whole region.

He said, I know what they're paying you at temple, and I'll double it.

I was getting paid pretty good as a president.

I didn't even hesitate.

I said, you know what I said?

The moment he said that, I said, sir, it's not about the money.

It's about God's will for my life.

Amen.

Amen.

I'd rather be making squat and be in the will of God than making all the money that I could have and be out of the will of God.

People are there now.

They're making all the money and they're miserable because they're out of the will of God.

Can I tell you something?

You can't take your money to heaven with you.

I know you think you can transfer it, but it won't work.

The way we transfer our money.

Well, we'll, hey, on the rapture, hit my transfer button out of my savings, please.

I'm going to heaven.

Lord, help us.

Listen to what Jesus told.

Are you ready for this?

I had not seen this passage in this context.

I don't know why I've missed this.

I want you to watch this.

John chapter 10, verses 11 through 13.

John 10:11–13

Jesus is speaking here about the difference between a shepherd and a hireling.

Are you ready?

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

But he that is a hireling and not the shepherd, who's on the sheep or not, in other words, they don't own the sheep, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth.

And the wolf eateth them and scattereth the sheep.

The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling and careth not for the sheep.

A man that is in the ministry for the paycheck will fail to serve the sheep and sure won't protect the sheep.

They'll be gone.

When the going gets tough, they're gone.

Why do you think the average tenure of pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention is about three to three and a half years?

It gets tough and they go.

They bail.

It's easy to bail.

Pressure gets tense.

God's calling me.

I'm telling you.

Every green pasture has the same chemicals in it.

Do I need to say any more?

Hello?

May take you longer to find them, but they're there.

They're sister fluffy head and deacon potato heads in every church.

Every church.

They find me very quickly.

The right drive.

You gotta hang in there.

Be aware of the fact that it is not wrong for pastors to desire enough money to live and to be taken care of.

God intends for his people to take good care of the pastor.

Now I can say that.

Because I've been doing this.

I've been doing it long enough to know.

And I'll be honest with you, every church I've been in, they've always taken care of me and Susan.

Now, when we first started, they couldn't pay me much because we didn't have much.

Hello.

I'm going to tell you something I have never said from this pulpit.

First, when after we got married, we were in open door Baptist church before it exploded.

We're living in an apartment, and it took her three months to save up for two little sets of curtains that she bought from Walmart.

So don't look at me at age 65 and say, well, the pastor's got it made.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We've been there and we've worked our way every step of the way.

Nothing was given to us except by God's grace.

Can I say amen?

We've had a lot given to us by God's grace.

But he gave it to us because we work too.

Amen.

So that's what's wrong.

People look at us that are in our fourth quarter and they say, I want that right now.

It's going to take you 40 years.

Hello.

Get over it.

Get out there and go to work.

Hello.

I'll help people that'll help themselves, but I am not helping a bum.

I shouldn't say that.

I'm sorry.

But I meant it.

Paul said, even so hath the Lord ordained.

That they which preach the gospel should live the gospel.

Can I tell you something?

There is no country that will survive if all we're going to do is give everybody everything and they don't work for it.

I'm going on record saying that.

That is not biblical.

God's word said you don't work, you don't eat.

Let's quit expecting the government to take care of us and get out there and ask God to help us and do what we're supposed to do.

Just be faithful to God and faithful to work.

Woo!

You'll be happy.

That was a rabbit.

Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel watch should live the gospel.

Supporting a preacher is God's ordained means of caring for his workers.

Listen to what Paul said.

Let the elders, look at this, 1 Timothy 5, 17 through 18.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.

And the labor is worthy of his reward.

A church that wants to please God must see to it that the pastors are properly cared for and taken care of.

And I believe that with all my heart, and I can say that at 65 and fourth quarter.

It'd be hard for you to say that, but I can say it for you.

A church that doesn't take care of their man of God, something's wrong.

And a man of God that doesn't love his people and take care of them, something's wrong.

Because a real man of God will not be doing this for the money.

Because if you if you did the hourly wage, you wouldn't like it.

But then there's the reward.

The right demonstration.

Look at it.

For being examples to the flock.

Best way to lead is by example.

Paul led by example.

Not because we have the power or for the position, but to make ourselves listen to what he said in 2 Thessalonians 3.9, as an example unto you to follow.

Paul did not operate solely by his power and his position and his authority.

He was an example for others.

Later, Paul would instruct a young preacher by the name of Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.12 be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Shepherds go before their sheep to lead them.

You'll never see a shepherd driving his sheep and the sheep being in front of them.

They're leading them.

Pastors must lead the people of God along the path of life, feeding and caring for them with all their hearts.

Which brings me to number four, the reward of pastoral work.

And when the look at verse 4.

And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Wow.

Paul commanded the believers.

He's coming back.

When he returns, every pastor will answer to him.

Paul, now, Paul commanded the believers to obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves.

But now look at verse 17 again.

To obey and submit is the believer's responsibility, but notice the pastor's accountability in the same verse, for they watch for your souls that they must give an account.

And I've already dealt with that.

The pastor will answer to the Lord.

Watch this.

Let me you want to write this down.

This sums up all that I've preached this far.

Then we're going to go to the people.

And I wrote it out for me.

The pastor will answer to the Lord for his leadership.

All pastors' elders will answer to the Lord for their leadership.

But all the people will answer to the Lord for their followership.

Is that not good?

Which brings me to the people.

Second point.

Verses 5 and 7, and we're through.

There are two different groups, the elders, the preachers, and look at verse what he says in verse 5.

Likewise, ye younger, or you could put the people or congregation, submit yourselves unto the elders.

Yea, all of you be subject one to another.

Now the word likewise there tells us that the same subject is under discussion here.

The discussion of the first four verses focuses on the office of the pastor and his responsibility, while these verses, these two verses, focus on the congregation and their responsibility.

Notice what Peter says.

Submit yourselves unto the elder.

The word submit is always used in a biblical context of submission to a person who has a recognized office of authority.

Very important.

Such as a parrot, such as an employer or a government leader.

The command here is for the congregation to submit to the leadership of their pastor.

Now, not many folks like submission.

Not many of us.

We'd rather be an authority.

Hello?

Right?

Can I mention to all of us, all of us can't lead.

Somebody's got to follow, or are we in trouble?

If you have all chiefs and no Indians, nothing's gonna get done.

We're just gonna go around, nothing's gonna get done.

We're gonna do a lot of yelling and shouting, but nothing's gonna get done.

Hello?

You okay out there?

That's true though.

Is it not true?

Sure it is.

The commandment here is for the congregation to submit.

But now, watch, not many folks like that.

In fact, we have or not everyone again can be in charge, but Peter addresses watch the rank and file Christians here and makes the point that a congregation cannot function properly without a recognition of authority.

Look at what he says in 1 Thessalonians 5.12.

And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you.

I like that.

Labor among you, not rule over you, and are over you in the Lord.

Don't you love the way the Lord put that?

He says, your leaders are laboring with you.

They are setting the example.

They're not dictators.

Dictator will dictate by the way, that's what socialism is.

It's really dictatorship.

So here's what we see.

He says, we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.

In other words, they encourage you to do the work, but they're also going alongside of you, doing the work with you.

Can I get an amen?

Now that's a true shepherd.

So, the first thing is under the people, the place to occupy.

We're to labor together.

Secondly, the principle to obey.

Look at verse 5 again.

Peter went on to say, Be clothed with humility, for God resists the prowess to give grace to the humble.

This is powerful.

Peter deals with the number one thing that hinders submission.

You know what it is?

Pride.

Pride will ruin you.

Pride will ruin me.

Pride is what turned a beautiful angel into a devil.

Hello.

Y'all miss that.

Pride turned a beautiful angel, Satan, that was in heaven, into the devil.

That's what pride did to Satan.

Think about that.

A proud look.

Remember, pride is what turned Satan into the devil.

Of the things that God hates, a proud look is at the top of his list, Proverbs 6, 17.

Listen to what Solomon said.

When pride comes, then comes shame.

The Lord will destroy the house of the proud.

Proverbs 15, 25.

Everyone that is in proud in heart is an abomination unto God, they will not go unpunished.

Did you hear that?

Proverbs 16.5.

And then a man's pride shall bring him low.

Proverbs 29, 23.

There's no future in pride.

The prideful man is dangerous.

You know why a prideful man's dangerous?

He has no fear of God.

Hello?

He has no fear of God.

Listen to what Proverbs 8.13 says.

The fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogancy.

Wow.

Wow.

That's powerful.

Prideful people are hard to work with because they won't listen.

They're hard-headed.

They won't listen.

Have you ever been called hard-headed?

I'm going to ask that question again.

You ever been called hard-headed?

That's better.

So what does that mean?

Now you know.

That means you want your way.

And that you're stubborn sometimes.

Amen?

Oh me.

But really, it means we're prideful.

That's what it means.

I don't like the word pride because God hates it.

So we say we're not prideful, we're just stubborn.

Well, guess what stubborn means?

Prideful.

Hey, Danny Clint.

That's enough.

Next point.

There are a lot of Christians sitting in churches with the attitude that no preacher's going to tell me what to do.

Oh yeah.

They're there.

In fact, I'll tell you what they'll do.

They don't like what you're preaching, they'll just leave.

No commitment today, like it was when I grew up.

Old timers didn't walk out when there was a little wind blowing in the church.

You know what that means?

There's a little stuff going on.

Can I tell you when you get two or three together?

God's in his presence.

Can I make another interpretation?

When you get two or three together, you got some wind blowing.

Hello?

You okay out there?

That's why a lot of it I just let the wind come.

Now, if the wind starts stirring stuff up, that's when the preacher's gonna get involved.

Then we're gonna have to just kind of sigh.

Take that wind and say, peace be still.

Amen.

Don't like to do it, but we'll do it.

I will do it.

God's called me.

To keep peace and harmony and love in our church.

Be clothed, look what he says, with humility.

Isn't it amazing that Peter uses a metaphor in clothing?

Clothing is usually the first thing you notice.

When I hug your neck, when you're walking in, I guarantee you the first thing you notice is what I'm wearing.

Pastor's got his little black hat on, like his hat.

Usually got his yellow shirt, a black shirt, I'm usually cut a color coordinated.

If I have my jacket on, you I always get a better, whoo, you look good today if I'm wearing my jacket.

There used to be a book, still is, titled Dress for Success.

I think we've lost that book.

Dress is important.

Now let's bring it to the context of the scripture.

Wouldn't it be great when you are approached by somebody and they see you clothed looking great with humility?

Would that not be awesome?

That's the nicest person I've ever met.

Wouldn't that be awesome about our church?

Those are the nicest people over there at CCW I've ever met.

I had to repent the other day because I really got upset at somebody, and that's all I'm saying, but I did.

And my first thought was, they know I'm the pastor at CCW.

So I said, whoa, bring it down a notch.

I'm sorry.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

It matters, folks.

It matters.

Amen.

It matters.

And that's what he's saying.

It's very important.

Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.

Look at Philippians 2, 3 and 4.

But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others.

Peter says that God resists the proud.

The word resist means to set against, to stand against.

It is a military term that describes resisting an enemy army.

The idea here is that God is set against proud people who do not submit to authority in the local church.

God resists those who resist authority.

That's pretty powerful.

Whoa! Think about that.

Whoa.

Hmm.

Ouch.

And then he says, humble yourselves, therefore, in the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you.

But notice, under the mighty hand of God, it's not the preacher that's trying to get you to submit.

It's God who wants you to submit.

Listen to Isaiah 45, 9.

You are not just, hey, fighting the pastor.

You're fighting God.

Wow.

The Bible says, woe unto him that striveth with his maker.

Peter says that he may exalt you in due time.

The word exalt means to be lifted up.

Man tries to lift himself up, but God rejects it.

But the only way man can truly be lifted up is allowing God to promote you.

Jesus said, For whosoever exalts himself shall be brought low, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.

Luke 14, 11.

The exaltation comes in due time.

Not our time, but God's time.

Casting all your care, number three, and I'm through, the practice to observe.

For the people, we have the place to occupy, the principle to obey, and lastly the practice to observe.

Casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.

Note the word casting is in the present tense, connecting it with the previous verse.

Don't miss this.

Peter's not changing direction here.

Here's what he's saying: he's continuing with the same thought.

In verse 6, we're commanded to humble ourselves.

Now watch.

Verse 7, he tells us how to do it.

We attain humility by casting all our care upon the Lord.

The main thing that hinders our humility is that we take care of number one first.

We're worried more about us instead of how we can be pleasing to God and help others.

Wow.

Wow.

We're all guilty.

If I don't take care of myself, who will, we think?

Prideful people are always exalting themselves.

They are trying to lift themselves up while humble people are lifted up by God.

Here it is, and I'm through.

The idea here is just stop worrying about all that, hey, all of that stuff and give it to God.

He will take care of it because notice what he says in Psalms 55, 22.

What a verse to end on.

And here's what he says: He cares for you.

The psalmist said, cast the burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee.

He shall never let the righteous suffer.

Wow.

Is that not good?

Somebody say that's good, preacher.

That is good.

You're not going to suffer if you do it his way.

But boy, can I get me out of the way?

Anyone else need to get me out of the way?

If I can get out of the way and let God do his thing with me, and I cast every.

Hey, do you have a problem with people?

That's not a trick question.

Do you have problems with people sometimes?

That's bad.

That means y'all get along with everybody.

Let me ask that question again.

Do you ever have do you ever have disagreements with your wife?

Honey, do you ever disagree with me?

Sometimes.

Okay?

That's okay.

It's okay to disagree.

It's how we disagree.

Hello?

That's it.

Pride has you to want to win the fight.

You want your way.

That's pride.

If the wife wants her way, that's pride.

If you hey.

But if you want the best way, God's way, then you work it out.

You don't kill each other.

Hello?

Amen.

So what do you do?

You cast all your care about it.

If if Susan doesn't agree with me, I'm going to say, Lord, I'm going to let you handle that.

I know for years she's done that with me.

I've known for a fact, she'll say, I don't understand how in the world that can work, but Lord, I'm going to pray for him.

And you know what?

Somehow God works it out and it works out.

Isn't that amazing?

Sometimes he changes my heart, he changes her heart, or sometimes he just works it out and we didn't have anything to do with it.

Why?

Because your heart's right.

Can I get an amen?

Your heart's right.

I am convinced, I don't care who we are as Christians, there is nothing we can't work out to the glory of God if we're both willing to submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and then submit to each other.

Pastor Danny, that's hard.

Who said it would be easy?

Living the Christian life is a blessing.

It's not always easy.

Could you agree with that?

It's not complicated, scripture tells us.

Sometimes it's tough.

Giving and taking's tough.

Let me help you right now.

Marriage is not a 50-50 giving.

All you're gonna do is give 50%, that's all you're gonna get.

Marriage is a hundred percent giving from both of us.

Same way in relationships.

Same way.

So today, if you've heard anything, you've heard my heart.

If we're gonna have a healthy church, we've got to have shepherds and pastors that love God and love the book.

Our primary purpose is to preach this book.

When I'm no longer here, what I want to hear is that my dad, my congregation, he preached the book.

And secondly, he lived the book the best he could.

No, I'm not perfect by it.

Man, I got feet of flay.

Man, I get aggravated.

Quick sometimes.

Especially if I've told somebody to do something three times and they still won't do it.

I get aggravated.

And the only reason I'm telling them to do it is I know what it will do for them.

I hurt when I see my own kids or my flock not being obedient to the Lord.

Because I know what you're missing.

You're missing the blessings of God in such a way that you don't even know.

Me included.

This was not a self-serving message by any means.

At all.

And I think you know me well enough to know that.

But I did preach the truth to you.

And I don't care if you're here in other churches, just remember, if there's a man of God that loves you and preaching the word of God, you love him, you support him, and you stand with him.

Amen?

Because that's what you do as a Christian.

If anybody, I hear this saying with the young people with the millennials' name.

You know what it is?

I got you back.

Well, if anybody ought to have each other's back, it's us Christians.

Can I get an Amen?

Can I get a clap on front?

Hallelujah.

I got you back.

I'm here for you.

When everybody else walks out on you, I'll walk in for you.

I will.

We will.

We will.

I promise.

As long as I'm your shepherd, I promise.

I'll be there.

I'll be there.

And if I'm not there in person, I'll be there on phone.

If I'm not there on phone, I'll be on Facebook.

And if you want to, I'll FaceTime you.

I'm serious.

Just FaceTime me.

I ain't hit that button.

Amen.

We saw Deedra in a big waterfall Sunday.

Now she's here.

But we were talking that morning.

She was in Africa.

Yeah, yeah.

You're gonna do, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was shepherding.

My missionary coordinator.

It's amazing what we can do with technology.

A pastor, I don't care how big his church is, is without excuse.

Listen to me.

And I've co-pastored a mega church.

Without excuse, we're not being involved with their past their people.

Without excuse.

I was this morning, I didn't even have to type anything.

Siri and I had a lovely conversation for about 15 minutes this morning.

I was telling all the fathers, Happy Father's Day, telling my son-in-law how much I appreciated him for being a good daddy and a good provider for my children, and I love them and I'm praying for them.

Man, I was having a ball.

And you know what?

Next thing I heard, ding, ding, ding, ding.

My son in law's dinging me back.

You know why I did that?

Because I love them.

You know why I did that with you?

I love you.

So get me on your Facebook.