Honor and Burden - Pastors' Lives Beyond the Pulpit – 1 Timothy 5:17-23

Pastor Tucker did get to go on vacation this week, and it seems

like the perfect week for him to go on vacation to give me this

passage of scripture to talk about elders and leaders in the

establishment of pastors in the church from a position of not

the lead pastor. And so I'm going to stand up

here and read Paul's words to Timothy and advocate for the

role of a leader in the organization of the church.

And in doing so, I've been, I mean, praying a lot.

We've been going through this this sermon series called

Trustworthy, Trustworthy Church. And so today we're going to be

talking about trustworthy leadership, which is honoring,

correcting, appointing and caring when it comes to the

establishment of those leaders again within the church.

So Pastor Tucker got to go on on vacation.

So as we get to the double honor portion of the scripture today,

you will know that he was able to be double honored today and

get to go and and enjoy his family.

So as I was praying through and as I was trying to figure out

exactly how you know what this passage means for the

congregation, because I think this is an easy passage to

preach to a bunch of staff members of the church, to say

that your role and responsibility is valued and

valuable. And then to to give it to a

congregation to say, hey, now you also value and honor the

pastor and the leader, the people that are in front of you

teaching and, and praying for and, and agonizing over and

laboring and dealing with very weighty issues.

Honor them. And so as I was preparing, I

came across this, this sermon by Alistair Begg, who who does an

incredible job. But as I was, as I was reading

it, listening to it, trying to understand it, he opened his

sermon with this quote. And I thought it was perfect to

establish just the the groundwork for us as we get into

the passage today, it says the church is not a democracy.

It is also not a dictatorship. In fact, when we turn to the

Bible, we see that the church is a theocracy.

It is God who rules and governs, and he chooses to mediate his

rule through the direction of godly men.

God has appointed some to leadership of others, while he

is appointed all to the leadership of Jesus Christ.

And so as we're going through this letter that Paul writes to

Timothy, I want that to be fresh on your mind.

I want that to be what God uses to speak this message and what

the takeaways should be. Because it's not always a

democracy. It's not always a dictatorship.

It is God who establishes the ways of the church and he puts

people in place. They need to align themselves

with His will, with His call, with his direction, with His

Scripture to lead and to direct and to a point and to honor.

So with that said, join me one last time in prayer as we get

into the Word. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do

humbly just come before you, Lord, asking your Holy Spirit to

speak. Lord, asking for everybody in

the room to have open hearts to hear, to be able to navigate

this letter from Paul to Timothy and the purpose of it, which was

to establish and to operate and to govern and to function your

church. Lord, we thank you for your

church. We love the church.

And Lord, we look to you for all guidance, for all wisdom, for

all encouragement. This day to name, we pray, Amen.

All right, a trustworthy church honors its leader.

So again, we're going to be in First Timothy chapter 5, looking

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

at verses 17 through 23, and it just naturally breaks into four,

four different sections, the first one being the trustworthy

church and honoring its leaders. So starting in verse 17, it says

let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor,

especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

For the Scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads

out the grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages.

Paul very clearly states this idea of double honor and we just

focused on honoring true widows last week.

And so this idea of double honor that Paul is talking about has

2, two different aspects to the first one being just the natural

honor and respect that is given to the leader of the church who

has been appointed by God to lead us.

And so meeting them and being grateful, giving gratitude to

the one who leads well. So I also want to make sure that

we understand that it's very clear that it's not just, you

know, hey, because you're in this position, because, you

know, you have been put where you are put.

We just need to blindly go and, and follow them because I, I

know the trap that that can be because I, I, I probably do that

more often than not. Yeah, you're in this position of

leader. I just, I just follow.

I, I believe. But remember, if we keep in

front of us the idea of this theocracy that God is

establishing, God is appointing, God is putting in place then to

be able to say thank you, to be grateful, to show respect and

honor to a pastor or a leader who is in front of us, We're

actually showing honor and gratitude to God for

establishing that person in that position.

With Tucker out of town, he did put together 5 burdens of

pastoral leadership that I do want to share with all of us.

Because unless you've walked a mile in the shoes of somebody

who is in that position, you don't fully understand or or

can't fully grasp all that goes on.

And so I want to make sure that I established before we go any

further, the, the weight that goes into leading a church,

because it's not just, you know, like I said, it's not a

democracy. It's not a dictatorship, as as

Alistair points out, but it is you got to navigate what that

looks like. You got to you got to follow

God's lead. You have to prayerfully consider

what every decision means. And so with Tuck out of town,

he, he did put this together. But I also have found myself

over the last 20 years of ministry in different rooms with

different people, different pastors, different leaders,

different, you know, table settings, different conferences,

different places. And, and inevitably when

somebody goes, hey, how's it going?

Often times my response is, I don't know, I'm tired.

My stomach is always tied in knots because of whatever

decision is in front of me. I don't know if I'm doing well.

I don't know if I'm leading the way that I should be leading.

I don't know if the church is happy or sad or ready to follow

at a moment's notice or upset. I often know because the comment

cards that come in, but I find that to be very similar when I

asked the same question to many pastors because being a leader,

being a pastor within a church, being an elder is not a nine to

five job. It's not go home at 5:00 and get

to be with your family. So I'm going to read these.

And again, this is, this is Pastor Tucker who wrote this for

us. And so I, I wish I was better at

doing other people's voices, but I'm not.

So this is me reading Pastor Tucker's words #1 the weight of

people's burdens. Again, this is the the five

burdens of pastoral leadership. Leadership is more than sitting

in an office with a coffee and a Bible.

A good pastor is shepherding the flock among them.

We pray for people. We sit with them in hospitals.

We counsel broken marriages. We walk them through death and

funerals. It's emotionally heavy, and

without constant effort to cast the burdens on Jesus, it can

crush you #2 loneliness and isolation.

It's one of the great paradoxes of pastoral life.

You could be the most recognized person in the room and still

feel utterly unknown. People know your name, your

voice, your stories from the pulpit, but that only scratches

the surface of who you really are.

The church knows the pastor, but they don't know the person.

It's a strange kind of loneliness unique to those

called to help carry the burdens of others while quietly carrying

their own as well #3 criticism and discouragement.

Pastors live in the cold reality that you can't please everyone,

but you can let everyone down. Every yes comes with a

disappointed no. Every sermon leave something

unsaid. Every season has someone

unhappy. Even constructive criticism can

be heavy. It's good to receive feedback,

but it is still exhausting. Most people have a negativity

bias and pastors are no different #4 balancing family

and ministry. There's no real line between

work and home when your job is the church.

The rhythm of ministry. The rhythms of ministry don't

clock out at 5, and neither do the needs of your own family.

That's the tension. You belong to two families, both

precious, both hungry for your attention, and neither 1 keeps

office hours. Finally #5 being supported to do

the work. There are days when I still

wrestle with the fact that this is a job.

That I get paid to pray, to study the Bible, to write

sermons, to shepherd people through joy and sorrow, weddings

and funerals. It's beautiful, but also

strange. No path, no pastor worth his

salt, wants to drift one inch towards profiting off of the

gospel. And yet here we are, drawing

paychecks from the very thing we would do for free if bills

didn't exist and kids didn't need dinner.

Sometimes I Daydream about a normal job, one where I could

still serve the Kingdom but never have to mix money with

ministry. One where I'd never have to

wonder if someone thought I was in it for the benefits.

And yet Paul is clear, gospel work is labor and laborers are

worthy of their wages. That's the tension at the heart

of all of this. Elders are to be honored and

honor includes financial support.

So again, I don't I don't want this to sound like a pastor up

on stage saying, OK, congregation give more support,

more line our pockets so that we can continue to do the work.

But I do want to recognize that Paul is very clear in writing

this with intention to Timothy as he's calling Timothy to care

for the church at Ephesus. He's very clear in the church

government and how to go about establishing what this looks

like in those principles still land true today.

I don't know how many times I've had the conversation with

different people when they find out what I do for a job, they

go, that's cool. What do you do during the week,

which is I don't often preach. This is actually my first time

on a Sunday morning and six years that I've been here that I

stood in front of and so it seems seems purposeful.

Thank you. It seems purposeful for the

executive pastor to get up and talk about giving more money.

I'm kidding that that is not where this is, this is landing.

And I want the conviction in your life to really truly be the

conviction given to us by God. But again, as as pastors, you

know, as leaders, I think anybody in in a business who is

tasked with bringing people along knows the struggle of the

human nature, right? You know, the agony that goes

along with every decision that is made.

And that is no different when it comes to the church.

If anything, I can speak from example with the my stomach

being tied in knots every time I have to make a decision, knowing

that when I say yes to something, I'm actually saying

no to something else and agonizing over is this God's

will or is this my plan? Is this what God would have in

store for the leadership of the entire church?

Or is this something that just Matt wants to do?

And so I, I want that to come across very, very clear that it

is labor, it is weight, it is, it is weighty, it is work.

It does take time. It does take process.

It does take. And so if you've ever sat in

here and you're like, man, do they even think about what

they're doing? They got a white wall now.

Did anybody think about, I might like the black wall?

Yes, yes, a lot and a lot and a lot more than I would like to

admit. We thought about the color of

that wall, but that goes across the board.

I mean, as, as you know that I talked about these five

different things. We sit with people, we shepherd

the flock. When somebody in this

congregation sitting here with 1000 people represented, when

somebody has an issue, when they're in turmoil, when their

marriage is failing, when a loved one dies, a pastor comes

alongside and carries that weight with them.

It is work, it is labor, it is valuable, but it's been

established by God. So as the congregation, what

does that look like when it comes to our honor and our

respect and our care? And it doesn't come without, you

know, without account first. Peter 5 says a pastor must lead

willingly, not out of obligation.

It must be eager and not greedy. It must be examples and not

Lords. It must serve with humility and

faithfulness in Christ. Everything that we try to do is

done prayerfully considering what God would want for this

congregation. It's also not looking at the

church down the street and saying they have a really good

strategic plan. Let's follow that because we're

not CE OS running a Fortune 500 company that gets to focus on

generating more revenue so that we can reach more people.

This is faith, this is trust. This is established by God.

And so when Paul writes the scripture, you shall not muzzle

an ox while it treads out the grain that comes directly from

Deuteronomy 25 verse four. And what he's saying is there if

we were a Fortune 500 company, if we were CE OS just trying to

figure out how to generate more revenue so that we could sell

our product even more better. That was didn't come out right,

but it would drive sell more better products.

We would be like the pagans. They put the muzzle on the ox.

The purpose of the ox, the the exact what Paul is referencing

here is an ox. They would put a put a post in

the middle of a field and they would put all the grain with the

the husks and everything on the ground.

And the ox would be tied to the post and it was starting the

outside and as it walked in a circle it would get closer and

closer to the post and it would be working.

It would do it be doing the work that that men would normally do

and it would be breaking the stock from the seed so they

could then go and gather the seed and use.

And they said no, no, no, no. We want to, we want to keep all

of the revenue. We don't want to pay the ox.

The ox is free labor. So why would we do that?

And Paul says no, no, no, don't put a muzzle on an ox.

Give the ox what it it needs. Give the ox.

Pay it for its work. Allow it to graze on the stock

and the seed while it is threshing.

Same thing for a pastor. As your pastor, as your leaders,

as they are working, as they are caring, as they are toiling, as

they are laboring to care for the flock among them.

Pay them. Pay them, allow them to earn a

wage that is worthy of the work that they do.

That never ends. Pastor Tucker mentioned families

and being a leader, being a pastor, being a church leader

doesn't. It doesn't end.

It's one of the weirdest jobs I think I've ever had because it,

it, it, it doesn't go away. Everything continues, and I know

that there are people in here that it's the exact same way.

And so please hear me say we're getting into the Scripture or

recognizing how Paul is telling Timothy how to establish the

church. And then again, those principles

land true to us today #2A trustworthy church.

Judges Sin fairly says do not receive an accusation against an

elder except from two or three witnesses.

Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of of all that the

rest also may fear. I have 4 kids.

I don't want to admit that it was on accident.

No I'm kidding. The the 4th, the 3rd and 4th

were twins. So it was not on purpose, but it

was God's plan. And I was as I was, as I was

thinking about this passage, it was like, you know, do not

receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three

of this comes from Deuteronomy 19 talking about don't just

listen to one person's accusation and make a quick

judgment and correct them. Like get witness from two or

three people, validate the claim.

Do the investigation, do your due diligence before going and,

and bringing them in front of everybody and making an example

out of them. And again, I have four daughters

and in our house, it is very, it happens more often than not of

an accusation flying against somebody else in the home,

right? So, and so did whatever you

could think of. It's always, you know, you think

4 girls, it wouldn't be weird. It's it's the same.

But an accusation flies, and then I have to go, OK, what's my

role in this? Do I believe the one or do I now

go to the other two and say, hey, can can you validate this?

Did this actually happen? Can you give witness to what you

just saw? And I know that I equate, you

know, treating elders with the four kids in my home.

But the principal stays the same.

Principle is don't be so quick to judge, but don't also dismiss

it. Again, I think if I were so

quick to take every accusation against anybody in the church or

pastors or leaders with the comment cards that don't have a

name attached to them, nobody would be here.

I know that we all have preferences, I know that we all

have desires. I know that we all have ways

that things should be in our eyes.

But again, looking at the Gods establishment of the church and

Paul directing Timothy, leaders are to not be quick.

However, if two or three come forth with the same accusation

of an elder sinning, he's very clear about bring them in front

of the entire congregation and not just make an example out of

them, but point it out. Let the church see he he says

specifically that the rest also may fear and get.

It doesn't happen very often in my home when I have to make a, a

public example out of one of my daughter's, but I guarantee when

I do and the other three see it, they know exactly how to act or

not to act moving forward. And so believe me when I say we

don't take accusations lightly. We don't, we don't take that

lightly at all. And there is a process that we

go through. I'm going through it currently.

It is no fun. It's not fun at all.

And and it is work. It is labor, it is strenuous, it

is taxing, it is exhausting, it is nerve racking.

It causes me to lose sleep because I don't want to get it

wrong. So Paul saying, hey, Timothy,

you're this is going to happen. People are going to have

accusations against somebody else, including leaders in your

church, when it happens. Be mindful of that.

Be cautious about that, be careful with that.

Go slow with that when slow needs to be the speed to go and

be quick with it if quick is the speed that it needs to be.

And that's the interesting thing about leadership in a church.

We have Scripture to give us reference on how to maneuver,

but Scripture doesn't speak to every instance that we have to

navigate. And so be praying for your

pastors, be encouraging your pastors.

Give them the first honor of respect and encouragement.

The second of, you know, never second guessing if if this is

the job that they should be doing or having to go get a

second job or a third job or a real job so that they can do the

ministry that God has called them to.

Secondly, continue to pray for them as they navigate through

difficulties. You know, Paul had a, there was

a different way of doing church back in the day.

It was obviously not show up on a Sunday, listen to worship and

a sermon and move on with your life and go about your business.

It was more communal. But even then there was a desire

to be private, right? I think obviously now we have a

little more of a desire for our sins to be private, for actions

to be private, for the things that we go through on a a weekly

basis to be private. And so to bring them into this

arena and confess them is is a lot more difficult.

And so in his time, obviously bringing them in front of the

the church family made a little more sense.

But we are to do the same thing today.

And the church history, this church history does have sin in

its in its background, does have brokenness in relationships in

its background. And so this is not unique in

this setting. And, and we have to recognize

that as a a pastor and a leader of a church, we have to navigate

through those gently, cautiously, carefully,

prayerfully, with honor and dignity, but also do the

difficult thing sometimes #3A trustworthy church appoints

leaders wisely. And Paul is very clear on on

saying this right after he talks about the sin of an elder

because he goes, hey, I think you could save yourself some

heartache if you just go slow. Don't lay hands on people too

quickly. I'll read it.

It says verse 21. It says, I charge you before God

and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that you

observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with

partiality. Do not lay hands on anyone

hastily, nor share in other people's sins.

Keep yourself pure. Again, I charge you before God

and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that you

observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with

partiality. There is a severity to this.

What Paul is telling Timothy is be very, very serious when it

comes to the establishment of leaders within the church.

Go slow. Witness what they are doing.

See the fruit from their actions, from just the way that

they conduct their lives. Are they believing in Jesus

Christ and being established in leadership by him or do they

have ulterior motives? Paul in chapter 1, he talks

about it, he says, hey, watch out for those ones that are

trying to rise up from within the church who desire leadership

but are doing it from a position of pride.

There needs to be a humility that is witnessed by the leaders

that are going to be established.

And Paul tells Timothy go slow. Do not lay hands on anyone

hastily nor share in their people's sins.

Keep yourself pure, go slow when you're establishing a leader,

witness their character, see what they're all about.

Character, not charisma, builds long term trust.

There was a a friend I used to do ministry with and he was one

of three boys. I have 4 girls now.

He was one of three boys growing up and his mom had a saying.

I think I shared this at man camp a couple years ago or maybe

even last year, but she would say one boy is a boy, 2 boys is

half of a boy, three boys is not a boy at all.

Paul is telling Timothy, hey, don't find yourself in the same

situation. Don't allow their bad behavior

to rub off on you and find yourself in that same bad

behavior. Don't allow the sin of others to

pull you away, to allow you to live a life that is not God

honoring. And then finally #4 and I, I had

to preface this first service, and I don't know that I did a

very good job of it because jokingly after first service,

most of them said, I'm going to go home and drink wine now.

I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no #4 is there's a

trustworthy church cares for its leaders holistically.

And it comes specifically from verse 23.

It says no longer drink only water.

And again, this is Paul speaking to Timothy, many, many years of

ministry. And so Paul probably knows the

way that Timothy deals with handles, carries the burdens of

the people that he's interacting with.

He says no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for

your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities.

And in that day, the wine would it, would it would settle,

settle the stomach. It was used for medicinal

purposes. And the purpose of this, the

purpose of Paul talking to Timothy in such a way to say,

hey, make sure that you still have some time for yourself not

to go and drink excessively and get drunk.

Scripture is very clear about not doing that, but allow a

little bit of wine to calm your stomach to take care of the

ailments that you carry. That can be a direct effect of

being in ministry doing the work that God has called you to do.

So again, in student ministry, at the end of the message, I

always had to say, hey, what 3 things are you going to go tell

your parents that you learned drinking wine is not one of

them. OK, Paul is specifically saying,

Timothy, take care of yourself. Don't forget to give yourself

some time. Don't forget to minister to

those that you love. Don't forget to have healthy

relationships. Don't forget to enjoy the day.

Don't forget to. He recognizes the weightiness of

ministry and he's encouraging Timothy.

Hey, don't get so caught up in it.

Don't look to yourself for all of the answers.

Instead, seek God in everything that you do.

Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you.

Allow the Holy Spirit to guide and to maneuver and to care for

you. But there will be times.

And trust me, I feel it right now.

I'm very, very nervous. Take time for yourself.

There is a weightiness that comes with this.

I asked Tucker, I was like, do you feel this every week?

And he goes, Yep, because we want to do what's right in God's

eyes. We want to lead a congregation

with integrity. We want to maneuver in this

culture in such a way that God gets the glory, but we also

understand the weightiness of it.

And it's by no mistake that I've said weightiness a lot because

it is a burden that if we carry on our own, it will drill us

through the ground. And I know that that's true for

so many in the congregation today.

But praise God because he made a way.

He had a plan. He sent his Son Jesus Christ to

die on the cross for our sins. He said his yoke is easy, His

teaching is easy, and his burden is light.

Allow Jesus into the process. So congregation, pray for your

leaders. Congregation also go to your

leaders. Congregation, go to one another,

care for one another, minister to one another.

Recognize the family of God that has been established here in

this little corner of our city. Would you stand with me?

We're going to take communion because Scripture is very clear

that God loved us so much while we were still sinners.

Christ died for us. And I want us to remember that

we are acting as a theocracy, looking to God's Word and the

Holy Spirit to guide and to direct.

So Scripture says, as we gather together, we take communion and

remembrance of what Jesus Christ did for us.

So we'll take the bread which represents his body being broken

for us, and we'll take the cup which represents his blood being

poured out for us. We'll take it in remembrance of

Him believing and trusting and having faith in His Holy Spirit

that lives and is active in our lives so that everything that

goes from beyond this place, we are representative of His

Kingdom, of His goodness, of His love.

Not just here at church, but in the marketplace, in the

workspace, at our homes. When we're exhausted and we need

a break, recognize that God is for us.