20260412 Elders Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Let's pray together once again. Heavenly Father,

we are thankful to be your children. We are thankful

to be under your care. To have you as our Father,

as our King, as our Savior, our intercessor,

our helper and friend. We come again now to ask

for your help, confessing our weaknesses and

inabilities. Understand and comprehend your word

to teach it to in any way accomplishing Accomplish

anything good in this time apart from you So

we ask you to own it. We ask you to own it for

your own glory for our good that you would Enable

us to be submissive to the Holy Spirit to apply

all that we hear to ourselves and to no one else

Thank you for this word this morning father and

we come with confidence Knowing that you will

accomplish all of your perfect purposes and will

in the hearts of your people So we do ask again

though this morning for the loss that those who

were gathered here amongst your people and in

other places as well that is that are Accurately

proclaiming your word that you would have mercy

on some Grant repentance and faith bring them

unto Christ that they would join their voices

with ours in the great chorus of praise We ask

it all in Christ's name Well today we're going

to be finishing up our series of messages on

the church And no series of messages on the church

would be complete without considering the role

of are the ministry of the elders in the church.

So that's what we will be looking at this morning.

Hopefully, as the Lord enables, we will understand

that the ministry of the elders is greatly dependent

upon the people of the church. We'll start then

in Ephesians chapter 4 I want to turn there with

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

me Christ is ascended and in verse 8 We read

wherefore he saith When he ascended up on high

he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto

men. So when Christ perfectly completed his ministry

on the earth, his ministry was continued in heaven

as the great intercessor, of course, and the

giver of gifts. And so we would expect Paul to

enumerate those gifts, some of them anyway, in

the following verses, and he does so. So in verse

11 we read, and He gave some apostles, some prophets,

some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers

for the perfecting of the saints, for the work

of the ministry, for the edifying of the body

of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the

faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God

unto a perfect man. unto the measure of the stature

of the fullness of Christ. So here we find the

source of the elders of the church. Lo and behold,

they don't come of their own selves, of their

own power, or their own desire. They don't come

because somebody else thought that they should

be an elder. They don't come because they went

to school. for three years of graduate school

to become qualified to become an elder, none

of those things are mentioned. What is mentioned

is that the elders are a gift of God. The source

of the elder is God Himself. And through the

workings of many different ways and through many

different people, He somehow gets his people

in the eldership Unfortunately, we can't say

that All elders are gifts from God we all have

experienced plenty of problems with elders Right

not making it up So but We need to just really

confine this to ourselves and so I Just ask I

ask the elders I ask you is this true of us?

Have we as elders been? Called set apart given

the gift of being an elder and as you as a congregation

to you have undeniable proof or at least a degree

of confidence that the elders who serve the church

here are indeed of God. That we are the gift

of God for this church. Now how we view each

other is important, obviously. Hopefully that

we all agree on that. That the elders here were

given by God. and that everybody is here, that's

here, is put here by God. So what's the purpose?

The source is God Himself, we've seen that. What's

the purpose of the elder? He tells us that too.

He says, for the perfecting of the saints, for

the work of the ministry, for the edifying of

the body of Christ. That's what elders do. They

enable the membership of the church to grow in

their faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ so

that they can minister. So they can be effective

ministers of Christ. That's what it says, right?

Perfecting of the saints for the work of the

ministry. Now if you think that the only ministry

of the church is the elders, obviously we're

not thinking right about that either. Our whole

life is a life of worship and ministry. And we

need to be constantly equipped for it. We need

the elders to help us to do that. That's what

the elders are here for. That you might be able

to live a Christian life. That you might be able

to go through this life doing what God has called

you to do, whatever that is. Remember, if you're

a doctor, you're supposed to be the best doctor

that you can possibly be, to the glory and honor

of God, giving all praise and glory to God. If

you're a carpenter, it's the same thing. It's

no less of a calling. It's no less of a ministry,

to be the best carpenter that you can be, to

be a witness wherever God has put you. That's

what we're talking about here. The work of the

ministry. All of life is ministry if you understand

it properly. So that's the purpose. That's what

we're trying to do here. To what end or what

is the goal? Tells us that too. Verse 13. So

we all come in the unity of the faith. Now the

unity of the faith is the truth of the faith,

the truth of the gospel. That's our faith, the

truth of God. We all worship the right Jesus.

We've all come in a unity to believe the right

things about Jesus. That's what it means, the

unity of the faith. It's not talking about our

belief. It's talking about what we believe. So

we all come to the unity of the faith and of

the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect

man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness

of Christ In other words being transformed day

by day into the fullness of Christ That's the

goal being perfect being complete in him. When

will that happen? Well, we all know we've said

it a thousand times It doesn't have it's not

going to be perfect till we get to heaven So

what? Well, so that ministry then goes on and

on indefinitely. It never runs out of steam.

It's never unnecessary. It's a continuing ongoing

thing. Shooting for the goal. That we would all

come to the unity of faith. That we would all

have the truth. We would all believe the truth.

That we would all be conforming ourselves unto

the fullness of Christ. That's the goal. That's

what elders are working toward. And they're continually

working to accomplish that mission, that ministry.

So all that I want to go over to Acts, and we'll

spend the rest of the time however long it would

be. In Acts chapter 20, This is Paul's farewell

Acts 20 · chapter mention

address to the Ephesian elders. He spent three

years in Ephesus teaching and training these

elders, admonishing publicly, privately, from

house to house. and doesn't tell us how many

elders there were but there were a number of

them. And so he gives them this exhortation in

verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves

and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost

hath made you overseers to feed the Church of

God which he hath purchased with his own blood.

For I know after this that after my departing

shall grievous wolves enter in among you not

sparing the flock also of your own self shall

men arise speaking perverse things to draw away

disciples after them so take heed you might have

be on alert or pay careful attention to. King

James obviously says, take heed. The verb there

is a continuous action verb, just like in the

Ephesians passage. It's an ongoing verb. It never

stops. We never have taken heed enough. We never

have paid careful attention, and so therefore

we can stop paying careful attention. It's ongoing.

Take heed. The first thing he admonishes them

then is to take heed therefore unto yourselves.

So he wants these elders to take heed for themselves.

Now everything I'm about to say obviously is

going to apply to the congregation as well. But

Paul's not initially addressing their attitude

or their responsibilities or ministry to the

congregation. He's expressing the ministry to

themselves. So elders, elders who are elders,

must take heed to ourselves. We must pay particular

attention to our character. We must pay particular

attention to what we're learning. how we're learning.

We must pay particular attention to our prayer

lives. We must pay particular attention to the

group as a whole. The ministry of the elder begins

with the elders. If we see a problem with an

elder then we are to confront that problem. If

we see that one of the elders needs help, we're

to give that help. We're to be constantly on

watch for one another as elders. That's our responsibility.

That's taking heed to ourselves. We've got to

be concerned in all areas of our lives that there

can be no shame or disgrace or dishonor brought

unto Christ. the Christian ministry or in our

case believers chapel because of us. That's what

we're taking heed to. We're taking heed to what

we teach. We spend hours on what we teach. What

should we be teaching? What's the next subject?

What's the next book? When we've established

the topic or the book Well, we got to get it

right it has to be studied it has to be figured

out and Then after we've done all of that we

have to apply it to ourselves Before we ever

say a word about it to the congregation There's

no freedom there's no freedom up here preaching

to other people if we haven't preached the same

word to ourselves If we haven't taken the Word

of God seriously in our own lives, believe me,

we can't preach it to you. I'm confident. I'm

speaking for the eldership. I know I'm speaking

for myself. The power comes through receiving

what God has for us first and then for the congregation.

That's how we take heed. We submit ourselves

unto the Word of God. We learn from Him. We grow,

we're conformed more into the fullness of Christ

through the Word, the study of the Word, through

the reading of books, what all different areas

and avenues that God takes us down, personal

conversations, acquaintances. hearing something

from you all. You never can finish being conformed

to Jesus Christ. You've never adequately completed

the task of being conformed to Jesus Christ.

And really, if we are elders in deed, we have

to admit that we've never... We have never exposited

a text to its fullest extent. We can't do it.

It's impossible. We do what we can. We do the

best that we can. We try to get the word in a

way that is edifying to ourselves and then edifying

to the church, but we never. We can go back to

the same text the next year, the next month.

We'll get something else out of it. We know that.

We know our limitations. Conrad used to tell

me all the time, God's got very few silver trumpeters.

He's got a whole lot of buglers. That's what

we are here, is buglers. Maybe God's gonna raise

up amongst you all a silver trumpet He hasn't

yet So take heed to ourselves as a group as individuals

Take heed to all the flack over which the Holy

Ghost hath made you overseers Now as I said before

is this how you view the eldership Notice it

says all, all the flock. It doesn't say it's

okay for part of the flock. It's alright if you

don't handle all of the flock. That guy's too

tough. He's too set in his ways. I know that

you're not going to be able to minister to some

of these people. That's not what it says. It

says you're to minister to all of the flock that

God has made you an overseer. Everybody that's

here, in other words, God has put under these

elders, this eldership, all of you, you're all

to be ministered to as the flock of God. None

can escape. Well, how do we do it? How does an

elder properly exercise his eldership in the

Church of God? Well, the first thing we've talked

about this many times is the relationship that

the elders have with the flock, with the people.

Do we have good relationships with the people?

Do we know them? Do we know your strengths, your

weaknesses, your needs? Do we have an acquaintance

at least? Hopefully we have a real friendship

with everybody here. How can we minister if we

don't know you? It's impossible. How can we be

useful if we don't know you? And you know I don't

mean just know who you are. So assuming then

that we do have this relationship, how does ministry

take place? If you read any type of instruction,

if you've ever read any preaching books, the

beginning of the instruction is preaching. The

exposition of the Word. The ministry of the Word

in people's lives. That's where it all starts.

There's nothing more important in the church

than the ministry of the Word. Is that our attitude?

It's the attitude of the elders. I know I can

speak for all of the elders. But what is your

attitude? What do you think about the time of

the preaching and teaching of the Word? Is this

your main meal of the week? Do you have a secondary

meal on Wednesday? Do you think you can eat one

meal a week and that's fine? Do you think you

can eat one meal on the Word? and not the prayer

meeting? Do you think you can skip the Wednesday

meeting because you've got other reasons or other

things going on? Well, why do we have a prayer

meeting? Why do we have a Wednesday meeting?

Why do we have a meeting on Sunday? Well, we

all know or hopefully know that the Sunday is

the day that the Lord set apart to come together

to worship. He rose on the first day of the week

and he appeared to the apostles throughout those

next 40 days on the first day of the week. We

know that. The church throughout history has

met on the first day of the week. It's resurrection

day. We celebrate it here week by week. So that's

why we meet on Sunday, the first day of the week,

the Lord's Day is what it's called. So there

wasn't any decision needed by the elders to set

up a meeting on the Lord's Day. We just followed

the Bible. That's what they did in the Bible

time. There was a decision that had to be made

as to whether we would have a Sunday school curriculum

or a prayer meeting. And whether we would have

a prayer meeting before or after the meeting

of worship. Somebody had to decide all these

things in other words so the elders obviously

as the as the leaders of the church had to make

this decision and we did we said we would have

the prayer meeting first followed by the main

worship meeting and We would have a meal every

Sunday and we got that out of acts and several

other places where tells us what they continued

steadfastly in. I'm not going over all of that.

The point is, somebody, and it's the elders,

had to make the decision. Now, are you in agreement

with that decision? Do you view the activities

of the church as a restaurant menu? That you're

opening up the menu and you're deciding what

you're going to have for dinner. You got all

kinds of picks from. Is that how you view the

activities of the church? As suggestions for

meals? The elders really didn't have me in mind

when they decided to have a Wednesday meeting.

Do they really think I need to be here on Wednesday?

Well, of course! Your reasoning is wrong. We're

ministering to the church. We're not setting

up a Wednesday meeting because we don't think

it's needed. We're not doing it because it's

tradition. We're not doing it for any of those

reasons. We think that in order to equip you

to do the ministry that you have been called

to do, and to be conformed more and more to the

fullness of Jesus Christ, that we as a church

have to gather together here on Wednesday nights.

It's not another menu item. Now I understand

there's going to be times when we can't be, I'm

not, you know all that. There's times when you

can't get here on Sunday. I understand all of

that. But I'm saying the tenor of our lives should

be that we are here. That we do get here on Wednesdays

That we're here for prayer that we're here for

the worship that we eat meals together How does

how do we get to know each other? You know if

we can't spend just that minimum amount of time

together throughout the week How do we know what

that's your so what's your problems or how do

we know what's what you're suffering from? How

is it ever going to work, this relationship between

pastors and congregation, amongst the congregation

itself? Take heed. It's important. Take heed

to yourselves. The pastors are taking heed. Why

else do we come at least once a year in everybody's

home? To have these talks and times together.

To learn about each other. To help. To find out

how we can minister more effectively. To take

the criticisms that you give, if you give any.

To take the encouragement to us that you give,

if you give any. That's the whole purpose of

ministry. It's a social call, but it's not a

social call. It's really an important meaning.

It's much more than a social call. It requires

honesty, openness, the help of the Holy Spirit.

That's part of the eldership. That's part of

the elders' ministry. That's a part of the elders

that are guarding and protecting the flock. I'm

just being brutally honest. I don't know, I don't

know that you know. So I'm telling you, when

you show up here, it's a celebration to the elders.

Just seeing you here on Wednesday, on Sunday,

or any other special meetings, just seeing you

here is an encouragement. and a cause for celebration

amongst the elders. That's the truth. And then,

you're here. And we begin to share our prayer

requests. And unfortunately, everybody that's

here doesn't have a prayer request. Now you know

that's an impossibility, right? It's just not

possible. That you don't need any prayer. That's

eternal discouragement to the eldership. Sitting

there mung, saying nothing. What does that say

about you? What does that say about your relationship

to all of the other people and to the elders?

It says you don't trust us. That's the best that

it can say. It also says I'm too proud. Hopefully

it doesn't. I'm too proud. I don't need it. That's

for other people. You want to encourage your

elders? Make some prayer requests. Let us know

you. Let us know how we can pray. You know that

your elders pray for you whether you've ever

made a request or not. Your elders are all praying

for you day by day by day. Now it's not very

informed prayer because you haven't told us anything.

But it is prayer as best that we can. Hopefully

other people in the congregation are praying

at least on a somewhat consistent basis for other

people in the church. We believe they are. Hopefully

we're right in that belief. We take it to the

next step then. You never requested a prayer

and you never prayed. We never hear your voice

in the prayer meeting. Never. Can that possibly

be true? Can I possibly be right? Of course I

am. Everybody knows I am. That's just not right.

That's a total discouragement to your elders.

Hopefully it's a total discouragement to the

rest of the congregation. When you don't pray.

What kind of ministry do you have if you don't

need a prayer request and you don't think it's

important that you pray for other people? That's

what you're saying when you don't pray. You can't

count on me. You know I'm not going to pray.

Right? I don't know. I don't know what's going

on. I do know that it's been way too long. Soft

and pleasant words have been going on and on

and on here about this subject. And nothing has

changed. The same people that pray continue to

pray, continue to persevere, continue to be an

encouragement to their fellow Christians and

to their elders. And the people that don't pray,

they haven't prayed. That's all. Why? We have

conversations. Everything that we can do, we

pray that these folks would. It breaks our heart

that this is going on. Our ministry is failing.

Are we going to be held responsible for this?

I mean, that's the reality. It's not just okay,

it's just not something that the elders just

can forget about. And it doesn't bother us. And

we don't care. And we care so much because we

love you guys. We want you to prosper. We want

you to have a ministry in your life, a purpose.

And we want you to be conformed to the image

of Christ. That's the only reason for an eldership.

Well, one more thing. How do you present yourself

during the message, during the preaching of the

Word? Most of us do... A much better job on that

than we do at the prayer meeting. When I'm up

here, anyway, and I'm trying to make as much

eye contact as I can, I see people paying attention,

for the most part. They seem to be wanting to

receive the word. They want the instruction.

They want the help. A lot of you take notes.

Well, some of you take notes. We made it possible

for everybody to take notes because we gave notebooks

away. You know, so notes are good. That's a great

thing. Some of you though, occasionally I see

conversing during the message. You can't converse

and pay attention, can you? I mean, I'm not wrong

on that, am I? Sometimes it's a... It seems as

though there's some joking going on during the

message. Now, I haven't talked to the other elders.

I don't know what they would say. Just talking

about when I'm up here. So, that's what you're

conveying. You're conveying that it's not too

important. The Word of God is take it or leave

it. When you don't pay attention. When you converse.

When you... Whatever whatever that's taking your

attention away from the Word of God So it says

grievous wolves are going to be coming in here

And we know that since Paul's day there have

been grievous wolves throughout the history of

the church Right on down to our own day They're

still here. They're still hanging around. They're

still waiting to destroy, to wreck havoc. The

elders are on the front lines, folks. Not just

here, a real elder is on the front line of this

battle. He's going to be confronted by the devil.

He's going to be tried to be discouraged. He's

going to be tried... to give up. He's going to

be trying to have grudges against certain people.

He's going to be trying not to love everybody,

in other words. We're on the front lines. And

if I'm being totally honest, I deal with depression.

And if I'm not careful, I can get down. I can

just waste a whole day moping around being depressed.

That's just the devil. I lost the battle. I've

got absolutely nothing to be depressed about.

Nothing. I'm the most blessed person that ever

walked the earth the way I see it. That's the

truth. But I don't always allow that to take

sway in my life. Hopefully you guys are consistently

praying for us. some degree of consistency that

we would be able to win the battle, that we would

be overcomers, that the devil would have no foothold

in our lives and consequently in the life of

the Church. That's what we hope is going on.

That's what we want to go on. There's no escaping

the battle. I'm not complaining about the battle.

That's what the Christian life is, a battle.

We battle with the devil or his minions Probably

not the personal one man one person devil, but

we we we have to fight the fight All manner of

distractions all manner of stumbling blocks That's

just part of And an elder's wife just thought

about it An elder's wife is either an asset or

a liability. And they can't be both. It just

depends on the mood or the day or the week or

whatever. So they need prayer. We need prayer

to be the husbands that we should be. They need

prayer to be the wives that they should be. To

be helps to us. To be encouragers to us. To let

us know when we mess up So don't forget them

because they're important part in the life of

the elder So I got four things I guess I'll end

with Spiritual stagnation. That's what I call

it anyway. That's always the danger. You get

to a certain point and you stagnate. And you

just got to get over it. You got to take the

next step. Unfortunately, it's more common than

what it should be, because we never stop growing,

except that we do when we hinder the work of

the Spirit. Stagnation is definitely needed to

be guard against. It's a spiritual battle to

want to progress, to want to study the Word to

the degree that, yes, it does conform my life.

to the Word, that yes, I am growing in Christ,

that yes, I can see that I'm being conformed

to the fullness of Christ. You've got to guard

yourself from false teachers, false teaching.

They're everywhere. They're not just in a certain

group of people. There's plenty of false teachers

in Baptist churches, in Presbyterian churches.

They're everywhere. That's what Paul said they

were going to do. And he's right. He was right.

They always have been. And just to be consistent

here, the Catholic Church is not a Christian

denomination. Okay? That's full of nothing but

false teachers. Now there's some Christian people

there. I don't want us to be angry at Catholic

people. We want to minister to those people.

Same as we do anywhere else. But they're deluded.

It's like a cult. Their minds are closed. They

can't receive the truth. It's full of false teaching.

The Catholic Church is sending millions to hell.

Not purgatory. Hell. Be on guard. Don't care

what kind of evangelicals and Catholics together.

You guys are probably too young to even remember

that. When that came up, it was a group of Protestants

that met got together with a group of Catholics

These are big leagues supposedly big league and

came up with this Letter whatever and they this

report Evangelicals and Catholics together here.

We are we're brothers. We've got our differences

Blah blah blah. It's a bunch of baloney The only

people that said anything different was the Protestants.

Catholics didn't change a word of what they believed.

So you know that's no good. And there were some

real big time people involved in that. Well known.

So I just want to be consistent that I always

make sure that I speak about the horribleness

of the... teachers in the Catholic Church. Don't

be fooled. Don't be fooled because you've studied

the true word. You know what the word looks like.

You know what it is. They can't fool you. They

can't put a bunch of balonies on you. The health

and wealth gospel. That's just nothing but lies.

Name it and claim it. Seed faith. All kinds of

stuff. That's all baloney. That's all that is.

They're false teachers. We can have differences

of opinion amongst true believers. That's okay.

We can still have fellowship even though we don't

have a hundred percent agreement with true believers.

In other words, we can... That church polity

here is, hopefully you all know it or you remember

it. You don't have to be a Baptist to be a member

here. You can be a Pato Baptist and come here

and be a member. You can't teach Pato Baptism.

But you can be a member. We can have fellowship

with these folks. They actually, you know, they

think that they're baptized. They think their

children are baptized. They think they're following

the Lord in what they have done. Just like we

do. But we think they're wrong, of course, and

they think we're wrong. But as far as the doctrine

of salvation is concerned and the doctrine of

living out your Christian faith, there's total

agreement. So they're welcome here. It's just

an example of what we're talking about. Guard

yourself from sexual sin. Guard yourself against

all sin. That's three and four. I mean, today,

the sexual sin is everywhere. You can't walk

out your door without being confronted, tempted.

More so than ever. But you have to be in guard

against sin. John once said, be killing sin or

sin will be killing you. Those are your two choices.

Somebody needs to redo that bumper sticker that

we used to have. Sin kills. It does. Sin, and

that's everywhere too. Sadly, it's right in here

also. Kill that sin that remains in us. For the

elders? You can't lead, you can't take heed to

a flock until you have taken heed to yourself.

Again, that's Tozer. Tozer used to say that he

always prayed for the flock, but he spent much

more time praying for the elders and himself.

So I don't know if that's good or what, but it's

definitely necessary. to pray for ourselves as

elders as well as the flock. You can't lead by

simply talking a good talk, you've got to walk

it out. If your life doesn't substantiate your

teaching, in other words, you've failed. And

so then, lastly, And again, this is the thing

that always should motivate us, is Jesus Christ

precious to us. Do we love Jesus Christ enough

to love each other, to tell the truth to each

other, to give of ourselves to each other? Love

rules. That's it. That's what we... Preach, that's

what we teach. We don't have a set of rules and

regulations. We have love that rules and regulates

our behavior. Are we going to love Jesus Christ

and love one another thus honoring Him? Acknowledging

all that we have is from Him. He owns us. He

owns this church. He owns everything in it. He's

given us everything that we need. He's given

us prayer, expository preaching, fellowship,

the Lord's Supper. He's given us all of these

things. He's brought us to a huge, large place

of freedom, of service and honoring and enjoying

Him. The church is a wonderful thing. Remember,

it's a golden candlestick. It's not even brass.

It's golden in the eyes of Christ. And where

is it to be found? It could be found in the midst

of the seven golden candlesticks. He's here.

He's always here when we assemble ourselves.

Remember these things. The great love of Jesus

Christ. Can you imagine? loving people such as

we are. You might be able to imagine that, but

can you imagine loving people as we were? Before

he got a hold of us and changed us and is transforming

us into what we are today and what we're going

to be? Before that ever happened, he loved us.

We can't love Jesus too much. We can't be too

zealous for him. We can't be too zealous for

the church. For one another, in other words.

Desiring to be useful in one another's lives.

To be an example. To be a guide. To have a ministry.

It's a glorious life. It's the only life to live

that has real purpose. Real pleasure. real joy.

It's the Christian life. It's the life of the

church. It's a life of fellowship, one with another,

helping each other along the way, leaving nobody

behind. That's got to be the motto of the church.

Forget the military. We're not leaving anybody

behind. We're bringing everybody with us, whatever

it takes. All the flock we minister to. All the

flock we're bringing to perfection. Are the elders

doing it? No, they're the means. One of the means

at least that God uses to accomplish his purposes

in the lives of his people, the church. Amen.