Okay, so the goal of this conference is consistent with the central agenda of the NCFIC and that is to promote biblically ordered churches and biblically ordered families. And the ones who are really responsible for driving this conference to it being a reality are our two regional facilitators who handle the southern part, the southeastern part of the United States. That would be Tom Ford and Joe Dooley. They've been wanting to do this. And so we decided that Montgomery would be the place to do that so we're really grateful to have so many of you here to do this and you know the legacy that we pray is left behind in the churches that were affiliated with is really the heart of what the Apostle Paul commanded and Titus 1 5 to set in order the things that are lacking and a point point elders in every city.

Well as it turns out every church is lacking in some way and the word of God is is the means by which God reforms his church and we so desire that churches would embrace the principle that scripture and scripture alone is sufficient for church life and it's sufficient for family life and the lord has made it for us so that we know what it what elders and deacons are all about and how they ought to function and he's laid this out in his word and you know and what why is this important and this is important because god has ordained the functions of deacons and elders so that the result of what they do is that the word of god is spread and when elders focus on the word of God and prayer and when deacons focus on helping the elders focus on the word of God and prayer and as a result, people's needs are served and the poor are taken care of, then you find the condition where the Word of God is spreading, and this is the most important thing that anyone can do in their life, is to spread the Word of God throughout the earth so that The glory of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea so this work of deacons and elders Really has a singular focus and that is for the spread of the Word of God for the glory of God Throughout the world and when elders and deacons are functioning that way like when elders are focused on the Word of God and prayer and when deacons are focusing their energies on the promotion of the Word of God and prayer, then you have the spreading of the Word of God.

And so I know many of you are deacons, many of you are elders, many of you are in training, but this one singular matter is really the heart of the issue when we're dealing with elders and deacons. It really has to do with the word of God and prayer. Elders need that focus, but deacons need to be very sensitive to that focus and have that as their focus as well, so that they're always looking for any way that the word of God can be spread more. And we recognize that we live in a time where there's confusion about the roles of elders and deacons, but I think that's really the heart of it. You'll hear that in different ways throughout our gathering.

Now there are two things that I want to say as clearly as I can in this introductory message, and the first is the means of our work and then secondly, the objective of our work and these means and these objectives are really both shared by elders and deacons and in different ways though Now, the means of our work is the word of god. This is the tool that we that we use and this is why the apostle said that elders should be focused on the word of god and on prayer and This is the means of the work and so elders had this great duty to focus the church on the Bible on the word of truth and elders must always continue to do that because Because sheep want to focus their minds on other things and that always causes harm to the church and to their own personal sanctification. The Lord Jesus Christ made this very clear in John 17 verse 17 when He told us what happens through the word of God. He said sanctify them in truth Thy word is truth And so this means of our work is is the word of god and so in this gathering, you'll find that god's revelation is our source book and we'll turn to it.

One of the things that I'm extremely grateful for at this conference is to have Alexander Strouch here. Uh Alex has has written III feel our fundamental books that should be in every church person's library on the matters of church life. If you don't have the books, you know, go to Lewis and Roth and buy them there and biblical eldership is a book that it really I think has enduring value why because it's exegetical in its design he just works through the passages of Scripture The New Testament deacon is exactly the same way. It's an exegetical work. It's not a creative work of the needs of the church and things like that.

It's actually an extraction of the Bible. He also wrote a very important book called Love or Die and another one, bite and devour. You need to get those books need to be not just in your library that they need to be in your heart because in those books Alex who's very who's an experienced elder he's been an elder in the same church for 50 years and he's seen it all we just we were having breakfast this morning and we've I think he's seen it all and I've seen a lot of what he's seen as well. And the truth is that it really is the love of God in the church That is the primary focus of God's heart for his church, and he and he does that he works that through the officers of the Church of Jesus Christ and we I think we should be so thankful here this morning that there is a way as Paul said to conduct yourself in the household of God. There is a way to conduct yourself and guess what?

It's usually not your way. It's God's way. And his word will correct our misunderstandings of these things both on the side of elders and of deacons and so the Word of God is our basis for understanding and implementing the roles and the responsibilities of these two offices that God has given to the church and it's a very it's a very serious responsibility. So Scripture is the focus. What you're going to find here is we're going to end up in the pastoral epistles quite a bit.

The references that are brought forth will will largely come from the pastoral epistles and and the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Good Shepherd. So the means of our work is the Word of God But I'd like to turn now to the objective of our work. The objective of our work is sanctification. There are three marvelous things that God has done and is doing. For example justification has been done by God it is God who justifies and it is God who glorifies and that's the second the second thing God says he glorifies he will glorify his people the story is going to turn out really good because he's going to glorify himself in your glorified body and his glorified heavenly realm and he'll sum up all things in Jesus Christ even the troublesome difficult things even your own sins he's gonna sum them up in Jesus Christ and you will be so thankful for the glory of God.

But in between there is sanctification. While justification is done and glorification is a done deal, Sanctification isn't a done deal. It's something that happens over time. It's something that God does as a result of elders and deacons and congregations existing together in local churches. Sanctification happens in the context of a local church.

It's progressive, it's messy, it's heartbreaking, and it's also wonderfully consoling and beautifying to the church. But Paul's most urgent concern was for the sanctification of the church. And let's be very clear, the singular objective of the work of elders is sanctification. This is the heart and the soul of our work while we are in this world. We are doing something that is not our own.

We're not serving our own pleasures. We're serving for the purpose of the sanctification of the Saints of the Lord Jesus Christ and you know in 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1 we learn that the Apostle Paul was jealous for this sanctification he says for I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness so your minds may be corrupted from the sanct simplicity that is in Christ." Paul was jealous. Paul feared.

This is something that elders do if they're true elders. They fear. They fear for the lack of sanctification in their flock. They're jealous for the sanctification of their flock. This is the singular work of an elder.

In Galatians chapter 4 verse 19 we learn that Paul labored over the sanctification of his people like a mother in labor. Paul says, my little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. Paul's greatest labor, it was like childbirth for him, was that Jesus Christ would be formed in the hearts of the people in the churches. And pastors work for sanctification, And the entire doctrine of sanctification should be a critical doctrine for those who serve as elders. You know, we often feel pain in our souls if the people in our churches are not being sanctified and and how do we do this we do this by the preaching of the Word of God and Jesus said it so clearly sanctify them in truth thy word is truth and so we that takes us really back to the tool the means of this work and that is the Word of God in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 1 we learn from the Apostle that it took perseverance It takes perseverance for elders to see sanctification take place.

The Apostle says to the Corinthian Church in Colossians 1 28, he says, "...him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus and then he says this listen to these words to this end I also labor striving according to his working which works in me mightily This process of sanctification that requires wisdom from heaven to present every man perfect in Christ. But even beyond that, striving, it takes a man in whom God is working mightily. We need elders in whom God is working mightily. Elders in whom their souls are shaken by God. The Word of God moves them.

The Word of God guides them. The Word of God sustains them this is so critical in 1st Peter chapter 5 we learn the sanctification requires shepherding and the apostle speaks these words, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you serving as overseers. So you have these these dual functions, shepherding, which has to do with leading and convincing and bringing people to certain places that they're not in every church you have people who are not in the place they should be and they need to be shepherded in the direction which they should be if their hearts are hard it'll be very difficult perhaps even too much to us but at the same time they must have the role of overseers they oversee and they have some authority in that church in In John chapter 17 verse 13 we learned that Jesus' work for sanctification arose out of a desire. Jesus Christ's greatest desire was for the joy of his people. In the Gospel of John, or in the Epistle of John, he says these things I write to you that your joy might be complete.

But in John 17 13 he says, but now I come to you And these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. And so this work is really for the joy, as painful it is, as much striving as there is, as much pain and fear and jealousy there is. The design is for the joy and the consolation of God's people. In 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 we learn that this is the calling of the church. In verse 2 in 1st Corinthians 1 we read this, to the Church of God which is in Corinth to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints in 1st Corinthians 1 30 we learn that sanctification is a work of Jesus Christ but of him you are in Christ who became for us with the wisdom of God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption as it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord In 1st Thessalonians 3 verses 12 and 13 we learn that it is a work of God that infuses love into the hearts of the people of the congregation.

By the way most problems in congregations have to do with love. That's the bottom line. You can trace almost any problem, any dislocation between people to the matter of love and patience and kindness and goodness and self-control. But here in this passage we learn in verse 12, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all just as we do to you that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with his Saints. Love and holiness always go together.

In 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1 we learn the sanctification involves what we push out of our lives And the Apostle says to the Corinthian church, therefore having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And in Titus 2 14 we learn that that this work of sanctification is delivering us from lawless deeds he says who who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and Purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you. Because the work of elders and its sanctifying mission is to actually reprove and rebuke and exhort with great patience and with humility and to deal to deal with lawless deeds that you find rising up in the church and from all these things I think we learned that churches aren't perfect. They're full of sinners who've been sanctified. They're all in a different place.

They all come from different families, they come from different cultures, they've been taught different things, and God puts elders in the way of that to bring the Word of God to bear patiently over the long haul to continue to teach, to continue to encourage, to continue to counsel, and to be available to those. Now at this conference if you have a schedule you can see where we're going. I pray that you'll find this to be a very practical time together and as you can see I wanted to begin the conference about speaking about setting things in order which is our great work and the means of it and the goal of it but then Alexander Strouck is going to come and he's going to speak about elders who excel still more This is about how elders grow elders need to grow to Alex is going to come up here and he's going to urge us to grow and to go further than we are now not to be the same men next year as we are this year. Jason dome after that is going to come and speak about defining elder authority. What kind of authority do elders have?

It's a critical question. And then Alexander is going to come back up and he's going to speak about where are we going to get future elders? It's a difficult question. We have a younger generation that's being defiled by a culture of entertainment and pornography and liberalism and all manner of relativism and where are we going to get elders who think biblically about everything and who are really ready for that and don't want to spend their lives just entertaining themselves. And then Jason is going to come and speak to us about the process for nominating and qualifying elders.

And then Alexander this afternoon is going to come and speak about navigating the landmines of shared leadership. Here are a few realities. Elders are in process of sanctification too they may change their doctrine when while they're being an elder they may have personality quirks they may have difficulties they may have various kinds of disagreements doctrinally How do elders live together when they are in process and they also came in a certain way? How do they do that? Well Alex is going to speak to us about that.

And then Jason is going to come and speak about how to elders keep a church from not biting and devouring one another with the greatest danger to a Church of Jesus Christ then he's going to speak about the family life of an elder and then Alexander is going to come and speak up about the importance of vocational elders one of the things that that I've been urging churches to do is to set aside men to labor in the word of God and in prayer and to give and to pray that God would give churches critical mass in order to set men aside to multiply the Word of God in their communities. And then tonight we're going to have an extended session beginning at seven o'clock after we have dinner which is provided here. How should elders deal with pornography in the church? This is going to be a panel discussion between Alexander Strauch and Jason dome and myself and we're going to take some significant time Attempting to answer this very difficult question What we find today in our modern environment is that internet pornography is gutting men's hearts. And it's going to gut their marriages, and it's going to gut their churches.

It's incredibly critical. So we'll take some time to talk about that. We'll open it up to you for questions and even your own perspectives about it. I think we're all in a learning curve. When something new has come upon the church, there's a learning curve for all of us.

And we're all in that learning curve right now. Maybe we've made mistakes, Maybe we've neglected certain things, but let's learn. Let's learn some more tonight. Tomorrow on Saturday, how deacons can help their elders. Alexander is gonna come and speak about that, and then how elders should care for deacons.

And then we're gonna have a question and answer time, and then we'll close the conference with some final final words so there it is that's that's what we're here to do we're really here to express our devotion to the Word of God to let the Word of God dwell richly within us and to find to find ourselves on a lifelong journey to use the means of God in the church which is the Word of God and to pursue with all of our hearts the same passion and devotion and care and jealousy and anguish and and labor in childbirth for the sanctification of the people that God has given us. So with that I will bring up Alexander and you can begin and help us to understand how elders excel still more.