I really want to take this opportunity to exhort and encourage fellow church leaders. I think that is a lot of who we have in this room. Among experienced elders, Most of us are more comfortable in the pulpit now than we ever have been. I've been a full-time elder for about seven years now, so that's 300 and something Sunday sermons. And while it was a terrifying prospect at first, after 300 and some times, you still feel the weight of standing before the Lord's people to teach his word, but you don't have the butterflies that you did on the first Sunday for sure.

And so week after week, I stand before the people of God and I have attentive faces pointed at me and I get to teach the Lord's people the Lord's Word and in a sense I'm preaching to the choir meaning that these are people who are predisposed to love the Word of God love the Lord desire to hear hear from him and I and I praise the Lord for preaching to the choir the choir needs to be preached to the choir needs food we all need food the Word of God is food so I don't I don't despise that at all but I want us to consider Acts chapter 16 verses 13 through 15. This is Paul and his companions in Philippi. Acts 16 beginning in verse 13, on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul and when she and her household were baptized she begged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

So she persuaded us." One thing that we draw out of this text is that Paul went to where people had never encountered the Lord Jesus Christ. We do see him going to synagogues, we do see him spending years, extended periods of time, where I'm sure he spent a lot of time preaching to the choir, but fundamentally Paul was a man who was set aside by the Lord to go where the people had not encountered Jesus Christ to preach Christ as the Savior of sinners. And I'm not suggesting that every church leader is an apostle whose life is set aside just to that activity, but I do want to make two exhortations to church leaders based on this view of Paul going to where the unbelievers were that they might encounter the Lord Jesus. The first exhortation is this, if you're leading a church, encourage your gifted evangelists. Now the Lord's people all have the responsibility of the Great Commission to proclaim Jesus Christ to sinners, but there are people who ooze it out of their pores.

They're good at it, they're gifted at it, they wake up in the morning thinking about it, and though the rest of us are tasked with it, it doesn't come as naturally to us. Most churches have one or two or a few gifted evangelists, brothers, encourage them. And when they go, when they go to where the people who have never encountered Jesus are, go with them. Go with them. Don't let them keep going alone.

If you can, go with them. Make the time in your schedule. Drop the other things that you're doing to go with them. Throw gas on the fire instead of throwing a wet blanket on it. Now I've been in this position and I know that zealous gifted evangelists can seem like they're sort of a road bumped between you and what you need to get done and I'm suggesting that that's the wrong way to look at it.

The central mission of the church is to worship God, to preach to the choir, amen, to disciple the Lord's people, but to take the gospel to where Jesus has not been encountered. And if that's a core business of the church, then it has to be a core business of men who lead the church. Encourage your gifted evangelists. Go with them when they go to where Jesus hasn't been encountered yet. The second exhortation is this, get out front.

Get out front in the category of evangelism. We spend so much of our lives preaching to the choir and I praise God for it. The Lord's people need to be well fed. We need to spend a lot of time in our studies with our Bibles open and our commentaries by our sides learning and then bringing the Lord's people into that at the appointed time. But that cannot be to the exclusion of of doing something that's so central to the life of the church.

Make sure the people you serve know that you want to be an evangelist. So I don't consider myself to be one of those people who is a gifted evangelist. I don't wake up in the morning thinking about it. I don't perceive myself to be particularly good at it. But I want the people that I serve to know that I desire to be an evangelist.

I want them to see me prioritizing my life so that time and intent and effort and prayer is carved out for taking the gospel to places where Jesus has not been encountered outside the four walls of the church. Our brothers, we cannot wait for them to come inside the four walls of the church. We have to go to them with the gospel. This is really a shepherding matter. If we won't, will the people we serve, if we won't prioritize taking the news of Jesus Christ to the people who have not encountered him.

Will the people we serve take the news of Jesus to them? I think we know the answer to that question and the answer is yes, a few of them will. Most of them won't. We need to set the pace for our people, take Jesus outside the four walls of the church, make this a priority. Father, I pray for my brothers.

God, I pray that you would help us. We have so many competing things that clamor for our attention. If we had twice as many hours in the day, we would still have things that would go undone but help us Lord help us press this upon our souls the taking of Jesus to the people who have never encountered him I pray that you would help us in Jesus name. Amen. So one of the focuses of our church this year, last year we did a bunch of gospel preaching events outside in our community that really weren't successful, meaning we promoted them and then very few, very few people came to them this year, sort of changing our focus and challenging our people to, to reach out to the people in their neighborhoods.

We're trying to make every every home in the church a little a little gospel preaching outpost So, you know, my family is trying to help set the pace for that So I hope the dome family will be seen by the people in the church to be really zealous to have have Our neighbors into the house And we've got some plans for that that involve the weather being nicer than it is now, but it's about to be. Another thing that we do is in our church, we have several different nursing homes that we've adopted. It's a great place where either people haven't encountered Jesus and they're in their last years, the urgency of the need there is great, or they're Christians who have been faithful church members, they're precious brothers and sisters, and they have really no encouragement, no way to get to a church and participate in a church. So we bring church to them once a week. We do that in a couple of nursing homes.

Different families have adopted different nursing homes. And then we, in conjunction with Hope Baptist, the church where Scott is serving. We're at an abortion clinic every Saturday morning calling out to the women who go there to change their minds to leave that place but also preach in the gospel. Let me pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day.

Thank you for the opportunity and I pray Father that your message will come forth and that I will move myself out of the way in Jesus name. Amen. What I wanted to share with you a little bit today is just some things that God has done in our church in South Georgia. Some of it's real simple. It sounds real simple.

Hasn't always been quite simple for us. First verse I want to read is John 14 15 that says if you love me keep my commandments And then Isaiah 48 18 says oh that thou hast hearkened to my commandment then had that peace been as a river and our righteousness as the waves of the sea. And Isaiah 119 says, if you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land. We've been studying through Hebrews recently And this last Sunday we began the study with Hebrews chapter 11. While studying the message, I came across this statement from one of the commentaries about faith.

It says, true biblical faith is confident obedience to God's Word in spite of circumstances and consequences. Over the last year and a half to two years in our church, this statement and the verses, these verses that I've shared, have gained greater meaning. Along with Hebrews 12 one, it says, wherefore seen we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin with death so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us and that mindset of the race that is set before us has come to speak to our church very loudly. About a year and nine months ago, our church came to a point to where we had to bring a young man in our church before the church with church discipline. It didn't turn out the way we really desired it to turn out but what it did do is it uncovered many things of Satan that were going on and what it also did is it brought a cleansing to our body because we obeyed.

It sounds simple but because we obeyed his word it brought people to their knees and helped people to see that God means what he says and if we obey him his faithfulness will show forth in our faithfulness. See at the time the men took this upon them hoping for restoration expecting morning restoration of this young man but that didn't happen but we never saw what did happen coming either men confessing to issues with pornography I had just listened to Kevin Swanson talk about that ages I believe it was 18 to 25 that three-quarters of the young men visit pornography sites once a month and the reality of that all of a sudden hits you when you start having young men confess of their hidden sins Because they saw that we were willing to obey God. And so they saw the need for themselves to obey God. So my exhortation to you about that is, no, church restoration slash discipline is not pleasant sometimes. But that's what we're called to do and and whether we want to or not is not a choice but we need to obey but I could promise you through obedience as Isaiah 119 says you shall eat the good of the land Within the last few months a Chain of events at my office occurred which somewhat seems rather petty and it was at the times to some extent I'm an accountant by trade and I lost a client's file.

That's not typically real good when they're expecting you to do work with it. My wife and I, we turned our office upside down, we turned my house upside down. We couldn't find it. I'm at work one morning not knowing what's happening in my house. My wife and I had been discussing a little bit about crying out to the Lord.

We hadn't really studied it yet, but we read a couple of scriptures about it. She told our 11-year-old twin girls, and my mother-in-law who lives with us says, I'm going into the bedroom. It's okay. You're going to hear me hollering and crying out, but don't be alarmed. Well, by the time we put the time frame together, at the time she's crying out, the Lord impresses me to go look in the one place I've not looked in my entire office, the shred box.

And there it was. I was looking just to check the box, to say I've looked here, but there was the file. And So we started looking at what does the Word of God say about crying out? We hear people talk about it I mean I've prayed sometimes dear Lord I cry out to you You know come heal this person come do this so begin to look at it Psalms 145 19 says he will fulfill the desire of them that fear him He will also will hear thy cry and will save them." Psalms 5 2 says, harken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray. And there are numerous verses that talk about crying out.

These two verses particularly, the word that is translated cry means to cry or shout or to hulu hulu-ing how many knows what hulu-ing is I didn't either well some of mine do now because we don't talk about it at church. I didn't know what hallooing was either. It's crying out to someone, it's giving commands to the hunting dogs. Last time I ever watched a movie, I reckon, with people using hunting dogs, they weren't going, hey Spot, go over there. Hey Spot, go there.

There goes the fox, Spot. They're not talking, they're crying out. They're shouting. That's what God wants us to do. We shared that with the body.

And God has unleashed a prayer time in our church that we've not seen. It's almost like the shackles have been taken off and we're free to pray the things that we've prayed before but it's with earnestness, it's with a true desire for God to do what he says he will do in his word. We've actually had recently a young lady who had a child and has had some serious emotional problems after the birth and been really struggling. We've been crying out for her. We've had a lady who had virtually lost her driver's license because she couldn't see and then all of a sudden her kidneys start shutting down.

She's now on dialysis but yet we find out last night her eyes have gotten better. She's gotten her driver's license back She's back up on her feet She actually we went to her house to pray for her because she was concerned that she wasn't gonna live very long And she's now gaining more and more energy every day Because we went to her and we exhorted her to just do what God calls you to do and let him take care of when you die and we cried out for her and God is doing a miraculous work to the extent that the woman who is having dialysis was at my house last night crying out to the Lord for healing for my wife who's just been diagnosed with stage one cancer. And you might say, wait a minute, what's going on? God is looking for faithful men and women to be faithful so that his faithfulness can be proclaimed. His faithfulness is us will show people what is faith.

The world doesn't know what faith is. Part of the reason I think is because the church of today, as a general whole, doesn't exercise their faith. We ask for healing, we ask for guidance, when if we would just go according to what this statement says, true biblical faith is confident obedience to God's Word despite the circumstances and consequences. Most answers to our questions of direction that we want are already in the Word of God with principles if we would just follow them but we're afraid to and we just want some supernatural vision or word that's going to come to us to tell us what the answer is when the word of God has given us the answer. And so I exhort you, men, as I exhort myself and as I exhorted our body, to look to the word of God, to look to see what it says to do.

And when it tells us to cry out, no, not that we're supposed to cry out every time we pray. We are supposed to be in our closet sometimes just praying, allowing God to speak to us, but then there are times that we need to be shouting and crying out to him so that he will save us, so that he will bring healing, so that he will change us, so that his faithfulness can be proclaimed through our faithfulness to him. So my encouragement to you is somewhat a simple one. It's the one that my wife and I have been encouraging each other with every day now as much as we can. It's just obey.

It's simple, but it also needs to be competent obedience. And then when you really want God, sometimes you really think you need to really just let your all your energy go to let him know what your heart's desire is to the nth degree then cry out it will truly I believe change especially your church corporate prayer time To where people are willing to pray in God's will Let's pray your only father I Just pray father that you do help us to be confidently obedient. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, good evening, brothers. I am good evening.

Good evening. Boy, I thought you were all asleep there for a second. You scared me I'm very delighted to be with you here and to share with you and very happy to see all these fine young men Remember they don't stay young long All of a sudden they grow up, right? When I first came to Littleton Bible Chapel, the teenagers now are all grandparents with numbers of grandchildren. It happens so quickly.

So, I'm very glad you are here. Now, I actually didn't have anything to say to you this evening. So I'm going to take the words of the apostle Peter because he wants to say something to you this evening. Would you turn to 1 Peter chapter 5? Sadly, Peter is so often overshadowed by Paul.

We think Paul is the only one who said anything to the church elders, but Peter has very important and unique words to say So I'm going to read chapter 5 verses 1 2 I think we'll go to 5 So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. That was in my head, it was my watch. As well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly not dominating over those in your charge, but being an example to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourself, all of you, with humility towards one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, you should all have an outline in front of you And I think we can do this in 15 minutes These are just short little messages if I go over time.

I just ask you to forgive me even now If you follow me in your outline then I can move quickly and you don't have to take much notes. Up until this point, Peter has been warning, exhorting, and encouraging the believers. They are under very severe persecution. And he tells them, don't be surprised by this, the Lord Jesus himself was persecuted, they hated him, they'll hate you and they will persecute you. And so he has been speaking about this subject of persecution.

Now at chapter 5 he turns to the leaders and he speaks to them, because when there is persecution, hostile people to the gospel and to the church, the leaders are the ones who will first be the targets of those who hate the gospel and hate the Lord's people. You know, we've seen this all over the world under the communist regime. Many of the church leaders were placed in prison. I believe Watchman Nee from China was well over a decade or so in prison in China, in Ethiopia, when the communists came in among the Lutheran churches, they just took all the pastors and shot them and killed them. Africa today, and Nigeria, and Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, we're seeing tremendous persecution.

Imagine going to church on a Sunday morning, and there is the possibility that someone could come in and throw a hand grenade in, or come with a gun and just shoot you all. How many of you would go? But that's happened in Pakistan now five or six times in the last several years. Happens in northern Nigeria. And the leaders are the targets.

And so now he turns to the leaders of the church and he wants to exhort them, because they have a very important job to do. When there's this pressure, and today the pressure isn't from people with machine guns and hand grenades coming into our church gatherings. Today, It's the secular tsunami. It's just running right over our churches. It's taking many of our young people away, just washing them away.

How do they resist the internet? How do they resist the television, the movies, the universities, the schools? How do they resist? It's overwhelmingly powerful. The mediate has incredible influence over us, much more than we even realize.

Well, the leaders become the key people under hostile opponents to our beliefs. How the leaders act? Well, the people will act. If they're courageous, the people will be courageous. If they're full of fear, the people are gonna be full of fear if they trust God the people will trust God if They're loving the people will be loving if they run in high the flock will Scatter And so Peter now turns to the leaders to show them the importance of their job to keep the flock together in a hostile environment.

So Peter wants to communicate. He's a good communicator. Remember, at the very beginning of the dawn of Christianity, Peter, on the first day of Pentecost, preaches a sermon, 3, 000 are saved. Sometimes we overemphasize Peter, as a man who puts his foot in his mouth too often, or as a coward. I don't think it's a true evaluation.

Peter was a great man, and greatly used of God. Look at the book of Acts, the marvelous things. He must have been a great speaker. I'm sure we'd have loved to have heard him speak. So, he's a good communicator, and as a good communicator, we see him doing it right here in the first verse.

He wants to win the affections of the elders, and so he identifies with them. He says, hey, gentlemen, I'm a fellow elder. Well, that's true because at the early church there were 12 men, they were the elders of the church, corporate body that led the church. He was first among equals, But they weren't his assistants or associate pastors. They were all equally Apostles so really he was an elder and think of some of the things they faced in those early days They were locked up threatened to be killed beat up he himself will die shortly after this and Even now a man in his maybe mid 60s, he's still on the front line of spiritual warfare.

So he can say to them, I'm a fellow elder. I'm not one of these fellows who writes books about church leadership and doesn't do very much. He's not an armchair general. So he loves these churches, he loves these elders, and so he draws them to himself by saying, I'm a fellow elder. And not only am I a fellow elder, but I witness the sufferings of Christ.

He doesn't mean the actual cross, He means the sufferings that we all are to share because of Christ. He says, I share in those sufferings and I also partake with you in the great glory to be revealed. He's going to come back to that. So now, he's drawn the elders to himself. I'm a colleague with you.

We have mutual concerns. We've all been through the same problems. We know the issues. We know how hostile the world is to our gospel and to our Lord. So now he comes, after he draws them to his side, he comes to the exhortation.

And the exhortation is an exhortation to do the job. And he says to them, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. Or we could translate it this way, do everything that a shepherding requires. Do everything that shepherding requires. Be what a shepherd should be.

That's what he's saying. And so the way he writes this in the original language is the urgency to it. There's emotion. In fact, if you've been reading the book and studying the book of 1 Peter or 2 Peter, they're really sidelined By too many people today. These are tremendous epistles you read that second epistle of Peter There's a lot of emotion in these words They've got to do this job the churches are dependent on them to be what Shepherd should be Peter's Realistic he knows what we're like how often we just do the minimal job or we don't do what we're supposed to do.

And so you can feel Peter's passion and plea. Do the job of a shepherd. Be all that a shepherd should be. Don't neglect the flock. Don't fall asleep.

Don't fail the people. You're needed. Don't be a passive shepherd. Don't be a minimalist. That's what he's saying.

Do the job. The people need you. Don't fail them. Hey, by the way, did you know that applies to you? What's your name?

Michael? Michael, this applies to you. Are you listening? Good. If Peter was here, he'd be pointing at you.

Do the job, you're needed. There's the common temptation all leaders face, and Peter knows this, how often we fail to be alert, to push themselves, to grow and change, which is what we're going to talk about tomorrow morning, about the need for constant growth and change, a passion, like Peter says, like a newborn baby to learn. Preoccupied with self-interest, passive in our leadership, minimalist in our leadership. The sad reality is this is the way many, many of the shepherds among the Lord's people are, and that's why our churches are suffering. And so his first exhortation is, do the job of a shepherd.

Don't fail the people. Then he follows that up with exercising oversight, both saying about the same thing. Shepherding is the figurative term. Oversight is the literal term. The second term explains the first term, which means be watchful over the sheep.

Exercising spiritual oversight, in fact I would say, what is the elders job? Pastoral oversight, shepherd oversight, you're watching like a shepherd. You know, we don't have the time for it, but it's amazing what's in this metaphor, this image of a shepherd and sheep. It's just absolutely amazing. Some people today say we shouldn't use it.

It's old-fashioned. It's ancient. We should use the CEO model. Bad model. It's a false image.

Nothing in the CEO image of intimacy. You ever see a CEO's intimate with his people? No, the shepherd is intimate with the flock. I once talked to a shepherd in Spain, and all his life been a shepherd, even looked like a shepherd, and we spent two hours with this shepherd out in the field. It was very, very interesting, because I try to learn all I can about sheep, because I'm not around real sheep.

And so we spent two hours talking to this Spanish shepherd. And at the end of our two hours, I said, John, tell me, what's the most important thing about being a shepherd. You know what he said? You've got to love the sheep. Nothing about the CEO.

You've got to love the people. No, you've got to love the bottom line, the prophet, or the people go. No, no, it's the wrong analogy for our job. Our job is to be intimate with the people and to love the people and to lead the people. It's a beautiful image.

God uses it of himself. He is our shepherd. I'm glad he's not my CEO. I'd been fired years ago. Now when he says shepherd the flock, remember there's always four things involved in shepherding, always four things.

You've got to feed the sheep, number one job, by the way. No food, no sheep, or teach the sheep. Second job of a shepherd is to protect the sheep because there's many enemies. It's amazing how little ability sheep have to protect themselves. Now, did you know there'd be no sheep in the world today if there weren't people?

Did you know that? That's true. Sheep cannot take care of themself. They need a shepherd. It's very, very interesting.

Can I just take an extra minute just to get on the side? Is that all right? This is the day of grace. We're not under the law, you know. I wanna just throw an idea out.

It just came to me under the sheep-shepherd imagery. The shepherd's presence. Have you ever thought of that? The shepherd's presence. You know, sheep will not rest or drink or eat properly if they don't know where the shepherd is.

You know that? It's really amazing the relationship between sheep and shepherd. The sheep become really dependent on the shepherd. Never underestimate your presence among the people. And the power of your influence among the people.

That's why it's so important to be friendly, reach out your hand, talk with the people, be interested in the people. Your presence means a lot to them, more than they even realize. And I could give you examples in our own church, and remember once we had a big picnic, and the man who started our church was really the father of our church, he wasn't there, and People kept saying, where's Herb, where's Herb? It's like, hey, we can have a picnic without Herb. But Herb's the man who started this church, the father of this church.

His presence, and when he died, boy, it was felt. It was felt for a long time. Your presence among the people. Don't underestimate it, it's very important. And use it to the glory of God.

Use it to influence people for the Lord, as we'll see in just one moment. So these are the concepts and then there's leading, so there's feeding, protecting, leading, and then the practical care, the healing they sometimes call it. Now what you notice is the church is the flock of God, the flock of God. So let's get this straight. The people we lead, the people we care for, they're not ours, okay?

Let's get that straight. They belong to God. He paid for it with the blood of his own son. Acts 20, 28, beautiful verse. The value, the value of those people, even though they're run down, some of them you wish you didn't come to your church, and some of you are nothing but headaches to you all your life, but just when you get feeling like that, just remember Moses, you're in good company.

Moses got to the point in Numbers chapter 11 when he said Lord kill me Just kill me I don't know why you gave me all these sad banana people all they do is complain All they say is I brought him out here to kill the children the other said I though you're just here to dominate us That poor man that So when you feel sorry for yourself, just think of Moses. And he had a lot of people, a lot more than you'll ever have. And I'll tell you, they were rascals. Those people were rascals. In fact, even God, one time, opened up the ground, just swallowed a whole 250 of them, and maybe Moses said, oh good.

I don't know, I don't know, but that's what I would've said. Oh good, finally, Get rid of those guys, those malcontents. Don't wait for the ground to open up, though. I wouldn't wait for that, or a tornado to come through or anything like that. They're God's people, God's flock, and he paid an enormous price for them, so it's ownership.

He owns the sheep, he paid for the sheep. You didn't pay for them. He just told you to be one of his under shepherds, take care of them. And then dependence, dependence, God's flock, they're dependent upon him. Now, at this point, Peter does something that Paul does not do.

He switches to the right motives for doing this and the wrong motives for doing this, okay? So do the job, shepherd the people, Be what a shepherd should be, they need you, the situation's desperate now, but, but, there's a right way to do it and a wrong way. There's the right motives and the wrong motives. Right attitudes and wrong attitudes. And so in three little quick staccato commands, which I will go through very quickly, because I want to emphasize reward day.

He gives us these right and wrong attitudes. So first he says this not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have it. In other words, your wife doesn't say, Hey, hey, Mike, Mike, you should be an elder. My women friends, their husbands are elders. You should be an elder.

Why don't you volunteer to be an elder, you know, or some of your friends come by and they say, Mike, Mike, you're a good guy. We really need you, the church needs you. Mike says, well, I'm really too busy, and I really don't know that much. Mike, come on, enjoy, it's not that much work. Not under compulsion, someone forced you, someone spoke to you.

When one of my closest colleagues, and he's still a close colleague, for almost 50 years, we've worked together, still worked together, but we were elders for many, many decades, and he was gonna step down. My first reaction was to convince him not to do that. Don't do that, don't leave me. We're partners in this work. But I realized, not under compulsion, He was done.

He had just worn out, and things change in our lives. There's seasons of life. That's a real thing. And he did not want to show up to elders meetings and deal with all the people and all the problems. He's still very involved in the church, but he doesn't have that intangible burden, I can't even explain it, of the whole flock resting on you with your fellow elders.

You all bear it together, but it's still, you feel it. Can't even explain all those things. The day you're an elder, the day You're not an elder, you know the difference. All these problems, when I stepped down from the eldership, I handed those problems off to the other elders and said, oh, thank you, Lord, I feel so free. It is a very heavy burden, so You can't do it under compulsion.

The job's too hard. You'll never last. You've got to do it willingly, voluntarily, from the heart. And here's why. As God would have it, God loves a cheerful giver.

He's not up here going, oh, won't you give? Please, please, won't you? Oh, won't you please be an elder? Please, please, please. No, God doesn't do it that way.

He wants a cheerful giver. He wants you to be willing and volunteer to do this thing, but you will not last. Then the second right and wrong attitude is not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Now, you may not realize this, but the problem of pilfering church money, stealing, or we don't steal, we misappropriate money. You go to a church and The church pastor does these elaborate dinners, or like in Colorado Springs, who has gotten a newspaper, the pastor going out twice a week playing golf, was the ministry, you know, playing golf.

But the problem is the church didn't approve that money. The Church didn't approve the money. He had no right to go playing golf on the church money or taking all these fancy dinners and putting gas in his car and fixing his car. Now, if the church had approved all that, that would be all right. So most of the time, we don't actually put our hand in the offering and pull it out.

People do do that. We misappropriate. We use it for ministry, you know, pay my taxes and things like that. There's a lot more goes on in churches in the way of stealing than you realize. Even among the 12 apostles, there was a thief, Judas.

Think of that, pilfering the offerings. Be careful of that one. If you have responsibility of the church money, there is a temptation to steal, especially if you're having problems. But eagerly, this word eagerly is a stronger word than willingly, has the idea of passion and deep desire. No, you're not into this for the money, you're into it because you have a real desire to shepherd.

You love the Lord's people, and you want to serve His people. Now, the last one is a huge issue. We can't go into it because I want to get to my main point. Am I doing all right in time? Am I doing all right?

You're not bitter or anything, are you? No, you're not bitter, are you? Okay, okay. A little bit faster? Okay.

He's such a gracious man, isn't he? Just so gracious. Even when he's mad, he's gracious. Oh, brothers, now watch this one. Wish we had an hour for this not dear domineering over those in your charge Notice there are people in your charge someone put them there.

You didn't put them there. Isn't that interesting? So if you have 25 people the Lord gave you those you had 50 people The Lord gave them to you to care. They're his people. He said, now you're going to be a shepherd like I'm a shepherd.

You're going to be an under shepherd to these people. But don't Do it as lords. Don't rule over them. Don't domineer. It's the controlling leader.

He's gotta have his way or you go the highway. That's not Christ-like leadership. The Lord Jesus doesn't teach his justice that way. He's so Patient with us, isn't he? And he's so kind to us and gracious to us and gentle with us, that's his way.

We'd been dead if he wasn't. So you've got to be very careful of being a controlling leader, dominating people. There's a marvelous two verses, You ought to know them, 3 John 9 and 10. 3 John 9 and 10, the diotrophy syndrome. Remember diotrophy?

He loved preeminence, and he loved to control people. He even threw people out of the church who didn't agree with him, and the apostle John, he said, we don't even want the apostle John here, loving, kind man John. No, we don't need him here. I'm the boss. Big shot syndrome.

I'm the bishop. I'm the elder. You know, get a badge, put it on. I'm that person. You better listen to me, I don't need to talk to you.

Don't do it that way. That's not the way to lead the Lord's people. He doesn't want you to lead his children that way. But be an example to the flock. That is powerful.

Your presence, a godly disposition. In the end, in the end, do you know what people remember? 10 years, 15 years later, you know what they remember? Not that you kick them around, cause fear and guilt. They don't remember that.

They get that out of their head. It's terrible. Might mess them up psychologically. You know what they remember 10, 15 years later? I know from my own experience what I remember as a young person, the godly examples of the men who led me.

I would say 50 years later, I remember. I remember how they dressed. I remember they talked. I remember how they took me to meetings. I remember how they counseled me.

I remember how they prayed 50 years later. Why? Because it's example. The same thing is true in fathering, right? If you were to say to my four daughters daughters What was your father's best sermon?

You know what they'd say oh I Can't say which one's the best now. I know they would say that I don't remember the best sermon I can't remember He had a lot of good sermons. But if you were to say to my daughters, what was it like living with your dad? What's your dad like? Oh, they waxed elegant.

Oh, my dad, we did. He was so approachable. We're buddies. We're friends. We did so many things.

They waxed elegant. You know what? It's my example they remember. They don't remember my sermons. It's very disappointing.

You won't remember this sermon either. I've already made peace with that. Your example is powerful. Someone has said this, leadership is influence. Leadership is influence.

Who you're influencing, you're leading. You don't influence people, you're not leading them. You just got a title. Titles don't do much. Example does everything.

So you're an example as a father, and you're an example as a shepherd of the Lord's people. And that's what people are looking for. Authentic Christian leaders. Not phony baloney guys. Not people who got a, some psychological problem in their head that they gotta dominate people.

Godly examples. Now, here's what I wanted to talk to you about, and I'm almost done, really, I'm almost done. Peter's promise of future rewards for elders. I wanted to get to this to encourage you all to encourage you all Alright now the chief Shepherd. That's a beautiful phrase the head Shepherd the overarching Shepherd Maybe today we would call him the senior pastor if you want.

Notice, he's the chief shepherd. That's his relationship to us. He's the chief shepherd. I am Not the Chief Shepherd, get that straight. He is the Chief Shepherd, I am an Under Shepherd.

Under his orders, I do things his way, not my way. Because every time I do it my way, I mess up the church. I'm under strict orders to follow the Chief Shepherd as he guides me through the word of God. That is my job, to do what he wants me to do and to do it his way, willingly, eagerly, as an example. So, My leadership has to be Christ-like leadership.

My leadership of my wife, I'm the head of my wife, is Christ-like leadership. Somehow, people get all mixed up with that submission, you know, wife submits to the husband, they never read the next verse. Always telling the wife, submit to me as you submit to the Lord, somehow we men forget that our leadership, our headship is a Christ-like leadership who gave himself for his church, We give ourself for our wife. We sacrifice ourself for our wife and our children. George Verver tells a funny story.

He and his wife, they got married. They were just young, young people, started Operation Mobilization. They left on a honeymoon for Moody Bible Institute. They sold their wedding cake to buy tracts, to go to Mexico to give out tracts and make a total dedication to Christ. And he said to his wife when they first married, he said, honey, look at this.

You're to submit to me as unto the Lord. And she saw that And she believed that and was gonna follow her husband. A week later, she read the rest of it. Oh, and the husbands are to love their wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Said, honey, look at that.

She said, that really ruined our marriage for a while. Because he realized his responsibility. So our leadership is always a Christ-like leadership. We want to know how to lead. Look at how Christ leads.

The chief shepherd. Oh, now this is encouraging. And when he appears, he is coming back, when the chief shepherd who we follow, we're only his under-shepherds, when he appears, he's gonna bring with him, now this is not eternal life, this is special reward for under-shepherds. So he's speaking to you gentlemen here. When he appears, he will have the unfading crown of glory.

Notice, it's a rather unusual crown. It's unfading. A wreath, it wilts. Gold, it tarnishes. Everything fades in this world eventually.

But this is an unfading crown. It's eternal, forever. And the crown is the metaphor, the glory is the reality. The glory describes the crown. It's a crown made up of heavenly glory and honor.

It's the Lord's glory that somehow, we don't know the details, he shares with us. It's a wonderful reward for under shepherds and So brothers, here's what I want to say to you all this to say this to you Victory day is coming Reward day is coming Right now we just heard already you get beat up No one knows what you're doing. You spend hours on the phone hours visiting people people have very little gratitude for what you're doing, they even think it's their mission, they've got the spiritual gift of criticism, and they want to let you know all your problems, they don't believe a lot of things you say, and you deal with a lot of hard work and selfless devotion, and like Moses, you get many times kicked in the face. Someone said, sheep kick, and sometimes they kick real hard. And some of us after a while we just get tired of being kicked and being criticized and complained about.

But just again go back to Moses. He led the people of God and it was no easy job. I think that's there to show us leading the Lord's people, even though he loves them and he's brought them, they haven't been glorified yet. And so some of them are rather fleshly in the way they act and the way they treat us. And they walk out on us and tell other people in other churches how bad we are.

Well, it's not an easy job. It's not an easy job. But reward day's coming. Victory day is coming. And the Lord Jesus Christ will make sure that you receive proper honor and glory for eternity.

So I'm saying to you it is a great honor to be a shepherd, an under shepherd of God's sheep. And so however you have, however ways you have faced trials and complaints and heartaches and tiredness and weariness in the battle and a lack of just basic courtesy to you. The Lord will make that all up to you someday. The Lord is no man's debtor. In fact, when you get to heaven, I guarantee you this, you're gonna wish you had done more for the Lord.

And when people kick you in the face, and they will, literally, people have been beat up in churches, I had a man grab me by the throat one time, he had me right against the wall because we threatened him about his, striking his wife, and one of my fellow elders was with me, and he had me against the wall, and his face, his face just was transfigured in anger. And the only thing I could think of was, his wife's gotta look at this ugly face. So anyway, he had me against the wall, so when we left, I said to my fellow elder, I said, why didn't you help me? He said, there's no reason both of us getting beat up. I said, oh, that's wonderful.

I have a dear friend, a man hit him so hard in church he just broke his jaw and sent him to the hospital. Oh, we sing that lovely song, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will erase. So brothers, bravely run the race till we see Christ let's pray Lord we thank you for encouraging words that when our chief Shepherd appears the one we're following the one who we're copying and modeling, when He appears, He will have for us a crown consisting of heavenly glory.

Christ-like glory. We don't know exactly what it is, but we are sure we're going to be happy with it. It's something that you share with us of your very self. May we keep our eyes on the glory. May we keep our eyes on the prize.

May we serve as unto the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be Christ-like shepherds. We ask these things in your name alone amen what a blessing to be with you all I thank the Lord for the his grace and there's such a joy being reconciled to God aren't you thankful for the continuing work of the Lord Jesus aren't you thankful that he has made you the child of God your sins are forgiven we have so much to be thankful for. If our minds were right we'd be up running down the street. You couldn't contain us.

I think that'll be something of heaven. But if you turn, if you would, to 1st Corinthians 10. I really haven't come to preach to you. I've just come to encourage you in your personal walk with the Lord. So oftentimes in eldership and in church ministry by the Lord's mercy I've been a pastor over 30 years and I see and through the NCFIC I have so such a privilege of working with pastors throughout the southeast talking to them and being with them and just listening coming alongside best I can with them as a fellow struggler But one of the things that's so easy to do is to be so occupied with the needs of others, that you forget and lose sight of your personal growth in Christ's likeness.

That's a fatal mistake. God has not called us to be celebrities, but he has called us to be followers. So that means that your life and my life must be on a continual path and never fully arriving there, but on a continuing path to be conformed to Jesus. Irregardless of the length of time and in ministry however that ministry could be I cannot rest Nor can you rest in my relationship with the Lord Jesus based upon the longevity of my ministry? That's just the token of his mercy that has no bearing on my relationship If you try to if you carry that analogy over to in your relationship with your wife, you'll get divorced if you're if you're still treating her if your relationship with your earthly bride is not vital and growing, you're in trouble.

You may not realize it, but you're in trouble. So I just want to encourage you in how the Lord had worked personally in my life in one area and tried to encourage you in that area. And I think as elders, Brother Alexander was speaking about our example. Our example has to be one of humility and brokenness. We will never arrive.

But one of my greatest regrets that I have has as the Sherry's husband and Father of the six children that God's entrusted me with and the two grandchildren and the people of the church Those precious souls they will never see me complete fully complete in Christ. I'm flawed and broken. So I trust that the Lord will continue to help us. 1st Corinthians chapter 10. But in what what I have found, it's not the outlandish, the scandalous things that really ruin and diminish and eviscerate our walk with the Lord.

Jerry Bridges referred to them as refined sins, sins that we are, you know, there's culturally acceptable and it could be acceptable in your in your elder team. You and I could accept things that are less than what Jesus would want us to be. 1 Corinthians 10. Notice with me the word of the Lord. Moreover, brother, and I would that you that you should be ignorant.

Not that you'd be ignorant how all our fathers were under the cloud and I'll pass through the sea and we're all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and then the sea and did eat the same spiritual drink, for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ, first Corinthians 10 four. But with many of them, God was not well pleased. Obviously, as a follower of the Lord, we want to know what displeases him. It would be not very wise at all, be very foolish, reckless, to live habitually in an area and in ways that aren't pleasing to the Lord.

That would be the sin of presumption right there. To know that clearly these things do not please the Lord and I don't care I'm going to go that way anyway that's presumption for they were overthrown into wilderness now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. Neither be idolaters, as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication to some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ to some of them also tempted and were destroyed.

Verse 10. Neither murmur has some of them murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer I have seen so much damage in the body of Christ done by people who murmur and it's accepted oftentimes we as elders if you're not careful when we gather together we can be murmuring about the body of Christ We could be murmuring and complaining about the sheep that God's entrusted us to what with. They're weird people. They're strange people but I love them and I trust that the Lord would continue to enable us to love them and and point them to the Lord and not not use their whatever they do, however you would describe that to be a basis for complaining. Early this year as I was reviewing the year in my personal time with the Lord, and just asking him to where he would have me to grow, where my life needs adjusted.

So often I just want to encourage you, Don't be so preoccupied with the church that you lose sight of your own personal growth in godliness. That is very critical. You could have... I know so many pastors over the years that have had numerically large churches. They couldn't tell you when I would meet them.

Tell me about your personal time alone with the Lord. Tell me about your personal intake of Scripture. How do you personally go about memorizing Scripture? It's not on the radar screen. They're not freely talking about those things.

It's not a priority. The priority is growing the church. I just want to encourage you. Our priority needs to be growing in godliness. And let God deal with the church.

I remember John MacArthur said years ago in the little tape I had, you would be responsible for the depth of your walk with the Lord and let God take responsibility for the width of your ministry. And so many people get that all inverted. So many elders, full-time pastors get that inverted. Focus on the width and the depth that's really shallow. So as I was asking the Lord, I don't know if that's part of your relationship with the Lord, but I'd encourage you.

That's been a very important thing. And the thing that the Spirit of God brought to my, this really clear through the reading of the Word of God, the Spirit of God prompted my heart that He was not pleased with my speech. And this was immediately agreed and things came back and I was fully aware of that and the best that I could began to make restitution and go to people. And this you know you get with sheep so much and they just irritate you. You know what I'm talking about?

He just do funny things. And I mainly I found it my my wife I had mentioned to me and I wasn't even aware of it how I was speaking. And she mentioned to me something in confidence and she said are you aware of? How you speak about the church and I said well, how do I speak about the church? And then she said that oh I immediately just went to the Lord.

I went to the closet. This asks the Lord for mercy God is not pleased when we murmur. So I just want to bring you into the process and try to help you not that I'm on a different plateau. I'm not. I'm the least.

I'm the end of the day. We are unprofitable servants. Luke 17 10. At the end of the day, I am vile. I am absolutely nothing without the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I thank him for what he's teaching me and trust it through my brokenness that something that he is teaching me could be of help to you in your soul that you would not be so enamored with all the glitz and glamour of celebrity pastors that you lose sight of personal growth in godliness let's pray together father I asked that that you would continue to guide us. Thank you for your indwelling Holy Spirit that he is the one who is able to convict us. He is the able to make us aware of where our life, where our conduct and our behavior is out of line with what's revealed in your word. Thank you for the clarity of your word. Thank you for the illumination of your spirit.

Oh Father, I pray for these men and myself that you would continue most of all to develop us in Christ's likeness. Deliver us from the seductive power of the things that we see even on church media. All the likes and all the websites and all the seminars and all the things that people just gravitate to. There seems to be such a little value today on godliness and personal conformity to the Lord Jesus. So Father I pray that you'd have mercy on me and take this broken instrument and use it for your glory that someone would be saved from the ravages of lust and the ravages of condoning and accepting, murmuring and complaining when so clear in your word, you do not.

We ask this in Jesus' name, for His sake, Amen. So let's just do a series of this really quickly. I'll just bring you right into it. When the Lord, Acts 16, 14, the Lord is the one who opens the heart. My role as an elder is not to scrutinize people.

I don't believe. I trust that the Holy Spirit would open. I cannot do that. I don't know. I cannot open your heart.

I don't know what's in your heart. Just tell you what's in my heart. And when the Spirit of God in the first year began really to and it was this aspect of of complaining using my house speak. So turn if you would to Ephesians 4 29. This is the standard I believe, through the apostle Paul, at least one of them, and it's a very high standard.

And if Ephesians 4 29 is such that this would damn me to hell. I violated God's standard. I have not obeyed. Oh, But I thank God for His provision of a mediator. And He never complained.

All the way to the cross. He never complained. And that's imputed to me. His righteousness is imputed to my account. That doesn't make me want to live reckless.

That makes me want to be more devoted to Him. But here's the standard. Ephesians 4.29. Let no corrupt word, let no putrid word, let no decaying word ever, ever, proceed out of your mouth. But only what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear.

I have failed to reach that standard. Have you? That is God's standard. So the first thing in my prayer time, oh, Lord, I have I have fell through all this busyness of church life and all this busyness of eldering and pastoring and being a dad and homeschooling dad and being a grandfather and all the activities and all the phone calls. And I just completely lost sight that you have a standard for my speech.

Please forgive me. Help me to slow down enough to realize and appreciate that standard. So that's that's where it began, and this began to meditate and pulverize my mind in my heart with that versus scripture. I still do today go to bed with it. I And then I'm with other people and they'll say something to me about something.

And I say, well, are you aware that God spoken about that? And they'll say, well, no. I said, well, God has spoken about that in Ephesians 4 29. I don't believe God would have you speaking about your wife. I don't believe God would have you speaking about your daughter that way.

I don't think God would have you speaking about that man that way. That is putrid. That is fails to standard of what God has said. So I think that where I live in my little part of the world, it's not the scandalous things. I believe that one of our greatest dangers in the church, especially in this movement, is being so comfortable with each other that we have accepted murmuring and complaining and fault-finding as something normative when really it is not.

So, that was the first passage of Scripture. And then The Lord directed me to the book of Proverbs. So turn, if you would, to Proverbs 10. Verse 19. So all these verses are the verses of my meditation are the verses that the Spirit of God would have me to mortify.

The sin that He would have me to mortify. And I just want to encourage you, in your role of elder, I want to encourage you to model before your congregation the importance of Scripture memory. And It's very important to memorize Scripture that's related to the area of your life that the Spirit of God would have you to mortify. What I have found is that people in the church use Scripture memory as a way to mask what the real issue is. If my sin is murmuring and complaining, it will not do me any good to memorize verses on the joy of the Lord.

Now, I could memorize verses on the joy of the Lord while we're together. That's going to make me look good in your eyes. But when I'm with my friends and I'm with a small group and the elder team and we're talking about weighty matters like what sin is the Spirit of God directed as your heart to mortify? How are you aggressively, intentionally directing the issue of sin in your own life? I don't believe that we can effectively, lovingly deal with sin in the church until we're dealing with sin in our personal lives.

I may be completely wrong, but that's my belief. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 19, In a multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who refrains his lips, there's one word for that, Wise. Oh, Lord. As I enter this situation today, Lord, help me to refrain my speech. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 4.

Notice, secondly, if you would, Proverbs 15 verse 4. Wholesome tongue. I've gone in situations before with my family and friends that I've had a multitude of words. I have something that's frustrated me and I've allowed myself the freedom to rationalize in my mind just because it frustrates me It's got to get an outlet provides me a catalyst to get it out That's that's not that's not the standard. God has set for my words, you know, we're Alec brother Alexander's going to talk about pornography and I'll just share with you this really quick.

I've had just such a blessing and I can't verbalize in words how the Lord has used him continually in my life, not just in eldership but in my pursuit of godliness and Just in his conversations. I was talking about something about eldership one day and he said Joe you're not asking the right question And I said, I'm not asking the right question he said no, he said I think the question is on the viability of the church in America and And that's what what are you I had never thought about that and and he said with average age that they're addicted to pornography is 12 and Third where we're going to get the next group of leaders and God has a standard for sexual purity and that just so and I knew that but that was reaffirmed and I just want to reaffirm to you that God has a standard for your speech. It's so easy to get on and focus on, and we should rightfully so, the ravages of pornography. But all sin is ravaging. All sin is destroying.

And our verbal sins oftentimes are indicative of a heart that's out of control in more areas than James Chapter three. If you control if the Spirit of God can control your time, Then all your passions will be controlled. The tongue is very critical in our growth in godliness. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 4. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverse perverseness in it breaks breaks the spirit when there's perversity in my speech.

This destroys it. This kills it. Just it just permeates everything with this putrid matters. Proverbs chapter 15, verse 28. Even a fool when he holds his peace is counted wise.

Even a fool. So sometimes in our elder team I'm sure that you have the same thing. There's always a rush to judgment. Make quick decisions. And I've been trying to encourage them.

We don't need to be known in the body as these men can make quick, sharp decisions. We need the model before our congregation But before we go deciding things we talk to the Lord We hear from the Lord regarding this. We just don't impulsively react. I don't believe elders godly elders are just reacting I think we're responding to the Spirit of God and the Word of God in love in that situation. So even a fool, when he holds his pieces, counted wise, and he shuts his lips, is a man of understanding.

Proverbs chapter 17, verse 29. So what I'm seeking to do with the Lord's help is put to death, mortify through the Spirit of God and through the Word of God put to death this impulsive thing, this attitude that it's okay to, because of my, whatever situation is in the church, that it gives me an excuse to complain or murmur, not just the church in my home with my grown children, whatever it would be. It's never an excuse. There's never, you can't, you cannot excuse. There's no exceptions to complaining.

God would have us to be habitually thankful people. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 27. He that has knowledge spares his words. We're living in an age of instant gratification where people are being discipled by the media and they're being discipled that whatever enters their mind to spew it out through the internet. I've been trying to teach my children that you're accountable for what she's put on Facebook.

You're accountable to God for what goes on your if you do that stuff, Instagram, your anytime before you push that button, you have to realize, am I willing to be accountable to God for that and so many people it's just it's the absence of restraint the Bible has you know the biblical concept is lawlessness in so many ways I believe our speech will be becoming more and more lawless in what we're doing. Our hesitancy, our reluctance to have any restraint. I see so many elders that are so distempered, So hesitant to have any restraint. Oh, I just want to encourage you wisdom teaches us to be restrained in speech Wisdom godly wisdom would not teach us to this unleash everything that comes across my mind needs to go to the world. That's not what the Lord would have us to do.

He that has knowledge spares his words and a man of understanding is an excellent spirit. Verse 28, even a fool when he holds his peace is counted wise So as I'm meditating upon these verses for three or four or five months However long spirit of God will bring these verses to my mind as you know in these situations And He will apply them to my heart, to that situation. And it's so helpful. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 2. I don't know how many verses that was, five or six verses, but I trust those.

That's a good five or six verses. Ten verses are to me very healthy to expose my heart to. Also, years ago I heard, I think it was John MacArthur years ago say that somebody in his church had struggled with lust. And he said, well, just begin by... Just picture Scripture memory as building a wall that's going to make it very hard for your heart to jump over.

So start off with a low hurdle of having two verses in that area, specific area a week. And we'll just continue to go along that path. And by the time this young before that sin was mortified, he had put 60 verses in his heart regarding the issue of lust. And I think the more that you put God's Word in your heart specifically to that area that the Spirit of God would have you to mortify, the more you put those verses in, they are like hurdles, your heart will be absolutely worn out so that sin would be so less attractive So and what would be attractive to you and I is obedience to Jesus and submission to Jesus Not that lust not that sin not that murmuring or complaining how no matter how? Acceptable it is Ecclesiastes 5 2 is the verses Scripture along with Ephesians 4 29 that has been so strategically used in about the Holy Spirit of God in my personal walk with the Lord.

And I trust that Ecclesiastes 5-2, do not be rash with your mouth. Do not let your heart ever utter anything hasty. Should be a hyphen. There's a hyphen in my memory work. Hyphen before God.

God is in heaven. Where are we? In Ecclesiastes 5-2, where are we? We're on earth. Very limited perspective.

I don't know what the Lord's doing. I see through a glass dimly. Therefore, let my words be what? Now, you're living in a culture that no one is beating that drum. That is unbelievable.

No one is beating the drum of restraint, not just morals, but restrained speech in any way. And I believe as the Lord would work in our lives through enabling us through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and He would continue to help us to grow and He would make us aware where He would have us to grow in our godliness. An area like that would be very strategic in the life of the church because it's strategic in our growth in godliness. So I want to encourage you. Allow the holies.

Don't be so preoccupied with making a name for yourself. Or making a name for your church. Or whatever it would be. Let our names die. Let the name of Christ be magnified.

But let our focus be on putting to death those issues, those sins that he brings up to our mind. And before we begin to over-scrutinize the church, may the Spirit of God scrutinize our life. And out of humility, out of brokenness, I think we could become better effective shepherds over the long haul. I'll close with Psalm 39.1. I thank the Lord for you.

I trust that the Lord somehow could use this to be an encouragement in your life. Psalm 39.1. I love the Moffat. I don't know if you've heard of James Moffat, but he had a translation. It's very, very good.

From 1922. And I've kind of paraphrased that. Kind of helps me a little bit. Psalm 39.1. Lord, help me to be careful with what I do with my tongue.

Lord, help me to be careful with what I do with my tongue. I don't want to sin with it. Oh, I have just that's been my fervent prayer to the Lord. Lord, today, help me not to sin with my tongue in any way. Help me, Lord, not to sin.

I don't want to displease you in this area of my life. By your help of your spirit, I want to I want to please you here, Lord. And I haven't. I failed. But I thank the Lord for the gospel because the gospel is for spiritual failures like me and like you.

Mark 2.17 He goes on to say, Help me to put a muzzle on my lips in the presence of the ungodly. Help me to put a muzzle on my lips in the presence of the ungodly. And as you know, brothers, more and more, we are surrounded with ungodly people. Where I live in Atlanta, north of Atlanta, Georgia. Just about every community.

It's about 90% unchurched. Inside the perimeter of Atlanta, Georgia, it's 99% unchurched. It's one of the darkest spiritual places in the world. And they're crying out to the Lord for missionaries to come in there. And this crazy thing, they're wanting families to come in there to be missionaries.

And no families are willing to do it yet. So, I'm just surrounded. We had a meeting Monday in Royston, Georgia, just north of where I live in Royston, Georgia, and was speaking about the Gospel. A young man, 16 years old. And after it was over, he came to me and he said, I've never heard that in my life.

I have no idea. I just about every week where I live when I talk to people about Jesus and his sacrifice and what he has done, what he's provided to reconcile us to God They have no idea Where I live I don't know where it is everybody's a good person and The idea is that if you're a good person you go to heaven you've heard that before right? And if you've got to be something horrible to go to go to hell. So I just I self identify myself as a sinner. I just I self identify as a I'm not good.

I'm a sinner, but thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. Jesus, He provided His Son Jesus to cover my sin. So I thank the Lord for being with you, and I trust somehow that could be an encouragement. But Don't neglect your personal growth in godliness. And you remind me, don't neglect your personal growth in godliness for some elusive idea of a celebrity or a platform type ministry.

It's not real. Seek a growing conformity to the Lord Jesus. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for putting Your hand in that area of my life where it's most out of adjustment with You. Thank You for Your continuing love.

Thank You, Lord, that You demonstrate that love in not leaving me where I am. Oh, Lord, make us more like Christ. Make us more humble. Make us more godly. Make us more active to be intentional, to put Your Word in our heart that we would not sin against You.

Help us, Lord, not to be reckless in our obedience. Help us not to rest with our position and use our position in the church as a mask for ungodliness in areas that are clearly unacceptable to you. Oh, Lord, thank You for being so kind and gentle in how You correct Your children. Oh, Father, we pray that You would strengthen and build Your church in such a way that the church that we see can make an impact in the lostness that's all around us. Thank You for this gathering together.

We ask that the Lord Jesus would be glorified and he would be exalted above all. Psalm 115 verse 1 and we ask this in his name and for his sake, amen. Prayer that as the Lord brings conviction to our hearts, we don't speed over it. That which we've just heard and certainly all that we've already heard, is born from obviously some conviction. When Pastor Scott asked that I would just take a few minutes and share with you tonight, Maybe what the Lord is teaching me, obviously some of the continuity among what we're sharing is things that we're struggling with ourselves and things that we're learning.

I jokingly said to brother Scott, I don't really have much to say because my life would be the example of what not to do. And I don't mean that I'm living, I hope, in a way that's disobedient to the Lord, but our church is getting smaller. And I'm asking the Lord about the longevity of ministry in my life and public ministry In our church on Sunday mornings, we're going through the Sermon on the Mount which you turn to Matthew chapter 6 Maybe none of you are in that position. Matthew 6, Our Lord is so kindly speaking there on that mountain and we came to this passage about a month ago and I have to confess that my wife and I have now just been really working through this quietly and privately. Verse 1 says, take heed that you don't do your righteousness before men to be seen of them.

If you do, you have, Otherwise you have no reward of your Father who is in heaven. So when you do your alms, here's the example he'll go to of that righteous living, don't sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. I say to you they have their reward. When you do your alms don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your alms are giving may be in secret. And your father who sees in secret himself shall reward you openly.

The background of this which certainly we don't have the time to go into, most of you, if not all of you, are well versed with, is the establishment of what our Lord is still expecting as righteous living even in the kingdom of heaven and the message of the kingdom He was not Minimizing the role of the law But establishing its authority and he does it so carefully as you all know from verse 21 down to verse 48 of chapter 6, of chapter 5, but you and I are then confronted with a word in chapter 6 verse 1, beware, take heed, be cautious. There's a warning here, after all that background to righteous living, Living our lives before others so that they will see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. So he could take six examples from the law and really apply them in a way that if you really open your heart to them it hurts. But he comes to chapter 6 and says, but I have a warning for you. In many ways this whole passage has been about righteousness and I encourage our folks to think that verses 1-12 of chapter 5, the Beatitudes, really is the meat of the whole sermon.

You may you know break it out a little differently but talking about righteous living has to start with what we are as citizens and what we are inside. And out of that comes the application. So one way to view the Sermon on the Mount is you have 12 verses or 11 verses of the meat of the message and then everything else is application. What does living that blessed life look like? But it's incredible to think that after all that affirming of righteous living by the law, He still has another severe warning and it's a warning based on the nature of my character and who I am and what I am inside.

And that is I can do all that righteousness so that other people will notice and affirm that I'm good and affirm that I'm righteous. We've already had the words mentioned by brother Alexander a few minutes ago when he starts through 1 Peter. Of course he just flew through that so fast. But you could spend a lot of time discussing our Lord's pointing to the motives of why we do what we do. And as soon as the Lord puts his finger on the motives of why I'm preaching, or why you're eldering, then my whole keeping life can become quickly unraveled.

Because to live as citizens of the kingdom is far more than about what I'm doing but about why I'm doing it. Some people have broken up these illustrations that are coming in verse chapter 6. You have alms and you have prayer and you have fasting and you have treasures in heaven and teachings on worry, you know, however your divisions are labeled in your Bible. Some People have talked about these classifications being between the religious application and the mundane elements of life or between worship life and between everyday life. And I stressed with our folks I'd rather divide it between formal worship and informal worship because our whole, all of our life is worship.

And when I'm taking care of the needs of the poor or if I'm balancing my checkbook, which is the latter part of chapter six, I'm worshiping. So there's no talking about kingdom living separate from how I engage, verse 2, with how I take care of the poor. I'm not going to deal with that at all. Obviously when I was preaching through this with our congregation there was application much like evangelism. How are we living the gospel and caring for the poor?

But what I want to do in just a few minutes is share with you something that's just being screwed down into my heart and I need to bear the weight of it and surely we all do that when I do my righteous deeds, you know you understand verse one some of your translations will say don't do your alms, seems to be a more sound argument that the word righteousness fits there, but verse 2 he does pick up taking care of the poor. So alms is factored into this passage, but verse 1 governs the rest of the verses down to verse 18. When you do your righteousness, don't do these deeds to be seen. Verse two, he says don't do this righteous giving, this alms giving, this caring for the poor, with the sound of a trumpet. I told our folks that I'm sure we can quickly lose ourselves in that kind of silly illustration and if you've read any or are preaching on or read some illustrations, there's sort of these discussions about how this might have happened even literally in the time of Christ.

I really don't wanna dwell on that because that's irrelevant for us right now. I wanna ask you, and I'm asking myself, how do I minister and worship in a way that sounds a trumpet? And though I may be, and surely am, younger than many of you here, please forgive me for sticking my neck out a little bit too far and say, I don't understand why pastors put so much about their public ministry on Facebook. I don't understand the connection with people needing to know what you're doing to take care of God's people. I don't know any of you here, so I'm not talking to you.

I'm safe, okay? I don't know anybody's Facebook. Maybe y'all don't have one. That's great. But I told our folks the Greek really says there, when you do your alms, don't go post it on Facebook.

That's what it says in verse 2. Because that's the way the hypocrites operate. That they appear to have one image or MO in public different than what they have in private. Of course it's shocking that our Lord would use this illustration that he says there's people like this in the synagogue. They're not gonna get muddled in a doctrinal discussion here but we're talking about the church, right?

A place of worship. Do you think there are people that do that in the place of worship? Are there people like that in your place of worship? Are you like that in your place of worship? I would venture this application at least a little for just a moment.

We might recoil from the thought of blowing a trumpet in church, but how has the church today not just failed to call out such hypocrisy, but has actually come to facilitate it. That we have erected platforms and stages and hired CEOs. And we have foisted fundraising schemes on the people. Fundraising schemes on the people. Or the games the church plays in order to raise its funds.

What our Lord says, what I want you to do is I want you to do your righteous acts so that nobody sees it. Just do it secretly. Do it quietly. And you and I chafe under that because what's the point of living righteously unless somebody else can notice it? The Lord says this application, I don't want you to know, as it were, verse three, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Don't think about it. Don't consider that your righteous deeds make you superior than others. Don't let your act of giving or worship regulate further giving or worship. Let me say that again, I stress this to our folks. The way one hand to not know the right hand to the left hand.

What does that really mean? Well, the left hand, however you word it, the left hand shouldn't be aware and keeping tally with what the other one's doing, but you and I can quickly keep tally of how much righteousness I'm doing. And this hand's really fully aware of what this one's doing so that it can find the point that it's full. We've already given it the office. We've already engaged in our righteous deeds.

But some of the most comforting words, well I should say they're comforting or they're scary is the verse 4 says, your father who sees in secret. That kind of expression can go both ways, right? Either that terrifies you or comforts you. What is going on in the secret place of my life because thou God seest me. And the passage will go on to say wonderful words.

I imagine that in eldership discussion over the next couple of days, that our pastors and teachers who we will have in front of us for the next, till Saturday, will probably highlight again, as has already been done, that there is a reward. But you and I can marginalize all of the reward the Lord would intend to give because we kept blowing our trumpet about our ministry and making sure people were aware of what we were doing. I've been in ministry long enough to have gone to enough preachers conferences to know that the conversation is often about what they're accomplishing. That's fine, you have your reward. There's so much more to say about our reward.

Let me wrap my thoughts up with this. When I was working through this about a month ago, I put several notes down here that I thought this would be the type of things to share with pastors not knowing that I would share this. Hence the reason for pulling this up for discussion tonight. How do I display my pursuit of men's expressions or their accolades towards my good deeds? How do I do that?

How do you do that? Here's the thing, the passage is obviously indicating that that's our natural bent. Our Lord will spend a whole chapter, if I can use that expression, on the law. And then he stops and says, but I have to warn you, because I know what you want. I know how you're wired.

I know what you desire. And the sad thing is, is we can make ministry all about self-glorification. The hideousness of men is not that he would murder, but that he would call himself to be worshiping the true God but for the benefit of his own glory. Of his own glory. Is it enough for you and I that only God knows the deeds that we've done for others?

In some ways, right, isn't eldership all about what's going on in these three verses? It's taking care of the needs of other people. Now here it might be referring to financially, but How often do you and I tell stories that center around what we've accomplished? I know my motives by how much I think about what I do that others do not know about. And here's what I wrote in my notes a month ago, ministers are in great danger of doing this.

A secret sense of entitlement creeps into our actions And we think that if only people knew my late nights, and heard of the work that I accomplish. Beware of religious services, so called, where the ego of men is stroked. Men's names are in lights and where celebrities are groomed. May I close with a word from Matthew Henry. He said, consider the eye of God as always being upon you.

And he uses this earthly illustration. I know we'll relate to it. When we are with our superiors on earth and observe them to look upon us, that engages us to look upon them, and shall we not look up to God, whose eyes always be a hold and whose eyelids always try the children of men? He sees all the motions of our hearts and he sees with pleasure the motion of our hearts towards him, which should engage us to set him before us always. The servant, though he might be careless at other times, yet when he is under his master's eye, he will wait in his place and keep close to his business.

We need no more to engage us in diligence than to do our work with eye service while our master watches us for then we shall never look away from him. I have children, you have children, and we know what it is for them to wait in a room to catch the pleasing eye, the pleased eye of a father. They'll do everything in their little world and their little ecosystem to just catch the eye of their dad, their mom. We would be so more emptied of ourselves if Jonathan would be more empty of himself and just desire to catch the eye of my Father and my Father alone. It doesn't mean the Lord wouldn't close the doors on a ministry, it doesn't mean that public ministry ends, it doesn't mean that we don't move on.

But we let the Lord be completely in control of that and our lips aren't murmuring. We see it as God's providential care. The Lord who sees in secret will reward us openly. Take heed my brothers that we do not our righteous elders, our service, and our ministry in any way to be seen by men. Father, This and more may you use it in our hearts to probe, to dismantle the foolish pride that we possess.

We have an eye carefully beholding the face of our Father who will reward and forgive us for how we have surrounded ourselves with or attempted to surround ourselves with confirmation that we're doing right. May we know what it is to have and recognize that we are naked and open before the eyes of you. And I pray this in your son's name. Thank you brothers We've just had five tender hearted men reach into our hearts and appeal to us out of their experience and admit their faults and and bear their the souls before us and I I pray that the Lord will use it for our sanctification you know Paul said to the Thessalonians for this is the will of God, your sanctification. And we, Jonathan, appealed to us to consider what we do to be seen by men and to consider what's real compared to what's just on the surface and Joe was appealing to us to memorize the Word of God in the area of our sin.

I thought that was very helpful and to find ourselves murmuring and to see how it's connected with our lack of intimacy with God and Alexander you came and you you brought us many things regarding those who have been entrusted into our care so that we would love them. And to remember that the victory is sure. That there's a crown of righteousness for elders that is waiting. And Mark, You appealed to us to trust God and obey. And to cry out.

To really cry out. And I had many things come to mind that I need to cry out for. With great urgency. And Jason, for your appeal to us to do the work of an evangelist and to care about those who are perishing and make our way to them rather than waiting for them to make their way to us. So we've heard we've heard many precious and helpful and very very practical things so thank you brothers for doing that and I pray that there there would be much fruit from your appeals they were very precious appeals and they seem to be such heartfelt appeals and maybe the Lord would give us grace to have hearts corresponding with those appeals so thank you thank you so much we're gonna close our evening with some singing and Jonathan is going to come up and he's going to lead us and then we'll be dismissed and then we'll we'll take get back up in the morning.