Skip to content Unstoppable: How Church Leaders and Pastor Work Together to be an Unstoppable Church Mar 26 · 41 min ...more
Unstoppable: How Church Leaders and Pastor Work Together to be an Unstoppable Church
March 26, 2024 · 41 min
Pastor John Mark Caton discusses honoring church leaders and their responsibility to care for and equip the congregation.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton March 26, 2024 · 41 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark Caton discusses honoring church leaders and their responsibility to care for and equip the congregation. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark Caton discusses honoring church leaders and their responsibility to care for and equip the congregation.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
0:00 We've been in a series entitled An Unstoppable Church, and every every Sunday before I come in and preach, if you've ever seen it, about 8 45 I meet out in the atrium with some of our deacons. We just pray.0:12 We pray for every person that's gonna come on this campus, every person that's gonna view 1 of our services online. We pray that God would move in the hearts and lives of people, that people would come in here with a0:22 passion to worship and a passion to study and hear and listen to God's word. That's what we pray for. Your deacons do that every Sunday morning with your pastor. And as I told0:33 them, we have been preaching through first Thessalonians, there are only 2 messages left. Don't miss next week's message. It's the last of First Thessalonians. It talks about rejoicing always, praying without0:45 ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. That's next week. This week the passage is on how a congregation should love and honor0:57 the pastors and ministers who lead them. It just happened to be this day. When we started in January, had no idea it was going to be this day. We just put together our teaching team, put together a pattern, but it also1:09 talks about how your pastor and pastors and ministers should love you. See, it's not just a 1 way street that you love me, it's also that I love you. Then it talks about how we should have peace1:21 with each other, that's what we're gonna look about look at today. And then finally, how we difficult deal with some difficult people in our life. And so all the way back at the beginning of the year, we started this1:31 series from this church that Paul had planted, got ran out of town, had endured amazing persecution, and on his second missionary journey, man, Paul goes into Thessalonica, preaches, and he1:42 sets up some leadership structures for the church, Lots of people are saved. It's a crazy collection, much like our church, of Jew, Hellenistic Jews and Jew, Hebrew Jews, Gentiles and1:54 Greeks. I mean, just a crazy collection of people that Paul then gets run out of town. He gets so worried, he sends Timothy back, he says, Timothy, go check on this church, see how they're doing. Timothy comes back and2:06 says, they are killing it. All right? And that's the kind of church we said we wanted to be at the beginning of 20 24, and it will be the exact kind of church we want to be in 25, 26, 27, 28, and2:17 beyond. And so church, when we come back today, we're just 2 services out, I've read these few verses that Paul is praising the Thessalonian church, and the challenge in every2:29 service has been, let's be this kind of church. And then we'll get to our passage today, and we've always read this every week, the first verse of first Thessalonians chapter 1. Says Paul, Silas, Timothy,2:41 that's who's who's talking to them, who's writing to them, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, grace and peace to you. We always thank God for you,2:53 continue and continually mention you in our prayers. Here's what he says. We remember before our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor that is always prompted3:04 by your love, and your endurance that is inspired inspired by the hope that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, then after those verses, we've been looking at these over the last couple of weeks, Paul3:16 praises this church because first of all, they receive the gospel, the good news, That regardless of your sin and your condition and your state as it relates to God, the Gospel is the good news. That God loved you so3:28 much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you. For every person in this room. If you think you're close to God or as far as you could possibly be from God, the3:40 Gospel is the good news. God loved you so much he sent his son to die on the cross for you, to be buried in the tomb, rise again the third day, to come out of that empty tomb, so you and I today3:51 can have an opportunity just to simply, through the grace of God by faith, receive Jesus, forgiveness of sins, and the gift of eternal life. And Paul says, you receive the Gospel.4:04 Then Paul praised him in the last couple of weeks about you honor God's word. You don't compromise God's word because culturally some things become out of favor or politically it becomes out of4:15 favor. He says, you have held firm to God's word. Even in the midst of hardship and difficulty. And when you hold firm to God's Word, he tells the Thessalonians, and you've been through incredible persecution and trials4:26 and difficulties. But he also tells them in the midst of all of this, you are a strong church, you are a dynamic church, you are an influential church, and he really says,4:38 don't ever forget, believer. Church is not an option. If you look at God's Word, when someone is saved, church going to church, having a church, having an affinity for a church, affiliation4:50 with the church is not an option. There are a lot of people today says, know, I'm a Christian. I just don't do the church thing, or I don't do the religion thing. Let me tell you what, that about that is about as far5:00 from the New Testament idea of what a church is as you could possibly imagine. Why? Because if you are isolated alone, that's where Satan attacks. How many of know that that Satan is like a lion roaming5:12 around seeking someone to devour. How many of you know that? What do lions do to devour someone? The first thing they want to do is isolate them from the herd or5:24 the group, don't they? And if you make a choice to isolate yourself from the church, first of all, you're not following the biblical pattern of what it means to be a believer and how we should have fellowship with each5:34 other, but you're literally setting yourself up for Satan to attack, devour, and destroy you. So church is not an option. And so here's the beautiful thing. We've looked at5:46 all of those things, God's words, your influence, your dynamic, your growing, your strong, all of those things apply to our church. And then we come to this passage in First Thessalonians chapter 5, where Paul5:57 talks about, hey, congregation, here's how you treat your leaders. Leaders, here's how you treat your congregation. And then everybody, here's how we treat6:09 each other, up, down, out, and then here's how you deal with difficult people when they come into the church and how you should encourage them along the way. So let's just read it, let me show it to you. First6:20 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 12. This is Paul, towards the end of the book, he says, now we ask brothers and sisters. Let me just stop you right there. Look at those words. Do you know when we talk about the church6:32 being a family, the family of God, that word brothers and sisters, that word is used by Paul in his other epistles 60 times. You think it6:44 matters? He says, listen, when we come together as God's people, it doesn't matter what your family of origin was like, this becomes a family, a family of God. He uses it 60 times in other6:55 epistles, and just in these 2 short books of First and Second Thessalonians, he uses the idea of brethren, or brothers and sisters, 27 more times. So look around.7:08 Your brothers and sisters are sitting around you. They are your family. Now, also know that family was the original incurable disease, right? But we're here. We're7:20 here, we are a family, man. We are to be together, we are to love each other, so we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the7:32 Lord, and who admonish you. He says, hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. He says, then live at peace with each other. And then he says, and we urge you brothers7:44 and sisters, he says, we're family. Warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, and be patient with everyone. Look at verse 15. And he says, make sure that7:56 nobody ever pays back wrong for wrong or evil for evil, your translation might say, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Sadly,8:08 having tension in a church is not an uncommon thing. My guess is if you grew up in church, you've been in a lot of churches, maybe you've relocated a lot, you've probably been in a church where there's some tension8:19 between the pastor and the congregation, the congregation, the pastor, and and others. How many of you ever been in that kind of church? Right? We all know about it and sadly, it shouldn't be that way. That doesn't mean8:29 we don't disagree. It doesn't mean that decisions aren't aren't ever made, because I want you to know they are, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made. But there's also, Paul says, in the midst of all of8:41 that, since we are brothers and sisters in Christ, that we ought to strive to get along. We ought to strive, and so he says listen, in this passage you need to know how you as a congregation8:52 treats me and our staff, how our staff and leaders treat you, our congregation, then how we treat treat each other, then how we deal with difficult people. And so let me just kind of share with you9:04 when we think about this, there are a lot of new folks here for over the last couple years. I just thought I would just kind of stop and share with you just kind of the org chart of the church. Okay?9:16 Here's the organizational structure of the church. We've got some of these things. So let me let me put up slide number 1. You say, does this matter, pastor? Let me tell you. Alright? Many of you probably would have9:26 said, if we're gonna put up the org chart, you would put John Mark at the top because he's the senior pastor. And as we know from my birthday today no, I'm just the oldest 1, right? All right? But many of you might9:38 think, well, John Mark's going to be at the top. Notice, John Mark's not at the top. In our bylaws, there are trustees that oversee everything. All of these trustees are deacons in our church,9:50 and I'm gonna show you some other things, but the trustees, some churches call them elders, and our founding documents legally they are called trustees. That's what we refer to them about. They have ultimate authority.10:01 When we are about to build and make room, we can't buy, sell land, we can't build anything, we can't borrow anything unless all the trustees sign the documents. So it's got to meet their favor. Then10:13 you'll notice there is a stewardship team. There's a stewardship team that oversee all the budget, all the spending, all the money, where it goes, and they will say, here's our budget, here's where we were last year,10:23 they make these decisions, here's where we think you're gonna be this year, and here's how we're going to allot the money as it goes out. Some for children's missions, whatever it is, that's what they make. Then you'll10:33 notice there's a personnel team, and notice the arrows going back and forth from the stewardship team to the personnel team. The the stewardship team basically says, personnel team, here's how much you have to spend this10:45 year. Here's what you can do, and they have this ongoing conversation about, you know, more or less or whatever, and so that's what it is. Now here's what you need to know about the leadership of your church. No 1 on10:57 either of those 3 bodies are on your paid staff. Those are all laypeople. Those are all laypeople. Go to image number 2. This is where your paid staff comes in, in our11:09 organizational chart. You have a senior staff and you have a staff. Your senior staff is a collection of ministry heads. If you take children's ministry, student ministry, adult ministry, discipleship11:20 ministry, finance and facilities ministry, missions, that's what you have. That's how you come up worship. That's how you come up with the senior staff. Now, we have a great11:32 relationship with our stewardship team, our personnel team, and our trustees, so they give us day to day operational control over the church. Does that make sense? But within their11:44 parameters that they set forth. Now, if we are doing our job well and right, this should always be a harmonious relationship. Alright? This should always be a harmonious relationship.11:56 And so you have a senior staff that we just kind of sit there and we bounce ideas off of each other and I will tell you in ministry, especially ministry in in a church our size, there is always a choice that has to12:08 be made. Don't you understand that? There there's never just 1 clear choice. There's always 3 or 4 clear choices that that all 4 could be good, and we'll pray about it, we'll banter about it, sometimes we disagree as a12:19 senior staff, but we sense in prayer and the leadership of God's Spirit, this is what God wants us to do. Now what the bad thing is, is there might be some people in our church that prefer the other 3 choices. And so12:31 we will go and we'll say, here's why we made this choice. This is why we chose 2 and not 1 or 3 or 4 and then that's the day to day operational control. Then you have the staff that is below your senior staff and then12:43 you have the ministries put the third group up there. Then you have your staff, then you have children's ministry, student ministry, and then you have tons and tons of volunteers that ultimately make12:55 that happen. So if you want to know what the org chart of the church is, John Mark's not at the top. Alright? Nobody in the staff is at the top. If you take your trustees, your stewardship team,13:07 and your personal personnel team, and they all come together and say, you know what? We think next Sunday we'd like a new pastor. Guess what you get next Sunday? Some of you, your13:19 wish come true. Right? But here's the beautiful thing about me talking about this is I don't sit up here and talk with any angst or worry or concern because we have13:31 a church that is doing it right. All right? Not because we have a perfect pastor, we have perfect perfect deacons. Now notice, I want to go ahead and show this to you 1 more time. Put that last graph back up there. You13:42 might be saying, well pastor, where are the deacons? Where are the deacons? Well, in our organizational structure, our deacons are a servant body, not a13:54 board. Does that make sense? They are a serving body of men who love you chances are if you walked into a door and there was a guy standing there probably with his wife opening the door he was14:06 probably a deacon. Deacons don't have authority in our church other than to serve and love. Now if you look at those top 3 groups, trustees, they have authority as14:18 a trustee just as a servant body they're a deacon. Does that make sense? Their own personnel team, own stewardship team, they're on all of those things. So that's why you don't see deacons up there. So if you wonder what14:27 the org chart is at our church, that's it. And John Mark's not at the top. We're gonna see here in a little bit Jesus is. Okay? And we're gonna show that to you as we see what Peter says to the church he was talking to.14:38 So let me give you that's our org chart. So let me give you 4 keys as we think about relating with each other, how you should love me and our staff, how our staff should love and treat you, how we should14:50 treat each other, and how we as a church should deal with difficult people. So number 1, alright, Paul says, listen, the church ought to honor its leaders. The church should15:02 honor its leaders. Last weekend I was out and I was invited by 1 of our life groups. By the way, the life group is in this hour right now, the 11 o'clock class, they15:13 invited me, said pastor, several months back, we're gonna go, all the men are gonna go, we'd love for you to join our men in our class to go on a pheasant hunt. Okay? A pheasant hunt. A pheasant and quail hunt. I've15:24 never been there. There's a picture of me and Jarrett. We went last week. I took a day off and and what's interesting is is 1 of the members of that that class is on my personnel team and when he he's the 1 who invited15:36 me. He said, Let's go. And as soon as I got on the plane with him, he goes, You only work 1 day a week, you're taking this day off. Taking Sunday off. I said, because y'all invited me, and I want to be with men in our15:47 church. So we go to this Pheasant Bonanza place, by the way, a member of our church owns a great place about an hour north of Omaha, and when we drive in, you see15:59 this. Pheasant Bonanza welcomes Cottonwood Creek. And I'm like, that's cool. I'm driving on the bus, we're coming from the airport, we're going in there, but do you notice there's some blurred out things at the bottom?16:12 Let's go ahead and go to the next 1. It says, Pheasant Bonanza welcomes Cottonwood Creek, a great church. Man, I'm like, that's awesome. Alright, I read slow. I read about like, you16:23 know, these things, and I'm like, it's a great church. I couldn't agree with that more. And I go ahead and show them the third 1. And16:38 you know what? I thought, nailed it. That's pretty much it. But I want you to know, here's the beauty of having this conversation today is when those things happen, I'm actually16:50 I think it's hilarious. Why? Because you don't beat me up all the time. Y'all don't beat our staff up all the time. We're not in contention. I would have felt17:02 terrible if it had said an okay church and a great pastor. I would have said I care nothing about that. I would have actually struggled with a great church and a great pastor because I really think that's probably pretty17:12 accurate. It's a great church with an okay pastor. But the beautiful thing is there wasn't this underlying dynamic, that's why I feel free to preach this to you, there's not this underlying dynamic of17:24 this fighting and tension with the leadership in the church and most of the trustees, personnel team, stewardship team are going to be in 1 of these 2 services today, and they will tell you, they would be sitting there17:35 going, he is lying through his teeth, if we were in great tension. And I can tell you, I am not lying through my teeth, I am so fired up because really what I want to do is I want to almost move on past Paul's17:46 words on how you should treat me, and I just want to say Paul would say keep doing what you're doing. All right? But how you should treat your leaders. So let me just read it to you and show you. So how do you how do the17:58 church honor its leaders? Verse 12, he says, now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge, that means to appreciate or recognize those who work hard among you, who care for you in18:10 the Lord, who admonish you, hold them in the highest regard and esteem them highly in love because of their work. What did Paul say? He says, you wanna acknowledge and appreciate18:22 us? And by the way, this is not just me, it's all of our pastors, it's all of our staff, it's the ministry staff that you see as you're journeying through the church. Appreciate them, honor them, hold them in the highest18:33 regard. Why? Because God has placed a call on their life, to serve you and to love you as not only their calling but also their occupation.18:45 Most of the people that have chosen to serve in the church could make more in the business world, but they feel called to do what God has called them to do. So I want to encourage you. Man, when you see someone, if you18:56 don't even know them and they have a staff shirt on, just look at them and say thank you. Appreciate them. But I also want to follow that up. Don't ever worship us. Do you get that?19:08 Don't ever worship a pastor. Don't ever worship a staff member. Don't ever worship us. We worship Jesus. You say, why? Because I'm just a dude.19:20 Okay? I'm a dude, and as a dude, I have good days, I have bad days. Some days I'm a great pastor, some days I'm not even okay. Does that make sense? Don't ever19:32 become the kind of people that worship a specific pastor. We worship God. I've been called to do everything I can every week to open God's Word and teach it to19:43 you so you will have a direct line between you and God. You don't have to go through me. Man, when Greg and Jan and our worship team, man, isn't our worship amazing? Give give give our worship team a hand.19:57 Man, when I hear y'all sing and worship, it is an amazing we don't you don't ever wanna be in a place of worshiping us. Man, we don't want to We are not superstars. But we're20:09 people just trying to say, God, use me as best you can to lead these people. So I also want to encourage you, follow us. Because if you were to sit in on our senior staff, there20:21 are sometimes we are sitting there with 2 or 3 or 4 fantastic options, but we can only choose 1. We can only choose 1 as the next thing that20:33 we're going to do, and that means that the other 2, 3, or 4 are gonna be off the table. How do you make those decisions? Man, we pray about it, we talk about it, sometimes we disagree about it, we encourage each other,20:44 then we finally have to say listen, there's time to make a decision, we make a decision. And then once we make a decision, I'm gonna encourage and let you know this, we can make here's what I learned a long time ago in20:53 ministry. We can make the very best decision, and I can make the very best decision as a pastor and as a senior21:05 staff but it can't it sometimes is not the right decision for everybody. Does that make sense? You you let our student ministry go over there in prayer and and study of god's word and they say, say listen we21:17 can't do everything but we're gonna do this, this, this and this and they will be those will be great decisions for 95 percent of the kids, but there might be that 5 percent. Does that make sense? That just happens when21:28 you're making decisions. So I want to encourage you to follow us as we lead because every decision that we've made, been through lots of prayer, begging that God would, man, close the door if we ought not to be going21:38 through this. Follow us, but don't follow us blindly. If I start standing up here teaching something other than God's word, don't follow that. If I start standing up here saying this is a hard21:50 saying, and you know what? It really doesn't play well in today's society, so I would rather us just kind of eliminate that. Don't follow that. Alright? Does that make sense? We're gonna see some other things that you22:00 ought not to follow, but first of all, I just want to encourage you. Appreciate, honor, and hold in high regard those who minister and serve among you. And then please, please, please22:13 don't let your appreciation just be shown to me or even our senior staff. When you're walking through our student ministry, our children's ministry, other every other place, man, let them know how much you love them.22:24 Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15 to 18, another quick idea. Here's what it says. He says, the writer book of Hebrews, through Jesus, therefore, let us continually off continually offer to God a22:36 sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. What do we do when we come together? We worship. Remember, church is not an option. Worship is not an option. So I want to encourage you to do that. He22:46 says, listen, the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and share with others. We're all good. For with such sacrifices God is pleased. What sacrifice pleases God? When you and22:58 I worship together, when we do good together, when we serve together, and when we share, that's giving, we share with others. God is pleased with those. Look at verse 17, have confidence in your23:10 leadership, in your leaders, and submit to their authority because they keep watch over you as those who must give account for you must give an account for you. He23:22 says, do this so that their work will be a joy and not a burden. For what benefit is that to you? So I love what he says. He says, Have23:33 confidence in your leadership. Follow us, not blindly, but trust us. Trust that if there is some decision that has been made that the senior staff has gotten in, prayed23:45 about it, thought about it, here's what we need, we talk about expanding, it is time for us to have a student building, do some different things like that, then what we do is we go to our personnel team and our23:55 stewardship team and our trustees and say listen, it is time that we get our students a space. Alright? They desperately need a space. And then we start making that presentation. Then someone says well what about this,24:05 what about this? And then we make some decisions. Does that make sense? That's how we come to these decisions. And so I want to encourage you to follow us and know that if we have made a decision, it is not in the24:16 absence of great dialogue and sometimes great debate, as what is the best thing for our church under the leadership not of John Mark, but under Jesus? How can we24:28 minister most appropriately? And then he says, man, so that their ministry would be a joy and not a burden. I spend a lot of time on the phone24:40 consistently through email or on the phone or whatever talking with discouraged ministers and discouraged pastors. As a matter of fact, the years you have been a church many of you know, but many of you don't know that24:52 we have taken ministers who have been really beaten up at another church. We bring them on, let them stay here for a season, we don't announce that to everybody, and then we let them launch out.25:05 A couple of years ago right after COVID I was asked to teach at the Right Now Media Conference. They always asked me to teach on a couple of things suicide because of my brother and just how you deal with suicide in the25:15 church and difficulties in the church. Then a couple of years ago right after COVID they said hey pastor is there something else you'd like to teach? I said, you know, I just finished reading an article. I'd love to just25:27 kind of have a breakout session for discouraged pastors and ministers. They go, okay, put that together. Here's what I thought. 3 or 4 guys were gonna show up in the room.25:40 They had to bring in more chairs. It was discouraging that the room was full. And I'd read an article that said 40 percent of ministry25:52 ministers and pastors were contemplating after coming out of COVID leaving the ministry because it was so hard. You say, pastor what were those 4 things? Let me just tell you the26:04 4 things that they listed. They were overwhelmed with the task. I can tell you in some respects ministers, pastors die from 100026:15 unrealistic expectations. That you can't be at everything, can't call everybody, you can't do this, you can't do that. They were just overwhelmed with the task they didn't feel like they could get26:27 it all. Number 2 church conflict. That they just felt like they were in a church that was always battling each other or battling them. Number 3 reason they were discouraged thinking about leaving the church is they felt26:39 like they had gotten isolated. They had been attacked so much that they didn't have any friends. And they were isolated and alone. Remember how I started this message about how church is important? And you look at the26:51 pastor and say listen you can't isolate yourself from your church. You've got to get back in because that's exactly where Satan wants you. And then the unrealistic expectations that man you can't be at27:02 everything, you can't do everything. So thought number 1 is how the congregation loves its leaders. You do it great. Keep doing it. But don't let27:14 it just to be to me every person on our staff. Here's number 2. Paul says now it's also important how the leaders treat the church. So as you pick that up, let me read it to you. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 12.27:26 Let me go back. He says, now we ask you, brothers and sisters, that's the congregation, acknowledge those who, what? Work hard. How should I treat you? You deserve for me to work hard for27:38 you. You want your pastor to put in some sweat equity in the deal. Alright? You wanna make sure that that that I don't just work 1 day a week. I told you about going up there and then they're picking on me about not only27:49 working 1 day a week. By the way, I just want your life group to know, I I don't ever get mad, but your room's gonna be very hot today. I will get even and there's probably not gonna be28:01 technology in there. But here's the deal. You deserve for me to work more than a day a week. I should work hard. I should work hard. I should work hard, he says. He says, acknowledge those who28:13 work hard among you, and he says, care for you. There it is. We should work hard, we should care for you, now listen to this, and admonish you. See, a lot of people want the pastor to be the28:25 the loving, caring, just hug me and but notice what Paul says, there are sometimes that the pastor needs to correct you. What you're doing is going to destroy your28:36 marriage. It's going destroy your kids. It's not going to move you closer to God. It's hurting the church. It's hurting your life group. It's hurting this. It's hurting that. It's not you being who God wants you to be.28:45 Let me tell you what. Everybody wants a pastor that loves them. Everybody wants a pastor that cares about them, but notice what he says, and who admonish you. If I never admonish and if we as a staff never admonish28:56 people, we're only doing 2 thirds of the job. Does that make sense? He says why? Hold them in the highest regard because they love their work. Now, just go back and notice29:08 those words among you. Just want to settle in on this idea of among you. Who work among you, who serve among you, who love you. I am29:20 1 of you. I just have a different calling on my life. Does that make sense? I am not better than you. I am not a priest that is elevated up 7 or 8 or29:32 church level. I think Paul had it right. He said, listen, honor those who serve among you. I don't see myself as better than you or29:44 different than you. I am 1 of you that has a different calling on my life. Does that make sense? I don't feel like I walk in here and I don't look out here and go, well, I'm the boss of all these people.29:57 No. No. But I did talk to the boss this week about what I need to say to these people from the boss, and sometimes it is30:08 loving and it hits your sweet spot. Sometimes it is caring and that's exactly what you need is a hug not from me but of Jesus. And the other times, it is admonishment and30:20 correction because for you to be who God wants you to be and to be used the way God wants you to be used, you need a pastor and a staff that is willing to look you in the eye and go, you know what? We need to fix that.30:32 We need to fix that. And so I want you to know, man, we have to make tough decisions all the time. And so here it is. We are 1 of you. I am not a superstar. I shared with you30:44 earlier, I'll have a bad day on you. Alright? And if you show up in my bad day, I'm gonna do my best not to let you see I'm having a bad day, but you're probably gonna see I'm having a bad day. All right? That's just the30:54 way we are. But understand, when you look at us, please don't put us up on pedestals. We're not the gold medal winners of God's grace. Can I tell you that? I'm just 1 of31:06 you that was saved by grace that has a different calling than you. Does that make sense? And so I want you to know when I lead, I don't lead from the top, I lead from the middle. I31:18 lead by saying, here's what we're gonna do, and here's what we're gonna believe, and here's what I believe. If we're making good and godly decisions, it will stand up to any question. Bad decisions stand up to no31:28 question. If we prayed about it, thought about it, we're gonna lead out, we're gonna go, and I'm gonna encourage you to follow us. I love what Peter said. Look at what Peter says. He says, Be shepherds this is a31:39 challenge to me be shepherds or pastors of God's flock. News flash, you're not my flock. I pastor among31:50 the people at Cottonwood Creek, but you are God's flock. You're not mine. You're not mine. He says, be shepherds or that's the word pastors of God's flock that is under your care. Oh,32:02 so it's God's church under my care. I'm to care for you. I'm to love you. I'm to lead you. I'm to admonish you. But I also understand you're not mine, you're God's. Does that make sense? He says watching32:14 over them not because you have to or you must, but because you're willing to. Man, you don't want ministers to come in and go, here I go again. I've to talk to these people.32:27 They're not gonna listen. They're not gonna like it. They just want shorter is better. You know? They're the kind of people that complain, pastor, you only work 1 day a week. That 1 day a week, you work too long. Right?32:39 Man, you want someone that's passionate I'll tell you what, I am as passionate today about being as your being your pastor as as I was 28 and a half years ago. I just am. And he says, listen,32:51 they care for you, they watch over you, not because they have to, but because they are willing. Let's keep reading. As God wants you to be, not pursuing dishonest gain. Let me just tell you what,33:03 If you've got a pastor that's just looking to put cash in his pocket, get a different pastor or get a different church. All right? There are not this is not to be a money making gig. All right? Yes, I need33:15 to feed my family, I need to feed my babies, I need to live, I need to do all of those things. But let me tell you what, stuffing money in my pocket is not what this call is about. That's not what it's about. He says not33:27 greedy for dishonest gain. He goes eager to serve, not lording it over them, entrusted He says what? Not lording it over them. I'm not your boss. That's not33:39 who I am. Entrusted you, but being examples to the flock. And when Listen to this. And when the chief shepherd appears, when Jesus shows up, when33:51 Jesus shows up, listen to this, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. See, maybe having a great relationship34:03 with you as a church is a blessing. But I will tell you, my greatest reward will come another day. Does that make sense? It will come a different day. Look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11. He34:15 says, so Christ himself gave to the church, someone to the church, some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists. Those have a tendency to be going from church, from city to city, planting churches,34:26 reaching people with the gospel. Notice the next 2 are in a local church, and pastors and teachers to do what? What is my call? To equip his people. Everybody say that's us. That's us. My call is to equip34:38 his people, Jesus' people, you, for works of service. This doesn't say that the pastor does it everything, does everything. My greatest task, my greatest call is to equip you34:51 to do the work of service. I need to grow you up, train you so that, why do I equip you to do the work of service? Because, yeah, I can only spend so many plates. How many of you know that? And if you've ever seen me35:02 spend a plate, I'm not really good at spending 1 of them. You don't want me having to do all of them. He says, I equip you to do the works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach the unity of35:14 the faith and the knowledge of the Son and the Lord Jesus Christ, until we become mature. I see in some measure as a pastor's role, a minister's role, is35:26 kind of that of an air traffic controller. How many of you know what an air traffic controller is? It is a place that the planes fly in, the planes fly out, that's you. Some of these, all of these35:38 people, know, American Airlines, their hub is over at DFW, if you're Southwest Airlines, it's over at Love. At some point all the planes end up back there for high maintenance and service and getting35:50 everything taken care of. So what does a pastor do? He always makes room for the people to come back and land, then he clears the path for them to go out. That's what we do today. But here's what I also know, that when36:01 you're on the ground, when you're here, there are sometimes we have to take some baggage off and replace it with some better baggage. How many of you know what I'm talking about? And that should be what I do with God's36:12 word every week. Some of you are in here and things are great. Some of you are in the place where you're saying Mayday, Mayday, Mayday 3 times.36:24 That means everybody else off the radio, we've got a problem. And you say, well sometimes in the grand scheme of things, that person's mayday,36:36 mayday, mayday isn't that big of a deal. But in the grand scheme of their things it's huge. Does that make sense?36:48 My wife will tell you that yesterday we received a Mayday, Mayday, Mayday call from someone who had lost her 16 year old daughter. Doesn't37:00 matter what's on your plate, your plans have to change. You have to see what you have to do. Can you imagine being that family? It's37:11 brokenness. So sometimes you're just up there and you're going through life as your pastor, air traffic controller and everything's flying and everybody's flying in, taking off, you refuel them, everybody's got good37:23 baggage, run it through scanners, everything's going on, and then all of a sudden you hear those words, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. And things change. So I want you to know,37:34 man, honor your pastors and ministers, but we also need to honor you. Look at what James the brother of Jesus said. He said not many of you should become teachers my fellow believers because you know that37:46 we who teach will be judged more strictly. Let me tell you why this is so important. James, the brother37:58 of Jesus, said listen, let not many of you be teachers because we will be judged more strictly. You say, why would he say that? Let me just put it to you right here38:10 on a tee where you can hear it. If I believe false doctrine and false teaching about Jesus and salvation and who God is, I go astray. Does that make sense?38:23 However, if I believe false doctrine and false teaching and I compromise in my own heart with culture and change God's word, I not and I teach it,38:35 not only do I go astray, but you go astray. He says listen, let not many of you be teachers. I will tell you theShow more
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