Skip to content Unstoppable: How Church Leaders and Pastors Work Together to be an Unstoppable Church Mar 27 · 41 min ...more
Unstoppable: How Church Leaders and Pastors Work Together to be an Unstoppable Church
March 27, 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 27, 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.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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0:00 We have 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, I had no idea it was gonna 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, the way back at the beginning of the year, we started this series1:32 from this church that Paul had planted, got ran out of town, had had endured amazing persecution, and on his second missionary journey, man, Paul goes into Thessalonica, preaches, and he sets up some1:43 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 and Greeks. I mean, just1:55 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 and says, they are killing2:07 it. Alright? 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 wanna be in 25, 26, 27, 28 and beyond. And so2:19 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 every service has been, let's be2:31 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. It says, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, that's who's who's talking to2:42 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. Continue and2:54 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 prompted by your3:05 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. Paul praises this3:17 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 so much that he3:28 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, the gospel is3:40 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 today can have an3:52 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 received the gospel. Then Paul4:04 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 of favor. He4:16 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 trials and4:26 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, 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 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, we 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 that7:55 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.8:07 Sadly, 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 where8:19 there's some tension 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 that8:28 way. That doesn't mean 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, in8:40 the midst of all of 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 a8:52 congregation 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, me just kinda9:03 share with you when we think about this. There are a lot of new folks here for over the last couple of years. I just thought I would just kinda stop and share with you just kind of the org chart of the church.9:15 Okay? 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 you why does this matter pastor? Let me tell you. Alright? Many of you probably9:26 would have 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? Alright? But, many of you9:38 might think, well, John Mark's gonna 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 our9:49 church 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. So, that's what we refer to them about. They have ultimate10:01 authority. 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 to all the trustees sign the document. So, it's gotta meet their10:12 favor. Then you'll notice there's 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 were10:23 last year, 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.10:33 Then you'll notice there's a personnel team and notice the arrows going back and forth from the stewardship team to the personnel team. The the the stewardship team basically says, personnel team, here's how much you10:44 have to spend this 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 your10:55 church. No 1 on either of those 3 bodies are on your paid staff. Those are all lay people. Those are all lay people. Go to image number 2. This11:07 is where your paid staff comes in in our 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, student11:18 ministry, adult ministry, discipleship 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 senior11:30 staff. Now, we have a great 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 make11:42 sense? But within their parameters that they set forth. Now, if we are doing our job well and right, this should always be a harmonious relationship. Alright? This should11:54 always be a harmonious relationship. And so, you have a senior staff that we just kinda 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, there12:05 is always a choice that has to 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'll12:17 pray about it, we'll banter about it. Sometimes we disagree as a 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 be12:27 some people in our church that prefer the other 3 choices. And so, 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 operational12:39 control. Then you have the staff that is below your senior staff, and then you have the ministries, put the third group up there. Then you have your staff, then you have children's ministry, student ministry,12:51 and then you have tons and tons of volunteers that ultimately make that happen. So if you wanna know what the org chart of the church is, John Mark's not at the top. Alright?13:02 Nobody in the staff is at the top. If you take your trustees, your stewardship team, 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.13:15 Guess what you get next Sunday? Some of you, your wish come true. Right? But here's the beautiful thing about me talking about this is I don't sit13:27 up here and talk with any angst or worry or concern because we have a church that is doing it right. Alright? Not because we have a perfect pastor, we have perfect perfect deacons. Now, notice I wanna go ahead and show13:39 this to you 1 more time. Put that last graph back up there. You might be saying, well pastor, where are the deacons? Where are the deacons? Well, in our organizational13:50 structure, our deacons are a servant body, not a 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 a14:02 guy standing there probably with his wife opening the door, he was probably a deacon. Deacons don't have authority in our church other than to serve and love. Now, if you look at those top14:14 3 groups, trustees, they have authority as 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 you14:25 don't see deacons up there. So, if you wonder what 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 we14:35 see what Peter says to the church he was talking to. So, 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 staff14:47 should love and treat you, how we should 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 honor14:59 its leaders. The church should 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 this15:11 hour right now. They're 11 o'clock class and they 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? A15:22 pheasant hunt. A pheasant and quail hunt. I've never been there. There's a picture of me and Jared. 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 my15:33 personnel team and when he when he he's the 1 who invited 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 and you're taking this day off. Taking Sunday off.15:45 Said, because y'all invited me and I wanna be with men in our church. So we go to 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,15:58 you see 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 the16:09 bottom? 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.16:21 I read slow. I read about like that, you know, these things over. 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 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 y'all 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 felt terrible17:02 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 gonna be in 1 of these 2 services today, and and they will tell you, they would be sitting there17:34 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 wanna do is I wanna almost move on past Paul's words17:46 on how you should treat me and I just wanna say Paul would say keep doing what you're doing. Alright? But how you should treat your leaders. So, let me just read it to you and show you. So, how do you how do the church17:58 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 in the18:10 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 it it's the it's the ministry staff that you see as you're journeying through the church. Appreciate them, honor them, hold them18:32 in the highest 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 wanna 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 wanna 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 wanna 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 wanna encourage you, follow us. Because if were to sit in on our senior staff, there are20:21 sometimes we are sitting there with with 2 or 3 or 4 fantastic options, but we can only choose 1. We can only choose 1 as the next thing that we're20:33 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, then we20:44 finally have to say listen, it'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 in ministry.20:55 We can make the very best decision, and I can make the very best decision as a pastor and as a senior staff, but it can't it21:07 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 listen, we can't do everything but we're gonna do21:18 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 when you're making decisions. So, wanna21:29 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 going through this. Follow us, but don't follow21:40 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 hard saying and you know what, it really doesn't play well in21:52 today's society. So, I I would rather us just kinda eliminate that. Don't follow that. Alright? Does that make sense? We're gonna see some other things that you ought not to follow, but first of all, I just wanna22:03 encourage you, appreciate, honor, and and hold in high regard those who minister and serve among you. And then please, please, please don't let your appreciation just be22:15 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. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15 to22:26 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 a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of22:38 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, wanna encourage you to do that. He says, listen, the fruit of lips that22:48 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 and I worship together,23:00 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 your leadership, in your leaders,23:12 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. He says, do this so that their23:24 work will be a joy and not a burden. For what benefit is that to you? So I love what he says. He says, have confidence in your leadership.23:37 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, prayed about it, thought about it, here's what we need, we talk about expanding, it is23:48 time for us to have a student building, do some different things like that. Then what we do is we go to our our personnel team and our stewardship team and the other and our trustees and say listen, it is time that we23:59 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? What about this? And then we make some decisions. Does that make24:08 sense? That's how we come to these decisions. And so I wanna encourage you to follow us and know that if we have made a decision, it is not in the absence of great dialogue and sometimes great24:19 debate, as what is the best thing for our church under the leadership not of John Mark but under Jesus. How can we minister most appropriately? And then24:31 he says, man, so that their ministry would be a joy and not a burden. I spend a lot of time on the phone consistently through email or on the phone or whatever24:43 talking with discouraged ministers and discouraged pastors. As matter of fact, over the years you have been a church, many of you know but many of you don't know, that we have taken ministers who have been24:55 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. A couple of years ago right after COVID25:07 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 the church and difficulties in the25:16 church. And then a couple of years ago, right after COVID, they said, hey, pastors, there's something else you'd like to teach. I said, you know, just finished reading an article. I'd love to just kinda have a25:28 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. They25:40 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, man pastor what were those 4 things? Let me just tell you the 426:04 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, you can't call everybody, you can't do this, you can't do that. They were just overwhelmed with the task, 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. And 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, 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 gonna destroy your28:36 marriage. Gonna destroy your kids. It's not gonna 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. Let me28:45 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 wanna 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 or29:43 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 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 have a bad day. Alright? That's just the way30:54 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 no question.31:29 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 a challenge to me,31:40 be shepherds or pastors of God's flock. News flash, you're not my flock. I pastor among the people at Cottonwood31:52 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, so it's God's church32:04 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, watching over them, not32:15 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 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 who's passion 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 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 got a pastor that's just looking to put cash in his pocket, get a different pastor or get a different church. Alright? There are not this is not to be a money making gig. Alright? 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,33:27 not 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's33:39 not 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,33:51 when 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 of 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 of an air traffic controller. How many of you know what an air traffic controller is? It it is a place that that the planes fly in, the planes fly out, that's you. Some of these, all of these35:38 people, you know, American Airlines, their hub is over at DFW. If you're Southwest Airlines, it's over at 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'll also know, that36:01 when you're on the ground, 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's36:11 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, you're going through life as 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, you run it through the 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 know37:46 that we who teach will be judged more strictly. Let me tell you why this is so important. James, the37:58 brother 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 right38:10 here 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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