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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 First Thessalonians chapter 5, if you've got a bible, hopefully, you've got a bible open. Please do that. If you don't have a paper bible, download or open a digital bible.0:12 There Well, some people say they're just as good. I don't think so. But some people say they're just as good. And we're gonna go to the word of God this morning. First Thessalonians chapter 5, and I wanna talk to you on0:22 the subject of pastors and people. Pastors and people. Now I know that it's Mother's Day, and you think you're surely gonna give us a good0:34 Mother's Day sermon. And I don't do that, and I I'll tell you why. Because the church is our mother, and the church is a mess at the same time.0:45 So if you've ever had a problematic mother, you'll be right at home at the church. Amen? And the reason why I know that is because God has chosen to use the church to bring to new0:57 birth every person who comes to faith in Jesus Christ. The church is our mother, and that's not my idea. A third century bishop named Saint Cyprian said it. He said1:09 the following words, no 1 can have God as their father without the church as their mother. John Calvin also echoed the same thought. The title mother underlines how essential it is to know about the visible church.1:21 There is no other way of entering into life unless we're conceived in her womb, brought to birth, and then given her milk. The church births us. The church feeds us. The church grows us1:33 as new saints, new creations in Christ Jesus. You're born physically, but when you get born again spiritually, you enter into a new family. So I think that1:45 this message is coming together nicely. This whole text and content is coming together in 3 ways. It's Mother's Day. The church is our mother, and the church is made up of pastors and people. Somebody say pastors and1:56 people. And it's also really big things Sunday, and we're gonna see and believe that God is gonna birth some really big things in our2:08 church today. 4 years ago in August, I stood up before you, and I announced that we were gonna do 3 big things. Back then, it was just big things. So this year, we've upped2:20 the ante to really big things. But back then, I don't know if you remember 4 years ago, we said the big things were a location in Fall River, a location in Guatemala, Florida, and a location in2:32 Guatemala. And that was my order. That was the order that I wanted to get them done in, And God did it in the exact opposite order. But they all got done. I wanna2:44 remind you that when we announced it, when I announced it, it was August 2019, we didn't have location pastors, we didn't have money, We didn't have buildings. We didn't have nothing.2:56 And here we are 4 years later, and those locations are not just alive, they are thriving. And they are growing, and disciples are being made, and baptisms are happening. God provides.3:08 How many know that God operates when we act in faith? Some of you gotta realize that. You can't sit back in the church. You gotta step out in faith and do some crazy things and announce to some people3:20 that you're doing some crazy things so that they can hold you accountable when you don't do your crazy things. So I give you permission today to hold me accountable to make sure that we get these things done. What are3:29 they? You have to wait till the end. Oh, I know. I know. I'm so terrible. Shame. Shame. Okay. Let's get into the text. Stand with me. First Thessalonians 5, 2 verses.3:41 2 verses today, and then to the next week, we will close out this study in the book of first Thessalonians. Verse 12 and 13 of first Thessalonians chapter 5. We ask you brothers3:53 to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their4:05 work. He's talking about pastors and leaders and elders there. Be at peace among yourselves. And this is God's word. Let's pray together at all of our locations. Father, thank you for the4:17 chance to hear your word. May our ears be open and our hearts receptive and our minds renewed in the wisdom that comes from your mouth. May4:29 every word of my mouth be what you want it to be, and keep me from saying anything you don't want me to say, and help us as we always pray to see Jesus. In his mighty name we pray, and everybody4:39 said amen. God bless you. Have a seat in the presence of the Lord. What a transition Paul makes here in verse 12. Because if you have a bible open, and this is why I tell you to help open your bible. If you have a bible4:50 open, you can either scroll up or just, you know, follow your finger up above verse 12. What was he talking about just before verse 12? He's talking about the coming of the Lord. He's talking about the day of the Lord.5:01 He's talking about the tribulation. He's talking about the end of the world. I heard from someone who is a mother in the message last week. They brought their young teen into the message, and and the young teen was5:13 distraught on the way home from church. That's always a blessing to my life when I know I've upset a child. I'm so sorry about that. But they were floored with the fact that the world is going to end. They said, mom,5:23 you're telling me the world's gonna end? And and then the answer is yes. But good news for people who belong to Jesus is gonna be nothing but good. It's gonna be good. Good for us when Jesus comes again. Right? But what5:34 a transition that Paul makes to say, okay, wait a second. I know that's true about the coming of the Lord, but there's some things we gotta do until he gets here. So as much as they might be in the sky reading about5:46 the coming of the Lord in their minds, Paul puts their feet back on the ground. And how how many have ever heard the phrase you can be so heavenly minded you're no earthly good? Well, here's another phrase. You can be so5:57 end times oriented. You're no this time good, and you can't do that as a Christian. You gotta be ready for what God is gonna do today. There's still souls to be won today. There's still6:09 churches to plant today. There's still kingdom to build today. There's still a purpose in your life today. There's still a neighbor for you to love in the name of Jesus today.6:21 How are you gonna get there? Gotta be strong. You gotta be healthy. And this is why God gives you pastors. Pastors and people, that's what our church is made up of. And, today marks a special day for me. It is May6:33 fourteenth 2023. May fourteenth 19 98, 25 years ago, I started working for Waters Church. This is my6:44 20 fifth anniversary. I can't believe it. Never thought I'd make it this far. Some days I wanted to quit. Some days I was on cloud 9, and there was a6:56 lot of days in between. God bless the middle. And I remember the day, really, it's like 1 of those transition moments you can't forget. Graduated to college May eighth 19 98.7:08 Packed all of my earthly belongings into a 19 86 Chevy Nova with a dented fender. Drove 6 hours north to Norwood Massachusetts to take on the youth ministry position7:20 up at our Norwood, what is now our Norwood church, and never thought that I'd be planting churches. Had a heart for planting churches, but God gave me a youth ministry position because nobody's gonna hire a 21 year old7:31 youth pastor. I mean, planter. And so I wanted to plant churches. God gave me youth ministry. How many know that God gives you some things that you don't want to test your heart before you7:42 get what you do want? And I know why God does that. And here's what some of you need to hear, because you're in a position you don't want. You got a dream and a vision and a passion for something else. Here's why God7:52 puts you where you don't want, to test your heart to make sure you're not serving what you wanna do, you're serving him no matter what you do. Because if you can serve him no matter what you do, then he can know then he8:01 knows that he you can be faithful with what you wanna do. That's where that's what God had to teach me, and I showed up, and I remember I was scared out of my mind. I had never taken spiritual care for anybody except8:12 myself. And I showed up in front of 12 kids, 12 snot nosed New England teenagers who didn't like me and frankly, I didn't like them either. And I was bitter that this was all God8:24 could open up for my life and so I just said, you know what, I'm just gonna do the best that I can. I wanted to quit 3 weeks in. My parents said, you're not allowed to move back home, so figure it out. So I stuck stuck8:34 it out. 25 years later, here I am. I'm here because my parents said no. Amen somebody. Some of you got them. That's your word. That's your word for Mother's Day 2023 right there.8:45 Say no to your your children sometimes. It might bless a bunch of other people someday. Anyway, 6 years later, 4 years later, I realized I was starting we started this church. Pastor Geiser asked me, what do I wanna do?8:57 Stay in youth ministry or plant this church with with the knower people? I said, I wanna go to that church. That's what's in my heart. God opened the doors. I had no idea that was gonna happen, but that's the goodness of9:07 God. You don't have to know what's gonna happen. God knows what's gonna happen. Be faithful worth where you are. And I'm a pastor, and I've been a pastor for in some measure and shape or form for 25 years. I know a thing9:18 about this. And I've raised up pastors. I love the pastors that we have on staff. How many of you at all locations, you love your location pastors, every location. Give a hand for your location9:30 pastors. We're so thankful for them. How many of you love our executive pastor Shane Parsons over here on the front row? Chris, our discipleship pastor here on9:42 the front row. Jody out in the kids ministry right now, pastor Jody. These are our pastors, but but there's 3 terms in the New Testament for pastors. I want you to write them down, and we're gonna give them to you here9:52 on your notes. Poimon, Episcopas, and, Presbyteros. By the way, these are all some of them, except for Poimon, 2 of them are the names of denominations. This is what churches do. They take Greek words, and they make them10:04 denominations. The church is supposed to be 1, but we have a hard time with that. So we create different denominations, and then we name them after different different Greek terms. So 2 of those terms are Episcopalian10:16 Church and Presbyterian Church. That's where those terms come from. The first term though is poimon. It means shepherd and pastor, which indicates what you need. All these terms indicate what you need. So listen, God10:25 gives you a shepherd because you are sheep, and you're gonna find out about this a little bit later. Sheep are stupid. Now now don't get offended because I'm also a sheep. I'm a sheep and a10:37 shepherd. In fact, I'm somewhere between sheep and shepherd. I'm more like a sheep dog. So we have we make foolish mistakes. Okay? That's what I mean by that. You're not stupid, but you make stupid decisions10:49 sometimes. Anybody with me on that? Am I preaching to anybody who's ever made a stupid decision? Okay. So God gives you shepherds. Number 2, God gives you overseers. Here's what that means. Episcopal. That means that you10:57 need somebody to see your life from a wider angled view. We get blinders on, especially when it comes to the church and Jesus. This is how and and everybody does this, so don't hate yourself for this.11:09 But everybody does Christianity with blinders on. What I mean by that is you only see this very narrow perspective of what you need, where you are, who's who's11:21 hurting you, who hasn't ministered to you. What are your issues? What are you going through? And I get it. And I understand because your your your issues are your personal challenges and11:33 nobody's really wrestling with you about that, but what you need is you need pastors and overseers who will see the forest for the trees, who will see the bigger picture, and who will remind you on a regular basis, hey,11:45 it's not all about you. Amen. See, you didn't say amen loudly right there. Do you know why? Blinders. You need somebody to come alongside and say,11:57 there are other people who need other people are wrestling. Other people and the pastor sometimes has to do things in the church that you don't understand. Man, he has to make changes. He has to preach sermons that you12:09 don't want preached, but somebody else does. Sometimes you come to church, God's not talking straight to you. He's talking to you for you 5 years from now, but the person sitting next to you, God's talking to them12:21 for that moment. Overseers who see the whole picture. Amen somebody. Then presbuteroses are elders. Elders, shepherds, overseers. I want you to know that sometimes12:33 we need someone who's an elder. That means that somebody who's older in the faith and has a resume of faithfulness, listen, to 1 church.12:47 I say that because I always get these older guys who come from other churches and suddenly wanna be elders, and I'm like, wait. Where's your skin in the game? And why did you leave your last church? And why did you go12:58 from church to church to church to church looking for a position? Do you care about the people or do you care about the position? See, is what I wrestle with. You're gonna get a little bit of a behind the scenes look at13:08 what we go through. Okay? This is gonna help us. I believe it's gonna be healthy healthy for you too. So you need somebody who's been through the mud and the muck and the mire of life and has been faithful to 1 local13:19 body for a long period of time and they've grown and they've got growth to help you. You need an older brother who cares about younger brothers. That's who Jesus was by the way. Remember the older brother in the prodigal13:30 son story? He was mad when the prodigal came home, and Jesus says, I'm the true older brother. I don't get mad when the prodigals go come home. I throw a party with the father because that's who I came to seek and to13:42 save the younger brothers who couldn't get their act together. So you need that. You need people who see life from a different perspective. You need people who will guide you from stupid mistakes. You need the older13:53 brothers who can lead you forward in Christ. Now there's a high calling and there's a high expectation on pastors and leaders. Let's read about it in first Timothy. I think it's on your notes there. First Timothy 314:05 says, therefore an overseer must be above reproach. That means that means that a pastor and an elder and overseer cannot have a lot of accusations flying at them. They gotta be above reproach.14:17 Then he says, the husband of 1 wife. Let me give you the Greek definite the Greek term. This is a bad translation in your English. The Greek language is literally a 1 woman man. He can't be14:28 sniping the ladies. He can't be flirting. He can't be meeting privately with women alone. That's a powder keg waiting to explode. I don't respond to ladies emails. I don't14:40 respond to ladies social media posts. I don't respond to ladies in private anything. Nothing. Okay. You've got to understand that. My social media, by the way, is run by 5 other people. They see every14:52 message that you send me, and sometimes I don't even see the message they respond before I have a chance to see it. And that is for my protect my protection, and that is for your protection. I think about how15:04 much you trust me and the elders and the pastors of this church. And if I fail you on that, your faith is at stake. So understand that ladies, I'm not being rude.15:16 I don't even know if any of you have tried to contact me. But if you have, that's why I don't respond. So you said, well, how do I get a hold of you? You don't. You don't. You go to your15:27 small group leader, that's why you go to life group, or and then if they need help, they'll go to 1 of our elders and their wives, and they'll work that deal out. Okay. Understand? Protection, guiding15:39 you, guarding me. Then he has to be sober minded. That means he's got to think right. Self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, not but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover15:51 of money. And then verse 4, he must manage his household well, keeping his children submissive. If he can't manage your house, how can you manage God's house? By the way, what does that teach you about God's house? What16:02 what would we call the household of the pastor? His what? Family. So what is the church? Family. We're brothers and16:14 sisters. Remember that for later. He says, verse 6, he must not be a recent convert. He will become puffed up conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Devil's sin was pride.16:27 He wanted more. He wanted power. He wanted glory. Pastor cannot seek those things. Okay. If I get important in your eyes, well, that's just because the church has grown. But here's what I am. I'm a16:38 nobody telling everybody about somebody. Okay. Verse 7, moreover, he must be thought well of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and into a snare of the devil. Let me16:50 just go back. I forgot to mention this. Poimon, Episcopal, and Presbyteros, those 3 terms, they're all interchangeable. I know that some denominations and some churches have like low level unpaid elders, then pastors are17:01 above them, and then bishops are up here. That's a man made hierarchy. In the New Testament, those 3 terms are all interchangeable. So an s a bishop is a pastor is an elder. An elder is a bishop and17:13 overseer. Got it? They're all the same. Just different terms to give you different ideas of what they're about. So based on all of this, in this text from these 2 verses in first Thessalonians where17:25 Paul says, okay, that's the end times. Now let's talk about this time. How do you get strong? How do you stay strong for when Jesus comes again? What's gonna keep your feet on the ground and keep your mind focused on17:33 what you need to be focused on? Here's what it is. Pastors, elders. And let me just say something to everybody watching on online. If you don't have a pastor, you don't have a church.17:45 I know you think that you can do church like, you know, listening to Hillsong music and then listening to podcasts of your favorite preachers. That is a very unaccountable way of following Christ. It's also a very17:55 unhealthy way of following Christ. You've you've isolated yourself. You need family. You need brothers and sisters. You need somebody to see somebody. You you need somebody to see you from the outside. Yeah. You need and18:07 this is by God gives you a spouse so that they can see you from the outside. And that's why there's conflict because you see yourself from the inside, they see you from the outside, and what they see sometimes is what18:19 you don't see, and that's why you fight. And by the way, it's good to listen to your spouse. It's good for husbands to listen to their wives, and wives to listen to their husbands. Amen, somebody. My wife is telling me18:31 a lot about me all the time. Sometimes too much, but it's Mother's Day and I won't go there. But I need her to tell me some things, and I need to tell her some things. I think that we actually sway to the18:43 opposite end of the spectrum. In modern America, we think that it's the wife's job to direct the family. That's not true. The husband's job to lead and feed his family and be a spiritual leader for his children and his18:54 wife. And yes, husbands, you need to speak up because Adam's sin originally was not eating the fruit. It was not speaking up. Here he was. His wife was speaking to a talking snake, and he's sitting there saying,19:07 it's cool. Maybe she likes snakes. Who am I to interrupt? And then she hands him the fruit, and all hell breaks loose. Okay? He should have spoken up and said, snake, shut it. Zip it.19:20 That's my wife. Okay? So what do pastors do? They do what Adam failed to do and what Jesus fully did. So let's talk about my real our responsibilities as elders pastors and overseas, and then we'll talk about19:31 yours. I got 6 points. 3 are my job. 3 are your job. Ready? Number 1. Leaders in the church work among the people. Write it down. Leaders in the church work or labor among the people. But now believe it or not,19:44 this job is a lot of work. There's this false image false idea that this job is easy peasy. And I've seen this happen. Men in the in the body of Christ will say,19:56 wow, look at that guy up on stage on Sunday. He works 1 day a week. I think I'll do that. So they quit their job, they try to go into ministry, and they are a disaster because this is work.20:08 You know that I work hard. Here's I know you know this, but I do work hard. I do not get up here and wing it. I have prayers invested into every message, thoughts, study, invest. I20:20 wanna. My job has to be I have gotta tell you what the word says and not what I think. And that is a wrestling match every single week.20:32 It's a wrestling match. And I tell this to pastors who I trained to preach. I say, get ready when you train when you prepare a message, you're gonna think you have it, and then come Wednesday, your brain is gonna have a20:42 collapse, and you're gonna freak out and not know what to say on Sunday. And I said, when you get to that point, that's the way of the Holy Spirit breaking you free of what you wanna say so that God can give you what he20:51 wants to say. That's a good place to be. But wrestling matches go into everything I produce from this stage or from my YouTube channel. You guys know I started that several years ago. Youtube dot21:02 com slash Tim Hatch live. Like and subscribe. Okay. That's for your health and your benefit. That's for you to grow in Christ outside of this moment. And that's my work. Now the other pastors along with me work and21:14 labor. And so Paul says in verse 12, he says, we ask you brothers to respect those who labor. Circle labor. In the text, they labor among you. They walk with you. They do life with you. They're21:26 there for you. Verse he's Paul's already talked about this in first Thessalonians 2 9. He says, you remember brothers, our labor and our toil, we worked night and day. It's work to bring the gospel to21:38 people. It's work to deal with people's spiritual development. Think about this. Okay? How many could say it's hard to work on your own personal spiritual21:49 development? Now think about doing that for a bunch of other people. Okay. If it's tough for you to manage your spiritual life, imagine managing other people's spiritual life and it's war. Paul says we22:01 wrestle, we fight, we wrestle against spiritual forces. There are devils coming after you every single day. We gotta fight them off. We pray for you. We get our our elders22:13 meetings are about an hour and a half and we just pray. That's all we do. We pray for the people because we gotta do battle in the spiritual realm if we're gonna see victory in the physical realm. So know that22:24 you're never alone. Your pastors and elders are praying for you. First Thessalonians 3 2, he says, we sent Timothy, our brother God's co workers in the gospel to establish you in the faith. Our co worker. He's a worker.22:34 First Timothy 4 10 to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes and our living God who's the savior of all people. So we work and that's what pastors do. And I thought about this. You got to realize a pastor22:45 is like a policeman in the spiritual realm. He's like a doctor in the spiritual realm. And think about when when do you see a doctor and when do you see a policeman? When you're in trouble.22:58 Nobody shows up at their doctor to say, just letting you know the liver is doing great. No 1 does that. And very rarely, it should be more often, does anyone say to a police23:10 officer, thank you for doing your job well. I if you're like me, you only see the policeman when you've broken the law. What law are you breaking? Speed limit. That's the only23:21 1. Okay. Oh, and some parking issues. But anyway, and that's the only time I see a policeman. And you know what? I've learned that even when he gives me a ticket, I say, I love you and I respect23:33 your job. Thank you, police officer. Okay. We need to do that. But anyway, you see these people when things are going terribly. Same is true for pastors. Our23:45 elders and our leaders, that's what they do. Know this. They deal with the divorce issue or the or the marriage that just suffered23:57 infidelity. I have been in the room when the man had to confess to the wife. It's hell. It drains you.24:09 I've been in the funeral parlor with the child who OD'd. It drains you. It's painful. That's when we're called on, but that's what we're here to24:21 do. That's our work. And understand that we take it very seriously, soberly, and we do the best that we can for your good. And I thank God for our elders who meet with24:33 you privately. I don't do so many meetings privately anymore. I do that because we have a large I don't do that because we have a large church with other elders and pastors. Thank God for our elders. Can we give a hand24:44 for all of our elders? Amen? And in Apollo Beach next week at Apollo Beach, we are installing 4 godly men into eldership. We're so excited about that next week.24:56 That's what pastors do. So number 2, leaders in the church take charge of the people. Now I really wrestled with the verb in this point because I don't want you to freak out about the term take charge. We aren't here to25:06 control your life. That's not what it means. Think of this in a corporate setting. We're here to take charge of the corporate community, the spiritual life of the church. That's what we do. We direct25:18 it, spiritually speaking. 3 priorities for our church, by the way. Well, before we get to those 3 priorities, and these aren't in your notes, know, you can write them down in the margins if you want to. He says, respect25:28 those who labor among you and are over you. That's the verse. Verse 12. And are over you. Circle or underline are over you in the Lord. So the authority comes from the Lord, not from man. Okay. Let me go here first.25:40 Because when I first started as a youth minister 25 years ago today, I remember the next weekend that I was supposed to do youth ministry and stand before those 12 kids and preach the words of them, I had a panic attack.25:52 And anybody who just graduated from college, I've been there, and you don't know what you're gonna do. My son was filling out a form for college application and the questions, and he got bothered by the questions.26:04 He said, dad, these questions are ridiculous. I said, wait till you graduate college, and nobody even hands you the questions. So I didn't know what to do. I was scared out of my mind. There was no 126:16 to look to. I was all alone in my office, and I freaked out. And I said, God, how can I tell these kids? I have no way to do that. I am not equipped. And I did this with my bible. I don't recommend this, but only26:27 emergent emergency only. I did this. Okay. Emerge that's pulling the fire alarm. Okay? Don't do26:38 that for your daily devotions. Alright? But I did that. My eyes fell on Galatians chapter 1 1. This was a God ordained moment, and it says this, Paul, an apostle, not from men26:50 nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the father. And the Holy Spirit spoken to my life, and he said, don't worry about what they say. You worry about what I've said.27:00 And it gave me confidence to get up there in front of27:02 those kids and preach the word. So the authority comes from the word, the Lord. So anyway, 3 priorities for our church. You can write these in minute margins. There's no blanks, but we're gonna be a praying church. Our27:12 pastors and elders pray for you. That's an hour before first Tuesday, by the way. We pray for our church and for our month. We pray before every service at every location. You don't even realize this. Some of you don't27:23 even before the services start at every location, there's a half an hour of prayer with the team for you, for the church. We're gonna be a praying church. We have prayer at the altar at the end of every service. Some of27:34 you listen to me very carefully at the end of every service. You've got health issues, mental issues, and spiritual issues, and you're gonna leave the church, and on Monday you get an appointment with the doctor. How27:44 about your first meet with the great physician before you meet with the earthly physician? Come down and pray and ask God to heal your marriage, heal your body, heal your mind. We're gonna be a27:55 praying church because we believe God heals. Take advantage of that, man. That's for you. So we're gonna be praying church. We're gonna be a preaching church. We're gonna preach about Jesus. I'm gonna28:07 open this book every single time we gather. We're gonna stand for the reading of God's word every time we gather. Why? Because we are not hearing my thoughts. We're hearing God's thoughts. And sometimes God's thoughts28:18 can conflict with the earth's thoughts. Amen somebody. And sometimes your neighbor who you invited on Sunday is gonna get turned off by what I say. So28:29 please don't try to ask us when's a good Sunday for me to bring my neighbor. I'm I'm getting that question now. John, maybe I'm getting a little bit too, I don't know, on28:41 the edge. I don't know. But I'm getting that question now where people are like, pastor, what Sunday won't you offend people? Because I wanna bring a friend. Here's the answer. No Sunday. Someone's getting offended every28:53 week. Okay? Sometimes too, it's good for someone to get smacked upside the head. Look at what the universities have done with our children. Look what they've done. They've they've they've created safe spaces so that the29:04 kiddies can't hear anything that they don't wanna hear, and we have a entire generation who can't cope with life. Sometimes you need to hear something you don't wanna hear.29:16 And I am so glad for the people. Oh, these are people. I I am so glad for you. You keep coming back even though I offend you on a regular basis. You are my favorite people.29:30 Oh, my word. You're either a glutton for punishment or you know you're really messed up, and I'm here to change you in Jesus name. I'm way off topic. A preaching29:42 church and then a praising church. We're gonna sing songs that glorify Jesus. So praying, preaching, praising, and it's all about Jesus. And pastors, and this is what I do with our worship team all the29:54 time, worship leaders, we filter songs out on a regular basis that are more about us than about Jesus. How many know you can listen to some Jesus make out music? There's a concert here tonight. Don't know30:06 if that's gonna be the case.30:07 They might be doing some Jesus make out music. I don't know. Where you can basically take the words of a Christian song and put it on the radio, the secular radio, and people don't even know it's a Christian song. Yeah.30:17 That's not that's not worship. It's fine if you wanna entertain people with that, but it's not worship. Worship is when we talk about the cross, the blood, the wrath of God that he has saved us from through Jesus Christ.30:27 When we talk about the glory of Jesus, the glory of God, that's worship. So that's what pastors do. They are they take charge of the spiritual life of the church. Number 3, leaders instruct and warn the people. Write30:37 that down. Leaders instruct. Now this is what that means. We tell you where to go and what to do. We tell you what not to do. We warn. Let's look at the passage again.30:49 Verse 12. Respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish. Circle the word admonish. Our job is to admonish you. Now some of you take the word admonish, meaning that that means that we're here30:59 to just kinda like build you up with encouraging words. That's not what the word means at all. Now that we should encourage you, absolutely. But the word admonish in the Greek is,31:11 and refers to warning someone warning someone about the disastrous consequences of his or her actions. A pastor is there, a leader, an elder is there31:23 to warn you about the disastrous consequences of your actions because you cannot sometimes see the future of your folly. Let me let me give you another verse of31:35 scripture. We're gonna jump ahead here to Proverbs 14 12. It says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is what? The way to death. Some of you gotta realize that31:47 there are some some things that got take that down. Take that down. Take that down. Okay. The sometimes you gotta realize that there are there are some things that you think are right for you31:59 that aren't right for you. You think it's a good path, so you're dating the non believer. Pastor says no. But it's not the pastor's idea. It's God's32:10 idea. God says no. You say, I don't care. And then 5 years later, you have 3 kids with a husband that doesn't wanna go to church, and you're miserable. And wait until you32:22 grow up, and those kids grow up, and they're confused about their faith. And most often, they walk away from the Lord. Most often. And then they repeat your same mistakes.32:34 I know a family. The wife married a non believer, raised 2 non believers. It was the pain of her life. Those non believers married non believers. You gotta think long term about32:46 your life. This world wants you thinking instantaneously, but you gotta think long term. God has a law wide angle, long term view for you. And sometimes32:58 you need a pastor to say, don't do it. You're gonna wreck your life. Well, I don't I don't like you know, some people say, who are you? This is all. Who are you to tell me what to do?33:10 What an attitude. Let me show you a passage of scripture. We all love the first part of this passage. Proverbs 1 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the Oh, I love that. The33:20 fear of the Lord is the beginning of finish the verse. The rest of the verse is, fools despise wisdom and instruction.33:32 So fools say, who are you to tell me about how I should live my life? You're a fool. The person saying, listen to instruction, listen to wisdom, not33:44 my ideas, God's ideas. I have no right to tell you my ideas, I have to tell you God's ideas. So here's why that matters too. Now we could put this video up. I ran across this video of a sheep getting stuck into a ditch,33:56 and this is hilarious because the bible calls you sheep. Now think about this. Here it is. The shepherd is rescuing the sheep, pulling them out of the ditch. Come on out. I'm here to save you. Come on out. Oh, thank you34:06 pastor. Thank you. Free at last. Free at last.34:19 Now lest you think that that's a singular event, let me put up another video of you for you. Let's go to the second video. Here he is, a different shepherd pulling up another sheep. Come on out. I'm here to save you from34:29 that wreck. I'm here to say, thank you, pastor. Thank you, Oh, I love Jesus this week. I loved you. Free at last. Free at last. Oh, yes. How many34:40 of you I just described your spiritual life right there. I just described your Monday through Saturday. That was you this past week. Okay. That's your that's our job34:53 as pastors. What do we do? We work, we take charge, and we warn and instruct. Here's your job. Number 4, we were the people respect spiritual leaders. Write that down. The35:05 people, number 4, the people respect spirit respect the spiritual leaders. Now the word in in the Greek here for in first Thessalonians 5 12, respect those who labor among35:16 you. It's the word for the Greek word for to know in the sense of to know their worth. Know that they're valuable. You might not like everything about them. I don't expect35:28 you to like our elders. I don't really don't care if you like them. I want you to respect them. I want you to know that they're valuable. Some of you don't like elders because their personality is different than you.35:41 Sometimes as Christians we do that by the way. We don't like people and we think it's because they're not good enough as Christians. No, it's just a personality difference. That's it. Don't make personality35:52 issues spiritual issues. Amen? I get it that we're not and I'm not the pastor for everybody. That's why we get other pastors. That's why I let other preachers preach to you. Okay. That's why I got other leaders36:04 because I'm I'm not everybody's flavor. I'm assuming I'm most of your flavor, but I'm not everybody's flavor. But respect the leadership. Know their worth. So it says in verse 13,36:16 he says, esteem them very highly. I read this commentary on this passage, and what it says is Paul is using a triple intensive adjective here. A triple intensive adjective. Esteem them very36:28 highly. I think about that. You know, in our country, in our culture, what do we esteem? Actors and celebrities. But but where where's the esteem36:40 for men who lead the body of Christ? And I'm not I'm not expecting that from the world. I'm expecting that from the church. Christians, you have to realize that this culture has an agenda against the36:51 gospel. If you watch a TV show or a movie where they are mocking your faith, turn it off. Do not give your ratings and your attention to that nonsense.37:04 If you're watching a movie where they mock your pastor and a leader, And and by the way, and this is totally off topic, but please watch out for these these documentaries on37:15 Netflix. I watched 1 about Waco the other day. It was absolutely wrong. They don't even tell you the facts anymore. They don't and they angle it. They37:27 always angle it, and you need to understand that. There's always an angle and agenda behind the document. They claim it's a documentary and it's filled with lies. I was watching them like I said, that's not even what37:38 happened. What are they talking about? This happens on a regular basis because they wanna angle you to believe according to their narrative. You gotta get the facts, you gotta get truth.37:50 Isaiah described a time in which truth would be cast into the streets. We're there right now. You gotta get knowledge in the word of God, have discernment of the Holy Spirit, and you have to have pastors who aren'tShow more
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