back to index2022-02-06 Submit to your Leaders Pt3
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Okay, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 13. 00:00:10.280 |
We're going to finish up this text, verse 17 to 19. 00:00:25.600 |
It says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls 00:00:33.120 |
Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. 00:00:38.160 |
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves 00:00:44.600 |
And I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you sooner." 00:00:52.040 |
We pray that your word would illuminate us, help us to see a greater glimpse of who you 00:00:56.760 |
are, that we may submit ourselves, Lord God, to your word, and that your word and your 00:01:08.160 |
I want to read you a poem that I wrote when I was 23. 00:01:17.000 |
And basically I wrote this in a period of discouragement, just to kind of remind myself 00:01:29.560 |
I have come too far to retreat, to remain in my defeat. 00:01:34.560 |
I have no other paths to take, for there are too many things at stake. 00:01:39.620 |
My soul thirsts to see the only king, to finally know the joy and peace he'll bring. 00:01:44.640 |
The light will fill the darkness everywhere, nothing that I know will compare. 00:01:48.640 |
Though I've fallen more than I can remember, my thoughts go back to that night in December 00:01:53.400 |
when my soul was snatched from the fire and the only king filled all my desires. 00:02:04.600 |
I don't even remember the context in writing that, but I do remember the discouragement 00:02:11.080 |
and thinking to myself, like just kicking and screaming, like I don't want to do pastoral 00:02:18.880 |
I'll be on campus and I'll do whatever else, but pastoral ministry. 00:02:22.880 |
Because every pain and every bad memory that I have with childhood was somehow connected 00:02:31.340 |
And so when I knew going in that that was going to come, but when it actually started 00:02:36.520 |
happening and we started, the discouragement started to come, the interpersonal relational 00:02:40.900 |
conflict started to come, it wasn't just about that thing. 00:02:43.880 |
It was just all the stuff that I remember was, am I ready for this? 00:02:55.320 |
And so as I was wrestling through that, I just, you know, back then I used to write 00:02:59.080 |
songs and write poems, and I haven't done that in years. 00:03:03.240 |
But as I was writing that, looking back at it now, only if I knew what was coming, I 00:03:14.280 |
But what I'm thankful for is that because I saw it in my parents, that at least I had 00:03:24.240 |
It didn't make it like easy, but at least I knew what was coming. 00:03:32.800 |
Many, many years have gone by since then, 30 years have gone by since I wrote that poem, 00:03:41.640 |
And again, by God's providence, he only gives you enough to know at that moment. 00:03:49.040 |
If you know what's coming, how many of us would be able to persevere? 00:03:54.440 |
Whatever it is that you're doing, God gives us the strength that we need to persevere 00:03:59.600 |
You know, as we were going through this text, obviously we started out by understanding 00:04:04.880 |
the biblical calling of leaders in the church, the very high calling in the church. 00:04:09.320 |
And so we take this very, very seriously, sometimes to the point where people are frustrated 00:04:13.560 |
that we need to have a very high view of the church. 00:04:16.160 |
Doesn't mean that the leadership is perfect, that they don't make mistakes, but at least 00:04:20.040 |
by our standard, we need to have a very high standard. 00:04:23.320 |
Because if the leaders are compromised, automatically the church will be compromised. 00:04:29.040 |
Along with that, he said, if the leaders are committed to that, the congregation needs 00:04:35.080 |
And so last week we looked at to obey and submit. 00:04:38.000 |
Obey and submit basically means to place yourself under, make it easier for them to lead you 00:04:42.280 |
and sacrifice for you and pray for you, because it is to your benefit, because God has put 00:04:47.040 |
the leaders in charge to watch over the souls of the congregation. 00:04:50.840 |
Today's sermon is a lot more personal, because I'm basically asking for prayer this morning. 00:04:58.800 |
I'm very encouraged that we have a church that's praying for our leadership. 00:05:03.680 |
I get an email from our sister Helen once a month, representing the family ministry, 00:05:10.120 |
And so most of the prayer requests that I give probably looks the same as the previous 00:05:17.000 |
months because a lot of things that we get entangled with is kind of hard to share. 00:05:22.320 |
And so we have to sift through what can I share, what can I not share. 00:05:25.720 |
But today I wanted to share, representing all the leadership, and this is not just us, 00:05:33.120 |
so that you can kind of get a better glimpse of what leadership struggles with, and so 00:05:39.160 |
that when you do pray for us, you can pray for us in more detail, more accurately. 00:05:45.240 |
The prayer request falls into two categories here. 00:05:47.760 |
When Paul says in verse 18, "Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, 00:05:52.360 |
desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things." 00:05:55.520 |
So the first thing is to pray for our own sanctification. 00:06:00.480 |
Pray for the sanctification and maturity and growth and wrestling with sins in ourselves 00:06:09.920 |
He says, "I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you the sooner." 00:06:15.600 |
Paul, his ministry, his prayer is always kind of centered around his ministry. 00:06:19.880 |
"Give me boldness that the doors may be opened and the gospel may spread rapidly." 00:06:26.600 |
So the first part, when he says, "Pray for us, knowing that we have a good conscience, 00:06:31.160 |
desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things." 00:06:34.280 |
When he says to pray for that they would have a good conscience, and then he says to conduct 00:06:40.400 |
ourselves honorably in all things, he's talking about sanctification inside and out. 00:06:46.200 |
On the surface, because this is our job, we have to study the Bible. 00:06:52.000 |
We have to do counseling, we do evangelism, and so everything that pertains to running 00:06:56.400 |
the church, we can do and be completely a different person internally. 00:07:02.840 |
In fact, Pharisees were the godliest people on the surface, probably more than majority 00:07:11.980 |
They studied the Bible more than, they memorized the Bible. 00:07:22.960 |
And yet when Jesus rebuked them, he said, "You are no different than a whitewashed 00:07:28.200 |
Meaning that on the surface, you clean it so that it looks beautiful, but inside it's 00:07:36.500 |
On the surface, as a job, we can preach and teach and evangelize and counsel and do all 00:07:44.680 |
But if we're not careful, we can ignore our conscience, where we can do all these 00:07:50.920 |
things and make disciples, but inwardly, we are filled with pride, greed, bitterness, 00:07:58.760 |
anger, slander, and we excuse all of that because people don't know about that. 00:08:04.960 |
If I don't tell you, if we don't confess it, you would not know. 00:08:08.840 |
If I don't share that and ask for prayers, you wouldn't know. 00:08:13.360 |
So we can do the work on the external because we're concerned because there's immediate 00:08:17.040 |
consequences if we don't get the external things correctly while ignoring our conscience. 00:08:23.120 |
Paul says, "Pray for us because we are trying hard to have a good conscience and desiring 00:08:33.240 |
This is one thing that you just cannot do unless there is righteousness inside and outside. 00:08:40.920 |
Everybody, I mean, you guys are all in different fields, right? 00:08:46.120 |
If you're a business owner, there's a special kind of skill that you need to make the food, 00:08:50.320 |
to advertise, to manage the money, manage the workers, and especially during the pandemic, 00:08:56.080 |
you had all kinds of things that you needed to do in order to keep it running. 00:09:00.080 |
Well, on the surface, the church is no different. 00:09:05.040 |
I don't think on the surface, the church is more difficult because there's a lot of 00:09:12.160 |
If you're a good manager, if you're good with people, maybe you're a good teacher, 00:09:20.400 |
But you cannot bear fruit because the Bible says that you cannot bear fruit unless you 00:09:27.640 |
Unless there is an abiding that is taking place in the leadership, in conscience, and 00:09:35.320 |
We can fake it, we can get you to maybe thank us and adore us, but the real fruit that comes 00:09:42.160 |
from the conviction of the Holy Spirit isn't going to happen unless the leaders themselves 00:09:48.880 |
have a clear conscience before God, inside and out. 00:09:53.040 |
Paul says in Acts 24, verse 16, "In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always 00:09:58.040 |
a blameless conscience before God and before men." 00:10:03.440 |
And then in 1 Peter 3, verse 16, it says, "Keep a good conscience so that in the thing 00:10:06.640 |
in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to 00:10:12.800 |
He said the reason why leaders have to be above reproach is because we have the job, 00:10:23.720 |
The whole church, every single Christian is called to make disciples, but the leaders 00:10:29.400 |
So we have the job of proclaiming the gospel that basically tells the world that all have 00:10:37.760 |
That you need to repent and humble yourself before this King, and until you turn from 00:10:44.240 |
the empty way of life, there is no salvation, there is no hope beyond this life. 00:10:50.020 |
So if you believe that, then I've turned you away from your sin to eternal life. 00:10:54.920 |
But if you do not believe that, then I've offended you, because I just call your whole 00:11:04.520 |
That you are deep in sin, and that there is eternal judgment waiting for you. 00:11:10.280 |
So this message that we've been given to preach to this fallen world is a very offensive 00:11:16.240 |
message if they do not believe, if they do not receive it. 00:11:20.500 |
So because if the people do not receive it, the natural response is going to be, "Well, 00:11:33.780 |
I think maybe another way to put it is, if somebody comes into your room early in the 00:11:39.880 |
morning and they flip the light on, right, it's still dark, five in the morning, they 00:11:50.100 |
You have a job at 5.30, and if you don't get there in time, then you're going to lose this 00:11:54.560 |
So if somebody comes in and flicks the light on, thank you, because if you didn't do that, 00:11:58.260 |
I would have just slept through, and I would have lost this job. 00:12:03.620 |
You may respond that way depending on the context and what you believe and why they 00:12:09.260 |
But let's say it's Saturday morning, you know what I mean? 00:12:12.300 |
And you woke up early all week, and then the only day you have to sleep in is Saturday, 00:12:17.500 |
and maybe the person flicking the light on forgot that was the case, and they flipped 00:12:33.180 |
"Saturday's the only day I was able to sleep in, the best dream of my life, and you woke 00:12:43.100 |
The kind of response that you're going to get when the light gets turned on, it depends 00:12:49.700 |
Does it wake you up to save you, to get you to the place you need to go? 00:12:55.140 |
Or is it disturbing you, or where you want to stay? 00:13:01.140 |
When you turn the light on, it'll cause you to get you to move from where you are to somewhere 00:13:05.980 |
else, but if you don't want to move, the gospel is very disturbing. 00:13:14.060 |
And so because of that, if the elders were called to preach the gospel, flick the light 00:13:18.180 |
on, some people will thank us, and many will find ways to accuse us. 00:13:25.100 |
So if the leaders of the church are not above reproach, and that thing gets turned around 00:13:30.540 |
and say, "Well, look at you," and if any of that sticks, they nullify the message because 00:13:40.860 |
In 1 Timothy 1.5 it says, "But the goal of our instruction is love." 00:13:47.860 |
Right before this text, Apostle Paul tells Timothy to go fight against these false teachers, 00:13:54.260 |
command them to stop teaching these false doctrines. 00:13:57.260 |
So he's telling Timothy to gear up for this fight. 00:14:00.300 |
But as he is commanding him to do that, he says, "Remember that even in the midst of 00:14:09.500 |
The goal of it, the reason why we're fighting is so that we can establish love. 00:14:13.020 |
But he says, "But from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." 00:14:19.540 |
In order to be effective in this struggle to keep the truth, we need to have our eyes 00:14:24.880 |
on the reason why we're doing that, that Christ came and says what characterized us as disciples 00:14:31.980 |
And what I've experienced through the years is when I'm not doing right, and I don't have 00:14:38.540 |
a clear conscience, the first thing that is impossible to do is to love people. 00:14:46.300 |
It takes every ounce of energy in me because it takes so much out to love people that I 00:15:02.220 |
You hurt me, so I'm going to hurt you because that's our natural reflex. 00:15:08.040 |
But to pray for them, to seek what's best, to do your best to love them, it goes against 00:15:15.660 |
So it's nothing more humbling that we can do in the flesh than to love somebody that 00:15:28.340 |
I don't know how many times I'm on my knees just being broken because everything in my 00:15:35.020 |
But I know that if I don't practice this, that whatever sermon that I give, that I'm 00:15:41.040 |
I present the facade of loving Christ, that this is the most important thing, and it's 00:15:52.500 |
There's a huge difference between a sermon that you hear from the mouth versus a sermon 00:15:59.820 |
And a leader cannot do this until his conscience is clear, inside and out. 00:16:09.140 |
This calling for the leadership in the church is not something that we can muster up. 00:16:14.500 |
Are there just few good men who just happen to be good in soul, who just happen to be 00:16:19.020 |
better in intellect, who has more courage than the average person? 00:16:27.860 |
And sometimes because we're in ministry and we have this title of leader or whatever it 00:16:33.580 |
It's like, "Oh, your family's like this because you're a pastor. 00:16:36.620 |
Oh, you struggle, you don't do this because you're a pastor." 00:16:39.140 |
So a lot of times we have to tell our elders, you know, sometimes they follow you more than 00:16:43.380 |
they follow us because our life looks different, right? 00:16:51.020 |
Every temptation you struggle with, I struggle with. 00:17:00.160 |
You want to live in a nice house instead of a shack. 00:17:06.060 |
You don't want your cars breaking down in the middle of the road. 00:17:10.000 |
I want to make sure that there's enough to retire on. 00:17:12.520 |
I want to make sure that my wife is taken care of, my kids are taken care of, that I 00:17:23.000 |
I have to constantly fight against my own flesh. 00:17:25.840 |
And I'm not saying any of that stuff is wrong, but that's not our priority. 00:17:32.640 |
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and it says, "All these things shall be added unto you." 00:17:38.800 |
I don't know how many times I've repeated that verse in my own head to fight my own 00:17:47.800 |
I need money, you know, to make it easier for my mom and for my dad. 00:17:53.040 |
And I remember as a young kid promising, "We're going to make sure that you ride limousine 00:17:58.440 |
And, you know, I know Cadillac is not popular now. 00:18:01.760 |
Today's version was, "I'm going to buy you the best Tesla. 00:18:04.840 |
You know, we're going to make sure because you suffered enough." 00:18:06.960 |
And, you know, just like a lot of the kids do, we did the same thing. 00:18:11.920 |
But when we decided to go into ministry, we have to wrestle with that, right? 00:18:19.240 |
And I had to go against all the promises, right? 00:18:21.240 |
We're going to have to let that go and give it in God's hand. 00:18:29.820 |
I never thought that I would, because I don't feel like I'm materialistic, right? 00:18:34.440 |
I think if I went into business, like, I would have been obsessed. 00:18:42.200 |
But I don't have like this longing to live in a big house, you know? 00:18:46.480 |
In fact, my dream is, you know, Esther knows, is to live in a van, you know? 00:18:55.600 |
Have very little clutter and then just move and just wake up in the morning at the beach. 00:19:03.360 |
So I don't have this like big vision of like I want nice things, right? 00:19:08.520 |
But after you have kids, it's different because it's not just me, right? 00:19:18.800 |
And I really remember, you know, when we started having kids, the temptation because we didn't, 00:19:24.920 |
I mean, we really had nothing, like literally nothing. 00:19:32.220 |
And then not having air conditioning in the car when my child was an infant and every 00:19:38.000 |
time he rode that car, he would come out just in sweat. 00:19:43.400 |
And I remember really wrestling with like I wish I had more money, you know? 00:19:54.560 |
And all these things shall be added unto you. 00:19:57.240 |
So throughout the years, I had to repeat that in my head because the struggle and the temptation 00:20:03.720 |
to chase after that, you know, is always there. 00:20:15.180 |
But I know that this is not something you can do part time. 00:20:19.720 |
Like either I believe it and give my life like Apostle Paul or I do something else. 00:20:27.760 |
Paul says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.18, "This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, 00:20:32.600 |
in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight 00:20:40.480 |
He called Timothy to fight, not just to check in and check out. 00:20:45.640 |
So the temptation for us as pastors is to approach this like a job, you know? 00:20:51.520 |
Because you get paid, you do certain things, and then so we do certain, we preach and we 00:20:54.880 |
manage the church, do counseling, and we get paid, so that's how we take care of our family. 00:20:59.160 |
But this is not a ministry that you can do as a job. 00:21:03.240 |
This is a ministry where you have to be called. 00:21:06.640 |
That you need to be consumed with this, that there's nothing more important than to get 00:21:14.400 |
Sometimes you may eat well, sometimes you may not. 00:21:16.760 |
Sometimes the bills are paid, sometimes you are not. 00:21:18.420 |
But if our commitment to this is if we can take care of our family, then we'll do it. 00:21:24.520 |
If we can't, we can't, then sooner or later you're going to end up walking away. 00:21:30.400 |
This is not something that you can do just by doing it as a job. 00:21:35.940 |
And after years and years of doing this, the temptation for that is very real, right? 00:21:42.480 |
Especially now that the church is a certain size and we have so many pastors and so many 00:21:45.840 |
people volunteering and helping out, it just kind of runs, right? 00:21:51.600 |
I don't have to like strive in prayer so that Sunday service was going to happen. 00:21:57.040 |
I don't have to wrestle and there's a sense of urgency to get you gathered because you're 00:22:04.120 |
So the temptation is to just get it done, right? 00:22:08.600 |
But I know when I'm sober that the urgency to get the gospel out is no different whether 00:22:17.120 |
we are a thousand or ten, whether 40 years ago or now. 00:22:23.040 |
It's just that there's a temptation for us to settle. 00:22:25.320 |
In fact, Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, 9 through 11, he says, "Make every effort to come to 00:22:31.400 |
me for demons loving this present world have deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. 00:22:38.000 |
Crescent has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 00:22:43.360 |
This is the very last letter Paul wrote before he died. 00:22:46.480 |
You know, oftentimes we think of Paul going out, planting all these churches and then 00:22:55.240 |
Some of the last letters that he wrote was very depressing. 00:22:58.480 |
And for whatever the reason, I gravitate toward those letters the most, 1 Corinthians and 00:23:08.960 |
I see a real struggle that he, you can almost say he's like, he's discouraged. 00:23:17.240 |
And then he's telling his next generation young pastors, "Make sure this doesn't happen 00:23:22.320 |
Entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 00:23:26.160 |
Don't get entangled with civilian affairs so that you may please the commanding officer." 00:23:31.280 |
He's saying this in the context with all these other people. 00:23:34.000 |
Demas is mentioned in Philemon as his co-worker. 00:23:44.880 |
That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, 26, "I run in such a way as not without aim. 00:23:49.440 |
I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave 00:23:54.280 |
so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." 00:24:10.600 |
And you would think if anybody was sober, if anybody didn't struggle with him, he almost 00:24:18.240 |
And he says, "After I preach to others, I need to discipline my body and make it my 00:24:22.760 |
slave because the temptation to compromise, to give in, is real." 00:24:31.160 |
We need your prayers because this is beyond us. 00:24:35.280 |
This is not something we can do by our own might because we found talented men. 00:24:40.160 |
Oh, these men are more courageous than average people. 00:24:53.200 |
He opened our eyes, showed us the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Christ 00:25:15.960 |
So pray for us that our conscience, our life, inside and out, will be pleasing to the Lord. 00:25:23.140 |
We are being sanctified as you are being sanctified. 00:25:31.680 |
Hebrews chapter 13, 19, he says, "I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored 00:25:39.400 |
There's a lot of people who think it's Barnabas and various other people, but I've gone through 00:25:43.440 |
this text verse by verse for about five or six times now, and I see traces of his thinking. 00:25:51.000 |
Some people believe it is, and some people believe it's somebody else, but I'm going 00:25:58.760 |
Apostle Paul had ... He was just one track mind. 00:26:05.720 |
Life or death, he needs to preach the gospel. 00:26:10.960 |
This man, who literally was sitting in prison, and he ended up getting beheaded, and he had 00:26:18.040 |
prophets from God, true prophets, not fake prophets, right? 00:26:25.120 |
This is a true prophet who is telling truth, told Paul, "If you go to Jerusalem, you're 00:26:33.840 |
He says, "Not only am I willing to go to prison, I'm willing to die." 00:26:37.760 |
He got on that boat, and he went, and he's sure, just as he said, he got bound, and he 00:26:52.880 |
He says in Ephesians 6, 19, "Pray for boldness to preach the word in season and out of season." 00:26:58.880 |
If any man had boldness, you would think Apostle Paul had boldness, right? 00:27:03.360 |
Can you think of another person who literally got stoned, dragged out to die, right? 00:27:12.760 |
The thought that somebody is going to throw one pebble at you probably will keep us away 00:27:20.160 |
When we say, "Lord, open the door for the gospel to enter," oftentimes we're praying 00:27:28.640 |
"We'll give you this money, all the food's ready. 00:27:31.680 |
We have a church there, and here's a pulpit ready, and people are asking for you to come." 00:27:40.240 |
This is a guy, when he says, "Open the door," he's talking about people who's trying to 00:27:42.920 |
kill me, help me to stay safe so I can get over there. 00:27:52.720 |
I think he's asking for boldness because he was struggling with that, because he's human. 00:27:58.600 |
He remembers the pain of getting hit by rocks. 00:28:06.440 |
He remembers being shipwrecked, almost dying. 00:28:09.560 |
He remembers being whooped to the point of death. 00:28:13.960 |
And on top of all of that, his fellow countrymen and the very church that he spent, risked 00:28:21.160 |
everything to plant in Corinth was questioning, "Who are you?" 00:28:26.240 |
Mostly because they didn't like what he had to say, because he came out hard in 1 Corinthians. 00:28:40.360 |
Your letters are strong, but your presence is weak." 00:28:44.040 |
And you see 2 Corinthians, he's agonizing, trying to defend his apostleship to the very 00:28:48.640 |
people that he risked his life to get the gospel to. 00:29:01.840 |
He said he prayed to the Lord three times to take the thorn away from his side. 00:29:07.200 |
I think, and most commentators believe, that he's referring to his objectors. 00:29:13.280 |
People were constantly, and he says that in Philippians. 00:29:16.020 |
Some people preach Christ out of envy, just to make it harder for him. 00:29:24.880 |
Other Christians, professing Christians, were simply preaching the gospel just to make it 00:29:39.240 |
I don't think he was talking about physical suffering. 00:29:43.560 |
I don't think he was talking about being shipped there. 00:29:45.080 |
I think he's talking about the people that he loved, that he was agonizing over. 00:29:52.360 |
He says in Colossians 4, 3-4, praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open 00:29:57.160 |
up for us the door for the word, so that we may speak from the mystery of Christ, for 00:30:01.520 |
which I have been imprisoned, so that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. 00:30:05.400 |
The revelation is coming to him, and every pastor, every leader struggles with that. 00:30:11.040 |
We know what the word of God says, but how do I make this clear? 00:30:17.800 |
He says he's praying, "Make it clear so that I can do a good job presenting the truth." 00:30:24.800 |
Philippians 1-20, "According to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put 00:30:29.400 |
to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ, even now, as always, be exalted in 00:30:38.000 |
Paul's sitting in prison, possibly about to die, get martyred, and he's asking. 00:30:50.360 |
Possibly has fear, concern for the pain, the people he is going to leave behind, and 00:30:57.240 |
the torture that he may experience to get him to deny Christ. 00:31:01.440 |
Just like any other human being, he says, "Pray for me so that I don't fail this, whether 00:31:18.480 |
He deliberately came to die for us, and yet the night before he went to the cross, he 00:31:23.880 |
prayed to his Father, "Lord, is there any other way?" 00:31:27.920 |
And he agonized in his prayer, in his humanity. 00:31:38.160 |
If we do not pray, and God does not supernaturally support us through your prayers, this is not 00:31:48.440 |
In fact, I would stay away from people who think they can do it, because the next step 00:31:56.920 |
God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 00:31:59.080 |
So when you see a proud man in the front, get in another line, because disaster's coming. 00:32:07.920 |
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, 5 through 6, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to 00:32:11.720 |
consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made 00:32:23.680 |
I mean, think about how God put the church together. 00:32:35.400 |
In fact, Paul says, whenever they started getting proud and competing with each other 00:32:38.400 |
in 1 Corinthians, he's like, "Did you forget how dumb you were? 00:32:44.960 |
Did you forget that God chose you because you were of no repute? 00:32:51.880 |
In fact, God chose you because you were dumb. 00:32:55.920 |
God chose you because you didn't have anything to offer." 00:32:58.160 |
He said, "Why are you trying to up one on another? 00:33:03.160 |
I'm going to compete with righteousness, compete with knowledge." 00:33:07.440 |
He said, "The whole reason why the church is falling apart is because somehow you see 00:33:15.080 |
If you look at the early church, he chose people who were going to get out of the way. 00:33:23.000 |
He deliberately chose people who were going to be humble. 00:33:30.800 |
Whatever pride that they had, whatever pride that Peter had, he said, "Okay, they're all 00:33:39.520 |
In fact, he failed the most miserably than any other disciples because he had the greatest 00:33:47.440 |
He was trying to show them this is impossible, and then the moment you think it's possible, 00:33:54.440 |
That's why Paul says, "When I am the weakest, he is the strongest." 00:34:07.720 |
Because this room is filled with a bunch of weirdos. 00:34:18.200 |
Some of you guys may be thinking, "Yeah, those people. 00:34:28.480 |
The reason why I say that is that no matter how socially well-adjusted you may be, you're 00:34:42.440 |
So it doesn't matter how well-adjusted you are, you're weird to somebody. 00:34:48.180 |
We come from all different backgrounds, different paradigms, and what we value, what is right 00:34:54.680 |
Outside of Christ, we all have different opinions. 00:35:00.360 |
Some of you are angry that we're not wearing masks. 00:35:09.120 |
And then some of you are like, "We're not communists." 00:35:18.800 |
We're serving the Lord together in the same room. 00:35:24.680 |
I remember when we were doing the building, I realized how separate the world becomes 00:35:32.720 |
We have a tendency, starting from, I think in junior high school, there's still some 00:35:37.880 |
You'll have friends all over the place, but as soon as you enter high school, people start 00:35:43.800 |
So if you're athletes, you kind of hang out with the athletes. 00:35:47.280 |
If you're trying to get into Stanford, you have your group of friends. 00:35:51.400 |
There's a group of people that go that direction. 00:35:58.280 |
If you're good at tissue or if you're into rap music, whatever it is, you slowly start 00:36:04.120 |
And then by the time you get into college, you're completely segregated. 00:36:10.720 |
And then if you are blue collar, you end up going to with blue collar people. 00:36:15.160 |
And then when you graduate, you go to work, you don't even see other people. 00:36:20.360 |
So if you're a blue collar worker, and that's it, those are the guys you relate to. 00:36:23.760 |
These are the guys, I hate these white collar guys. 00:36:26.920 |
If you're an accountant, that's the world you're in. 00:36:30.400 |
When we were building this building, I realized how difficult this job is to be a general 00:36:37.280 |
Because you have the engineers and the contractors who are trying to come to an agreement. 00:36:43.680 |
And so what I noticed was the engineers are concerned about the integrity of the building. 00:36:55.000 |
Contractors are concerned about the functionality. 00:36:58.060 |
So the engineer built it so that the door is a certain size because you need these beams 00:37:05.520 |
But the contractors looked at the drawing and said, well, if you build it like that, 00:37:08.480 |
it may be sturdy, but no one's going to go through this door. 00:37:14.360 |
So what's the point of having a strong structure when you can't use it? 00:37:18.800 |
And the engineers, what's the use of having a door people use when you're going to die? 00:37:27.400 |
So you have engineers and you have contractors who have their view and they have truth, and 00:37:33.520 |
both of them have realities that you need to abide by. 00:37:36.780 |
But when you try to bring these two people together, after experiencing this building 00:37:41.900 |
and the other building, it's a wonder how they don't kill each other. 00:37:45.840 |
I mean, literally, I've seen fights break out in both this building and that building. 00:37:51.720 |
I'm in the middle watching this and like, how do they ever come together? 00:37:55.480 |
This is the reason why these guys just hang out with their friends and these guys hang 00:38:00.880 |
We have engineers in this building, right, or sitting with contractors. 00:38:07.160 |
And the only time you will rub shoulders with them, because in any other context, you guys 00:38:19.400 |
And then you have some of you guys just live on spreadsheets. 00:38:32.200 |
Every once in a while we take a trip and I ask some of our engineer types, like, hey, 00:38:36.640 |
can you give me some suggestions on where to go? 00:38:42.440 |
Seriously, they wake up at 6, it's 6 o'clock, wash your face, 6 o'clock, 7, you know what 00:38:50.440 |
And it's like, oh, my gosh, why would I even go on vacation? 00:38:59.300 |
The church is filled with diverse people who have different perspective. 00:39:03.880 |
And if they're not mature, they will not yield. 00:39:11.020 |
This building's going to fall if we don't do this. 00:39:19.360 |
So so much of what we do in the church is managing different personalities so that we 00:39:31.320 |
But humanly speaking, you would never rub shoulders with a lot of people in the church. 00:39:36.720 |
Only reason why you're here is because we're attracted to Christ. 00:39:40.680 |
So the moment that you lose that attraction to Christ, your personality is going to come 00:39:52.520 |
And you think everybody is stupid because they don't do it your way. 00:39:58.640 |
I remember years ago I gave a sermon and I got two phone calls that week. 00:40:05.880 |
Obviously I can share this because they're not here. 00:40:09.040 |
They called me out and they said it was urgent. 00:40:12.520 |
So I came out 10 o'clock and they were lecturing me and saying, "Your sermons are too difficult. 00:40:18.320 |
So you need to give more illustrations because I want to invite my non-Christian friends 00:40:28.280 |
And I said, "Well, that's just the way I'm going to preach." 00:40:33.440 |
Sorry you don't like it because it's your preference. 00:40:35.480 |
I'm not going to say you're wrong, but that's just the way I believe. 00:40:38.600 |
That same week I got called out by another guy saying, "Your sermons are too shallow." 00:40:42.280 |
I mean, the text that you exposed, there's so much going on here and you only touch this 00:40:48.880 |
and you need to do this and you need to get deeper. 00:40:52.520 |
Remember, as I was talking to this individual, I was thinking, "I want to introduce you to 00:40:58.280 |
that couple so that you can get into this room and see who wins. 00:41:08.000 |
And then you come to an agreement where everybody's happy and then we'll have another conversation." 00:41:26.080 |
I have to cut it off because we have communion today. 00:41:31.080 |
Years ago, it was November and it was Pastor Appreciation Month and our church was a lot 00:41:38.800 |
smaller at that time and so people had an idea, "Let's encourage our pastors." 00:41:47.440 |
So without our knowledge, they started planning this thing and I just kind of hearing through 00:41:51.480 |
the grapevine, "Something's going to happen on this particular," and they borrowed the 00:41:55.340 |
space at Turtle Rock and they say, "Yeah, we're going to try to encourage our pastors." 00:42:01.800 |
And then I started hearing, "There's trouble." 00:42:09.840 |
There's a group that wants to encourage you guys this way and then there's this group 00:42:14.360 |
that wanted to encourage you this way and they couldn't agree." 00:42:18.480 |
And then as the week's going by, it's like, "Oh, they're fighting. 00:42:23.800 |
Yeah, and then one group is thinking, "I never want to do anything with that group 00:42:34.880 |
And so by the time we got to the encouragement and we're sitting there and they made this 00:42:41.000 |
video and the whole time I was sitting there thinking like, "Oh my gosh, don't ever 00:42:46.480 |
This is the most burdensome, discouraging pastor's appreciation day I've ever experienced 00:42:55.920 |
They came out of that thinking like, "Oh, we want to appreciate it. 00:43:05.160 |
That happens at the church sadly more than you would think. 00:43:13.880 |
It is humanly impossible to do what God calls us to do by our own strength. 00:43:25.400 |
On top of that, our church is run by volunteers. 00:43:29.920 |
They can say, "Oh, if you get an MBA and you organize this and do that and do that." 00:43:34.640 |
Well, the difference between a corporation and this, in a corporation, if you do a bad 00:43:39.600 |
And you just get the money and hire another guy. 00:43:43.480 |
So we can make the quality go up and up and up, but the church, whether it's 30 or 3,000, 00:43:52.120 |
So even if that person may not be doing the best job, it's like raising kids. 00:43:57.600 |
Even though they may not be, we can hire somebody to do the best job, but we don't do it that 00:44:03.840 |
And so the church with volunteers is not going to run as well as a corporation because they 00:44:12.080 |
get paid and if they don't do, there's immediate consequence. 00:44:14.360 |
You get fired and somebody else who's skilled gets done. 00:44:17.220 |
People may be grumbling and hate being there, but the company's making a lot of money. 00:44:21.440 |
So as long as that's happening, then we're successful. 00:44:27.560 |
Church is filled with people who may not be the best at what they're doing, but because 00:44:30.880 |
they volunteered and we want to raise them up and make disciples and we allow them to 00:44:36.520 |
So when the church is run with volunteers, when they're not focused, they drop the ball. 00:44:47.360 |
When they're discouraged, they drop the ball. 00:44:50.280 |
When they have relational problems, they drop the ball. 00:44:55.820 |
When you juggled well in your 20s, but you start dropping the ball in your 30s. 00:44:59.240 |
You did well when you're single and then all of a sudden you're dating, you drop the ball. 00:45:02.560 |
You do well before you have kids and then you have children, then you drop the ball. 00:45:06.040 |
You did well in your 30s, but then 40s come and you drop the ball. 00:45:10.100 |
So a lot of the work is picking up the balls, right? 00:45:15.420 |
And on top of that, it keeps changing on us, right? 00:45:19.480 |
I've never passed in a church that's almost a thousand people. 00:45:25.720 |
When you ask us, "What's your vision for the next stage?" 00:45:37.220 |
If we stayed 30 and I did it for 30 years, you tell me I'll write a book on how to pass 00:45:45.740 |
Like, "Oh, certain things were doing fine when it was 200, but it doesn't work at 500. 00:45:50.440 |
And then 700, it was fine, but it doesn't work at a thousand. 00:45:52.880 |
I don't know what it's going to be like when it gets beyond that." 00:45:56.320 |
On top of that, we don't get trained for any of this. 00:46:12.200 |
Pastors go get trained how to interpret the Bible. 00:46:16.680 |
So as long as I stay right here and I don't get off the pulpit, right? 00:46:21.640 |
Because this is what the seminary prepared me to do, right? 00:46:25.080 |
And even this gets difficult sometimes because I have to adjust to you, right? 00:46:31.840 |
Not only does it change because of the size, the culture keeps changing. 00:46:36.280 |
What was acceptable 30 years ago is no longer acceptable today. 00:46:39.240 |
What I could preach with confidence five years ago is no longer acceptable today. 00:46:45.440 |
I remember in the earlier part of the church when the Seeker Friendly Movement was blowing 00:46:49.040 |
up, you know, people were coming out because our church is struggling. 00:46:51.920 |
They said, "Peter, you should be so stubborn. 00:46:53.520 |
You need to follow what they're doing, what they're doing. 00:46:55.520 |
You should be more cutting edge and doing this and that." 00:46:58.400 |
And it's already hard enough to kind of manage, but like I'm constantly, "You should do this. 00:47:18.040 |
But I remember how discouraging that was because we're struggling as it is and it's like, "Oh, 00:47:22.440 |
maybe it's because you're just being stubborn." 00:47:25.400 |
But by that time I was already burned out and I'm not going to play games anymore. 00:47:34.480 |
I'd rather dig ditches because at least at the end of the day you have a big hole and 00:47:40.920 |
But to have a church and fill it with people and all of that, for what purpose? 00:47:47.600 |
To keep everybody who's nominal satisfied in the church so they can say, "Oh, this is 00:47:51.280 |
a great church and places to raise children." 00:47:54.960 |
But my conscience is not clear because the truth is not being told. 00:47:57.680 |
We're not practicing what he told us to practice. 00:48:01.120 |
Then at the end of the day, I committed to being fake. 00:48:06.080 |
So it's interesting because people would come and they would ask, "Does your church believe 00:48:15.080 |
"I can never go to a church that practices or teaches that." 00:48:19.240 |
And then all of a sudden, the Young Resident Reform Movement come in and then people younger 00:48:24.760 |
would come into the church and say, "Do you guys practice church discipline?" 00:48:29.280 |
Younger people were asking me this and say, "Yeah, we try to." 00:48:37.120 |
Five years ago, no one would come because we believe in predestination and all of a sudden 00:48:44.880 |
And then as a result, the church started to grow. 00:48:49.480 |
So not only does the church change, the culture changes, and you're constantly changing. 00:49:05.160 |
The only way that the church can be the church is if God's doing something supernatural in 00:49:13.160 |
If all we're doing is gathering people and sing some songs to encourage you, we don't 00:49:24.080 |
If I take certain things out and say it in a certain way where more people will come, 00:49:45.200 |
If people are not being shaken out of their comfort zone so that they can meet the true 00:49:53.360 |
And this is not something that I can do because I'm bold. 00:49:57.140 |
It's not something that the leaders can do because they're more disciplined or knowledgeable 00:50:04.560 |
The only way that the church can be the church that he intended the church to be is if this 00:50:10.440 |
is a gathering of regenerate people whose eyes have been opened to the gospel of Jesus 00:50:16.400 |
Christ and despite our differences, despite our struggles, despite our temptations, despite 00:50:22.960 |
our shortcomings, we become a community that worships God in spirit and in truth. 00:50:47.800 |
I know there's times when you are discouraged and we pray for you. 00:50:51.520 |
And I know even now, we know many people in this room who are dealing with some heavy 00:50:56.680 |
stuff in your life and we're praying for you. 00:51:00.120 |
And I pray for our younger pastors, you know, discouragement comes and there's this always 00:51:05.400 |
this constant gnawing at everything that they're doing and discouragement because there are 00:51:12.560 |
They have young children at home they're struggling with trying to raise them. 00:51:17.720 |
Pray for us so that we are not discouraged at our own sanctification. 00:51:24.080 |
We live in a culture where everything that Christ teaches is going against the principles 00:51:33.240 |
Yes, but to do this year in and year out, we need your prayers. 00:51:38.680 |
So I'm going to again, before we open up the communion table, right? 00:51:47.040 |
And I'm going to read this really for myself, right? 00:51:53.760 |
But I hope that as you remember this poem that I wrote, that these are the things that 00:52:00.240 |
we struggle with that maybe it'll help you to pray for us more specifically. 00:52:04.440 |
I have come too far to retreat to remain in my defeat. 00:52:08.520 |
I have no other paths to take for there are too many things at stake. 00:52:12.600 |
My soul thirst to see the only King to finally know the joy and peace He'll bring. 00:52:21.520 |
Though I've fallen more than I can remember, my thoughts go back to that night in December 00:52:26.120 |
when my soul was snatched from the fire and the only King filled all my desires.