If you can turn your Bible to Hebrews chapter 13, 17, 18, and 19. And we're going to be in part two on this text. 17, 18, and 19. So last week our leaders got a shellacking. So this week is your turn. All right, so Hebrews chapter 13, 17, 18, and 19.

Obey your leaders and submit to them for they can watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Pray for us for we are sure that we have a good conscience designed to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

And I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you sooner. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for your grace. We pray, Father God, that as we tackle this difficult text to apply, we truly ask for your wisdom and a softened heart, Lord God, to hear your thoughts, your voice, and practically how to apply this, Lord God, just asking for your guidance and your spirit.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, let me read a song, the lyric of the song, that I think captures the spirit of not just our generation, but just kind of how we're taught ever since we're young. And so this is a song from Frank Sinatra, "I Did It My Way." Okay, so some of you guys know, okay.

And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain. My friend, I'll make it clear, I'll state my case of which I am certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and every highway and more, much more. I did it, I did it my way.

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption. I planned each charted course, each careful step along byway, and more, much, much more. I did it, I did it my way. For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has not. Not to say the things that he truly feels, and not the words of someone who kneels. The record shows I took all the blows, and I did it, I did it my way. Now this was a very, very popular song, and so the fact that some of you guys who are younger may even know this song, again, it speaks to the popularity of what he is saying.

In the end, the lyrics of what he says is the spirit of the rebellion of mankind, right? As catchy as the song is, and as popular as the song is, he says, I did it. Everything I did, I charted my way. I visited, and I did all of this, and in the end, sometimes I regretted it, but one thing I can say, I did it, and I did it my way.

Again, this is not just Frank Sinatra. This is the spirit of mankind. The Bible says that the reason why man has sinned and fall short of the glory of God is because he chose to do it his way. He went against what God says. Instead of doing God's way, he says, I'm going to do it my way.

How do we talk about this subject of submission and obedience when everything in our culture tells us to do it your way? If you hear athletes, you hear teachers, anybody who's made it in this world, and when they speak, one of the key things that they say, you have to believe who?

In yourself. You have to believe in yourself, and yet, everything that the scripture tells us is about submission. I know that some of you have come from situations where you may have experienced trauma because of leadership, and so whenever you hear the term submission, I mean, even if you didn't, the idea of submission and obedience is not well received in our culture, but especially if you have negative experience, which a lot of you do.

In fact, somebody told me that our church is known for people who've been burned out or been hurt, and so we have a lot of people who come to our church who's had issues, and so I don't know how they heard about it, but that was just our reputation.

In fact, somebody wrote this in one of their books and said that our church has that reputation. A lot of you come from situations where you feel that you have been abused, so how do you accept this? This is one of those things that you just kind of want to black out.

Just teach me about Jesus and how to love Christ and the gospel, but submission to leaders and elders, it just doesn't sit right. Well, it's in the scripture, and it's here for a reason, and I could tell you there are not many things that I can tell you is one of the most practical things to practice and apply.

You cannot have a church without the practice of what he says here, and so I'm going to use this morning to go over this, and I didn't get to finish in the first service, so I'm going to have to finish the second service. I didn't want to go too long, and so I'm just giving you a heads up.

There is a part three to this. Early on in church, we named our church Berean Community Church because we wanted to be like Bereans. Bereans were people who tested, tested everything that the apostles were saying. Is it really from the word of God? And so from the get-go, we said, "We're going to study the Bible, and if things pop up that we're doing, even if we've been doing it for 15, 20 years, if the word of God convicts us otherwise, we're going to change.

We're not going to just say, 'Well, this is what we've been doing, so it's too hard to change.' We're going to let the word of God dictate what we do." So if you look at most churches, they are divided into two ways of governing the church. You have a congregational church, and you have an elder-run church.

Most churches fall into one of those categories. A congregational church, basically all the say is given to the congregation. And the passage that they use to say that is, "We have priesthood of believers. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation." And so therefore, all the people in the church have equal say as to how the church is run.

So things are always taken to a vote. The budget, the direction, the staff, the leadership. And so that's how a congregational church typically runs. A congregation has certain committees, and those committees have the final say. And so the elders and the leaders have to submit to those committees. That's how a congregational church runs.

Earlier on in our church, because we're a Baptist church, and most Baptist churches are congregational, and that's how we ran the church for the first few years of the church, simply because that's what I was taught, and that's the model that I saw. But as we were doing church and studying the scripture, we realized that the scripture does not teach that.

In fact, that text, when it says that the priesthood of believers is not talking about church polity. It's just saying that this is who we are as an identity. But that passage is not saying that this is how the church should be run. In fact, it's exactly the opposite.

The reason why the elders are established is so that the elders can rule the church well. So I believe, and I know there are good brothers that I fellowship with that may disagree with me, but that is not what we see in scripture. So our church is an elder-run church.

And so as an elder-run church, just like if you're in a congregational church and the congregation is making the decisions for what the church does and does not do, you'd have to have a very proficient congregation who knows the Word of God, is committed, and has lordship because they are dictating the direction of the church.

So you cannot practice congregational church unless you have a high level of commitment and high level of surrender to the Word of God. On the flip side, if you are an elder-run church, the elders must be above reproach, just like the Bible says. And if you have elders that you cannot respect, if you have leaders that are not above reproach, he talks well, he may be a gifted speaker, he has a lot of knowledge, but there's a question over the character of the man, then you cannot practice an elder-run church.

That's why we have such high view of eldership and leadership in our church. One of the common complaints that we get in the church through the years is, "Why do we not establish elders, more elders?" It is better to not have elders than to have wrong elders or not qualified elders in the church.

The Bible says not to lay hands hastily because some men's sins are obvious, some men's sins trail behind them. And it takes time to see. Is the character of the man, is he consistent in the home and outside the home? Is he a Christian man at church, but he doesn't act like one at work?

He's very charismatic and has strong leadership when he's at church, but when he's at home, that's not how he behaves. He's great when everybody's in agreement, but as soon as there's a disagreement, there's a different side of him. He has to be tested in every way so that we make sure that when an elder or leader is established that we can have confidence to establish that person as leaders in the church.

And so we have an elder-run church. And so last week we talked about five things that a leader is called to. One is that a leader is an under-shepherd. We are not to give our own opinion. No matter how strong we feel about something, it cannot be our opinion because we are under-shepherds.

I don't have the right to come up here and say, "Because I have so many experience in ministry, because I've experienced this, because this is how I was taught, you need to do this because I know better than you." And I'm telling you, that comes with no authority. All I'm telling you, if that's the reason why I tell you what I tell you, all I'm telling you is I'm smarter than you.

I'm better than you. No one should submit to that because all we are are under-shepherds. Under-shepherds mean that we are to represent Christ. We are to speak as He speaks. When He is silent, we are to be silent. We are to go where He goes. We are to do what He does.

But we cannot be self-willed, number one. Number two, we have to teach the Word of God in season and out of season. Whether people listen or don't listen, whether it scatters people or gathers people, we have to accurately teach the whole counsel of God. Thirdly, we have to lead by example.

We cannot say, "Do what I tell you, but don't do what I do." The moment somebody, one of the leaders say that, that person is disqualified because part of leader, leading means that you have to be in the front and lead people to come the direction I'm going because this is the way to Christ.

So in the way He deals with finance, in the way He deals with His home, in the way He deals with in public, in private, at work, all of these, the elders and the leaders have to be an example, not just teachers, but an example of what that means.

Fourthly, He has to keep watch over the people of God. Remember that the word watch means to not sleep. So if a leader in the church is overly consumed with things that have nothing to do with God, He's not paying attention. He's distracted. So if you've ever taken a child to the swimming pool, you know that if you take your eyes off of them for a second, they're in danger of drowning.

So if you don't have children, I want you to pay attention very carefully. Do not ever let somebody that is not used to watching children, especially around the water, because when children drown, they drown in seconds and they don't make any noise. It's like fall off a cliff or they touch animals, you'll hear something, but at the pool or in the water, you don't hear anything.

And all you have to do is to be distracted for a minute. You're there and have a conversation with your friend, husband and wife. Next thing you know, your child is just floating and it doesn't take long for a child to drown. So if they are not used to watching children around water, it's not safe.

And so the Bible describes the leaders in the church who have to not sleep, of course, not physically, of course, we need to sleep. Not sleep, meaning stay need to stay sober. And that the things of God has to consume us and watch over the church. So if we're not aware of what's going on inside the church, and you have wolves that are coming in, you have we're not aware of what's going on in our own hearts, then we're not we can't be watching the way that God called the leaders to watch.

And then fifthly, it says we need to give an account before God. That these men have to function in life knowing that there is a stricter judgment. We cannot live our lives like everybody else. We are mere men. We have every struggle that you have. We have struggled. But the leaders have to stay sober knowing that there will be stricter judgment.

And so we need to take our situation very seriously. So we this is just all a review of what we talked about last week. I think many of you felt sorry for us because I got a bunch of emails saying we're praying for you. It must be hard. We're praying for you.

Yes. Okay, so it worked. But today, the second part of it is what is the responsibility of the church? Now all this with the premise understanding that we have to have a high view of the leadership. But he says, first of all, just obey and submit to them. Obey and submit to them.

Let me read you another song from Whitney Houston, a little bit more recent, recent meaning the last 40 years. Right, Whitney Houston. I couldn't find anything from BTS. So this is as current as I can get. All right, Whitney Houston. It starts out by, "I believe the children are our future." Oh, sounds Christian.

"Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside. Give them a sense of pride to make it easier. Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be." How many of you know this song? How many of you know this song?

Really? You're reluctant. I really want to know how many of you know this song. Not know me like you memorized it, but you know about this song. Okay, so you know this song. Majority of you know this song. And you probably sang it when you go to karaoke bars.

You probably sing this, right? Maybe not really understanding the content of what she says. She said, "Everybody's searching for a hero. People need someone to look up to. I never found anyone who fulfills my needs, a lonely place to be, and so I learned to depend on me. I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadows.

If I fail, if I succeed, at least I'll live as I believe. No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignity. Because the greatest love of all is happening to me." So up to there, you would think, like, "Oh, she converted." Right? "I found the greatest love of all is easy to achieve.

Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." Right? This is rebellion blasphemy. But this is what we sing in our generation, and sometimes not really knowing what we're singing. Right? This is the spirit of our generation. So within that spirit, it said, "At least, even if I fail, at least I have my dignity." And what does she mean by that?

By dignity. "I didn't fall. I didn't give in. I followed my path. I did it my way." Because the greatest love of all that we need to teach everybody is to love yourself and do it your way. So within that context, when you hear, "Obey your leaders and submit to them," how do you apply this?

How do you convince people that this is necessary and this is important? So it's easy to kind of skirt around this, especially knowing that many of you have been hurt in the context of leaders in your life. How do we apply this, and why is this here, and why is this important?

Well, first of all, the word "obey." It doesn't sound as harsh when you see what it means in the Greek, because the word "obey" basically means to be persuaded. Either to persuade or to be persuaded. So if I am to ask you to obey, I'm basically trying to persuade you.

So every Sunday when I open up the Word of God, I'm trying to get you to be persuaded, to obey. If you're the receiving person, it means to be easily persuaded, to be persuadable. As the Bible says, that we are the clay and he is the potter, meaning that we come before the Lord asking for him to mold us and change us.

The word for "submit" basically means to put yourself under, to put things in order. And so the idea of obeying and submitting is to place yourself in a position where you can easily take the commands that are coming from God through the leaders and to submit. You know, this idea that we, I just, you know, those two songs that we, that I just kind of mentioned.

And at the end of the day, the Bible says when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, one of the chief things that God says is part of the curse is that the wife who was created to be a suitable helper, he said he's going to, she's going to have contention with her husband.

He said her desire is going to be for her husband, meaning that word for desire means contention. They're going to be fighting for control. And so is it within that context, it's this idea of submission is not just about the church to leaders. In fact, whenever we think about submission, right, in the context of the church, the conservative church, we normally think about, right, we normally think about wives submitting to husband, or at least that's kind of the context we hear all the time.

It says in Ephesians 5, 24, wives submit to your husbands. I hear people saying that sometimes out of context and not really understanding what is being said. A lot of times the husband's frustrated with their wives and they'll open up, you know, Ephesians 5, 24, and it says, right here, submit, submit.

You know what submit means? It means to submit, right? And I hear, I hear husbands using that text because he's frustrated. Maybe the wife is nagging her, not doing what he says. Maybe they have a, they have a contention and they, you know, they don't agree on something. And so he's using his muscles from the scripture.

I want you to understand the context of this, okay. First of all, if you ever have to open up the scripture to your wife and say submit, you've already lost her, right? You've already lost her. And the only reason why you're bringing that up is because she's having a hard time respecting you.

So the first thing that you should look at is what are you doing that is making it hard for her to follow you before you bring out the scripture. But understand this, prior to Apostle Paul going into wives submitting to your husband, he actually says in Ephesians 5, 21, and be subject to one another in fear of Christ.

So this idea of submitting is to the husband and the wife. That our general attitude should be to be agreeable, to learn to submit to one another. And then he breaks into saying to the wife, you need to submit to your husband as the church does to Christ. And the reason why they need to do that is because of the calling of the husband to sacrifice his life for his wife as Christ did for the church.

So the reason why the wife is called to submit is so that the husband can die for you. That's the context. So the general calling is for everyone to submit, but specifically for the purpose of building a family that honors God, where the husband can sacrifice, the woman needs to make it easier for him to do his job.

So whenever somebody whips out the Bible and says, look it here, and he's using it for selfish reasons, you've already shot yourself in the foot. If the only way that you can get your wife to submit to you is to open up the scripture and say you must do this, again, you probably already lost your wife.

In Ephesians 6, 1 it says, children obey your parents. First Peter 5, 5 it says, younger men submit to the older men. Romans 13, 1, every person be subject to the governors. Colossians 3, 22, slaves in all things obey those who are your masters on earth. So the general disposition of everyone is called to be agreeable, to be easily molded.

Because the elders and the leaders are called to teach the word of God as under shepherds, that if you choose to challenge everything that is being taught, it is not profitable for you. You know, everybody goes through different stages of maturity. When you're first born, not just first born, but like born first, right, when you're born, every human being goes through dependency.

You can't survive by yourself. Your parents have to teach you how to walk, to eat, to go to the bathroom, and so that's a dependent stage, right? So spiritually, when you first become a Christian, you need other Christians to tell you, this is the Bible, these are the doctrines, this is what God calls us, this is the church.

And so that's the dependent stage. The dependent stage is very difficult because it requires a lot of attention, right? And you need to basically watch them constantly. You're at the water, you gotta watch them. You gotta watch what they eat, you gotta tell them when to sleep, when to wake up.

But they're also the cutest period, during that period, because they don't know any better. The next stage is independence, right? And that's the teenage stage, where you learn to wipe your butt and eat your food, take your own shower, and all of a sudden, you've learned everything. That's the stage where your parents become the source of your information, and then all of a sudden, they don't know Jack.

It's interesting because during that period, you see children kind of going through that period and if you see your kids fighting with one another, and I would walk into the room and let's say, you know, Jeremy and Zachary is fighting and then Zachary, when he's a little kid, he was like, "Daddy, Jeremy's saying this, is that true?" And I would say, "No." He's like, "See?" And it's over.

They don't look up encyclopedia, they don't go to Google, it's like, is he correct? It's like, if I say it's not true, it's like, "Daddy said it," so that settles it. And then they get into adolescence and all of a sudden, they say, "Hey, hey, you shouldn't be doing that because this is the way things work," and then Zachary would turn to his older brother, Jeremy, he's like, "Jeremy, is that true?" And Jeremy's like, "Yeah, I don't know." He's like, "I don't know about that." So truth is determined during that adolescent period, all of a sudden, you have to challenge your parents to see because they're starting to try to figure out how the rest of the world works, and that's the teenage stage.

That's where you're deep independent. People go through periods where they become independent, where they were dependent, they know enough about scripture, they've kind of lived their Christian life, and they've seen the good, they've experienced this and that, and so it's like, "What do the leaders know? They're no different than us.

They have faults. We don't submit to any man." So that's the deep independent stage. Can you imagine what the world would be like with just teenagers? Can you imagine what Disneyland would be like with just teenagers? I know some of you guys are teenagers here, right? 18, maybe as young as 17, 18, 19, and I'm sure it doesn't apply to you, right?

And that's why you're at this church, because you've matured, and you want the word of God, and you are coming out of your dependent stage to the final stage of maturity, and the final stage of maturity was interdependence. Interdependence are people who are independent who chooses to submit to one another.

That's the final stage, where you have a relationship with your children as adults. They have their own mind, they have their own, they're mature enough to take care of them, but we're able to have a relationship where we can talk to them, "Hey, you have some things and I have some things," but you choose to submit to one another, because only way that you can function in a society is if that happens.

So when you grow, you choose to submit, right, to your boss, you choose to submit to society, you choose to submit to your husband, you choose to submit to the leaders, and so even though I am able to be independent, I choose to be dependent, because that's the final stage of maturity, interdependence.

So this idea of obeying and submitting is not because the top, most holiest men are the leaders. It's because of the job that we are called to do. It is a high calling. It says they need to be above reproach, but in order for the leaders to do their job and to do it well, the church needs to submit.

And again, like I said, it's one of the most tangible things that the church can do in order to build a healthy church. Why do we need to submit? Why is the church called to submit? Verse 18, it said, "Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you." If you are a nurse or you're in the healthcare, right, and this would be true of anybody who's taking care of other people, right, but let me just use that as an example.

If you're a nurse and you go into the room and you need to give them medicine, you need to turn them around, wipe them, clean them up, and you need to make sure that they're taking the pills and do the, and then the patient's just cranky. No, I'm not going to take that.

I'm not going to turn around. I'm not going to move. And they refuse you, say, "Don't tell me what to do." In the end, who are they hurting? They're hurting themselves. And so, you know, because of the job that the nurse is called to do, if the patient is not compliant, the first person that gets hurt by that is the patient.

It makes the job very difficult for the nurse, but it makes it impossible to treat that patient if he refuses. That's how he describes it. He said, "Let them do this with joy," because they've been called to sacrifice. They've been called to watch. They've been called to represent Christ.

So if the leaders are here for the purpose of the well-being of the church, and you refuse, and you challenge everything that happens, and they said, "It's not profitable for you in the end." Remember how whenever the Israelites would rebel, remember how God would describe the Israelites, right? They would say they are stiff-necked, right?

Stiff-necked. You know, whenever I hear that term stiff-neck, obviously it's pride. It's somebody who's kind of like stiff. Stiff meaning like they will not bow. They will not yield. I know. So this is always your stance, right? "Well, what are you doing? Why are you doing that?" That's the description that Bible gives.

A stiff-necked person is never willing to yield because, "I have my idea. This is my opinion." That's how the Bible describes an unyielding nation, stiff-necked. And if you own dogs, you know, every once in a while you'll see the owners taking the dogs out to a walk, and the dogs are up in the front, and the owner is just kind of being guided.

But every once in a while you'll see a dog who doesn't want to go, and you see the owner dragging the dog. The dog's not happy because he's being dragged. Owner's not happy because the owner has to drag the dog. But this has to be done because you're going to poop in the house if you don't.

That's how the Bible describes a nation that is stiff-necked, unyielding. Working with unyielding people is like working with cement. Somebody told me years ago, we had a pastor that came to our church, and he spent a lot of time just venting about his church. He was like, "Yeah, I can't believe they did this." And he just went off.

Then after that retreat, somebody came up to me and said, "Hey, Pastor Peter, how come you don't tell us about the church? How come you don't vent to us?" I said, "Because if I vent, it would be about you." You know what I mean? That pastor's at our church, so I vent when I'm over there.

So if you want to hear me vent, come with me to the retreat. I have so much to say, and I'm trying to be careful. But the job that we have been called to do is impossible to do if people are stiff-necked. Let me give you three practical things that the church has to submit to and obey in order for the church to be healthy.

First of all, and this is the easiest of them all, is that you need to obey the teaching of the Word of God. We said we put a high premium on the teaching and preaching of God's Word. If I ever stand here and say, "You need to do this because this is my experience, and this is what I know.

I went to seminary. I was a Bible major undergrad, so you just need to trust me, and you just need to do this," I said, "There's not much authority there." Because somebody else can say that and say, "Well, I'm older than you. You got a master's. I got a doctorate." And anybody can use whatever position that they have to supersede.

"Oh, I got an MBA, so I know how to do this more than you." Our authority does not come from ourselves or our experience but the Word of God. And so when the Word of God is clearly taught, if you have a problem with what is being said, challenge us by the Word of God.

Don't come and say, "I just don't agree with you because I just know better." There's not much authority. There's not much authority of that when I say it, and there's not much authority when you say it. Because in the end, all it sounds like is, "I'm smarter, smarter than you, smarter than you, better than you, more talented than you, so you should listen to me." That's what it sounds like to me.

So there's no authority in that. I would not preach that way, nor is it convincing if you say it. But if the Word of God is open and it is clear and you're convinced that's what the Word of God says, then you have to obey. Because obeying that isn't about obeying us.

It's about obeying the Word of God. I've had people, years ago, I've had this young lady come to me and say, "You know what? I don't think God wants me to evangelize." I said, "What do you mean by that?" She's like, "I mean, Scripture says here, here, here, here." And she says, "God understands me." You're being legalistic, but God understands me.

He knows my heart. He knows how difficult it is for me. He knows how hard it is for me. And so God understands, even though the Word of God says it's like, well, I mean, you choose to make the Word of God subjective and you kind of pick and choose what you want to obey.

So that's the first thing. And that's the easiest, because that's where the Word of God clearly spells it out, right? Obey the Word of God. Secondly, and this is the part where the rubber meets the road, right? There are things that we are doing in the church that if the church doesn't cooperate, we just cannot run the church.

As an example, we decide to buy the building. And you say, "You know what? I don't know if buying the building is a good idea." And I know some people, just the fact that we spent money, a lot of money, that's just ungodly. Just the fact that church is about doing God's work, so you can give it to missionaries and feed the poor, but buying a building seems very secular.

But we have to make these decisions. Even though the Bible doesn't say you need to have a building, there's a lot of logistical business decisions that we need to make for the sake of the church. We're not saying that every decision that we make is perfect. We're not even saying that every decision that is being made is the best decision.

But we have been given the task to make these decisions. And so we have to do our best to make these decisions that sometimes you may not agree with. But we cannot run the church if the people in the church are constantly saying, "Well, that's not what I believe, and I'm just going to protest this." Let me give you an example.

How many of you have ever run games at a picnic? You guys are traumatized, so you're unwilling to admit it. If you've ever run games, even once, I can almost guarantee that you came out of that saying, "I'm never doing this again." Because what typically happens is you run games, and no matter how well the game is run, there's always somebody who's going to say, "What is this?

Who came up with this idea? This is not fun. Why are we doing this?" And there's always somebody who's going to protest. But the thing is, the person who's running the games has poured his heart out, get the games ready to benefit the church. We're going to have fun.

But there's always somebody there who's doing that. And not to say that, don't ever say anything bad, but you have to either lead or follow or get out of the way. And if you're not doing one of those things, you're a troublemaker, because that's all you're doing. You're not going to lead.

"No, no, no." "Oh, I'll come with a joke." "You want to lead?" "No, no, no." "Oh, I don't want to lead." Right? Then follow. "I can't follow. You want me to follow that?" So if you're not going to lead, if you're not going to follow, the next best thing is don't be there.

Let them run it, even if you don't like it. But when you don't lead and when you're not following and you're refusing to get out of the way, you're saying, "I'm going to show up to the park. I'm not going to participate, but I'm going to make sure everybody knows how this stinks." Right?

"I'm just going to cause a stink." Right? And yeah, these are not maybe biblical things, but these are things that needs to happen in order for the church to run. But basically, you've committed to make it difficult for other people to lead. And that's where the rubber meets the road.

Let me give you another illustration. You ever have a group of friends that you get together and you decide where to eat? And you have this one friend who just, "I can't eat pho. I don't like boba. Pizza's too greasy. You know, I'm lactose intolerant. I'm gluten. I got to be gluten free.

I don't like pepper. It's too spicy. It's not spicy enough." And so at the end of the day, so what do you want? You want to eat. Right? So every time you gather together, you can only eat what that person wants to eat. Eventually you get tired of that.

And then you, "Don't invite that guy." It's just too hard to do anything with that guy around. Right? So everybody has to submit and to give in to that person who's just being selfish because they don't know how to give in to other people. Or here's another scenario. You have two people in the group like that.

I cannot and the other person is like, "I don't like, I have to eat pho. I can't eat pho." How can you? So what ends up happening is the group gets divided. Pho lovers and pho haters. Right? And then you have pho-lo-ship over here and then you have the pho haters over there.

And then so you have that group split in two by two strong headed selfish people. That's what happens in the church. If we give in to selfishness in the congress, "Oh yeah, they won't let us do it." Yeah, because if we give in to you, that means everybody has to give in to you.

Everybody has to do what you say. So sometimes we need to deal with hard headed people for the sake of the church. If you have that in the eldership, you have two hard headed people who are so strong headed and they will not back down. That's how the church splits in two.

So when we call for submission, the submission is not just for the congregation to submit to the elders. It's for the church to submit to each other. That even though we have multiple of leaders, if the majority of the leaders decide one thing, every leader has to submit to that, including myself.

I may be the senior pastor of this church, but I cannot unilaterally make decisions in this church because I need to be submitted to the rest of the leaders in the church. So for practical reasons, the church needs to submit to the decisions that are being made in the church because we're making decisions for what's beneficial for the church.

So like I said, you may have never led the church, so you may not fully understand what I'm saying, but if you led anything, like games, if you've ever tried to serve somebody for their own benefit, if you've ever raised children, you know exactly why this is such a practical, practical command.

Now if you have a leadership who is selfish, self-willed, and they're not walking right with God, they're distracted constantly, it says, do not entertain an accusation against an elder. If you hear slander and things that are being said that is hurtful to the leadership, and then it's hurtful to the church, challenge them.

If it's true, then bring it to the church because accusation against a leader will hurt the church if it's not true. If the accusation against a leader is true and the church does nothing about it, it will hurt the church. And so for practical reasons, right, to bring submission.

And then third and final thing is church discipline. In the 25 years of our church, we've had situations where people were unrepentant and it's risen to a certain degree and we'd have to threaten with church discipline to bring them into submission. Most of the time, it's enough where we didn't have to bring it to the church.

We've had one instance where we actually had to bring it to the church years ago. So in 25 years, we had one church discipline. So we take this very seriously because we know not only is it embarrassing, it also causes friction in the church because, "Oh, how can a church do that?

It's so unloving." Because you have a concept of church where you do whatever you want and there's no consequence. No, church is the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in it. And the Bible says that he who destroys the temple will be judged by God. So we have to be gatekeepers of the church to make sure that this church and the community and the life of the church doesn't become more and more like the world.

So there are times we need to fight individual sins in the church so that we keep this at bay, that this church is the church of Christ, that we do not represent the world. Now, having said that, I don't know anybody who has been confronted with their sins who feels good about it.

Most ideal situation is they repent and say, "Thank you for turning me from my sins." But a lot of times what happens is when we try to bring attention of sin, they'll turn it around and say, "You're judging me." And then they'll begin to start to spread things and say things to other people.

If we feel that this is important enough that we raise it to church discipline, the church needs to obey and submit to the leadership. Now why is that important? Because we cannot carry out church discipline. Who'd want to be in this situation? I'd rather be where you are, where I don't have to deal with this.

I'll let the other people make this decision, let them carry it out because it gets murky and dirty and then accusations come against us whenever we make even an attempt to do this because if we love you and gracious and we just sweep everything under the rug, you know, then every time we do that, it's like, "Oh, the church is so gracious, people are so loving." But anytime we try to bring attention to any kind of sin, we know that that's going to be reversed and accusations are going to come our way.

So who'd want to do this? But it must be done because one, it's taught by scripture and second, we need to keep the church holy. As much as it needs to be gracious and loving, it also needs to be holy. So if the church chooses to carry out discipline and the congregation in the church is saying, "Oh, those bad people are doing that to you," right?

It's no different than a father disciplining a child and the mother embraces the child and saying, "Oh, your dad, your dad's doing that. Let me go buy you some ice cream." Is that a loving, gracious thing to do for the mother to go against the discipline of the father?

No. It's one of the most selfish things to do because you're not helping that child. You're not helping that child to understand what he needs to turn his sins from because "Oh, those are bad people, those are bad people, but I'm gracious." We're loving. If we have a church that resists when church discipline needs to take place, you cannot have a healthy church.

So that's why we say if we're in a habit of bringing discipline to the church for any little thing that happens in the church, yeah, then we would probably lose authority to carry this out. But when in rare situation where someone is unrepentant to the point where we need to bring this to the church, we need to have the cooperation of the church.

One, because the scripture says so, and two, the church cannot be healthy if the congregation chooses, "Oh, the dirty work, we'll let the leaders do the dirty work, those bad people, but I'm gracious. Come over to my house, I'll make you dinner. I'll buy you..." It's like, "Because I'm not like them." That's not loving, that's not gracious.

Not only does it hurt that person, it hurts the church. And I know this is a difficult thing to swallow, but the church cannot be holy and it cannot be healthy unless this is carried out by the whole church. The Bible says if the sin rises to the point they're unrepentant and it's hurting themselves and hurting the church, and the church decides that, "You know what?

This discipline needs to happen to bring them to repentance, and we ask of you to only to associate with them, to bring them to repentance, and you blow us off," you're not just hurting that person, you're also hurting yourself and you're hurting the church. Again, I say this with clarity and with authority because my conscience is clear, because this is what the Bible teaches.

Our church cannot, it cannot allow what is circulating around the world in our culture into the church, because it is constantly biting at the door. Sin is constantly biting at the door. It's always knocking. There's never a time when sin and world and our enemy is not trying to knock through the door to pervert our church.

And so the leaders have been placed in the church to guard the church, but we cannot do our job if the people within the church keeps opening the door when we shut it. Now I'm going to wrap up here. The next part is prayer, which I'm not going to get to.

I'm just going to wrap it up here. There's nothing more practical that needs to be practiced by the church. Everything sounds great, it's like, "Oh, we're going to worship God and we're going to do this, we're going to evangelize." All these things feel good, but where the rubber meets the road is where this application happens because we need to move together.

You can't just be bystanders watching and saying, "Well, I have my values and I have my things." You ever hear advice from the world about marriage? Women are from Mars and men are from Venus. I forget which one is which, so I might have switched it, right? And so the whole counsel that you get from the world is how do people from Venus communicate with people from Mars?

It's a formula for disaster. You know why? What are you doing on Mars? What are you doing on Mars? You're not, you weren't made to be on Venus. You belong on Earth. So the whole point of it is to bring you back to Earth. But if you get into marriage and say, "I'm from Venus, so this is what I like," and then you have another person, "But I'm from Mars." So what you end up doing is you end up going from relationship to relationship, from church to church, from group to group, looking for people to accommodate you.

Looking for people to, "This is who I am. So I want to look for a church that's going to allow me to be me." You can't do that in marriage. If you do that in marriage, you're going to have a very difficult marriage because you have two selfish people demanding the other person to adjust to them.

But the whole purpose of our sanctification is these two people who went astray and landed in Venus and Mars, God is trying to bring them to himself. And so the church is God calling people who have strayed to get back to God. So if we are not willing to change, if we're not willing to submit, if we're not willing to obey and we are stiff-necked, you're going to flip that around and say, "This is who I am and I need other people to change for me." That's a formula for disaster.

And so as difficult as this teaching may be for some of you, understanding it, in the world this is ridiculous. It's just arrogant to think, to submit to your husband, to masters, to government, to submit. And yet, this is one of the most beautiful words in scripture. Because he who in every way was God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself.

He humbled himself. And he walked among us. It is by his submission that you and I are saved. God is glorified when we learn to yield. God is glorified when we become like clay. We'll deal with the second part next week. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know how difficult this is.

That even now, Father God, that maybe we're all brothers and sisters who are uncomfortable with this very teaching because of the pain that they've experienced in the past. I pray that you would give wisdom, restoration, knowing Father God that it is only by your grace that we can build a church that honors and glorifies you.

Lord, despite our weaknesses, despite our tendency to wander, we know that it's because you made the promise that you will build the church and the gates of Hades will not be able to prevail against it. Help us, Lord God, to anchor ourselves to Christ, that we would not drift by every wind of doctrine and that this church would be a church where Christ is the head and that we have a high view of the church, high view of you, high view of leadership, high view of the word of God, that this kingdom that you inaugurated would continue to magnify and glorify Christ.

And as the world and its wickedness becomes more and more evident, and as you warned us, Lord God, that love of many will grow cold, help us, Lord God, to be a greater and greater light in the darkness that we are in. May your name and your name alone be.

Thanks for watching.