(soft piano music) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) - Good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. Romans 12, verses one and two, it reads, "Therefore, I urge you, brethren, "by the mercies of God, to present your bodies "a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, "which is your spiritual service of worship. "Do not be conformed to this world, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, "so that you may prove what the will of God is, "that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

"Today, consider his mercy, how he offers forgiveness "of our sins through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus, "and may it cause us and compel us to live a life "pleasing to him and to have a renewed mind "that aims to follow his will and not to the world." May this be our prayer today as we begin our service.

(gentle music) ♪ This life is an altar ♪ ♪ Where I want to offer my soul ♪ ♪ My mind and strength ♪ ♪ Cleanse by your mercy ♪ ♪ So live a life worthy of the one ♪ ♪ Who called my name ♪ ♪ Jesus be glorified ♪ ♪ Jesus be magnified ♪ ♪ Let me be a pleasing sacrifice ♪ ♪ Jesus be glorified ♪ ♪ Jesus be magnified ♪ ♪ Here at the altar ♪ ♪ My life is an offer ♪ (gentle music) ♪ I'm calling all of you ♪ ♪ You offered my rescue ♪ ♪ Raise me up from death to life ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Spirit is in me ♪ ♪ With you in your glory ♪ ♪ I want your heart ♪ ♪ As I give my life ♪ ♪ Jesus be glorified ♪ ♪ Jesus be magnified ♪ ♪ Let me be a pleasing sacrifice ♪ ♪ Jesus be glorified ♪ ♪ Jesus be magnified ♪ ♪ Here at the altar ♪ ♪ My life is an offer ♪ (gentle music) , ♪ I choose to lose my life Lord ♪ ♪ And find it in you ♪ ♪ I choose to lose my life Lord ♪ ♪ And find it in you ♪ ♪ I choose to lose my life Lord ♪ ♪ And find it in you ♪ ♪ I choose to lose my life Lord ♪ ♪ And find it in you ♪ ♪ Jesus be glorified ♪ ♪ Jesus be magnified ♪ ♪ Let me be a pleasing sacrifice ♪ ♪ Jesus be glorified ♪ ♪ Jesus be magnified ♪ ♪ Here at the altar ♪ ♪ My life is an offer ♪ (gentle music) (gentle music) - All right, good morning.

Welcome to Breen Community Church. We have an announcement from our sister's ministry about our holiday outreach. So they're gonna come up and give the announcement. So, Jennie, you're up first. - Thank you. Good morning, church family. My name is Grace and I have Jennie up here with me. We're here to share with you today about some of the upcoming holiday outreach opportunities, two of four, which will be announced today and which will start signups today.

The holiday outreach started years back out of a heart to really share the good news of Christ to those around us, especially during the season in which we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. Our hope is that through these small acts of service and giving that our hearts as one body would really grow in mercy and compassion and that we would truly desire the things that God desires, namely the salvation of men.

We pray that we can love both our believing and non-believing neighbors, both locally and globally, through the opportunities this year. And first, I'd like to share about Operation Christmas Child. It's also known as Shoebox Christmas. I think many of you may know this as an opportunity, as a way to send Christmas gifts to a child in need worldwide, but it's actually more than that.

Those very shoebox gifts that we receive is used as a means of reaching out to share the good news through partnership with local churches worldwide. And I hope you'll consider partnering with us this way. And it's also a really sweet way for families to involve their children as you do your shopping together and the children learn about generous giving.

And the deadline to turn in these shoebox gifts is actually quickly approaching on November 19th, so please stop by the tables after each service every Sunday until then. Thank you. Hi, church family. The next opportunity is an opportunity to serve the elderly at the Community Garden Towers Senior Apartment on December 2nd, 2 p.m.

through 4 p.m. We will be encouraging and serving them through Christmas presentations, fellowship, and gospel opportunities, as well as serving them by providing any needed assistance in their homes. Preparing for the holiday outreach has personally been an opportunity to intentionally prepare my heart for Christmas, remembering that it's not about Christmas songs or extended time off of work, gifts, lights, and food and family, but that it's a season to celebrate the Emmanuel who has come to us to give himself up for our sins and to save us.

Hebrews 13 talks about Jesus becoming an atonement for sin, and Hebrews 13, 15 through 16 says, "Through him, then, let us continually offer up "a sacrifice of praise to God, "that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. "And do not neglect doing good and sharing, "for with such sacrifices God is pleased." As you carefully consider these opportunities, I hope that it will also be an opportunity to remember Christ and point others to him.

Thank you. - And also, because today is unexpectedly windy today, we were originally just going to be outside, but please come find us inside the cafe. We'll be there. Thank you. All right, so today at 12.30, we have a newcomer's lunch. So if you signed up for that, please head over to the cafe side to the right of it where the youth group has their service, and so they're going to start right at 12.30.

Even if you haven't signed up and you want to take advantage of the newcomer's lunch, it's an opportunity to get to know some of the Welcome Team members, some of the leaders there, ask questions, and they're going to do a brief presentation about what our church is about, what we value, and so it will be a good opportunity to kind of get to know the church better.

So even if you haven't signed up, just let the Welcome Team know, and so that will be taking place right after this service at 12.30. As you guys know, this Tuesday we have Reformation Night. It's going to start at 5.30 to 8.30 p.m., so if you're bringing your children, to make sure to come around 5.30 and it ends about 8.30.

There will be food, obviously games, and various things that are happening. If you're one of the volunteers that's setting up the trunks for outside, the church will be open pretty much all day, so the pastors are going to be here, so if you want to come earlier part of the day to set up food or whatever, you'll be more than welcome to do that, so it will be open.

There is an Outreach Thanksgiving dinner. So if you haven't signed up for the Thanksgiving regional dinner that's happening on November 19, please sign up for that, and on that Saturday, before the Thanksgiving outreach, there's going to be an Outreach Thanksgiving dinner. So this is for people who are praying and trying to reach out to unbelievers who are coming to church, and it will be an opportunity to fellowship and meet with our outreach team, and there's going to be a gospel presentation, and so that's happening on the 18th, so the Saturday before.

So if you're interested in or to come to that, or you're bringing somebody that can benefit from that, please let our outreach team know. You can just go to the welcome table and let them know, and they'll direct you to the right place. Yeah, I think that's it for now.

I'm going to pray for the offering. Again, if you have a physical offering, there is a box on the way out. You'll see where it says "offering," and you can drop it off there. For the rest of you, you can use the Zelle that's on the screen, and then after our worship time, our brother Alan is going to come up, and he's going to give his testimony and be baptized this morning.

All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your continued love and your grace that sustains us day to day. We thank you for the privilege to be able to come before your throne, to corporately worship you, to honor you, to sing praise to you. I pray that you would calibrate our mind, our hearts, our lives, Lord God, that we may live truly blessed and worthy of the gospel that you've given.

I pray that you would bless the offering that we give. May it be an act of worship, and may it be blessed and multiplied for the sake of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let us all rise, and before we continue our time of praise, let's spend a few moments greeting the neighbors around us.

Praise and glorify. Let's glorify our God, the Father of our Lord. In Christ He has in heavenly realms His blessings on His throne. For pure and blameless in His sight, He destined us to be. And now we've been adopted through His Son, eternal life. To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace.

To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. Come, praise. Praise and glorify our God, who gives His grace in Christ. For sins are washed away, redeemed through sacrifice. Amen. In Him God has been known to us, the mystery of His will. And Christ should be the head of all His purpose to prove.

To the praise. To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace. To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. To the praise. To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace. To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves.

Come, praise and glorify our God, for we believe the Word. And through our faith we have a seal, the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit guarantees our hope until redemption's done. So we join in endless praise to God the great. To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace.

To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace. To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. Sing, "Oh Lord my God." Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made.

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. And when I think that God is Son not spirit, Sent to die, I scarce can take it.

That on that cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation And take me home, when joy shall fill my heart, Then I shall bow with humble adoration And there proclaim, "My God, how great Thou art." Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Amen. You may be seated. Good morning, church family. My name is Alan Russell, and I'm going to share my testimony this morning. I was born in Dublin, Ireland, the youngest of three children. My family were culturally Christian, and I grew up attending Sunday school and church every week.

These will help. My childhood was a happy time, but that all changed when I was 13 years old and my parents separated. This was very uncommon in Ireland at the time, as divorce was not legal. To this day, I have a vivid recollection of the fear and emptiness I felt that first night in a new and unfamiliar home.

I stopped attending church because with no father in the home, my mother had a tough time making me. At the time, my understanding of God was flawed. I don't think I ever doubted his existence. But I thought of God as an angry God who was not personally interested in me and would punish me for the bad things I did.

I thought salvation came from your good deeds exceeding your bad deeds. When I was 16, I started attending the church youth club, as there were some girls going who I liked. The youth club met on Saturday evenings and was mainly organized around fun events with a short Bible-themed talk at the very end.

Because of the friends I made at the youth club, I started attending the Sunday service again on a regular basis. Not too long after this, an American youth worker came to our church and started a midweek fellowship group involving a time of worship, Bible study, and prayer. This was something new to me, as prior to this, my experience of church was very formal and impersonal.

I really enjoyed the sharing and learning, as well as the close friendships I gained. As I grew in my understanding of the gospel, I started to question where my relationship was with God and what I had to do to ensure my salvation. Eventually, I came to understand that I needed to make a decision to put my trust in him, confess my sins, repent of my life, and trust in his grace.

I did this when I was 19 years old. During my teenage years, I was very unhappy with no real friends. I could be very critical and negative and would say hurtful words to those I loved. I found it hard to show or receive affection, I was hypersensitive to criticism, and would sink into depressive thoughts at the slightest negative experience.

The friends I made at the fellowship group were the first real friends that I had. I think that their example and those of the youth leaders helped me to understand what love was. Experiencing at first hand the love of those who had Jesus in their hearts lifted me up.

1 John 4, verses 7-12 reads, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed us his love among us.

He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." Understanding God's love demonstrated on the cross by Jesus' sacrifice for me, his love which was freely given and undeserved, God loved me first, and because of his sacrificial and unselfish love, I must have worth in his eyes.

My new identity was rooted in his love. Over time I changed. My instinct was no longer to hurt or discourage, but to try and be constructive, encouraging, and more loving. As I said earlier, I was 19 when I put my trust in Jesus, and I wish I could say that ever since then I've been consistent and obedient in my faith.

The truth of the matter is that there have been times I have stagnated and followed my own path, as well as times when I have drawn close and relied totally on him. I am constantly amazed at my capacity to sin and be selfish. I am a sinner, and yet I have hope as God has shown me his mercy and cleansed me with his grace.

I cannot imagine going through this life without him. He has blessed me in so many ways. He has given me friends and mentors who have encouraged and disciplined me. He led me to Japan to live and serve with the OMF International, where I met my wife. In the tough times of sickness or uncertainty in a foreign land, he has been my comfort.

When I came to America, he provided a job and community. He walked hand in hand with me and my wife in our struggle to have a family of our own. He blessed us with our two boys, Matthew and Sam. God is good. I grew up in the Presbyterian tradition and was sprinkled as an infant and then confirmed in my teens.

Later I committed myself to Christ and was saved. At that time I did not perceive the requirement to be baptized as a believer. Recently I was confronted with my pride. As I studied God's word, my understanding and the importance of the ordinance of baptism has changed. So today I seek to satisfy the command of scripture and fulfill all righteousness and be baptized.

Thank you. Alan, do you understand when you're going into the water you're being united to Christ's death, and when you come out you're being united to his resurrected life? I do. And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Alright, thank you Alan for that great testimony.

We have to put his head down a little bit further so he doesn't get sprinkled again. Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 6. We're going to be reading from verse 39 through 45. We're going to be in the text for a few weeks.

Luke chapter 6, verse 39 to 45. Let's pray. Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit's illumination. Soften our hearts, open our ears. That we may hear your word. And that it would mold us, guide us, direct us, and build us. We entrust this time to you, Father. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. If you see someone who is acting childish, right? Maybe an adult that is maybe playing too much video games. Or maybe the way you're acting. And usually we would say in rebuke, "How old are you?" And we ask that question basically saying that you shouldn't be acting like that.

You should be more mature than that. And so if you see a child maybe acting a certain way in junior high school, but then he's acting the same way in college, and then he's acting the same way after that, it's like, "How come you're not maturing?" So we expect people to physically mature in the way they handle things, in the way that they talk, the responsibility that they hold.

And so if their life doesn't match the age and the responsibility that they have, automatically, again, they get rebuked or friends will be concerned. When it comes to spiritual matters, do we not expect the same thing? But in our culture, it has become normal for somebody who's been a Christian for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and yet do not know anything more about their faith than they did when they first became Christians.

So what was okay in the first year of your salvation, second year of your salvation, I don't know the scripture, what am I supposed to do, where's the Old Testament, where's the New Testament, but after about 30, 40 years, and you're still saying if somebody asks you a question, "Well, I don't know.

I asked my pastor." And if that's the level of maturity that you have in your faith, again, something has gone wrong. It's just like two people getting into a covenant relationship, and they get married, and then they go back home, and outside of the paper that they signed, and outside of the community that acknowledges that they've been married, that that person is living his life like he did before he was married.

And we say something has terribly gone wrong. God expects maturity. That when we first become Christians, that we move on toward maturity. In fact, the author of Hebrews 5, 12-14 says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God." In other words, you don't know anything more about your faith than when you first started, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. Milk is crucial when you're an infant, but if you're still drinking milk by the time you are two or three or four, you know something has gone wrong. And if you're still drinking only milk by the time you're five or six or seven, you may even have to be taken to the hospital.

Something is wrong. It's going to impede your development. He said, "If that's all you can handle, you're just an infant, but solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." Now, he's saying what he is saying in the text that we're reading because of what he has just said.

For the last three weeks, we've been studying about Jesus' central command to love your neighbor. And to be more specific than that, to love your enemies, to good to those who are persecuting you, to bless those who curse you, pray for those who are out to get you. And he said this is not something that an immature Christian would ever consider doing.

If you are an infant in your faith, the idea of even liking somebody that you don't feel comfortable with, you wouldn't even entertain that. So basically, Jesus is challenging the hearers to move on to maturity. That we need to continue to move on and someone who has practiced righteousness so that they are able to discern what is good and bad.

An infant would perfectly satisfy living their life, picking and choosing who they like, who they don't like. So in the context that we're looking at, verse 39 to 45, that we're going to be on in a few weeks, Jesus tells us, if you were to look at it in a negative way, three different things that impedes maturity.

What is the obstacle? Why are people not maturing? Or if you want to look at it in a positive way, what are the elements that are necessary for us to mature in our faith so that we may practice what Jesus has just taught us. To love our enemies and to give ourselves to people who are difficult for us to give to.

So initially, I intended, I started this sermon thinking that we're going to cover all of this this week, but there's so much information on the first topic. I wanted to take some time to cover this. And so the first thing, the three things that he tells us that we're going to be covering in the next few weeks is, one, that we need to have right leadership.

That's the first one. That's what we're going to be covering today in verse 39 and 40. And then second, that the focus of our sanctification, our maturity, has to be ourselves. Before we are concerned about what's going on outside of us. And third, the focus of our sanctification, our spiritual growth, has to be inward first.

What we do outwardly is an out product of what is happening inside. So those are the three things that he mentions that in order for us to move on to maturity that we need to address. And so today, we're going to be focused on leadership. Again, as I mentioned, the Bible has so much on this topic that I can probably spend the next few months just talking about this, just combing through the verses on the subject of leadership.

After he teaches this very difficult teaching of loving your neighbors, your enemies, he says in verse 39 to 40, and he also spoke a parable to them, "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher." So there's two things that he mentions here.

One, it is an indictment against the leaders of Israel that they are blind. And the reason why Israel has fallen into a pit is because their leadership is also blind. And the reason why the things that Jesus is saying is so difficult for them to swallow is because they've been taught and they've been led by false leaders of Israel.

The second aspect of it was that people is not above his teacher, but everyone after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher. That we ought to have proper focus on who this leader is, that we would become like that leader. So we're going to be focused on those two things that he mentions in these two verses.

First, the clear indictment against the nation of Israel, the leadership. In Matthew 23, 2-7, he says, "The scribes and the Pharisees, who are the leaders of Israel, have seated themselves in the chair of Moses," meaning that they sit as teachers, who are teaching the Word of God, "Therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe." In other words, obey the Word of God.

"But do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them. Listen to what they have to say, but do not practice what they practice." He says, "They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger." So if you have leaders and teachers who are just teaching them what the Bible says, and yet they do not practice it, all they're doing is burdening them with what you ought to be doing.

And so that's what he's describing, somebody who is constantly learning what they should be doing, without ever being practiced. So they're laying, week after week, month after month, year after year, a burden of what they should be doing, without ever truly finding freedom. And he said that's happening because these leaders are doing that.

"They do all their deeds," he says, "to be noticed by men." Everything that they do is for themselves. Even as they teach, it's so that they can be recognized. They broaden their phylacteries, lengthen the tassels of their garments. All for show. "They love the place of honor at banquets and chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the marketplace, and being called 'rabbi' by men." Now, if you think that was harsh, that's just the introduction.

I was debating whether I should read this or not, but this section is too long. But the real indictment comes after that, in chapter 23, verse 13 to 16. He gives the eight woes. "Woe to you, leaders of Israel, woe to you." So there are separate eight woes. But in each of these woes, with the exception of one, he begins by saying, "Woe to you, hypocrites.

Woe to you, hypocrites. Woe to you, hypocrites." And he says this seven separate times. So the underlying problem that Israelites were facing was they have leaders who are hypocrites. And a hypocrite basically is another word for an actor, somebody who is pretending to be somebody. Like, I don't know about you, but when I was young, my idol was Fonzie.

Some of you guys who are a little bit older know who I'm talking about. So he was on Happy Days. He was the cool guy. He snaps his fingers and the girls would come to him. He's wearing a leather jacket, riding a motorcycle. And he's a tiny guy, but he would beat up everybody who came against him.

And so he was the cool guy. So I thought, "Wow." Me and all my friends wanted to be like Fonzie. We were going around saying, "Hey." And then I saw another movie called Night Shift. And Fonzie's real name is Henry Winkler. And he played this frantic, constantly concerned about his outlook.

So a complete opposite of who he was. I remember being confused as a young kid because it completely destroyed my image of Fonzie. Like, which is Fonzie? Which is the right guy? Obviously, he was just playing a role. Neither of them is actually him. But we have a tendency to look at the presentation that they have and say, "Oh, that's who he is." That's what an actor is.

That's what a hypocrite is. A hypocrite is somebody who puts on a mask because he wants you to see him a certain way. And so he keeps saying over and over again to the nation of Israel that your leaders are hypocrites. They're hypocrites. They're hypocrites. Hypocrites. In fact, the primary problem that Israel was in the pits, in the spiritual state that they were in, is because their leaders who are blind led them into a pit.

The blind was leading the blind. This is not new to the New Testament. We see this all in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 6, 13-14, he says, "For from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain. And from prophet, even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

They have healed the brokenness of my people superficially, saying, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace." Now, the reason why they were saying, "Peace, peace," is because they were there for themselves. They weren't really concerned about the nation of Israel. If they were concerned about the nation of Israel, their primary problem was that they were sinning.

They were rebelling against God. But they weren't in leadership because they were concerned about Israel. They were in leadership because they wanted glory. They wanted attention. So, in order to garner the affections of the nation, they had to give them what they wanted to hear. Just like Paul says to Timothy, that there's going to come a time when people are going to gather around themselves, leaders, who are not going to tell you the truth, but they're going to tickle their ears.

And the reason why they're tickling their ears is because they want your affection. They want your approval. They want your honor. This is not new to the New Testament. God says that that was the problem with the Israelites. Their leaders were blind, leading them into a pit. In Jeremiah 23, 21, it says, "I did not send these prophets, but they ran.

I did not speak to them, but they prophesied." I didn't even send them. What they're telling you has nothing to do with me. You know, today, if somebody wants to become a leader or a pastor, this is how simple it is. I want to be a pastor. I want to be able to teach.

I was part of a campus ministry, and I really like leading people. This is what I want to do the rest of my life. And so I choose to go to seminary. And then when you get into seminary, you become a leader. Now, in all my life and hundreds of friends that I've had, I've never seen a single person get rejected from seminary.

Not one. No matter what their character, no matter what their background, no matter what it is that they bring, if they say they want to go, they just go. If you know anybody that's been rejected by seminary, let me know. Because I've never heard of one. You just have to want to go.

And if you want to go, you go. And once you go, because you're in seminary and you were trained in the Bible, you become a leader and you'll find a pulpit, you'll find a ministry somewhere that will welcome you in. And once you get in, eventually you'll get ordained, because you need to get ordained in order for you to run the church.

And that's how simple it is to come into ministry. Let's say if I wanted to move church, right? And I decided, you know what, I want to go and see what's out there. And this is how usually it works. I will send out a resume. Basically, my resume is my education, my experiences, and what I've done.

And basically, I send that out. And if they like what they see, they'll call me in, basically ask me to give a couple sermons. And I go to the church and if I give a sermon, if they like my sermon, I become their pastor. To lead the ministry, to represent Christ.

And it's that simple. If somebody gives a good sermon that they like, that the congregation likes, you get voted and then you come in. There's no testing of character. There's no testing of background. You don't even do a credit check. To get a job at some of you guys, you need to have a decent credit.

There's no credit check. You just have to want to do it and you're in. And so we have pulpits filled with people that will say, "I didn't send these people. They were never with me. And yet they are representing me." There's a reason when John the Baptist came on the scene, he didn't enter into Jerusalem.

Remember, he was out in the wilderness. He was the first prophet that broke in after hundreds of years of silence. And instead of going to the epicenter of the Jewish religion, he ends up going to the outskirts. If you wanted to get baptized by him and hear from God, you had to leave the epicenter of the religious structure and go out into the wilderness.

In the same way, when Jesus comes on the scene, takes the baton, Jesus goes even further out, way over to Galilee. So if you wanted to hear from him, you had to get on your horse or whatever you rode, and you had to go all the way up to Galilee to hear from him, to hear from God.

That was not by accident. Basically, that was an indictment against the religious system of that time, that God has rejected all of them. The leadership, the temple worship, all of it had nothing to do with God. They were blind leading the blind. I started ministry in an immigrant church, the English ministry of a Korean-speaking first-generation congregation.

I remember going to a conference where all the second-generation ministers, not just Korean, but Chinese, Mexican, and all different nationalities. We were all English-speaking people within an immigrant church. The whole conference was about the difficulties and the conflict that we run into because we can't speak the language or the culture is different than the English-speaking people.

I remember it was so fascinating because every problem that we faced, they faced the same thing. Because there was a disconnect with the first generation. The problem that I saw in the immigrant church was because there was a disconnect with the first generation, with the adults, whoever became a pastor in the English-speaking ministry, you function like the senior pastor.

Whether you were 20 or 25 or 30, without any training, without any guidance, once you got in, you're the senior pastor. The problem that they created was a lot of young kids were raising other kids. There weren't adults involved. Now, we can say that I wasn't raised in an immigrant church, so I didn't experience that.

The problem with our generation today in the secular world is that if you're in business, you know that whatever it is that you're doing, in order for you to be successful, you need to market a lot of these things to younger kids. Because they're the ones who are moving about.

They're the ones spending money. They're doing new things. Old people, you get money, you put it in the bank. They already have homes, so they don't tend to spend a lot of money. It's the young people who are, you know, some taco in LA is good, and you've got to drive over there and get it.

They're the ones who are doing that. 50-year-olds don't drive to East LA to get a taco. So the tendency is all the money is spent to try to market to young people. So young people are driving what we value in our community. But where the real problem is, the politicians of our generation know that if they don't get chosen by the young people, they're not going to stay in power.

So they make policies and do strange things, very hurtful things to the society, because they are catering to the younger people. And so they would do strange things. I'm not going to get political here. I did in first service. Yeah, I'm not going to get into political things here.

But a lot of decisions are being made in order to get the votes from the younger people. So the values and the morality of a younger people who are being shifted, and a lot of things don't make any sense, but in order to get their votes, policies are being pushed.

Money is being spent in order to get their votes. And so you have a society being driven by young people. Now where that hits us is that this has crept into the church, where in order for the church to garner a lot of people, you want a church filled with young people who's alive.

They're the ones who are easier to disciple, and so targeting the young people, so their values and the things that they want. And so the church is catering to the younger generation so that the younger generation will feel accepted, and this is church for you. And so the way that the pastor dresses, the way that he talks, the programs that they create, is driven by young people.

The problem with that is that young people are not meant to be leaders. That they have not experienced life. They don't know certain decisions and the thoughts that they have, that what kind of ramifications it's going to have. So if you have a culture, a generation, a family, right, who's not being led by the parents but their children, you know what that results in.

There's a reason why the Bible tells to establish elders. Elders is not simply a title. It is also a description. It's a description of people who have lived their lives, who have been tested, so that we are not blind leading the blind. And let me say something that's practical.

If you're married, don't listen to me, okay, for now, okay. Because, you know, like they say, when you date, you need to date with two eyes wide open, and then when you get married, you got to close one of your eyes, right, meaning that you have to learn to be gracious.

While you're dating, right, you want to practice truth. And this is specific for the ladies. Do not marry anybody that you do not respect. If you can't honor him as your leader, if you don't trust him to lead you, that's not your guy. You're going to be frustrated. Now, every once in a while, I hear some worldly wisdom, right.

It's called no man knows, you know, they don't know how to lead. We got to train these monkeys, right. So I'm going to marry this guy and train him how to lead me, right. And I hear people saying that. I said, guess what, that monkey won't be trained, right.

Who you marry is the guy that you're going to have. You know, James Obson would say this all the time, and he said the problem with ladies is that they get married thinking that men are going to change, and they never change, and the men marry women thinking that, you know, they're never going to change, but they always change, right.

If you have the wrong leader that you cannot respect, eventually they're going to lead you to a pit. I remember years ago in the beginning of the church, I had a guy who came to church. When our church was much smaller, every sermon I gave, he would pull me aside and tell me what I did wrong.

This was wrong. You shouldn't say that. Oh, you shouldn't say that. You said this too much. You should have said this, and every sermon that I gave. So it was miserable, you know, every sermon. I'm like miserable because I know he's going to come up, and so he would come up, and he was there for months.

And one day he was bold enough and came to me, and he was telling me all this stuff, and then he said at the end of that, he said, "God called me to this church to disciple you." That's what he told me. So I don't know if he wanted me to thank him or something, but he was waiting for a response, and as outcome, God didn't tell me.

He only told you, right? Again, I remember years ago, I was at Ligonier Conference, and they were talking about Reformed Theology, and during a Q&A session, one of the pastors stood up and asked R.C. Sproul, he said, "What do I do?" It wasn't a pastor. It was just a lay conference, and he said, "What do I do if my pastors, my leaders in my church, that are not teaching correctly, how should I address them so that they can change?" And I remember R.C.

Sproul, without even giving a thought, he says, "Leave." He said, "Leave, because you're going to be seen as a troublemaker. Find the pastor. Find a church that you're going to be able to learn from, but you're going to go there, and you're going to teach your teachers how to teach you, then you're not there to learn." If you can't learn, if you can't respect your leadership, you're at the wrong place.

He says, "There's so much given about proper leadership and the effects of that in the Bible." I can, again, go through passage after passage after passage, why this is so significant, but I'm going to go over with you about six or seven verses in the New Testament, the emphasis on why this is so important.

James 1, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." Not many of you should become teachers because there's greater judgment. If your mind and your heart is in the wrong place, and you think that being a leader is able to come and garner attention for yourself, there's stricter judgment.

You're asking for greater judgment, he says, not many of you, very small percentage of you should even desire that. 2 Timothy 5, 19-20, "Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning." He said, don't entertain it, don't receive an accusation against an elder.

Not because you cannot, he's saying that if you accuse an elder, and you're going to spread rumors, it better be true, that there must be an agreement in the church. Because the ramification of destroying an elder will have ramification for the whole church. So he's not saying that you can't ever rebuke an elder, make sure that there is a universal agreement on this, and then secondly, in order that the church knows how important this is, that if an elder sins, that this sin needs to be dealt with in a public manner.

1 Timothy 5, 22, "Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily, and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others. Keep yourself free from sin." He said it's sin. It's sin to haphazardly place people in leadership. He says, laying hands basically is saying that I'm partnering with you. Whether they're being laid hands to be a pastor, or an elder, or a missionary, to lay hands on somebody basically means that we're in agreement.

So he says, so if this person continues and destroys the church, you played some part in this. He says, "Do not lay hands hastily, and by doing so, you yourself may sin." 1 Timothy 5, 24-25, "The sins of some men are quite evident. Going before them to judgment, for others their sins follow after them.

Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed." In other words, take your time to find out, are they qualified? Some sins are obvious. And the obvious sins are not the ones that destroy churches, because you see them, and everybody sees them.

The sins that trail behind them are the ones that destroy the church. So give it time. Make sure that they're tested, that you don't hastily put people into leadership. And then 1 Timothy 3, 1-2, it says, "It is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.

An overseer then must be above reproach, and the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach." The summary of everything that he says is above reproach. Above reproach basically means that there's nothing in your life that somebody can point to and say, "This disqualifies him." Whether it is your home life, whether it's your private life, your public life, whether it's at work, whether it's with your wife, whether it's with your children.

And no one can accuse you of this, because once they accuse you, you will be disqualified. This is a very high standard that is given to leadership. And then finally, Matthew 23, 15, it says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte." "Proselyte" is another word for "convert." "And when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." If the leader is self-motivated, with self-glory, that's what he's going to produce.

If a hypocrite is going to produce other hypocrites. And so he's indicting the nation of Israel that all these people, maybe they're gifted, maybe they're more disciplined, maybe they're more educated, but all he's doing is producing himself. And he's putting all his labor, working so hard, but the end result of his fruit is himself.

A church filled with hypocrites, who's pretending to be one way at church, but completely different behind the scenes. All of this is said because Jesus is indicting the nation of Israel. The reason why Israel was in the spiritual state that they were in is because the leaders were blind.

And they were blind people were flying or copying and following blind people, and they fell into a pit. I can't emphasize enough how careful we need to be. Again, a lot of it obviously is coming directly from Scripture, but just even from personal experience. You can have a great church with leaders and plugging up holes and gifted and talented, but their character eventually will show.

And when they are self-motivated with self-glory, and if they have hypocrisy that they are not dealing with, eventually it will blow up in their face, and then when it blows up, it blows up the church. So this is an indictment against the leaders of Israel, but the second part of what he is saying is about following Christ.

He said, "You're not going to do more than your leader." And if you did a great job, you're a great follower, you're going to basically mimic the one that's following you. The context of this text is Jesus is rebuking them. He says, "The reason why what I'm saying to you is so foreign to you is because the leadership has been leading you blind." In other words, Jesus is telling them to follow him.

In John 10, 11-15, he says, "I am the good shepherd." The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He was a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. See, a hired hand is there for his own benefit, to get paid. He's there for his own glory. He wants an opportunity to demonstrate and showcase his ability. He wants the affection of people. So he can do all of that because he's hoping that there will be a payoff with attention, affection, and honor from the people.

But when the danger comes, because he's a hired hand, he will leave the sheep because self-survival is the primary motive of that leader, self-survival. And it's required to sacrifice himself, he won't do it. But Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me.

Even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep." I lay down my life for the sheep. Every single leader in the Church is an under-shepherd of the true shepherd. So the calling is not for us to be the shepherd of the Church, but to be a proper representation of the true shepherd, Christ.

And if you look at the whole Gospel of John, it centers around the seven "I am" statements of Christ. "I am." "I am the bread of life." And he's saying that because people are looking for leaders. They're looking for a king to re-establish Israel. And he says, "I am the life.

I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world." They're waiting for the Messiah to come and lead them into the promised land, and Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. I am the door to the sheep." Because people are looking through the leadership so that they can be a participant in the synagogue, in the community.

And Jesus says, "I am the door to the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. I am the true vine." A leader in the Church is simply an under-shepherd of the true leader.

That's why King David, here's a man, the leadership in Israel was very different than any other leader because in any other kingdom, the king is king. He makes the law. He does whatever he wants. But the king of Israel was an under-shepherd of the true king. He was not allowed to pass laws by himself.

He was not allowed to invade nations by himself. He had to get permission from the true shepherd. And that's why when Saul was disqualified, he chose a younger man. And his description of David was, "Not a man of battle, not a man of talent, not a man of wisdom." He says, "Here's a man after my own heart." That's what qualified him.

That's what disqualified Saul. That he wasn't there for his own glory. He wasn't there to get attention. He wasn't there to build his kingdom. He wanted a man who was going to build God's kingdom after God's own heart. In 1 Corinthians 3, 5-7, Apostle Paul is dealing with a church who's divided among themselves, saying, "You know, I follow Paul.

I follow Apollos. I follow Peter." And as a result of this spiritual competition, it divided the church. Paul humbles them and he says, "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believe, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted Apollos' water, but God was causing the growth." So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

The qualification of an elder or a leader in the church is that his primary desire is to present Christ. That your faith is not dependent upon me. If I did a great job, the end result of my doing the great job is that you love Christ. That you follow Christ.

That you desire Christ above anything else. If at the end of my ministry, you love the church, you love the people in this church, but your love for Christ did not increase any bit, then I have failed. Because my primary job is to bring you to Christ, to introduce you to the true shepherd.

Just as an accountant who covets the money that he handles is disqualified to be an accountant, a servant of God who desires glory for himself is disqualified. An accountant who may be an expert in counting money, and he may know all the latest laws, he may be the expert in this field, and yet he covets the money that he is handling, cannot be an accountant because we don't trust him.

That's not his money to count. And in the same way, a leader in the modern church, if he desires in any way to be seen, to be respected, to be honored, to be cherished, he is disqualified. It doesn't matter how gifted you are, it doesn't matter how smart you are, it doesn't matter what you are capable of doing, the fact that you covet glory disqualifies you.

You are a dangerous person who is gifted and knowledgeable and is able to do great work, and you covet glory. You are in the greatest danger of yourself and to the church. If you see that in yourself, you should disqualify yourself. Do not seek it because there is greater judgment coming upon you.

The problem and the challenge that we have in our generation, if we try to be loved by people who hate Christ, you have to compromise Christ. If you are a good representation of Christ, people who hate Christ will hate you. People who love Christ will love you. You cannot bear fruit where the Word of God is not bearing fruit.

We live in a generation today where we say, and I've heard pastors say this, "I try to teach the Bible, we try to do Bible study, and people are not interested." So we're not going to do that because people are not going to come. So it's not working. If the Word of Christ is not bearing fruit, you're not supposed to bear fruit.

The Bible says that in season and out of season do the same thing. Preach the Word. If we try to make every season the season for people to come, then you're going to end up trying to bear fruit where Christ is not bearing fruit. You're not supposed to bear fruit if they reject Christ.

What fruit are you bearing if they rejected Christ but they love you? What kind of fruit are you bearing? What kind of church are you building? When your church is filled with people who do not want Christ. They don't want the truth. They want community. They want encouragement. But they don't want Christ.

He says to preach the Word. Do not change your method because you've been called to be my undershipper. Speak when I tell you to speak. Be silent when I tell you to be silent. Go when I tell you to go. Sit when I tell you to sit. And after we have done our work, if we did a good job, they will forget us.

They will forget us, but they will love Christ. Because our reward is not here. Our reward is not here. You know, I hear a lot of people saying, "How come we don't establish leaders in our church?" We don't use that term because we don't want to plant seeds in your head thinking that our goal is to raise you up and raise you up.

So that you can be an influence among people. That's not what the Bible calls us to be. The Bible calls us to be slaves. To be servants. And so we don't use that term because I have people who come to church and say, "You know, our church, we're very slow to establish leaders and there's no opportunity to serve." And that's the term they use.

They don't have the opportunity to serve. I say, "What are you talking about? Our toilets are dirty. We need more people on the parking team. We're always trying to get people to clean and cook and serve." And they say, "No, no, no. I mean serve." "What are you talking about?

We're constantly looking for people to serve." And I say, "I mean serve. Serve." You know what I mean? Serve. Oh, so you mean to lead. That's what you mean. So that you can influence other people. So you can be a teacher. So when you say there's no opportunity, we're very stingy with the pulpit.

We're very stingy with leadership. That's what you mean. It's like, "Yeah, yeah. Serve." When an individual is seeking to serve and yet they're not serving, you will ruin the pulpit. God didn't call us. We need leaders. We need leaders. We have a leader. We have a chief leader. We have a leader.

The chief of this church is not me. It's not you. It's not people that we're raising up. Christ is our Lord. Christ is our Lord. So my job here is not to garner attention so that I can be influential to you. The greatest call that I have is so that you may know Christ.

That you don't trust me. I'm a man just like you. I make mistakes. I say dumb things all the time. Don't hang your faith on me. My job, if I do a good job, is that you know who Christ is. That He becomes your leader. People say to me, "How come our pastors are out like even today?

Our pastors were up in the roof, pulling the shades, doing all the work, cleaning, doing construction, doing all this stuff. Didn't the Bible say that the job that you have is to pray and to teach? And if you do all these things that you're not doing, you should go do your job?" And we're honing on in one thing, and you forget what Jesus said.

Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve is to give His life as a ransom for many. And the last example He gave was He got on His knees and washed their feet. So I'm going to say, "Jesus, shouldn't you be praying? Shouldn't you be studying?

Why are you washing their feet?" The reason why He did that is because He knows our natural nature. Because He had a room filled with people who thought, "Who's going to be the leader? Who's going to be on top? Who should be discipling? Who should be teaching?" They said, "If you want to be great in God's kingdom, what do you say?

Learn to be what? A slave. Learn to be a slave." So the prerequisite of anything else that we do is to humble ourselves and serve. To be a slave first. God didn't call us to lead and influence the world. God called us to be a slave for Christ, first and foremost.

We don't want to make disciples of people who are really good at studying the Bible. And then if you're really good at studying the Bible, then you get to go and teach other people. That's not what we want to reproduce. We want to reproduce servants in the kingdom of God who sacrifices, who humbles themselves, and the fruit of the Spirit is rich in them.

And if you are serving, if you humble yourself, if you get your hands dirty, and we need you to teach, that you will serve in the context of teaching. And very few of you should be doing that. So we don't want to raise up people who are coveting leadership.

We don't want to raise up an army of people who are going to go out and influence the world through our experience and knowledge and disciple the world for Jesus Christ. We're raising up people who will be servants and slaves. You go to a church and say, "I want to serve.

I want an opportunity to serve." And then you get the door shut on your face. It's like, "Oh, they don't give me an opportunity to serve." Go to a church and ask them, "You know what? I want to be a slave." See if any church rejects you. See if any church says, "Oh, we have too many of those.

We have too many. Our toilets are too clean. We have too many people serving to clean the church." Nobody. You want to be useful in the kingdom of God? Be a servant. Be a slave. We already have a leader. We already have a leader. We're going to follow Christ.

And if we did a good job, we're going to act like him. We're going to get on our knees, and we're going to learn to love people that are difficult to love if we follow Christ. The only way I can ask you to follow me is if you see me following Christ.

Follow me as I follow Christ so that you may also be a follower of Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are truly worthy to be worshipped, to be celebrated, to be obeyed, and to be declared. Your sacrifice is beyond comprehension. Help us, Lord God, to see the depth of the love that we have received, that we may be deeply affected in all that we think, in all that we do, that we would simply be servants, Lord God.

Help us to be a church that magnifies Christ and Christ alone, that this would be a place where people fall in love with Christ, that his voice would be made so clear that your children would be able to recognize his voice and follow him. We pray, Father God, as a church, that we would continue to raise servants, humble people who will point to Christ and then go home.

We love you. We worship you. We celebrate you. We desire to proclaim you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. My hope is built My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

When darkness fills When darkness fills his bloody face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. His love is covenant, his blood, Support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stead. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. And he shall come And he shall come with trumpet sound. O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness alone, Faithless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand. Let's pray. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, eternal love of God the Father, strengthen us, disciple us, mold us, challenge us and equip us that we may be the presence and the aroma of Christ wherever you send us.

Amen. God sent his Son, they called him Jesus. He came to love, heal and forgive. He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to heal my Savior lives. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship his holy name. Sin like never before. ♪ Never before ♪