to be here. I think this will be my last time in this building. I praise God for him opening up for you guys the new location. I look forward to being there with you the next time I'm here. You can turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 13. We just finished going through the book of Hebrews. up in Wayne, and I'll be sharing a message with you from that final chapter. And we'll look at that in a minute. In Ephesians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul describes the ascension of Jesus to heaven as a triumphant procession. And he quotes from the Psalms. He quotes Psalm 68. He says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. When Jesus died on the cross, he vanquished the enemies of death and hell and sin. In his resurrection and his ascension, he led captivity captive. And at Pentecost, he gave gifts to men. The author then explains that these gifts that he gives in Ephesians 4 are actually people, individuals, specifically the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. He explains that these people are gifts. given to the church in order to establish some essential goals, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ so that we obtain a unity of the faith, and so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves of doctrine and winds of doctrine. So God gives these gifts, these individuals to the church, not only to equip the church by teaching sound doctrine, but to build up the body of Christ unto maturity and unto unity, and also to stabilize the people of God so that the people of God are grounded, not tossed around by all the winds of teaching that abound. Jesus Christ is seen as the one who gives these gifts. He's the sovereign king of kings and he distributes these gifts to the church in order to work together to display the glory of God. So today we have elders, pastors, shepherds, overseers. The Bible uses all of those terms interchangeably. Elders, pastors, shepherds, overseers are a gift from Jesus Christ to the church. The leadership structure of God's people is something that has changed over time. However, for millennia, God's people were led by one single human being. We could think back all the way back to Moses, right? He was God's man. He was the one who led the people out of Egypt. And from there we could think of the time of the judges where they were led by one individual. Then there was King Saul and then David and his sons and his posterity who served as king over Israel. The people of God were led by a single monarch. But that only foreshadowed what was to come, right? The shepherd king in particular, David, pointed to Jesus Christ, our final and only shepherd and king. So today, we as God's people are no longer under one single authority, one individual person. Moses no longer provides the model for our leadership since Christ, our Moses, has come. Jesus is our King. He is our shepherd, no human being. Jesus made that very clear in John 10. He said, I am the good shepherd and I shepherd my one flock. So you might ask, well, don't we have leaders today in the church? In this age of the gospel, we live in a very unique time in the history of the universe between the two comings of Christ. In our age, in this New Testament age, the New Testament prescribes that human spiritual leaders be given to the church to lead and to feed the church. And we call them pastors or elders or shepherds. One day, yes, the assembly of God's people will have no human leaders. One day when sin is removed, when the winds of false doctrine cease, our congregation will be once again a pure monarchy, but a perfect monarchy we will worship under the leadership of Christ himself. But today in our age, we're kind of like in the middle, right? The gospel has come, the gospel has already called people out of this world, but has not yet removed sin completely from the world. So in this age, lest there be anarchy in the church, God in his grace grants to his church the gift of leadership, pastors. Now it is true, sadly true, that authority in churches has been and continues to be abused, whether it be by popes or by monarchs. Just this past weekend, the Anglican Church, the Church of England, crowned an apostate to lead their church. So whether it be popes, monarchs, even pastors who autocratically rule their local congregations, we have seen authority abused. Pastors have ruled over congregations without accountability, some fleecing the flock for their own personal gain, for power, abusing their authority for sinful and selfish reasons. And as a result of that, some people say, well, I don't need that. And they flee from any authority. And they adopt the philosophy, as long as I have Christ and my Bible, I have everything that I need. Well, if you think about that statement, while seemingly pious, the statement actually ignores the Bible. If I have Christ and my Bible and that's all I need, the Bible prescribes leadership for the church. One cannot read the New Testament and come away with the idea that the church ought to be without any leaders whatsoever, human leaders. But we live in a culture that is anti-authority. Our days are not unlike the days of the judges, right? What characterized the days of the judges? Israel did right what was in their own eyes. Whatever they did, they did right in their own eyes. Everyone seeks to be their own authority. Social media is evidence of that. Social media is evidence of man's love for his own authority. We love to own our own page and announce what we want to announce on it. Personal sovereignty is perhaps the most prolific idol in our culture. And sadly, some of God's people have been badly affected by this idol. Choosing to do what that which is right in their own eyes rather than Following the means that God prescribes in his word namely church leadership Our text today Commands the people of God as an act of worship to do something that this world hates and To do something that this world hates with a passion, two things in particular, obey and submit. To follow the leader, how the world hates this concept. Particularly in democratic America, right? We want to be our own authority. But as Christians, these concepts, obedience and submission are gems to us. And if they're not gems to you in the way you think, you need to have your mind renewed because chances are the world is squeezing your mind into its mold. If they are not gems to you, submission, obedience, if you think of these as difficult, horrible concepts, then you need to today, by the grace of God, repent and change your mind and have it align with God's word. Our text for today is Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17. I'll primarily look at verse 17, we'll look at verse 18 at the end. Here is the verse, it commands the people of God. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to your word, we recognize our weakness and inability, Lord, in and of ourselves to understand unless you would enlighten us, Lord. Enlighten us today, open up our eyes so that we might have understanding, and open up our hearts to receive, Lord, what in this world would be considered a difficult word to hear. Grant us a joy in obeying your word, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen. I'll begin by establishing the context of this command. It's in Hebrews chapter 13, but the context of Hebrews 13 goes back to Hebrews 12. So if you look at verse 28 of Hebrews 12 for a moment, the author of this epistle, who is unknown, takes up the matter of offering acceptable worship. In verse 28, he talks about acceptable worship. In light of this unshakable kingdom, That he that he talks about in chapter 12 that we've received not a kingdom that could be shaken but an unshakable kingdom that we receive in Christ and then he's basically says considering the excellency and the superiority of Christ our Worship ought to be the single occupation of God's people in light of the fact that we have received an unshakable kingdom now you offer acceptable worship Now when you come out of verse 28, the question that might naturally arise is, what makes worship acceptable? Is worship merely singing? Is my worship made acceptable by the fact that I use my voice or lift up my hands or clap or... sit in a pew in church, what is it that makes worship acceptable? Remember, there's no chapter division, so you can't really cut 13 off from the thought at the end of chapter 12. So chapter 12 leaves us asking the question, how is our worship accepted by God? Chapter 13 then gives the answer to that question. We learn how acceptable worship is lived out in our lives. Now, yes, worship includes singing. In fact, if you look at verse 15 of chapter 13, it talks about the fruit of our lips. So that would include our singing. We often think of worship as praise and worship time. We had our praise and worship time. This is our time in the word. No, this is all worshiping God. And then when you leave the doors of this building, you continue to worship God. Only some of our worship is the fruit of lips. In verse 15, he talks about the fruit of lips, offering praise and thanksgiving, confessing the name of Jesus. But true worship doesn't end on Sunday. True worship is how we live our lives. In verse 1 of chapter 13, he talks about loving others. These are all aspects of worship. Acceptable worship. Verse 1, loving others. Verse 2, showing hospitality. Verse 3, remembering those in prison. Verse 4, honoring fidelity in marriage. Verse 5 and 6, living sacrificially. Verse 7 and verse 17, as we'll see, honoring and submitting to sound spiritual leadership. Look at verse 7. We are commanded in verse 7, remember your leaders. Well, what leaders? These leaders, those who spoke the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. It is these leaders that the author has in mind when he comes to the text that we're looking at today in verse 17. And he issues these two imperatives or these two commands to the church in verse 17. In order to worship God acceptably, you obey and you submit. Acceptable worship of the people of God involves obeying, obedience, and submission to the leadership of the church. So it would behoove us to understand what exactly that means. What does it mean to obey the church leadership of a church? I mean, if you're visiting here today, you might say, whoa, what did I walk into here? Did I walk into a place, they're telling me do I have to obey and submit to the leadership? That sounds very cultic. So we need to understand what this means. What is God calling us as Christians to do when he commands us to obey and to submit? First, let's look at the word obey. It is the Greek word pēthēste, and it's used only here in the New Testament, but its root word, pēthō, is used often to persuade or have confidence. Persuade or have confidence. The author does not use the typical word for obedience here, and that's significant, because the obedience that's being enjoined in this text is not a blind or merely going through the motions of obeying. What he has in mind here is a persuasion of the mind that the pastor of a church ought to carry, particularly in his teaching, in his doctrine. This is in a passive voice. So what's going on here is not, he's not commanding actively obey, but rather in the passive voice here, you as God's people be persuaded by your pastors. Be persuaded or better this, gain confidence in their doctrine and their life. Now, in this particular case, if you have the NIV, the NIV is the only Bible version that I believe captures this idea. In verse 17, it says, have confidence in your leaders. That brings out the real fault there. It's not a blind obedience. It's not merely an outward act. But rather, it's not about servile subjection. It's about gaining respect gained respect for your leaders. How do you come to this place? How do you come to the place of trusting or gaining confidence in your elders? It is as you hear the word as you listen to how a pastor accurately exposits the scripture and makes appropriate application that's derived from the text. As you find him to be a man who understands the word and applies the word both in his sermons and in his life, you start to develop trust. You grow in your confidence as you're persuaded that here's a man who rightly divides the word of truth. As you prove to your own heart, here is a man who is able to teach. As Paul wrote to Titus, he is able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it. As you learn about the man, you gain confidence as you find him not to be a greedy man, not a lover of money. As you find him to be sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, not quarrelsome, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, as he holds firm to the trustworthy Word. A man who is tested and so proven his dependability. Then brethren, it's the most natural thing in the world for you to trust that individual, right? See, your obedience in this context is linked to your trust. Gain confidence is this command here. When a church gains confidence in its leaders, it's saying, we trust this man to lead us in the gospel. He's not gonna be influenced by strange doctrines. If you cannot trust your pastor in a particular area of their teaching, if you feel that they're teaching another gospel, then it is best for you to find pastors who you trust to obey this command. However, when you do find pastors that you can trust and be confident in, as much as we can be confident in human flesh, we're all fallen beings. But when you find a person you can be confident in, then follow them as they follow Christ. Submit to their authority. Which brings us to the second command in verse 17. The first verb, patho, is here a passive imperative, that is gaining confidence, something that's happening to you. You're hearing the word taught and you're gaining your confidence, so it's a passive imperative. The second command here is more strongly stated in the active voice, to submit. who bake a from who who Paco which means to be submissive to give way and to yield to heed his voice over the many voices that abound out there in this Internet world, right? You can you can basically click on anything and hear anything that you want to hear. Here it's saying actively submit, be submissive, give way, yield, heed the voice, heed your pastor's voice above other voices. We live in an age where there are so many voices that are clamoring for our attention. You know, that's one of the greatest challenges as pastors, just to clue you in. It's not preparing a sermon every Sunday. It's not counseling. It's competing with all the voices that our church listened to during the week. We as elders sometimes feel like we're the proverbial parents with their kids in public school. You know, we get them for an hour, and they get them the rest of the day. You know, we get you for an hour here to hear the Word every week, and then you go out from here and you're influenced by your favorite preacher or blogger or internet ministry or political pundit, and you expose yourself to voices and words that differ from what your pastor is telling you. Now listen, don't get me wrong here. I'm not suggesting that you should never expose yourself to the wealth of good teaching that exists for us in our age. But I am saying this, when you have trusted elders who have proven themselves, trust them. Trust them, submit to them. They may be right or they may be wrong. But give the due weight to your elders' teaching and your elders' counsel. I am not suggesting blind submission. Nowhere does the scripture instruct blind submission. Whether it's Romans 13 to the governing authorities or Ephesians 5, submission of wives to their husbands, every exhortation to submit is qualified by others. So you are no more required to submit to your elder who's teaching falsely then God's people were required, for example, to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar's edict to worship the image of himself just because he was the king. Or an ungodly husband who requires his wife to do something contrary to her conscience. The submission that is enjoined here is not absolute. Listen to what Calvin writes on this text. Very, very interesting, he writes, He commands first obedience and then honor to be rendered to them. These two things are necessarily required so that the people might have confidence in their pastors. But it ought at the same time to be noticed that the Apostle speaks only of those who faithfully perform their office. For they who have nothing but a title, nay, who even use the title of pastor for the purpose of destroying the church, deserve but little reverence and still less confidence. See, what Calvin is getting at here is that the confidence, the trust that we build and the submission that follows is for those who are faithfully performing their office. Not for those who are using the title for their own purposes. So brethren, you're never exhorted to submit to leaders who deviate from the gospel. In verse 9 of this very same chapter, chapter 13, he tells you avoid such. And even if you have a good pastor who's teaching the word, your attitude ought never be, I believe it because my pastor told me so. Because then you're in danger of going down the road to Rome, the infallible pope, except he's just over a smaller congregation. but you rather remember, honor, obey, submit only to the authority of those faithful leaders of your local church who uphold the true gospel. In such a case, you can't ignore this command. You cannot ignore this command and acceptably worship God. Your worship, when you come in here, if you are not in submission to your elders, is unacceptable to God, according to chapter 13. Now, submission is hard. because of the world that we live in. The worldview challenges submission like few other ideologies. We live in a world that is consumed with self-autonomy, self-reliance, a world that rejects authority, that speaks evil of dignitaries, a world where children rise up in pride against their and elders, a world where almost everyone considers themselves an expert or a qualified judge to tell leaders, whether civil or in the church, what's right and what's wrong, how they ought to rule. Everyone's an expert. And this is the prevailing sin in our world. And don't think it's absent in the church. Rebellion and pride are rampant in the church. This idea that many Christians have of all I need is Christ and my Bible, ironically ignores the command of the very Bible they claim to need. It ignores these commands of Hebrews 13, 17, to obey and submit. To not do so is to rebel against and to despise the authority of Christ himself, who appointed that office to the church. But you object. These things changed at Pentecost. Every believer now, we're all priests. Are you suggesting that we go backward into the Old Testament, back into a monarchy? Listen, submission to authority is in the New Testament. This command is in the New Testament. In the early church, with all the contributions that were made by members, honor and submission was always expected of its leadership. 1 Thessalonians 5, for example, the apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 12 and 13, he says, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Now, if you don't like this, you can go to a mega church and you can be left alone. You could sit up somewhere where no one knows you, the pastor never knows you, and you will be left alone. You will be under a pastor who doesn't really care about you. But if you have a pastor who, according to 1 Thessalonians 5, The gumption to admonish you. What's your role esteem him highly in love? Because he's told you the truth. Those who would object, yes, indeed, God gives considerable authority to the local congregation. It is the church, for example, who determines whether a sinning member ought to be disciplined. A pastor has no right to simply write a letter of decree saying so-and-so has been removed from the church and I have the authority to do so. I cannot do that. No priest can bind or loose a person in a confessional booth. It's the church as a whole that has this authority from God. At Pentecost, God gave every believer, the entire church, His indwelling Spirit and the power of His Spirit. It was to the church, not just the leaders, but to the church that God gave a variety of gifts for the purpose of ministering to one another. Ministers in the New Testament are not a separate clergy class, but are comprised from or come out of the entire congregation. We've all been equipped. Every one in Christ has been equipped and called to minister to one another. It is the church as a whole, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who have the authority to go into all the world and preach the gospel. It is not just ministers who preach the gospel. We've all been given the Great Commission. And yes, through the ages, primarily through the Roman Catholic Church, as well as other expressions of Christendom, have usurped that authority has to have taken the authority away from the church, from the people, and put it into the hands of a clergy class. The scripture does teach the priesthood of every believer. I believe that the scripture teaches congregationalism as a model of church polity in the New Testament. We moved away from the Moses model, the Levite model of the Old Testament. And in Christ now, yes, every believer is a priest. Congregationalism and the priesthood of every believer does not negate the need for leadership among our number. We find considerable teaching from much of the New Testament explaining clearly to the church, how do you identify men in your midst who are called to lead? Elders or pastors were appointed in every church going all the way back to the book of Acts. Paul ordered apostolic agents to appoint elders in every church. So those who would object, are you saying the church is a monarchy? Well, it is because Christ is our king, not the elder, not Moses. Is it a democracy? Well, yes, if you mean by that that the congregation is ministering to one another. Is it hierarchical? Well, yes, in that Christ appoints specifically chosen men to exercise a delegated authority in leading and feeding the flock. So in a biblical church, the pastor doesn't act like civil leaders who dominate. The servant of God, the scripture says, is not quarrelsome. He does not need to force submission. He is a man who is crucified with Christ, who leads in human weakness by the power of the Holy Spirit. And two such men, identified in the scripture, again, as elders, pastors, shepherds, or overseers. God says in 1 Peter 5, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. So a true pastor need never assert his authority because he knows that it's not by might or by power that the ministry goes forth. Not by might, not by power, but what? By my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. The less self-assertive, the more crucified life that a leader exhibits, the more ought the church to be in subjection and have confidence. How opposite that is from the world's corporate system, right? Where we look for the most go-getter guy to lead. Let's go after that one. He has the ability to climb corporate ladders or she has the ability to manipulate circumstances. It's like totally opposite. The less self-assertive, the more weak, the more crucified life the leader exhibits, the more the church ought to be in subject and have confidence in him. So it's with this in mind, the author writes, have confidence in your leaders and be submissive to their authority. Now a leader in the church can only lead as much as they're relying on the grace of Jesus Christ. Because it is Christ alone who is our chief shepherd. We just sang it. Savior, like a shepherd, lead us. Those who he calls to the pastorate are only qualified as much as they are like Christ, as much as they embody the humility of the good shepherd like Christ, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but humbled himself, took on the form of a servant, made himself nothing. He is obedient even to death on a cross. Truth be told, we don't always obey or submit, do we? Right? We can't lay our hopes at the end of the day on our obedience, but in this Christ, who was in perfect submission to the Father, perfectly obeyed the Father, without any rebellion whatsoever. He perfectly fulfilled where we fall short. When it comes to submission and obedience, we are bent to rebel. But Jesus perfectly submitted even to death on a cross. And He did it, praise God, in our place. Paying the penalty that we deserve for our rebellion. so that today, if you will but believe that He carried your sin upon Himself on the cross, you will find your sin fully paid for, God's justice fully satisfied by His perfect sacrifice. That is the glorious good news, friends. It is glorious. And that is the good news that we all need to hear. Both sinners calling you to repent of your sin and turn to Christ, but also for us who are Christians are in Christ as we're convicted by our lack of submission or convicted by our disobedience. We find that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And though you would examine yourself and still find rebellion remaining in your heart, when you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you, to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. That is wonderful news. This gospel is wonderful news. And it doesn't end with the death of Christ. The good news is beyond death. Because in Philippians 2, of this one who descended and came down to be like us and humbled himself, it says, therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, gave him a name that is above every name. Christ was obedient to God unto death, but he didn't remain dead. He is our risen shepherd. If you look down to the very next text in Hebrews 13.20, It says that God brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Trust him today. Don't harden your heart. Repent and believe the good news. Now back in our text, we're in the middle of verse 17. The author now goes on to issue four reasons why you are to trust your leadership and be submissive to them. So we laid out the imperative. Trust them. Submit to them. Why? One, they watch over your souls. Two, they give an account. They will give an account. Three, your submission makes their leadership joyful. And four, to act otherwise is to no advantage to you. Look at the remainder of verse 17, picking up in the middle of 17. Four, it says, four is a ground clause. It's telling you why you submit, why you obey. For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. So I get these four reasons from the remainder of verse 17. The first reason for the church's submission and trust lies in the special responsibility of the pastor to watch over. See that? They are keeping watch over your souls. Literally, in the Greek, that is sleeplessly watching over the spiritual lives of the church. Pastors are constantly thinking of ways to support and to sustain the spiritual life and growth of the church. We are occupied with your well-being. We read books, we attend conferences, we meet together in order to be better shepherds. What better reason is there to submit and to gladly follow your leaders? Let me illustrate from marriage. Wives, you know how difficult it is to submit to your husband when you believe he's making a selfish decision, right? If you think that he has only his self in mind in this decision for your household, and I know this happens because I know, being a husband, I am a sinner, and I know husbands sin. We do not always act selflessly. And when you recognize that, wives, in us, that men are selfish, you sometimes have a hard time submitting to them. But I also hope you know the rest and confidence of trusting your husband's leadership when he acts in selfless love. And it's the same thing that's being talked about here for a pastor. A pastor who treats you like a slave is hard to submit to, nor should you submit. But when you have confidence that your elders have your best interest in mind, the natural flow is to follow their lead. whether it be in their decisions, in their policy, in their council, in whether or not you should be involved in a ministry, whether it be in the preaching or the council, it is all there to help you. If we establish ministries or we have an outreach, it's to help you, retreats, prayer meetings, youth groups, classes. They're not for our health. They're for yours. And you do yourself a disservice by ignoring them or deciding for yourself not to attend to the ministries that are offered. If we recommend that you attend a Tuesday night service whatever number of times a month, what are we getting out of that? We're not getting anything. We're going to be here one way or someone is going to be here. What are we getting at? Or we set up a youth retreat for your children. Or a ladies conference for you. What do we gain? It's a lot of work for us. But we prepare these things for you. It is our work to equip you to strengthen the hope that anchors your soul to heaven. This is how we keep watch over your souls. And the elder can be trusted based upon his accepting this responsibility for shepherding the souls that are under his care. Secondly, the text goes on to say, as those who will give an account. Your elders will give an account for our stewardship of your soul. Now, this means both now and in the future. Now, we pray for you. We order the life of the church to help to benefit you spiritually. But it also means that on judgment day, we will give an account for how we have stewarded your soul. This is why 1 Timothy 4.16 exhorts us who lead, keep a close watch on yourself and on your teaching, persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers as those who will give an account. Now, commentator Peter O'Brien brings out a very interesting point on this text. The construction of the Greek sentence is a bit different, more nuanced than the English. The English statement almost sounds like this is a frightening obligation. We're gonna give an account for the souls of the people in our church shaking. But Peter O'Brien brings out that this account is not of necessity or obligation, but it has a voluntary dimension to it. Pastors watch over the flock willingly, 1 Peter 5, willingly taking on the responsibility. We're happy to have this added responsibility of the health of the flock. Our attitude as elders is that of the apostle who says, I will gladly spend and be spent for you. So brethren, considering the responsibility that your elders bear before you and before God as willing watchmen over your soul, is there any other greater motive for your confidence, for your trust, for your submission? Moving on then, the tedious work of shepherding is made joyful when you trust. In an atmosphere of trust and cooperative submission, there is joy. The one who watches over your souls and gives an account does it with joy. When a pastor sees the flock that is given to his care growing, being conformed to the image of Christ, we have no greater joy. In contrast, though, leaders groan under the heavy burden of a lack of trust. A pastor will tell you, any pastor I believe will tell you, that what wears him down is not his labors in the study on your behalf, not his hard work in preparing sermons, nor the time given to disciple or to counsel, but the frustration is those who are hard-hearted and stubbornly buck against counsel. And I can attest to this, brethren, of the drain that occurs in such cases. A.W. Pink assesses our feelings well. He says, nothing is more disheartening and saddening to a pastor than to meet with opposition from those whose highest interests he is serving with all of his might. To illustrate this, I picked on selfish husbands. Let me illustrate this by turning to disrespectful wives. That doesn't happen, right? Ladies Let me say this. There's there's nothing more disheartening to your husband Then when you disrespect him when he knows he has your best interest in mind when he's not acting selfish selfishly He is acting self selflessly and you still fight and disrespect Now he may be wrong But when he is convinced that he is doing this for you and you spurn that it grieves him and And it's the same for elders. We will make decisions. Sometimes they'll be right and sometimes they'll be wrong. We're fallen men. Now, we won't willfully be wrong, but at times we will be wrong. It's always our earnest desire to lead for the good of the flock. If you disagree with those decisions that is your prerogative, godly elders will always allow opportunities for you to respectfully appeal decisions. We know that we're imperfect men. But when we have your best interest in mind, it's grieving to your elders when you strive against them. Striving brings grief. And ironically, then fourthly, you end up despising your own mercies. The end of verse 17, he says, that would be what? Unprofitable for who? For the elder? No, for you. It would be unprofitable for you. Meaning the grief that you bring to your authorities will bring a leanness to your own soul. Lack of trust will not only keep you from receiving the instruction that you get in this pulpit, but will actually end up quenching your own zeal and your own vigor. And we have seen this happen countless number of times. Individuals serving the Lord with zeal, with vigor, spurning the authorities of the church and losing that vigor. You cannot offer God acceptable worship and disobey these commands. If you cannot respect and submit to the elders of your church, men who have proven themselves that they watch over your souls as one who will give an account, and you instead need to become a source of grief to them rather than joy, don't think for a moment the Lord will have favor on your life. We see this throughout scripture, how the Lord strongly supports the authorities that he delegates and how he is displeased and withdraws the tokens of his grace from those who dishonor his messengers. And perhaps, perhaps, as you examine your life and you see lukewarmness there, you know your life. a lack of zeal, a coldness of heart that you once had toward Christ. That waning love for his people that you're experiencing in your soul might very well be because you are not submitting, following your pastor's leadership and deciding for yourself what you believe is best for you and your family. Now that's not a threat to coerce obedience. That is right out of the text. That is an application of the text in verse 17. It says, for that would be unprofitable for you. Your lack of submission to the leaders is detrimental to your spiritual health and the health of the congregation. And if you have significant differences from your elders and you cannot submit to them, it's better just to move on to another church than to upset the unity of the body in the bond of peace. There are few things, brothers and sisters, in this world, few things more beautiful. God has created so many beautiful things. But there are few things more beautiful than the body of Christ dwelling together in unity. God says this pleases Him. Our unity pleases God. Our unity is the basis for our acceptable worship. You will witness few richer blessings than belonging to a unified, godly, holy church that love and serve one another, where sheep are dwelling together in harmony. That's a foretaste of heaven on earth. In closing then, this concern for leadership naturally leads the author to ask for prayer. Look at verse 18, Hebrews 13, 18. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things. As he considers the high calling and expectation of an elder, he realizes his need for grace and for prayer. Like Paul wrote, who is sufficient for these things? It's no wonder the author would ask prayer, pray for us. He says we're sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things. He's saying, in essence, he's saying in light of the high level duty of being a pastor or an apostle or whoever this man is, we don't know exactly, but he's a leader in the church. He says we think we're doing it right. We think we're doing it with a clear conscience. We desire to act honorably. We believe we're serving God. We're staying faithful to the gospel. We're loving God's people. But we need your prayers. Brethren, pray for your elders. During our prayer time this afternoon, those that are staying, I would ask during the time of supplication that you would pray for your elders. Pray for men who might be future elders, because the enemy would like to preempt this. The enemy seeks to keep men from this calling by getting them wrapped up in their own lives. Satan hates that God gives gifts to the church and he's fighting tooth and nail to keep that from happening. So pray for future elders. Listen, brethren, the only reason you would not pray for your elders is if you fail to understand that the church needs men to lead. or that you underestimate the temptations and the attack that come to pastors. We are living in a time of marked, gross sins being discovered among church leaders. Discouragement in the ministry is at an all-time high. Pastors leaving the ministry every day. The damage that has been caused by Christian leaders who have fallen into sin is inestimable. We need to raise our voice to God in prayer that this would not happen to us. Pray for the protection of your leaders, both from the spiritual attack, as well as the dangerous toils and snares that come from living in this dark world. Brothers and sisters, God has been good to our church. He has seen fit at this point to favor us, to gift us with four elders, and God willing, in his timing, our brother Johnny, if he'd be a gift to Carney. Pastors are gifts, and I know I'm a pastor and saying this, I'm your gift. It's very awkward, but it's true. It's what the word of God says. but we're not gonna make it alone. We're not gonna make it alone. We pledge to serve you with a clear conscience. We desire to act honorably in all things, but we will only survive as you pray for us. Amen. Let's pray.