For our scripture reading, we're going to be turning to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 5, the last chapter. We're going to be reading Paul's list of to-do things for the Thessalonian church. This is one of the first of the epistles written. You'll notice it doesn't call the leaders in the church elders and deacons or ministers. It calls them leaders. Paul wrote this very soon after he had left this church and got chased out of town by persecution. And so he's there, just a new church, and he is writing them a reminder. So we're going to begin reading with verse 12, and we're going to go to the end of the 22, verse 22. And then our. Text is going to be 12 and 13. So 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies. Test all things, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. Thus ends the reading of God's word. May he bless it to our hearts and to our lives. Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, I think one of the most difficult And one of the greatest tests of faith that God has given us on this earth is to be a follower. Being a follower means that we have to give up a measure of control over our life and we put ourselves at risk for failure or worse by devoting our time and our energy and our talents to accomplish a certain pathway, a pathway that has been chosen by someone else, not us specifically. Boy, this goes against every fiber of our being, doesn't it? To give up control and let someone else dictate our path. But that happens. when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and we trust Him for salvation and life. And in doing so, we are committing to serving, obeying Him and His church. This is a difficult thing to do. It means we have to put our trust in someone else for our welfare rather than relying on our own decision-making ability. It means we have to humble ourselves and work for a common good rather than working for our own perceived well-being or our glory, our own glory. It means we have to give up control over our lives and allow someone else to tell us what we're going to do and when we're going to do it, how we're going to do it, where we're going to do it. Now, Jesus Christ is in heaven, and he has placed leaders in the church to govern and rule over our Christians. They are commanded to care for the congregation, to encourage, to teach, to warn, to protect, to lead them in the paths of righteousness. And as members of Jesus' church and Jesus' body, we're committed to following their leadership And this is difficult. Faithfully following our leaders in the church is a test of faith. Do we trust Jesus enough to work things out for our good when we trust someone else who is not perfect? So we have to believe that God authorized the offices in which these men serve. We have to believe that God appointed these men, these specific men, to this office for this period of time. We have to believe and trust that the Holy Spirit is guiding these, albeit sinful, men so that they can lead and lead the whole church and us individually in the right direction. Always keeping in mind Romans 8, 28, that God works together for good, all things for good to those who love him. And so we have to believe that God will bless us in the directions we have committed to. And again, not easy. So in our passage today, Paul provides us with some insight into how a congregation can become good followers. And the interesting way is the best way that we can become good followers is by taking care of those who care for us. By caring for the caregivers. by making their difficult work easy as possible and encouraging them along the way. We're going to see how God calls the congregation to honor their leaders, recognize the men, respect their calling, and regard their work. God calls the congregation to honor their leaders, recognize the men. Now, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you. Okay, what is honor or respect? The first part of honor is appreciation. Well, what does appreciation mean? We all use that word, but let's use this definition, which is very accurate. Appreciation is both to understand and approve of someone else's work. In order to appreciate the work of the elders, and I'm going to use the elders as the word for all in authority, whether it's children looking to their parents or the teacher or the leaders in the church, we'll just use elders to summarize people who are over us. We have to understand the work of our elders or our leaders. What is there to understand about these people who watch over us? Well, the very nature of their work. We have to understand that the work of the leaders, the elders, is in the spiritual realm of life. They watch over our souls. And as a result, they may differ from us in their view of this world. They have an eternal perspective and they have a spiritual outlook. An internal perspective, ask the question, is this activity or opportunity going to lead me closer to God or is it going to lead me away from God? And not only me, but myself and my descendants. How about in the long term? How about in the short term? What direction is this decision taking me in? How can I use this opportunity to bring me closer to God? That is the eternal perspective. As elders and leaders and parents and everybody in authority, our desire is to have those under our authority all get to heaven. We all agree on that goal. And so there's the eternal perspective is how can I bring these people closer to God and usher them into heaven through faith in Jesus Christ? Now, parents especially understand the need to have the support and the obedience of those they're over. They're over little children who really don't know a lot, all different ages. Parents have an eternal perspective. But in the church, there's many different maturities of faith. Many of God's people, in fact, all of us are like little children. We tend not to consider the long term consequences of some of the things that we do. Maybe we believe we can get away with it and God won't bring any consequences because of our sin. That is the lie of temptation is there is no consequences to what you're doing. Maybe we decide that I don't care if I have to suffer the consequences. I'm going to do it anyway because I really want to do it. And then sometimes they say, go ahead and make me suffer anyway, because I'm not really sure I believe in all this anyway. God's people are like little children. Spiritual leaders then have to watch over the whole congregation. They have to protect them from these kind of temptations and that lie of the temptation that there's no consequences, from hidden dangers that lie in opportunities that we may not have spotted. They have to protect the members and their children from their own weaknesses and sometimes a weakness of faith. And they have to have that eternal perspective that says, are they on the road to heaven? in the life that they're living and the faith that they have. So they relate everything to those eternal consequences. They also have a spiritual outlook. And that also is a little different than the way most people operate as they see everything in terms of the conflict between good and evil in this world. The forces of Jesus Christ and the forces of Satan and the fight that they're having. What is Satan's role in this situation? They ask. What is he trying to accomplish in this conflict, in this temptation, in this decision that has been made? And then how can we defeat this temptation? Leaders are always asking themselves, what results does God desire from this situation? And then, how does God say we must deal with these circumstances? A spiritual outlook demands that the leaders ensure that they not only make the right decision, but that they deal with the situation and the people involved in the right way. And they can only do that by using the biblical principles and teaching and practices. They have to have the Bible as their guide. So to appreciate the work of the elders and the leaders of the church, we have to understand they work in the spiritual realm of life. They have an eternal perspective and they have a spiritual outlook on all the circumstances that arise in the church. And once we understand that, then we can approve of their work. And approval means total agreement, because we agree with all their goals. We agree with the goal to bring the congregation to their heavenly home. We agree with the use of the Bible's principles and practices in order to teach us the right path and to guide us in the actions during difficult situations. It means we're of one mind and one purpose in our lives together, and that is to glorify God in our salvation and in our lives, in our lives together in church. Appreciate means we not only think what they do is good and right, it means we insist what they do is good and right and biblical in their leadership over me and over the church. Each one of us says, I approve of their goals for me. Therefore, I must demand that they work to meet those goals because I want my children and myself in heaven. at the end of our days. So, the first part of honor is appreciation. To appreciate the leaders means we understand and approve of their work, understand they're working in a spiritual realm, fighting spiritual battles with an eternal perspective. And that means that we all must gather around the teaching of the Bible. And it means we approve of their work. In fact, we demand that they have those two outlooks. But it also means we respect their calling. Now, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who are over you in the Lord who admonish you. The second aspect of honor is to respect. And that respect is shown forth in obedience. So the second aspect is obedience. We obey our leaders because they speak with the authority of God in matters of faith and life, and we have promised to submit to them. The reason we obey our leaders is because they are over us in the Lord. Now, what does that mean? It means when it comes to spiritual matters in our life, Jesus Christ, the head of the church, He is now in heaven, and he rules his church from heaven, and he has entrusted his church to the care of the office of elder, deacon, minister, and the other people who are in authority. The Holy Spirit, through the voting of the church, selects men to rule over the church and to be shepherd over the flock of Christ. When he selects them, he authorizes them, gives them their authority. And he equips them to do their work. Therefore, in the matters of faith and life in the church, the elders have the authority of God to lead the congregation. They speak with the authority of God as they lead the congregation. Hebrews 13 says it very plainly. Obey your leaders who are in authority over you. God doesn't have any wiggle room in that commandment. If you read Exodus and Numbers, that is the story of the church of Israel going through the desert and the comments about their questioning Moses and the way they did it is the background and the foundation upon which we understand this. There's no wiggle room. The Bible doesn't say, if you feel like it, obey your leaders. It doesn't say obey some of their commands. It doesn't say pick and choose what you like and don't do what you don't like. It simply says obey. And that's the rub. Simply put, we obey elders because they speak with the authority of God. Disobeying elders is disobeying God when they are teaching and practicing biblical principles. Disobeying elders Means that we're disobeying God. Disobeying God is a sin and it does bring God's discipline down upon us. And that's the test. Will I obey the elders because what they say is in agreement with the word of God and I have to submit to the word of God and therefore to them and their authority? Will I refuse to obey the elders because they're only sinful men who can't tell me what to do and who really don't know everything? And so they can't speak with the authority of God. Now, the warning, the admonition is don't think for a minute that you can be in disobedience to the leaders over you and still be right with God if they're not. disobeying the Bible. To be against them is to be against God. So it is a test of faith, and that is very difficult for us. We have to believe that Romans 8, verse 28 text that and all the Bible stories that teach us that God can overcome evil and bring out a good result, whether it's purposeful evil or whether it's the failure of godly leaders. In a situation, God can still overcome the sin with his grace and with his power. So faith believes the Bible and recognizes that God given authority of the leaders and obeys sin and rebellion, look for and find reasons not to obey and uses the reasons to justify their behavior. That's the first reason. The second reason is a very simple one. We obey the elders because we made a vow that we would. Fourth question in our form for the public profession of faith is do you promise to submit to the government of the church? The answer we said was I do or we will say is I do. In front of God in the church, we promise to submit to our leaders and as people of honor, we keep our promises and our vows to God. So. Jesus Christ, as head of the church, calls upon God's people to submit to their leader and obey their commands. Obedience to the leaders is a test of faith for God's people. They see Jesus Christ behind them, empowering them and encouraging them. Faith believes the Bible and recognizes God-given authority of leaders and obeys. Sin and rebellion looks for and finds reasons not to obey and uses those reasons to justify its behavior. Honor is appreciation for the work of the leaders, and honor is obedience. It requires from God's people. We have to regard their work also. Now, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord, and who admonish you. Interesting that the Apostle Paul uses the word work in describing what the leaders do. On the surface, we'd say, well, that's normal. That's what they do. It's what we all do in our calling, and that's we work. But this word labor has a slightly different meaning. The word means to grow weary, tired, exhausted with toil or burdens or grief. Not so much work as laboring to make oneself weary. The same word is used in Matthew 11, 28, when Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. So, we think of people bowed down with a heavy load that they're carrying. According to the apostle Paul, who was a leader in the church, The work of the ministry wears out the officers of the church. How could that be so that the officers get worn out in their service to the church? Why do office bearers become exhausted and burned out in their ministry in the church? Well, I think you know it because as parents we We have these attributes also, and those who are put in positions of authority all have this. We bear a portion of the burdens that are borne by each member of the congregation. Are you sad? So are they when they think about you and pray about you. Are you glad? Well, so are they. They rejoice with you, and they are encouraged. Are you backsliding in your faith? The elders and the ministers are grieving over you, and they miss you in church, and they bear that burden. Are you angry? They feel bad when they hear of it. Is anyone hurting or sick or lonely? That's on their mind, and it never seems to go away. They think of the congregational members over and over again, and they share that burden of the sadness or the loneliness or the hurt. In baptisms, in professions of faith, in church discipline, all of these things affect the joy or the sorrow of the elders. And the sad thing is, and this is the difficult part of being an officer in the church, is when a difficult situation resolves itself. A saint dies in the Lord and they have been ministering to their family. The family begins its process of grieving. and goes through the steps of grieving. But the minister and the leaders of the church, they go, they have no time to grieve. They go on to the next difficulty and they start working on that without having the time they needed to recover and get over the grief. And then it happens again and again as they move from crisis to crisis, from sadness to sadness. And over a period of time, They become very weary. When you add to that all their personal burdens and their family burdens, their work burdens, they become overwhelmed and weary, exhausted in everything now. And so our ministers, our elders and our deacons, they serve to wear themselves out in serving this church to provide all that you need at the moment you need it. without a thought really to themselves and how they're going to deal with it later. And I'm not telling you this so that you'll pity them or you'll feel guilty about sharing your problems with them. Don't over feel that way. Most of them would not give up the experience, the spiritual warfare that's going on around them and the chance to see the glory of God in the work of the congregation. They wouldn't give it up for the world. Because it truly is the most exhilarating work you can have when someone comes to faith in the Lord. And besides, God has promised to supply our office bearers with all that they need in order to minister to each and every one of us. And that's where you and I come in. We are the body of Christ. And being aware of the burdens of the ministry and the leadership allows you the opportunity to be used by God and to volunteer to build up these men in their faith and in their endurance, to encourage them in their work. So, one of the duties, the first duty we have is to obey them, follow them faithfully in their work. We make their time of servant as spiritually enriching as possible for them, sharing the good things, encouraging them along the way, thanking them, talking with them. We work alongside each other. Since the congregations and the leaders are united in their goals for the church and the biblical method used by the elders, The congregation eagerly works alongside the elders in order to achieve our heavenly goals, our common heavenly goals. They do best by practicing our faith faithfully. To be good followers, God's people must have a commitment to God and his church. This means they continue to support the work of the church during good times and in bad times. Good followers must be willing to work together, even if there might be personality clashes or disagreement as to how we're going to accomplish our goals. Good followers must seek to preserve and promote the reputations of their leaders by representing them truthfully and fairly so that others will faithfully follow them also. Good followers keep their word and do the job they've been assigned or volunteered for. Good followers offer their talents to be used in the church. The worst thing that can happen to a church is when our members refuse to assist their leaders in the decision making. There is time to talk calmly and biblically with leaders about things that are going on in the church. The more they hear from the congregation in words of that are pleasant to hear even if there's disagreement. The more they hear from the congregation, the more they understand the congregation and how to lead it. Good followers, like their leaders, sacrifice for the church. Following the leaders means that we have to help the church complete her mission. To do whatever we can with whatever we have in order to promote the church of Jesus Christ here in Bethany. Paul says he counts every one of his accomplishments garbage compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ and suffering for him. Each one of us joins in that, in drawing closer to God, but also in suffering in different ways for him. So in the end, we're allowed two choices. And I would be remiss in my calling if I didn't warn everyone sitting here today, don't engage in rebellion. Rebellion is a refusal to obey the command of one whom God has placed in authority over us. And see, rebellion is in the heart and the soul of the American culture, and so we're influenced by it, by that attitude. We live and breathe to do the opposite of what the authorities tell us. Rebellion lives in the church, and it's disguised as freedom to choose what I want to do. That's dangerous. Rebellion sows the seeds of destruction in a society as we are witnessing around us, in a church, in a family, and even in the heart of a Christian. You see, rebellion is a direct attack upon God and his rule over us, and it brings terrible consequences to those who rebel. Romans 13, talking about the one step removed, political leaders, says he who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. And those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. So rebellion is the first and the strongest opposition to the word of God. You can't tell me what to do, our conscience says. The heart of the Christian squelches that response and commits to submitting to the will of God. In the end, one of the key concepts of Christianity is submission. The willingness to allow someone else to have control over part or all of our lives. Jesus Christ submitted to the will of His Father in heaven and He went to the cross in obedience to that will and He suffered hell on earth for our salvation. Elders and deacons submit. They submit to the call of Jesus Christ to serve as leaders of God's church and to submit themselves to the biblical authority and the biblical principles as to how they must rule. Congregation submits to the elders and the deacons because they represent Jesus Christ. And in showing and caring for our caregivers, we show our love and our care for our Christ. Christians submit to one another. That is, we put others' needs and desires ahead of ourselves, and we live in service to others, not to our own worldly desires. Submission and the willingness to be led against goes against everything of our sinful nature, robs us of our freedom, robs us of our individual rights. It robs us of our right to do whatever we want. Submission, then, is the sign of the regenerated heart. One who acknowledges God's sovereignty over their lives respects the leaders God has put over them. In essence, we live to care for the caregivers who represent Christ to us. Let's devote ourselves to that and show our love for God and Jesus Christ in taking care of those men who are volunteering to govern us. Amen. Gracious Heavenly Father, we live in a sinful world. We are sinful people. And yet you are the Christ. You are the one who rules your church through your Spirit and your Word, and you do it well. You choose the men. You empower them. You enable them. and you lead and guide them, and you give us hearts of submission that follow them. May we ever work to care for the men that you have placed over us, to make their time in office as enjoyable and spiritually enriching as possible. We pray, O Lord, for the elders as they go through many different difficulties and problems discipline cases, sadness, grief. Help them in their ministrations that they encourage. And through their work, the congregation grows in their faith and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless this church. Bless the church wherever she meets. May Jesus Christ be glorified. And may he come again to take us up to his eternal home, where we will all live in joyful fellowship with him and with each other. Amen.