Well, we are in a small series that I've called the truth about the church. And we talked about the difference between the church and Israel and some of the distinctions that are important to understand there. Of course, the church is a spiritual work that God is doing today after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. We talked two weeks ago in part two about properly understanding how God is doing the work that we call the church in the world today. We talked about the church at large. Does anybody remember any of the terms we used for that? The universal church. What do we not mean when we say universal church? We're not talking about ecumenicalism or universalism or church hopping. We're not talking about these kinds of things. We're not talking about the Catholic church or the thing that they call a church, but is a Catholic organization. We're not talking about that. We're simply talking about those few scriptures that indicate that the body of Christ is a worldwide thing. And that is something that is accomplished by all of us being placed into a oneness through the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit baptism, being placed into the Spirit, into Christ at salvation. And that makes us a worldwide thing. The church is a one person thing. It's Jesus Christ, it's his body in the world. And then we talked about how the New Testament emphasizes not the universal aspect, though it recognizes that it emphasizes the more immediate aspect. And that is the way that the church functions. It functions at a local congregational level. We did point out, of course, that the terms universal church and local church, neither of them are in the Bible. Remember that? So you can take positions on those. Just realize what you're saying when you're talking about them. But When we talk about local churches or congregations, that's how the church works. And today we're going to take some time to look at some principles for how Jesus Christ shepherds a congregation, how a congregation works at the local level. Let me also say, this will be somewhat of a survey. When we finish our James series, we are actually going to take a turn and on Sunday mornings, we'll do a study, a series on what does it mean to be a Baptist. And in the course of that series, we will go back over some of these same things in a Sunday morning sermon context. We'll talk a little bit more about a pastor and about deacons and about members and these kinds of things. We will introduce them somewhat today. But I do want to ask this question, does anybody here have any questions or impressions from the last one or two messages or lessons that I gave who were here? Anyone have any questions about those two presentations? I gave a chance for questions last time, but it was very rushed at the end, I think. No one's raising their hand. And I hope it's not because everyone's just pretending like they remember what we talked about. This is Burns. What did you say? looking for your notes. It's all online. You can go online and you can get the sermon, download and listen to it. Always feel free to ask questions by email or anything like that. I have one waiting in my inbox that got delayed because of vacation and the person is being very gracious, but they have some very good questions that I look forward to getting a response back on. Well, today we're going to be talking about the truth about the church, part three. And so let's jump right in here. I'll give you the main point, and then we're just going to start diving in after we pray. How does the church function at the congregational level? That is the question here. And the statement I'd like to leave with you is that the church functions at the congregational level under direct accountability to Christ. The church functions at the congregational level under direct accountability to Christ. Let's pray. Lord, guide us in this presentation. Would you challenge us and even help us to be somewhat academic and thoughtful about this? May we learn and genuinely not just be hearers, but thinkers and Christians who take to heart what we look at today and let it affect our thinking and our behavior and our worldview, how we handle our lives and how we function in our church. May we also be very appreciative to what we have here as a church and to what you are doing here at Faith Baptist Church. Thank you also that we're a part of something much bigger than just our church. We thank you for that. Bless this time in Jesus name. Amen. All right, point number one is this. Jesus Christ shepherds his church at the congregational level. Jesus Christ shepherds his church at the congregational level. Some verse references here for you that refer to Jesus as a shepherd. Of course, we have Psalm 23, but in a New Testament context, you have Hebrews 13, 20, which says, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. 1 Peter 2.25 For you were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. 1 Peter 5, 4, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. I reminded some of us who were here this morning for the prayer meeting right before the AM service that what we were to experience in church today was a lot more than just what I am trying to do, or what the song leader is trying to do, or what you are doing as you're talking to people and fellowshipping and helping and serving and ministering. What is happening today is that Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, is shepherding us. That's what is going on. I loved how one of our brothers this morning, when he prayed after the message, realized that events from his life before church this morning tied right into the message this morning. Events, by the way, of which I had no knowledge. I love it when someone talks to me after a message and says, Pastor, this even happened today. What you preached about today really is right exactly dealing with something that I have to deal with tomorrow morning regarding my employment. Or someone else talked to me right before the service and told me about a key development that happened in their life that really was a perfect example of what we looked at today. And these things are helpful reminders to me as a pastor that I do my job, I preach the word, I try to be as accurate to it as I can, and as sensitive to emphasizing what needs to be emphasized for us as a church. But something more big, I know that's not good English, something bigger is happening here. I've got some teachers I gotta do right here. Something bigger is happening here, and that is Jesus is shepherding us. It might be through a comment that someone makes to you at church. It might be through what he does in your heart when you give him the offering. It might be something that happens in the preaching or in the worship service or the offertory. It could be anything that goes on in the course of worship and ministry. But remember that Jesus is shepherding you. He's tending your heart. He's lifting it up. He's taking your legs out from under you sometimes. He's opening up your eyes. He's getting your face off of the dirt and up, looking ahead, moving down the right path. That's what he's doing in our hearts today. And he does that at the congregational level. There are people who will tell me, pastor, I don't believe in going to a church. I just kind of have church at home. Well, first of all, I don't see that as being normal in the New Testament just from a general perspective. That's not how I see people behaving in the New Testament. But you miss out on so much. I tell people when they say that, not only are you missing out what Jesus is wanting to do at the congregational level in your life, The congregation is missing out on what he could be doing through your life in the congregation. It works both ways. You're missing out and we're missing out. So don't just stay at home. God is doing something here, shepherding us. Now, how does he do it? How does he shepherd a congregation? Now you'll notice that when I say he's shepherding the church at the congregational level, I'm skipping some things. I'm, removing some things from the paradigm that some churches include. And this will be something we talk more about later when we talk about what makes a Baptist distinct from other denominations. But we are excluding larger organizations. What I mean by that is we're certainly excluding the Roman hierarchy. the Pope or the Greek Orthodox hierarchy that also is there similar to the Catholic Church. We're not including, we're not factoring in an Anglican hierarchy like the Church of England has. We're not factoring in a Presbyterian system of church government that is bigger than a local congregation where a person is in charge of a lot of different congregations and then someone's in charge of them, kind of like a business enterprise. We're not talking about a convention and so forth, where all the money, my dad pastored a church, his first church, and they were part of a convention. And in that convention scenario, a lot of the money was sent back to headquarters in some big city, and then the headquarters decided what happened to all the money. That's not how a church runs biblically. What we see in scripture is not any intermediary organization outside of a local congregation. What we find is that individual congregations are behaving and functioning individually. They fellowship with other congregations, they recognize other congregations, they're friendly towards other congregations, but they function congregationally. And that's what we see in scripture. So how does he do this? How does he shepherd us congregationally? Letter A, he provides congregations with scripture. He provides congregations with scripture. 2 Timothy 2.15 says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So this dividing the word of truth means to cut it straight. It means to take what the Bible says and explain it accurately, giving the right sense, the right perspective on the words that are used and how that should affect our thinking. So the word of truth being presented to the church. Second Timothy 3, 14 through 17 says, but continue down the things which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has learned them and that from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures. which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. Second Timothy 4.2, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. The vehicle that God uses, that Jesus Christ uses to shepherd his church primarily is his word. And that's what we're accountable to. That is what is in charge of us. That is what tells us what Jesus wants us to know. Any questions about that point? A simple point. But any feedback or thoughts on that? I know I've said this before. I think it is worth noting that not every church at the congregational level throughout church history has always had a complete copy of the Bible. That is actually a luxury. They have had general accessibility to scripture for a long period of time. In the early years of the church, the only scripture that was available was the Old Testament scripture, and that was in the Jewish synagogue chained to a podium. And to get to that, you had to get to the synagogue and you had to meet as a group there to hear it. Over time, New Testament letters and books were written and they filtered around and were copied. And more and more of those became available to more and more congregations. Some had more accessibility than others at various points. And then you have, of course, persecution developing. And because of persecution or a lack of publication abilities prior to Gutenberg's press, Various local congregations had various levels of accessibility to the scriptures. But the point is this, that churches always found it necessary to listen to whatever scriptures they had available and to take that to heart as their orders from God. And to whom much is given, much is required. We have a complete copy of the Bible available to us in our language, not just at church, but in our homes and all kinds of formats. And we need to be very thankful about that. We also need to take that very seriously and make sure that we are indeed letting the word of God guide us so that Jesus himself is in charge of us in every way. So we have the word of God and God uses his word to shepherd us. Letter B, Jesus provides congregations with shepherds. He provides congregations with shepherds. A congregation of people, of believers, a church, a local congregation is essentially a flock of sheep. That's what we are. We are defined flock. See, the church is not a whole bunch of sheep running around the world who meet in various groups whenever they want to. There are defined groups. There are distinct groupings of sheep. And these flocks are a part of the great flock in the world, but they're shepherded individually by individual shepherds who are responsible for the smaller flocks, the congregations. If you notice in the verses that I previously read and provided for you about Jesus providing the word to the flocks, to the sheep, to the churches, you notice that in each of those examples, you find something else. There is a shepherd, there is a pastor, there's a teacher who is responsible to present that word to the group. That does not mean that as an individual, you are not able to read the Bible and apply it yourself. What it simply indicates is that it is important to have someone focused on presenting the word of God to the congregation, apart from your individual involvement in the word of God. It is important. To say that you have a complete Bible doesn't mean that you don't have to come to church and hear a pastor preach. It is an important feature of how God shepherds his church. And that's the reality that we have to recognize. So he provides congregations with shepherds, Ephesians 4.11 says, after his ascension, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, Ephesians 4.11. And there in that passage we see that Jesus gave gifts, spiritual gifts, spiritual abilities to every member of a church. Every person who puts their trust in Christ and is placed into the worldwide body of Christ also receives a special gifting from the Holy Spirit, at least one, maybe more. For some, the Holy Spirit, when they're really depending on him, He makes them quite merciful individuals. And a church really benefits from a handful of merciful individuals. Would you agree? Are there people in our church here who, when they're really walking with the Lord, are merciful type folks, and you like to hang out with them because they help everything feel okay? That's a spiritual gift. We also need it because the Holy Spirit gifts other people a little differently. He gives them the gift of exhortation. And we need that too, actually. The gift of exhortation, that matter of being able to tell someone what they need to hear, a little bit directly, but led by the Spirit of God, that also is a spiritual gift. And he gives that. Some he gives the gift of administration, the ability to organize and to get things done. To some, he gives the gift of ministry, service, just a very service-minded individual, someone who gets, I like to say, a spiritual kick out of serving. And that's kind of what a spiritual gift is like. I don't want to get off into spiritual gifts today, but a spiritual gift is that quality of the Holy Spirit that he's shared with you, that when you're walking with the Spirit, comes out and you particularly find yourself enjoying it. Some people love cleaning the church. Other people do it because it's just the right thing to do. Some people love it. They go home spiritually exhilarated after they've done it. Others are doing it because they're submitting to the Lord's will and they sense God wanted them to. Some people get a kick out of running programs. They just, they love, the church is just, boy, God is working at the church when they're running a program and they get to see it organized. I think I might have a little bit of that gift myself and I have to make sure I don't overdo it. But I do like seeing rooms get cleaned and organized. I like seeing order and maybe that's one of my spiritual gifts. But some people have the gift of giving. They just love to give, give the shirt off their back. You know, they're always giving. Even when they don't have the money, they're always giving. There are people like this. The people who are administrative may not be that way. They might actually have to be pushed a little bit to give. But God kind of takes little qualities of who he is and shares little qualities with different members. And you just can't benefit from that when you stay at home. You have to get together and let these spiritual qualities benefit one another. But if you notice in Ephesians 4, it says he gave some, not all, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And what I'm focusing in on here is that last gift, the pastors and teachers. I'll talk more about pastors another time, but the matter of being gifted as a pastor is a number of things, but one of the things that it is, is it's God giving you the ability and the heart to be a shepherd, to be able to take a lot of people's spiritual lives into your heart and to be able to nurture them and shepherd them and genuinely be able to lead them to higher pastures, individually and as a group. It's a spiritual gift. It's not a personality trait. It's not a skill set you're born with naturally. It's something that he gives to you through the Holy Spirit. I have to be careful as a pastor that I don't own my spiritual gift as pastor. It's not who I am. It's a gift that God has given to me, and I have to use it wisely. I am very aware, for instance, when I'm preaching or counseling, that I'm not standing here or sitting there in my office doing something that I'm really good at. I am sitting there asking the Lord for wisdom and help because I can't do this without him. It's a gift he gave me and I have to use it. When I preach, I walk away from the pulpit knowing that something bigger than me happened. I'm just aware of that, but it's not me. It's a gift that he gives. And it's much bigger than me, and it's not related to me directly. But this matter of being a pastor is this idea of being a shepherd. Sometimes I like to, even in the city, I like to sit back in my chair or just wherever I am, I like to draw up an image in my mind of a green pasture, blue sky, a little rippling brook, some sheep kind of lounging around, and a shepherd standing up there. And I like to remind myself, I am not a rat running around on a hamster wheel getting things done. That's not what I am here. I am that shepherd standing on the hillside, watching over the sheep. Doctrinally, emotionally, spiritually, that's my job. It's a fun job. I enjoy it. But it's also a spiritual gift. So God gives individual congregations shepherds. When you see the word pastor, that's what that means. It means shepherd. Revelation 1.16 says this. There's a vision that we find here in Revelation 1. John sees this vision. He sees a vision of Jesus Christ. And he says that Jesus had in his right hand seven stars in the vision that he saw, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. But in his hand were seven stars. What was Jesus teaching when he showed these seven stars? Let me give you a little bit of Bible interpretation help here for all the Bible students out here. If the Bible doesn't give you a very clear interpretation of a passage, be very cautious to think that you have one. If the Bible wants you to know something, it will tell you, and it will only tell you as much as you need to know. Be very careful to draw loctite conclusions that the Bible doesn't give you. Here, one of the questions I have is, what are these seven stars? Because I really can't tell you what they are unless the Bible tells me what they are, and the Bible does. just a couple of verses down in Revelation 1.20. It says, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the candlesticks are the seven churches. So these are seven particular local congregations. that in Revelation chapters two and three, you find little mini epistles given. In the New Testament, we have the epistle of Ephesians written to the church at Ephesus and Philippians written to the church at Philippi. These are epistles, letters written to individual churches that we all benefit from. In the book of Revelation in chapters two and three, you have seven mini epistles stuffed in the two chapters and Each of these little mini epistles begins with a message to the angel of the church at whatever. The word angel means messenger. That's what it means. And so if you study that out, the conclusion I've arrived at, I think it's pretty simple really, is that he is showing John that the messengers that he places in each church, the leaders, the pastors, he holds them in his hand and they are his instrument for shepherding the congregations. Jesus shepherds the church at large and he shepherds that through local congregations directly through the shepherds that he places in them. That's the image that we see. If you look in Acts 20 now, we find that there are several terms that the Bible uses for this messenger that he places in churches or the messengers that he places in churches. Acts 20 in verse 17, We see here, Paul is talking and he's, he calls together the elders of the church at Ephesus. So there were several men who had this role and they were probably smaller congregations throughout the city of Ephesus and led by these men. He calls them together. And if you look in the same speech that he gives here down in verse 28, He says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you shepherds. But that's not the word that he uses. He uses a different word, overseers. That word overseers is the word bishop. That's what it means. Now, we don't use the word bishop today as Baptists for very pragmatic reasons. We don't use the word bishop because other denominations have used it and used it in the wrong way. In other denominations, the word bishop often means a man with more spiritual authority than a local pastor, or so you have pastors, then you have a bishop who's in charge of multiple churches, then you have a priest, and then you have an archpriest. I mean, they have these hierarchies. I see no such hierarchy in the Bible other than these terms referring back to the same local congregation person. Overseers or bishop. The word overseer or bishop means that what it says, overseer. It's an administrative term. It's like a manager. It's someone who is looking over everything and making sure it's working right. That's what an administrator is. That's what a bishop is. It's someone who looks over a congregation and makes sure that it's working right. So I'm a bishop. There you go. I'm that little thing on the chessboard that looks really funny with a little ball on top of its hat, like a queen but smaller. So, and I can move diagonal, right? Not straight. No, that's not a bishop. A bishop is an overseer. It's a title. It's a term used to describe the elder position that was mentioned back in verse 17. Now this elder position mentioned back in verse 17, what does the word elder mean? Well, it means an example, respected. That's the idea. And apparently in the church, it was also an office. It was a position. So you had to be qualified to be an example, but it also was a position. Why was that important? It's important for the person who's overseeing a congregation and representing Christ. being his servant to the church, to be an example of what is being said and what is being preached. I'm not perfect, no pastor is, but if you study 1 Timothy 3, you find that there are expectations for that role. It doesn't make me better. It doesn't make me more valuable in the sight of God. It just means that's the job description, and that's what I have to be by God's grace to do this job. Though, to be fair and totally accurate, all of us are equally important in what's happening here at Faith Baptist Church. I just have a different job description. I have to be the one who's standing up and making sure nothing is happening wrong. That's my job. You don't have to worry about that as much as I do. So this position of being an elder, a respected example figure in the church who oversees the church as an overseer. If you look back in Acts 20, 28, there's another word that's used. The Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God. And that feed is the word shepherd again. To pastor, that's the idea. It's the same word for pastor. So this person who is responsible to pastor, to oversee a church, is responsible to oversee it, to spiritually nurture and shepherd it, and to be an example. And so the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, shepherds his church by placing shepherds in churches. Number one, these people are called shepherds or pastors. Some of this is review. I'll make some other points. 1 Peter 5, 2-4. Another example here, at the end of 1 Peter 5 now, not in Acts 20, it says that these elders are responsible to feed the flock of God. And so again, I am a shepherd. The word feed the flock is the word shepherd. I am supposed to nurture you spiritually through the word of God. so that what Jesus is wanting to do through your life and through us collectively as a congregation happens. When I go to bed at night, or I finish my work week, if you want to call it that, I want to go to bed knowing that this flock has taken at least one more step down the path that God wanted us to take. I don't want to end my week finding that our church, our flock, our congregation went 10 steps backwards and it is often the thorn bushes somewhere having a little brawl. That's not where I want us to be. I want us to be taking the steps that God wants us to take. Does that mean that I sit down and I map out a plan and I say, God bless this plan because I got this out of a good leadership book and it always grows churches and then I'll find some messages to rally us to get these, that's not how it works. Right now we're preaching through James. If I had thought about what to preach about today, it probably wouldn't have been your business plans. But that was the flow of thought in that book of the Bible that God has led us to. And we took that as authoritative today and God used it. That wasn't my idea. That was God's idea. And if you listen carefully, I did my best to say what the Bible said. I also did my best to avoid coming up with a few points that seemed to fit in there. and then tell a bunch of illustrations about those points and maybe read the passage once. I really tried to walk through the flow of what those words said and emphasize what those words emphasized so that you walked away not saying, wow, Pastor Overmiller is steep. Boy, Pastor Overmiller is smart. Oh, he must be reading some good books right now. He is a successful leader. No, no. I hope you walked away saying, wow, The Bible said what I needed. I need to obey that. And then I'm able to step out of the way and know that he is shepherding his sheep, not because of me, but through the word. That's the idea. It's not that I'm in charge as a pastor. It's just my job to make sure that you're paying attention to what you need to pay attention to accurately and rightly and obey it. And if that's what's happening, then I'm doing my job. that Jesus is shepherding us and he's doing it through the word of God. And he's hopefully using me to do it as a pastor, as a shepherd. We also noted point sub point two here that a pastor is also called a bishop or an administrator. Philippians 1.1 points this out, the beginning of the letter to the church of Philippi, Paul and Timothy are writing, the servants of Jesus Christ, all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. So not everyone is an overseer, but there are some within the church. And again, the overseer. 1 Timothy 3.1, if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. And then Titus 1.7, a bishop must be blameless. And then there are some requirements to given. But to be an overseer of a church, you do need to make sure that your life testimony is scriptural in certain ways. Let me mention just a thought about 1 Timothy 3.1. And a lot of this has to do with parents in particular who have young children. I will do my very best as a pastor not to overly push full-time ministry to a fault. I would love to see, if it was God's will, every young man in this church become a pastor. I didn't say that because that's God's will, I'm just telling you that's what I would like. That's just me. Of course I'm going to think that way. Why am I going to think that way? I love pastoring. It's the greatest thing in the world. It is, by the way, the only profession that the Bible says this about. If you have a strong lust for it, it's a really good thing. The Bible actually says that. The word in 1 Timothy 3, 1, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. It's the word epithumia. It's lust, which is usually used in other ways. But the problem with lust is the object. If you really want to be a pastor, parents, please don't get in the way of that. If your boy really wants to be a pastor, that's a really good thing the Bible says. That doesn't mean every boy should be a pastor though. So if you ever feel like I'm saying that every boy should be a pastor, Take that for what it's worth. It's not what the Bible says. I just feel that way sometimes. It's between you and your kids and the Lord. However, understand that and also quietly keep in your heart that there is nothing better, I don't think. And if God calls a young man to that, I am here as pastor to encourage that and to foster that as much as I can. That doesn't mean any other profession is not good. If God leads a young person to another profession, that is a wonderful, strategic, very important thing, and I will not stand in the way of that. I will fan that flame and encourage that and do whatever I can to support that. But I think there's something about being a pastor that's worth asking God for. It's the one profession in particular that when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ has special significance. It's the one profession the Bible indicates gets placed into the right hand of God. It's a very special thing. And I'll tell you what, you all can go home and dream about your sales numbers and your electrical lines and whatever you do, and that's fine. Love that and live that with all of your heart for the glory of God. When I go home at the end of the day, I've got all of you people in my heart. I wouldn't have it any other way. That's a coveted job. It really is. God gives people like that to churches. I really think that in our congregation of this size, there's got to at least be a couple of young men that God is preparing congregations, flocks for somewhere in the world, and he's going to use this church as an incubator to provide these shepherds to these people. And these young men will stand before the judgment seat someday and will as a church be able to stand back and realize we had a part in bringing them up and seeing them shaped and molded. So that's my little disclaimer. If you ever hear me really trying to sell the idea of pastoring, take it with a grain of salt, understand my heart. But God gives pastors, shepherds to churches. He also calls them elders, 1st Timothy 5.17 and Titus 1.5. Titus 1.5 says, for this cause left I you in Crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city. So each congregation needed elders. And let me mention this. This is a small grammatical point, but notice that the word elders is plural and the word city is singular. And there are grammatical indications that would lead me to think that though it's not required, it is advantageous for there to be multiple elders. Pastors is the idea. It's advantageous. The idea is each city should have more than one if possible, grammatically speaking. So that's a minor side point. 1 Timothy 5, 17 says, let the elders that rule well, oversee and so forth, be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. Some people look at that verse and say that there are different men in a church that are serving as elders. Some of them labor in some ways, others of them labor by preaching and teaching. From the study I've done on this verse, I do not find two different kinds of elders. What I find is, we are talking here about this position of overseeing a church as a pastor, a shepherd, a bishop, whatever. And when you have an elder who does a good job, you should treat that, this is very awkward for me to talk about, by the way. I don't like teaching on this verse. When you have an elder that does a good job, you should take doubly good care of him. Especially one that really does a good job when it comes to preaching and teaching the word and mentoring and so forth. What I find here is simply when an elder does an adequate job is the idea, treat him well. doing his job. But when what he's doing in the Word and in doctrine and mentoring and discipling people is even better than adequate, especially take good care of that one. That's the idea. Does that make sense? So we're talking about when you have an elder doing their job, take good care of them. Especially the ones that are really doing a good job in the Word and in the doctrine. Not every pastor does a top level job in how they present the word, to be honest. Sometimes what happens in the pulpit is like this. I've heard men say about, I had a missionary tell my dad that this is what he does. My dad couldn't believe it. He said he gets up Sunday morning, goes online, finds a sermon on the topic that's on his mind, prints it off, runs into the pulpit and preaches it. That's not good. That is not good. There's all kinds of pastors out there. That is not a problem that Faith Baptist Church has had, to be honest, okay? But that's what it's talking about. So anyway, enough about this office. He provides shepherds to congregations. They need to be an example. They need to oversee things, and they need to shepherd through the word of God. Ultimately, all of this points back to the word of God. My job is to keep this as the focus, this as the authority, not me. Because Jesus is shepherding this church and I like, you're gonna hear me say this for many years, I trust, God is doing something here and I just don't wanna get in the way. Whatever he's doing, that's what I want to happen. So he provides congregations with shepherds. They lead through the word of God, letter C. He provides congregations with servants. The word here is deacon. The word deacon means a servant, someone who takes the official position in a church. The church recognizes them, selects them, and the Holy Spirit leads them to do that. They meet certain qualifications. and they take on certain responsibilities in a church. We're not going to read the whole passage here. Acts 6, just a couple of verses down here, says, Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, some men who have good reputations and testimonies, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, not just good businessmen, not just people who drive nice cars and have CEO jobs, but people who walk with the Holy Spirit, who are sensitive to him, who have his wisdom, biblical wisdom and skill, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. The men who were overseeing the church, the pastors, found that they were not able to do everything. In this case, the business trouble was that there were widows in the church who weren't getting proper attention. They were shut in at home and no one was visiting them. Their needs were not being met. And though it was in the pastor's heart to do that, they really reached an impasse and they realized, look, if I'm gonna preach a message to you on Sunday, and I'm gonna disciple the new converts, and if I'm gonna be leading people in the word of God and teaching meaningful, accurate messages, I can't do that and visit all the widows all at the same time, though I wish I could. And it's at that point when the business aspects of a church's operations are pulling a pastor away from really doing what he needs to do in prayer and in preaching and teaching the word, it's at that point a church needs to step back and say, okay, are there some men in the church who could handle these things? Not just because of their business savvy, but because they do walk with the Lord and they have a testimony that meets the biblical qualifications, could some of these men help? It's a sacrifice. I could tell you our deacons, they're not getting paid. They sacrifice their time, but the things that they do, look, I'm so glad I don't have to sit around and do all the accounting for the church. I know that it takes a lot of time for our deacons to do that. I couldn't preach the messages I preach if I had to do all of that. As the Bishop, it's my responsibility to make sure that it's being done right, that the systems run well, that we're being honest and accurate, and that's my job. At the end of the day, that's my fault. Any manager knows that even though you're not doing everything, if you're a manager or supervisor, At the end of the day, the person in charge of you is going to look at you as the one who's at fault if things aren't running well. So as a bishop, I can't just say, oh, deacons handle that. Oh, deacons messed that up. Deacons didn't do a good job with that. Deacons, better do a better job. No, I have to take responsibility for everything. But I can't do everything. And so that's what the office of a deacon is. It's not an office of leadership in the sense of being in charge. Being a deacon is not a role. The idea of a board of deacons is not a biblical concept. There's no board of deacons in the Bible. Deacons are just men selected by the church to get certain business things done that are pulling the pastor away from ministry. It's like being a servant. Very unglamorous. The Bible says about being a deacon, the man that used the office of a deacon well, earns for himself a very good standing at the judgment seat of Christ. You won't find me praising the deacons a lot here, though I will at times. That's the Lord's job, and they're going to get blessed at the judgment seat. All the hours spent crunching spreadsheets, making sure numbers are right so people don't have questions, arranging schedules, typing things out, spending their spare time to make sure these things are happening. You say that's very unglamorous. It will be honored at the judgment seat. I'm looking forward to seeing him back someday and seeing some of our men get some special blessing from the Lord. I think in the future we'll have some more as well. But that's the idea. Philippians 1.1, 1 Timothy 3.8. and give us some more information about this role of a deacon, its qualifications, and so forth. We'll probably talk more about that later. Okay, okay, point number two. Jesus shepherds his church directly at the congregational level. Through the word of God, through shepherds, he also gives servants to meet the business needs of a church so that the word of God can be the focus of the pastors. Number two, he equips every member to do the work of the ministry. If you have not caught this already, I am an advocate of as many of you doing as much as possible so that just a few don't have to do it all. I don't want to be pushy. I don't want the same 10 people to do everything. but I am continually evaluating gifts and spiritual maturity and burdens and interests and backgrounds and all these things to find ways to get you involved. I've talked to several people this very week about some things that need done from a ministry standpoint. And I said, hey, could you do this? Because I just can't do it all. Could you disciple this person? Could you work with this person? And I've gotten a lot of yeses. I'm excited about that. whether it's frontline, giving someone a baptism lesson, preparing them for baptism, being an usher, helping in the nursery. Think twice before saying no, unless you're the kind of person that's already said yes to everything else. Before you say no to a ministry opportunity, ask the Lord if he wants you to do it and pray about it. Ephesians 4 is pretty clear. It's the pastor's job to equip the church saints to do the work of the ministry. It is not my job to be a one-stop shop, able to do everything. I can't. I'm not that qualified. I'm not that skilled. but there are people sitting here with spiritual gifts and backgrounds that if it's unleashed and the potential is tapped, this church will grow and it'll have so little to do with me and everything to do with all of us coming together behind Christ and getting his work done. That's a vision that I have and I think we're gonna get better at that every year. He gives leadership gifts to some members, Ephesians 4, I've already talked about that. Letter A there, he gives leadership gifts to some members. Letter B, he gives ministry gifts to all members. I've given you a couple of the key passages related to that. Romans 12 is very important. Let me wrap up here with a couple more thoughts. This really is a survey. But Jesus shepherds his church at the congregational level directly. He uses the word of God. He gives congregations men, elders, pastors, bishops, to lead, to be the messengers for the church, to be focused on the word of God accurately and properly and obeying it. That's my job. And then he gives us deacons to get the business done as that becomes a need. Now I do some of that. It's part of the job description, but when it takes away from my ministry and the word and prayer, we have to add deacons. Then he gives spiritual gifts to all of us. And we all need to get involved. Honestly, there shouldn't be any person in this church after you're here for a year or two who's not doing something. We all should be able to get involved, more than we realize. Just sitting in a church pew on a Sunday morning is not doing what God wants you to do. Also remember that for everything you say no to that actually does need to be done, someone else is going to have to do it, and it usually ends up being the same five or ten people. And that's hard for me to see as a pastor. I don't like overworking people. And so think about that. and say, Lord, could I help? Could I help with Saturday cleaning? Could I help with frontline? Could I help being an usher? If you ever have a ministry, I had someone today tell me they're willing, they're not promoting themselves, willing to serve in this way. I love conversations like that. It's much more enjoyable than trying to figure out who I can ask. So these are things that we need to be aware of. Two more thoughts here, and then I'll ask it for any questions. How does this work practically? I'm gonna give you kind of this balancing set of principles. First of all, when we consider the relationship between a pastor and the members of a church, how does that work? The word of God is in charge, number one. Hebrews 13, 17 tells us, obey them that have the rule, or the oversight, idea of my job as a bishop, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves. Why? Because they watch for your souls, as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. It's part of my job description that someday when I stand before the Lord, I will have to express some thoughts about the spiritual condition of my own life, my wife, men, take note of that, and my children. And for many of you, that's where it will stop. But for me, I have to go down the church directory. And I will have to give, express some thoughts about why at the judgment seat we ended at the conclusion we did in the spiritual progression of your life. and it is in my heart. When I say something in the pulpit, you say, that was a little strong, or if I ask us to do a certain thing in the church, you say, that's a little awkward, or I don't like that. Hey, talk to me, work with me, communicate. Let's work together because God leads to the body, not just through my ideas. Feedback is very important. At the end of the day, as I study the word of God, and I pray, and I take everything into thought, The decision that I have to make, I have to be the one that eventually makes the decision. I make it with the judgment seat of Christ in mind. And if you can defer to that and be gracious about that, God will honor that. I really love feedback. And so the more feedback I can get, the more I can process, and that will shape my perspectives. I can't please everybody or take everyone's position and thought and just kind of assimilate all of it into this perfect thing. But at the end of the day, the list of accountability for me is much longer and includes the people of this church, from the young children all the way up to the oldest adults. So when I see spiritual steps of growth that are taken, I am thrilled. because I'm thinking about the judgment seat and that report that I have to give. And when I hear of something that's done or said that would be a problem, my heart grieves and I have a heart of love and compassion to see that turn around, but I'm thinking about that judgment seat. That's my job. And when we implement programs or do things, whatever, take up an offering, it's all with that in mind. And so the Bible says you're supposed to obey me, how's that? This is very awkward for me to talk about. I will say the word obey is a softer word than the word that is used in Ephesians, children obey your parents, carte blanche, okay? It's a different word, it's not the same word. And so you obey me, With this always in mind, okay? If I tell you to do something and the Bible is diametrically opposed to that, we have a problem and you need to talk to me about that. If it's a matter of opinion, that's one thing. But if it is something that the Bible is opposite on, we need to have a conversation. You need to initiate it and prayerfully, graciously help me to see it. Does that make sense? I am not a king up here and I'm also not a parent. I'm just a shepherd. a little different, and yet we still do have obey here. And so what I say about that is just take what I decide and say about things, take it very seriously with the Word of God as the backdrop. On the flip side, you gotta balance that out, right? On the flip side, you have 1 Peter 5, verse 3. Let's look at that. 1 Peter 5. Verse three. Again, this is another key conversation here. It uses the word elders, uses the word shepherding, it uses the word bishop, all in the same office discussion here, talking about a pastor. What I'm supposed to do, feeding the flock, shepherding it, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. The idea of being lords is more than just attitude, by the way. Being a Lord means you don't run the church like a king. You don't just make executive decisions by fiat. You don't say, well, I had this thought, so we're gonna do it. I thought last night in my devotions that we need to buy a church van, so that's God's will for us, so let's buy a church van. Let's take up an, that's not how this church should run. Okay? Maybe my dream was off. Maybe it had nothing to do with what God wants this church to do. Maybe I just had too much pizza before I went to bed. So the process I should take if I had this idea is talk to some of the men in the church, talk to the mechanics, right, who know more about vehicles, and really pray about it. Look at the finances, ask for any feedback that people have, because it's kind of a key decision, and to weigh things out. That's not being a lord over God's heritage. I'm not a king. I'm just a shepherd. And so that is something I have to remember. I am here to see what God is doing, make sure that that happens, and then step out of the way. Stay in tune with the word of God and process feedback that I get from his body as a whole, properly, humbly, and then say, God, this is your church, you do what you wanna do. I don't have all the answers. And yet, as I do that, the decisions I end up making, you have to take seriously, as far as the church is concerned. That's Hebrews 13, 17. Does that make sense? Okay, we're at the end of our time. Does anybody have any concluding questions? Some of this will be talked about more in depth later. Brother Victor asks, Ephesians 4 gives us five offices of leadership in the church. And what is relevant for today and why? I did skip over that, right? Because that's a lot of things. And I plan to talk about that eventually. I actually had some of it in my notes and I skipped it for time. Let me give a quick review there. As you study the New Testament, the gift of apostle and the gift of prophet are leadership gifts, but the Bible describes them as foundation gifts. The church is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. Those men have died and the gifts are not actively functioning today. The gifts of evangelists, there is zero indication in the Bible that they're foundational or obsolete. And the gift of pastor, same thing. Zero indication that they're foundational or obsolete. In fact, you see them recur, especially the gift of pastor throughout the Bible, even in the book of Revelation. It's a perpetual, it's a shepherding gift, not a foundational gift. By the way, we still are benefiting from the gift of apostles and prophets because they wrote down what they were telling the church early on, foundational. But if you hear someone say, I'm a prophet or I'm an apostle, not biblical, just isn't, that's a foundational gift. I would say though that there are only four gifts mentioned, not five. From a Greek grammar standpoint, the pastor teacher is a unison. It's a pastor and teacher role. It's grammatically two words tied together as one. Are the people gifted as teaching people? Yes, but that's a Romans 12 issue. That's not an Ephesians 4 issue. There are some people who get a spiritual kick out of teaching and everyone likes to hear them teach more than others. That's the gift of teaching. The point there in Ephesians 4 is that to be a pastor, one thing you need to be especially able to do is teach. Because if you can't teach, forget it. That's your main job. That's how you shepherd. And so you have to be able to teach. That pastor-teacher gift is one gift. When you study scripture, you find the New Testament using the words elders. bishops, overseers, feeding, shepherds. You also find the word messenger used in Revelation. I believe these terms are different terms that describe the role of the pastor. You can call it any of those things. Right. I do think there's advantages to having more than one for a church of size. But it's that role of leadership in a church. It also has to be handled carefully. My accountability is this group, our church, and the Bible, ultimately. And that's why I have a discussion like this today. I mean, it's a healthy, it's an important thing to do because it keeps us all closer together. But then it's my job, if I just totally ignore and never talk about it, You see what I'm saying? This is all very healthy. We're working off of each other, and I'm guiding it.