Be a willing participant. Don't do the office of a pastor by constraint. Do it
willingly because you want to do it. You know I like when people work and
they're just like they're working because they want to do it. You know I
mean they're just like this is what I want to do. You say why? Well because when
you have someone who wants to do fulfill a job you don't really have to oversee
them that much because they're gonna end up doing more than you require of them.
Right? Like they enjoy their job and they're doing it willingly so therefore
they're gonna put more effort into the task. Whereas a person who does it by
constraint they become an unprofitable servant because they only do that which
is required of them. You know what God wants for his pastors? He wants them to not be
doing the office of a bishop by constraint but willingly because they're
gonna do more than what's required of them. Okay so go back to 1st Peter so he
says feed the flock take the oversight make sure you have a pulse on
the church. You know don't be a nosy person don't try to look for problems
but be aware when the problems come up. Don't run away from problems. Right? It's
like if issues come up it's like I don't know how to handle this go talk to
someone else. No you better figure it out. If you don't know how to deal with the
situation as a pastor and I know I'm talking to the church in general but
this is an important sermon okay because I believe in the next couple years we're
gonna be sending out a lot of pastors but you know if you don't know how to
handle a situation as a pastor you better pray. You better ask God for
wisdom. You better have a cabinet of counselors that you can call and say
hey I'm in this situation I'm dealing with these people what should I do what
would you do? You better figure it out and not have this attitude of like sorry
I can't help you. No you you're you better help that person if and you know
and if you don't know the answer go find the answer and I'm not saying go Google
it either go to the reliable resources reliable pastors ask God for wisdom and
figure it out okay so he says feed the flock which is among you taking the
oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly this is a big one not for
filthy lucre what is lucre well lucrative you think of that which is
lucrative is referring to money so when you hear the term filthy lucre it's
basically referring to unjust gain and believe it or not you know some people
would want to become a pastor for money now if you want to be a pastor for money
you're just getting in the wrong business because you cannot become rich
as a pastor actually fulfilling the office of a pastor because of the fact
that God forbids a pastor to become rich now he's not forbidding them to live a
normal life and to pay their bills or whatever and and to have nice things but
you know to become rich and wealthy he is forbidding that for a pastor because
the office of a pastor is supposed to be a humble position where they just live a
normal life they're serving the Lord in the church they're helping people out
you know they're preaching God's Word but he says there by the way this show
us that a person who is saved who is a pastor it can become a temptation for
them to get involved in filthy lucre or else that that that commandment would
not be there you understand he's saying not for filthy lucre he says now this
reminds me I remember when I first got saved you know I got saved at a youth
conference and you know I thought to myself I want to be a pastor one day but
I don't even think I said it that way I think I just said like I want to preach
one day because the guy who's preaching he inspired me so much I'm like I want
to proclaim God's Word like that you know like that's that's what I want to
do with my life and so and I didn't really know how to go about it and of
course my old church used to have basically the Bible College and they
would say you know go to Bible College if you want to be a pastor well I just
gotten saved and and I went to go talk to the pastor he's like well if you want
to be a pastor you got to sign up for Bible College in the fall basically well
I don't know if it was the following week or what the timeline was but I
ended up getting baptized and I brought my family and I got baptized and we went
to a restaurant to go celebrate my baptism the fact that I got baptized
right and I was just excited about the Christian life I'm like man I got
baptized I'm just kind of turning over a new leaf in my life like I found what
I've been looking for and that's the Lord kind of thing but so we went to a
restaurant that I actually used to work at as a busser okay and so some of the
people who work there you know they've known they knew me before I was saved
and I had a friend who was a busser and he's like he came up to he's like hey
what's up man you know how's it going I'm like oh going great you know he's
like what's the special occasion I'm like well I just got baptized I got
saved a couple weeks ago and I got baptized he's like oh okay he's like
you're a Christian now I'm like yeah I'm a Christian he's like well what's your
what's the plan you know I'm like well I want to be a pastor so I want to go to
I'm gonna be going to Bible College in the fall to become a pastor now
obviously I don't agree with Bible College but that was the system that
they had and I said you know I'm gonna go to Bible College to become a pastor
and this was his response he's like oh man is there some good money in that and
I was kind of taken back and I told him I was like I have no idea I don't think
so it doesn't look like it you know my my pastor didn't look like he was very
rich and he was like oh okay yeah well maybe I can get into something like that
like you've seen it like it was like a like a job or something where he can
make money