We'll go ahead and turn over to song number 15, lead me to Calvary, song number 15 tonight.
We'll go ahead and turn over to song number 15 tonight, lead me to Calvary, song number 15 tonight.
Show me the tomb where the bough was slain. Take early morning breath.
Angels and wolves of life will reign, for when we watch they'll stand.
Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thy Emily. Lest I forget Thy love for me, lead me to Calvary.
Climb in and carry me through the wood, come and forgive to me. Show to me now the empty tomb, lead me to Calvary.
Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thy Emily. Lest I forget Thy love for me, lead me to Calvary.
May I be welling, Lord, to bear, welling the cross for Thee. Even the cuphead, weak to share, now has put all for Thee.
Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thy Emily. Lest I forget Thy love for me, lead me to Calvary.
May I be welling, Lord, to bear, welling the cross for Thee. Even the cuphead, weak to share, now has put all for Thee.
I will tell Jesus all of my trials. I cannot bear these words alone. In my distress He kindly will help me.
He ever loves and fears for His own. I will tell Jesus, I will tell Jesus, I cannot bear my verdict alone.
I will tell Jesus, I will tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. I will tell Jesus all of my troubles.
He is a kind one that shall be fair. If I might ask Him, He will deliver. Make up my troubles quickly.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my verdict alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Founded and tried, I need a great spirit, only to count my burdens to bear. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, He over-cares His sorrows for shame.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my verdict alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
I will tell Jesus, I will tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. I must tell Jesus, I will tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my verdict alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help me, Jesus can help
me, Jesus can
help me, Jesus
can help me,
Jesus can help me,
We're gonna go to song number 34, I Know That My Redeemer Liveth. Song number 34. Song number 34 tonight.
I Know that my Redeemer Liveth. Song number 34. I Know that my Redeemer Liveth.
I Know that my Redeemer Liveth.
I Know that Jesus Liveth.
I Know I Know that I can give Him.
That grace and love are in His hand.
I Know that Jesus Liveth.
I Know I Know that I can give Him.
That grace and love are in His hand.
Alright, this time we're going to go ahead and pass the offering plate and as the plate goes around
you can call on Brother Gabriel as he reads from Leviticus chapter number 19 tonight.
Leviticus chapter number 19.
Leviticus 19 verse 1 the Bible reads,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregations of the children of Israel,
and say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my sabbaths, I am the Lord your God.
Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods, I am the Lord your God.
And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
ye shall offer it at your own will. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it,
and on the morrow. And if ought remain until the third day,
it shall be burnt in the fire. And if it be eaten at all, on the third day,
it is abominable, it shall not be accepted. Therefore, everyone that eateth it
shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hollow thing of the Lord,
and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corn,
or thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard.
Thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger, I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie
one to another, and ye shall not swear by my name falsely,
neither shalt thou profane the name of the Lord, the name of thy God,
I am the Lord. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor,
thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired
shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
Thou shalt not curse to death, nor put a stumbling block before the blind,
but shalt fear thy God, I am the Lord. Ye shall do no unrighteousness
in judgment, thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the
person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not go up and down as a tail-bearer
or among thy people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor,
I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart,
thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.
Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people,
but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord.
Ye shall keep my statutes, thou shalt not let thy cattle gender
with a divers kind, thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed,
neither shalt a garment mingled with linen and woolen come upon thee.
And whosoever lieth carnally with the woman that is a bondmaid, betrothed
to her husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her,
she shall be scourged. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
And he shall bring his trespassed offering unto the Lord,
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for
a trespassed offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for him,
with the ram of the trespassed offering before the Lord, for a sin which he hath done.
And the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees
for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised.
Three years shall it be uncircumcised unto you, it shall not be eaten of.
But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal.
And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof,
that it may yield unto you increase thereof. I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall not eat anything with the blood, neither shall ye use enchantment,
nor observe times. Ye shall not round the corners of your heads,
neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Thou shalt not make any
cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.
I am the Lord. Do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore,
lest the land fall to a whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.
Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards
to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt rise up
before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God.
I am the Lord. And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land,
he shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you,
shall be unto you as one born among you. And thou shalt love him
as thyself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, and meter yard
in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, and a just
ephah, and a just hen, shall ye have. I am the Lord your God,
which brought you out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, shall ye observe all my
statutes, and all my judgments, and do them. I am the Lord.
Brother Adam, would you pray for us?
I thank you for the fellowship, I thank you for the souls that were saved today,
and this weekend, Lord, I thank you to be with them, and guide them and lead them, our God.
I let your will be done. I ask you, brother, what would you do with your spirit, our God?
Give a bold respect to God, and preach your word, and give us the urge to receive your word as well.
Would you be with me? Pray, Amen.
So the title of the sermon tonight is Respecting Leadership. Respecting Leadership.
And I'm going to talk, you know, probably pretty specifically at the end about respecting church leadership.
You know, we can apply this to any area of our life. You know, we all have people in our lives
that are leaders, you know, whether it be as children, parents,
wives, you know, even husbands out on the job, things like that. And within a
local church, of course, there is a structure, there is a leadership that's put in place,
and we should respect that leadership. And, you know, let me just start out by saying that I'm not preaching
this here because I feel like there's a problem. You know, I feel like everyone
in this church, you know, is very respectful, not only to myself, but to our pastor
and to one another. But, you know, I have seen things go on in other places
and other churches where it just seems like there's a lack of respect
today. And sometimes it's good to just preach that preventative sermon, you know,
the preventative maintenance, to make sure that we are, you know, we maintain these things
because we certainly don't want to, you know, allow ourselves to slide
into a place where we would be disrespectful towards leadership.
You know, whether that's in the church or out of the church, you know, this is just a good principle
that we can apply to any area of our life where we are one that has a leader
or authority over us. But if you would look there in Leviticus
chapter 19, and we'll see what the definition of
what it means to respect. Okay, the scripture tells us, it does
use the word respect, but another word that you're going to see a lot more in scripture is the
word honor. And honor is basically a form
of respect, okay? I mean, we can think about, you know, the medal of
honor, you know, that's something, the congressional medal of honor.
What is that, what's going on there when somebody is given the medal of honor?
Well, they're being respected, right? For the things that they have done, for their
accomplishments, for their acts of bravery, so on and so forth. And so we
can see how honor is kind of a form of respect. And these are words that
the Bible uses interchangeably, okay? And it says in Leviticus chapter
19 verse 15, it says, you shall do no unrighteousness and judgment,
thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor
honor the person of the mighty. So you can see there how respect
and honor are being used interchangeably, right? So what does it mean to honor someone? It means to
respect them. And keep something in Leviticus 19, we'll come back a little bit later in the
sermon, but if you want to go to Deuteronomy chapter 5, we'll see some other examples of this.
Of course, probably one of the first verses that come to a lot of folks mind when we talk about this word honor
and having respect for people would be, you know, the fifth commandment.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon
the land. Okay? And that's something that's repeated again in Ephesians chapter
6. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee. So when we understand
what honor is and it's respect, the next thing we have to understand is that there are many people in our
lives to whom we should show honor. There are many people in our lives that
we should show respect for. And, you know, that manifests
itself in different ways depending on the relationship, you know, depending on the positions
there. You know, with children, it would be, you would honor them, you would respect
them through obedience by doing the things that you're told and
treating your parents with respect. And in other situations
that might be the same. But it's always, you know, treating people with
like a level of courtesy. You know, treating people respecting the position that
they have and not, you know, trying to
undermine them in some way. That's often what you'll see take place
in churches. One of the biggest forms of disrespect or
dishonor in a church is when a church would try to undermine the leadership
in some way and then try to attack the leadership and drag it down.
Now, is there a time to replace leadership? Of course. You know, leaders
can go bad and things need to be handled about that and
that needs to be handled in a correct way. And the Bible tells us that there is
a way to do that. You know, that we are to entreat elders and pastors
as we would a father, you know, and to not, you know,
and there is a way to do that. I understand that. But, you know, that's usually few and far
between. And generally speaking, you know, we should show honor, we should
show respect in those positions. And, you know, there's many people
that we need to honor in our lives. There's many people that we need to show respect.
Did I have to go to Deuteronomy? Are you there? Deuteronomy 5 verse 16,
honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thy
days may be prolonged and may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
So remember, this is the fifth commandment and that's what it is. It's a commandment. This isn't something
that's optional. If you want to please God with your life, if you want
God to, you know, have respect for you and to honor you and to
hear your prayer and to bless you, you know, you have to honor
those that God has commanded you to honor. And, you know, a big one, of course,
is parents, thy father and thy mother. And, of course, there is a
monetary aspect to this when it comes to parents. You know,
we should honor our parents. The Bible says, you know, in
1 Timothy 5 about honoring widows that are widows indeed. We'll talk about that in a minute.
But that we should take care of the elderly, you know, that are in our family.
That we should requite our parents, you know, meaning repay them again. That when they get older,
if they have need financially, that is something that we should be willing to do.
And that is a type of honor. But there's also, of course, the aspect
of obeying your parents. Like it says in Ephesians 6, which is
addressed directly to children, by the way. You know, it says children obey your parents.
It doesn't say parents tell your children. You know, the Bible is for kids. You know, it's written to kids.
And kids should learn to obey their parents for this is right, honor
thy father and mother. So, again, you can see how obedience, respect,
honor, these are all words that are used interchangeably and mean the same thing.
And we should learn to respect the God-given authorities
in our life. Go over to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Again, keep something Leviticus
19. Go to Romans 12. The Bible says in Proverbs
3, honor the Lord with thy substance, and with thy firstfruits of thy increase, social
and barns be filled with plenty, and presses shall burst out
with wine. So there's a lot of different ways we need to honor other people.
And one person we're supposed to honor is the Lord. How do we do that? With the firstfruits of our increase.
We should be honoring God in that way. We should honor
him through fearing him and keeping his commandments. We should be honoring our parents.
We should be honoring our masters or our employers.
We should be honoring church leadership. There's a lot of people that we should be showing
respect to in our lives. Look at
Romans chapter 12 verse 9. It says, let love be without
dissimulation. And simulation means
let it be real. Don't let it be simulated. Don't let it be fake, you know, dissimulation.
Abort that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly
affectionate one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another.
So not only is it that we should have respect to the authorities in our life, you know, we should have respect to our
parents, to our bosses, to church leadership, so on and so forth, but we should honor
one another, you know, just as brethren. We should love as brethren.
We should be kindly and affectionate, it says there, with brotherly love and honor
preferring one another. You know, that should be something that we endeavor to do
in the local church. And again, this isn't something I feel like we struggle
with here. I feel like this is something we have now that people, you know, treat each other
well, that they love one another, that they help each other out, but we need to
keep that going. We don't want to lose that. And he's showing us, you know, the
honor there is being kindly affectionate one to another. That's a way of showing
respect, isn't it? Of being kind, of being, of having love.
That is a form of respect. You know, if you're going to love somebody, if you're going to be kind towards them,
you know, you're going to respect them. And if you're going to respect somebody, you're not
going to treat them poorly, basically. That's how it manifests itself.
Because when people don't respect somebody, you know,
the tendency is to treat that person poorly. And I've said it again,
I've said it and I'll say it again, you know, the standard here is that no, you don't have to be best friends
with everybody, but we all have to be civil. We should all be able to look each other in the eye,
shake hands, say hello, say good morning, you know,
God bless you, at the minimum. You know, that's just decency, that's just
courtesy, that's just brotherly love, that's just respect for the fact
that you're God's child, I'm God's child, and that we need to get along.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We're just looking at some different relationships tonight where
we should respect the other person. Where there needs to be a respect there.
Or an honoring of that person. Romans chapter 13
says, render therefore to all their dues. Of course this is talking about government.
Now this one's probably not going to be very popular, right? This isn't something we might like
to hear, but it's in the Bible. Tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom
custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. You know, we should respect
the laws of the land. Now obviously when it comes down to it, we ought to
obey God rather than men. You know, and if we're asked or being forced by our government to
do something wicked or sinful, that's where we draw the line. But you know, there's
a lot of things that the civil authorities, you know, and so on and so forth,
put in place. The laws, ordinances, you know,
customs, right? They put that in place that are not going to
cause you to be, if you obey that, you're going to be breaking God's law.
There's a lot of that, right? And we could probably just start talking about all the different things
that are asked of us by the civil authorities
that are not sinful. The speed limit, right?
Now I know everybody knows you go with the flow of traffic, right? We all understand that.
If they wanted you to do 55, they'll make it 45 because they know
everybody's going to go a little bit. We understand that, right? But hey, when we're
speeding and we get pulled over, you know, that's not a time
for righteous indignation. You know, I'm a free man on God's green earth.
The earth is the Lord's, officer. Who do you think you are?
That's not biblical. You know, I'm sorry, but that's just not.
People might want to take me to task on that or argue with me, but you know, I've got clear scripture here
that says that we need to render therefore to all their dues.
Say, well, paying taxes, you know, it's theft. Yeah, I agree, but you know what?
Go ahead and pay it anyway. Pay their dues. Well, I don't agree with what they're using money for.
That's on them. You know, what they do with that money is,
wicked or not, it's on them. But we need to render therefore to all their dues,
tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom
fear, honor to whom honor. We ought to respect the
civil authorities, right or wrong. Now again, if they ask us
to do something wicked, hey, you can't go soul winning here. Well, we're going to go soul winning anyway.
You know, and by the way, we're not breaking the law. You know, they tell us in these apartment complexes that we're
trespassing, the Supreme Court has decided that
we have that right to go in there and do that. Now, they aren't going to listen to that.
You know, you can go ahead and give a copy of that to the apartment
manager of the complex, but they're not going to go,
oh, I had no idea. You know, of course they're going to,
they get mad, they get upset, they call the police, the police tell you to leave, and we always just say,
we'll be back. You know, we'll be back. And they usually, anyway, I don't want to
go off and on and on about that. But there are people that we ought to
respect, you know, and civil authorities are one of them. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2, honor
all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
Honor the king, honor the leadership, honor the rulers of our land.
Meaning, obey them. Don't be a
law breaker. Don't be, you know, wicked.
You're in 1 Timothy 6, 1 Peter 3, likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to
knowledge, giving honor unto the wife.
And again, you have to understand, there's a balance here with this word honor.
It's not always meaning, you know, we ought to obey our wives here, but we ought to honor
them. We ought to respect our wives, you know, and treat them well. As unto the
weaker vessel as being heirs together of the grace of life. They are worthy of
that honor. 1 Timothy chapter 6, the Bible says in verse 1, let as many
masters where you are, 1 Timothy 6 verse 1, let as many masters
or as under the yoke count their own masters, excuse me, let as many
servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor.
What's this talking about here? It's talking about your boss. It's talking about
your relationship at work. I mean, that's what, you know, that's the word
employee, employers on the Bible, but servants and masters
are in the Bible. Those words are there. Let as many servants as are
under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all, yeah, but you don't know what my boss
is like. Doesn't matter. And he says we ought to obey the good as well as the pro word, the Bible
says. That the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
You know, we ought to be known in the job as people who are respectful,
obedient, that do as we're told, that get the job done, that don't make excuses,
that don't lie, that don't cheat, that don't steal. You know, we don't want to, why? Because we don't want
to bring a reproach upon the name of Christ. We don't want God and his
doctrine to be blasphemed. We don't want the boss saying, oh, you
Christians, you know, is that what you're like? Is that what it means to be a Christian?
Because like it or not, you know, the world is going to judge, you know,
what Christianity, they're going to form their opinions based on the way we behave.
You know, we're not perfect. We're going to make mistakes. I understand that. But at the end of the day,
you know, that's the way it is. They're going to see the way we behave. They're going to see
what we do, how we conduct ourselves, and they're going to form their
opinions about the Bible, Christianity, so forth, about God
based on what we do. So that's why it's very important that as servants
that are under the yoke, we count our masters worthy of all honor.
And again, it says count them worthy, you know, not just, well, the Bible
says I have to do it. Actually, the Bible says they're worthy of that honor.
Because that is a structure that has been put in place of authority.
1 Timothy chapter 5, if you want to turn there, actually, go back
to Leviticus chapter 19. I'll just read 1 Timothy 5. The Bible says honor widows
that are widows indeed. So this word widow, or excuse me, honor
has, you know, this different connotations. It could, you know, the context kind of
determines what it's being, how it's being used. There might be a monetary thing
involved. It might just be a matter of showing respect. It just might be a matter of
obedience. You know, it's used in different ways, but it's always
a form of respect. Honor widows that are widows
indeed. You know, then the Bible gives, you know, all the requirements
of a widow. If she'd be over, you know, 60 years old, if she's washed the saints
feet. That sounds tough, right? If she had lodged strangers, if she
brought up children, she'd diligently pursued every good work. So
it's not just my husband died, I'm worthy. It's no, you have to have also done all these,
if she had been the wife of one man, right? These are all, there's
qualifications in order to be taken into the number, as it says, and
provided for to be honored. Well, we are to honor them. If they meet those
qualifications, we should show that respect as an elderly woman
that has lived a godly life, you know, should be shown that respect by the
church. And, you know, we are to honor elders.
In speaking, you know, of course, the word elder can be used to describe a bishop,
you know, a pastor is what we would call it. But it also just
talking, you know, it's used to just describe those that are elderly, right?
Those that are, you know, as we like to say, more seasoned among us, right?
We would never use the word old, right? Because that would be disrespectful.
Well, we are to honor them as well, you know, and
if you look there in Leviticus, did I have you go there, Leviticus?
Leviticus, you should still have something there. Leviticus chapter 19,
it says in verse 32, Thou shalt rise up before the hoary
head, and honor the face of the old man, and
fear thy God, I am the Lord. So there, you know,
we are to rise up before the hoary head. And what is the hoary head? The hoary
head is about the white head, the hair that has turned white. You know, the hoar frost
is a term that's used in the Bible, talking about, you know, the hair
that's used in the Bible, talking about, you know, snow. Snow is called the hoar frost,
meaning it's hoary, it's a white frost, right? So the hoary
head is the gray head, it's the white hair, which is something
that you get when you're older, or, you know, earlier on if you have a lot of kids.
No, I'm just kidding, but, you know, which is the case with me, right?
But, no, I'm just kidding, but, thou shalt rise up before the hoary.
What does it mean to rise up? It means, you know, we should, the Bible's teaching you should stand up.
You know, and why is that? To show respect. You should stand up,
and I remember, you know, there was a gentleman in my
last church, and we would, you know, Monday nights at men's prayer
meeting, he would come in and every single one of us would stand up, you know,
and he had the white hair, you know, which is what I'm hoping for. I'll take gray because it's probably what I'm going to get.
You know, but I always thought, man, white, you know, would be good. So I don't know if that's
in the books for me, but he had the white hair, and you know what? He was a good
man, he loved the Lord, he served God, and you know what? And we stood up,
and he'd always say, at ease, gentlemen, at ease.
And I always liked that, so anyway. But we should rise
up before the hoary head. You know, we should rise to show them honor, to show them
respect, and we should honor the faith of the old man. You should look him in the eye,
shake his hand, say hello, you know, and listen to what they have to say.
And fear thy God. You know, this is part and parcel with it. You can't say,
I fear God, I fear the Lord, and not keep this commandment. You know, we should honor
the hoary head. And really, you know, we should honor all
of our elders, you know, all of our elders. You know, any of those that are
aged, that have, you know, whether it be, you know, someone who's just physically
lived longer than us, you know, the Bible does say we should honor that person. We should honor
the hoary head, the face of the old man. But even spiritual elders, you know, we should honor those
that maybe, they're older than us, you know, but if they have some, if they've
been saved longer, serving the Lord longer, there should be some respect there.
You know, there should be a, you know, at least a willingness to learn
from that person. You know, because a lot of times, you know, people get saved or they get in church
later in life, they haven't learned a lot of things that somebody
that's already been in church for 20 years has learned. You know, that person, you know, maybe they got into church
when they were 20, and we're coming to church when we're 40, and they've been faithfully
serving God for two decades, I guarantee you that person, though physically younger
than you, might have something that they could share with you that will, you know, benefit you.
They could probably teach you something, you know, and so we should definitely
honor those as well, you know, our physical elders, the hoary head, but also the spiritual elders
as well, those that have lived longer for the Lord.
And, of course, the kind of one I want to focus in on tonight is
that we are to honor men of God. We should honor men of God. And, you know,
as somebody who's ordained, you know, you kind of, you don't want to get up and
plead your own case, you know, and I don't feel like I have to, but sometimes
you just got to preach things to kind of get it off your chest a little bit, and I, you know,
I know of a man, a pastor up in Washington recently
that had his church, you know, the deacons there, didn't even meet the qualifications
of deacons, you know, were trying to overthrow him and run him out, and he was
a good, he's a good man who loves the Lord and wants to serve God, you know, and he's breathing
a little bit of life into what honestly is a dead church, you know, there's no soul winning
and it's just, it was sad, and it's unfortunate to see people
come into a church and then try to, you serve the authority
of the pastor, and it's not biblical, and we should learn
to honor men of God, you know. Now, here's the thing, it doesn't mean you have to like them.
You don't have to like them, you know, you don't have to,
you don't have to necessarily be their biggest fan, but you know what, you do have
to respect them. You do have to honor the position. You have to honor the fact
that they are the pastor, honor their decision making, honor their authority,
okay, and respect them, because if you would, go over to 1 Peter chapter 5,
1 Peter chapter 5.
The Bible says, you know, that we should honor
all men, and that we should honor the elders, and we should definitely
honor the men of God in our lives, and
you know, when we don't do that, when we disrespect people, whether it's a pastor
or a man of God, whatever, whether it's our parents, whether it's a boss,
whether it's a civil authority, when we're not
honoring them, when we're disobeying, what we're really doing is we are
rebelling. You know, disrespect is basically just a form
of rebellion. It shows a lack of submission, okay.
The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 5, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves
unto the elder. You know, the younger should submit to the elder.
And here's the thing, you know, going back to what I was saying about how, you know,
we have spiritual elders that might have spiritual truths that they've learned,
you know, and that's true, but at the same time, you know, if we're an older
person, if somebody has lived longer than us, you know, there's a very good chance that they have
experiences, maybe even if it's not in the church, you know, maybe they haven't
been a Christian as long as somebody who's younger than them, but they have lived life
longer, okay, and there's a wisdom that comes through just living,
you know, just having lived life and gone through experiences, you know,
we should respect the elder in that regard. If the people have physically,
now again, you know, the Bible says we should respect the hoary head if it be
found in the way of righteousness. You know, there's plenty of, you know,
like the saying goes, there's no fool like an old fool, right. People who should have
know better who don't. You know, people, you know, obviously there's
exceptions, you know, the derelict guy, you know, that just wasted his whole life,
you know, he really doesn't have, all he can tell you is what not to do, right.
But look, generally speaking, people that have lived
longer, they have life experience, they have life wisdom, wisdom that
only comes through living, and we should, you know, if we're smart, we'll
give respect to that, we'll honor that, we'll try to
learn from that, right. He's saying, look, you can submit yourselves
unto the elder, listen to what they have to say. Yea, all of you be subject one to
another and be clothed with humility. And that's really what it comes down to,
isn't it, it's humility. It takes humility to, you know, submit to another person,
to respect another person, to give them place.
The Bible says, well, we'll come back to 1 Peter 5, we're going to come back later
if we want to keep something there. But go to,
well I already read that, let's go to Hebrews
chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13. You know, we are
to submit to, we are to honor, we are to obey
the God-ordained authorities in our life. You know, God
has given ordained leadership in our lives, you know,
in the civil government, through our parents, in the local church,
you know, and we should submit to those things. Now obviously every one of those authorities
has a limited scope, right. Parents
have a limited scope of time that they are the authority in their child's life.
Once those children are married, they're no longer the authority in that life. Now they are
still an elder that should be respected, right, and still has plenty that they could teach
their, you know, their newlywed children,
you know, when it comes to things like child rearing and so on and so forth. But again, it's a limited scope, isn't it.
You know, the civil authority has a limited scope of authority in our lives.
They can't ask us to do things that would, you know, cause us to break God's law.
And in the local church, you know, the leadership has a limited scope of authority.
You know, we can't, you know, dictate
every little thing in your life. You know, sorry, you bought the wrong color
car, you know, or whatever. You know, these crazy things, we don't want
to go there with that. But again, the point is this, is that
God has still ordained authorities in our lives, and we ought to obey them, we ought to
respect them. You're there, and again, this would include
church leadership, wouldn't it. And that's kind of the one I want to focus in a little bit
this evening. It says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17,
obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves
for they watch for your souls. Now, who's watching
for your soul? Is it the police officer? No.
It's not. Alright. He's watching out for,
you know, making sure no one's breaking, he's looking out for law and order.
Okay. The person who's looking out for your soul
and that is going to give an account, right, is
the church leadership, right. They're the ones that are going to give an account for
their leadership, for their leading. That they do it,
it says, as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy
and not with grief. You know,
we don't want to get to, you know, the judgment, you know, and stand before
God one day and have, you know, our leadership
going, I tried to warn them. I told them, you know,
what I did anyway. That would be a grief. You know, like, I tried,
you know, I told them what the Bible says. You know, we want to say, yeah,
I told them what the Bible says and they did it. That would be a joy, right.
But notice there at the end it says, for that is unprofitable for who?
For you. So here's the thing, you know, and this goes beyond
church leadership. You can apply this anywhere. You know, if we don't want to submit,
if we don't want to have humility, if we don't want to honor and respect the God-ordained authorities
in our lives, we're the ones that are going to suffer. You know, people
want to, you know, get angry and quit the church and all that
preacher, whatever, and go, you know, here's the thing, church is going to keep
going. I'm going to still, I'm going to keep living for the Lord. You know,
I'm going to keep serving God. The rest of us that are here, we're going to keep right on going. We're going to have a blessed life.
You know, but the person that, you know,
you can apply this to, you know, and then the home. You know,
kids get older and they think, well, I just, I don't like the rules anymore. They're just so hard
on me. I'm out of here. I'm going to take off and just go be my own man or
whatever. You know, that's not going to be profitable
for you. You know, in all likelihood, you're in for a rude
awakening. You know, that life isn't as easy as it looks. You know,
it's real easy when you're not the one that has to pay the bills and
do the laundry and whatever, you know, and take care of everything.
It's a lot harder when you're on your own. So it would be unprofitable
for us. Look, it's unprofitable for us when we disobey, when we disregard
the authorities that God has given us. And here specifically
in Hebrews 3, he's talking about the fact that we should obey them that have the rule
over us and we should submit to them because they watch for our souls.
What this is showing us is that there is a chain
of command in the local church. And it's a very short one, by the way.
It's basically God and then the pastor.
I mentioned this earlier in my sermon this morning that it's not
a deacon-led church. Of course, I, being
a deacon, have to keep that in mind as well. I'm, of course,
acting in the authority of Pastor Anderson, but he is the ultimate authority. He's the one
that's going to make decisions. He can veto and override any decisions that I make.
But there is a chain of command in the local church and it's the Lord.
We follow the man of God as he follows Christ.
Ultimately, this is the supreme authority.
And as long as church leadership is operating within
the parameters laid out in this book, they should be followed. They should be respected
and they should be honored and they should be obeyed. They should be
listened to.
And the reason why we know that is true is
because of the fact that not just anybody gets to do that. Not just anybody can just step up
and say, I'm the pastor now. I'm the deacon. I'm just going to take over this position.
You have to meet certain qualifications.
And that's because part of that job is
ruling in the house of God. We know, if you would, are you still
in 1 Peter? Stay there in chapter 5. If you're not there, go there. But in
1 Timothy 3, we read that the pastor must be one that ruleth
well his own house, having his children in subjection.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care
of the church of God? So what is the care of the church of God there?
It's ruling in the house of God. If a man know not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care of the church of God?
So the pastor's job is to care for the church. He does that through ruling.
Through being a position of authority there.
And somebody who's supposed to be listened to and obeyed. Somebody who's going to
call the shots. Somebody's going to say, this is the way it is.
We're going to teach this doctrine. We're not going to teach that doctrine. We're going to practice
this. We're not going to practice that. There's a decision to be made.
Ultimately, he's the one that has the final say so.
And people don't like this today. And people don't like to be
told that they have to obey certain people. Whether it's in the church,
in a job, in a marriage,
as a child, in so many of these different areas.
What we need to understand, if we don't like this, is that disrespect
and dishonor and rebellion, God doesn't just turn
a blind eye to that. There are consequences for that in our lives.
There are consequences. If you're there in 1 Peter 5,
look at verse 5, it says, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject to one another and be clothed with humility.
Right? Takes humility. Goes on and says, for God resisteth the proud.
So there's your motivation. To be a humble person.
And to be somebody who submits themselves unto the elder.
Who submits to their, you know, their parents.
Who submit to the God-ordained authority in their life.
There's your motivation. Because if we don't do that, God's not just going to go,
oh well, I guess that's the way they want it. No, God's going to resist you.
Myles says that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble.
You know, and I don't know about you, but I need all the grace I can get.
So, and I believe that God gives,
like it says, He gives grace to the humble.
And grace, you know, I think if a person
if God, because God knows the heart, you know, God can see the heart
and knows the motives. And if we make mistakes, if we do things wrong,
if we sin or something like that, I think God is more likely to be
lenient with a person. I'm not saying there won't be consequences, but I'm saying God
will be more lenient with a person who in the past has showed that kind of
humility. Who in the past, you know, has submitted unto the elder.
Who in the past has submitted to the God-ordained authorities. You know, if the
person's doing that, you know, and not fighting that,
and if they mess up in some other area, you know, God might go a little easier
on you. And anyone who's disciplining their children
properly knows, you know, probably knows what I'm talking about.
You know, when my kids need to be dealt with, you know,
a big part of how it's going to go is their attitude. I mean, it's going to
happen. You know, it's time for spanking. Spanking's going to get handed out.
Right? But here's the thing. Based on the way they react,
you know, that might change the degree of the spanking. Right?
The big thing with us is if you scream, you get more.
And once they get that through their little brain, you know, if I scream, I
get more. What does that mean? Okay, keep my mouth shut. And then
it's a little bit easier. Right? And they go, oh, okay. It's amazing how quickly they just
whoop. They get quiet. And I go, see? You can do it.
You know, I know it's possible. Right? But if they react, if they
rebel, ah, you know, and they start, you know, literally
growling at you. Grrr.
You know, then it's like, oh, it's a fight now. Right? Well,
the boss is always going to win. You know, I've got to win that battle. I'm just using it as an
example for the fact that, you know, in our relationship with God, you know, God
will probably go, will go easier on us. He will give grace unto the humble.
You know, when we need mercy, when we need grace from the Lord,
He might go, well, let's look at your track record with the other authorities in your life.
You know, because ultimately God is an authority. Right? And we're appealing to the highest authority
to be grace, you know, merciful and show grace unto me. Well, how have you been with the other ones
that I've put in your life? And if we're one that has submitted, if we're one that
has respected and honored the other God-dained authorities in our life, there's a good chance
that God's going to say, you know what? I was going to do this, but we'll tone it down a little bit. You know,
if you scream, you get more. Go over to Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3. So this is an important sermon because of the fact that, you know,
we do have God-ordained authority in our life. You know, in
all these different areas that I've been talking about, you know, we're in our different relationships,
the church, at work, marriages, in houses, as children, so on and so forth.
And if we don't want to get this idea that we can,
you know, rebel without consequences, there are consequences. And one of them is that God
is going to resist us. Look at Romans chapter 3 verse 1. It says,
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power
but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever there resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance
of God. And they, I think I
have you in Romans 3. You're supposed to be in Romans 13, sorry. Romans 13. And they that
resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
So again, he's talking about the fact that the higher powers
are ordained of God. And he's referring to, you know, specifically civil authorities.
And he's saying that if we resist that power, we are resisting
God. You know, and we can apply that to any,
any authority in our life.
If you're resisting your parents, you're resisting your God-ordained
authority. You're resisting God. If you're resisting your masters, your employers,
you're resisting God. If you're resisting the civil authorities, you're resisting God.
If you're resisting the leadership within the church, you are resisting
God. Right? That's what it says there. It's saying there is no power but
of God. And the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever
therefore resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God.
The authority that God had ordained. And again,
there's consequences for that resistance. And it's not that whosoever resisted the ordinance,
resists God, and that's just too bad, I guess. Too bad for God.
No, it says there, and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation.
Look at that again at the end of verse 2.
And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Right? Now is this talking about losing your salvation? No.
Because we understand that you cannot lose your salvation.
But that we can be condemned, right? Damned.
We can have judgment come into our life. That's what he's talking about here.
Is that if we resist this power, you know what? No grace then. God's gonna resist
you. And instead he's going to resist you and he's going to fight you. And there's going to
be damnation. You're going to suffer loss because of it.
So there's always a result, there's always
you know, consequences for resisting the God-ordained authority of our lives. Go to
2 Kings chapter 2. This is always
a cool story to bring up when we're talking about this type of thing, about honoring the man
of God, honoring the authorities in our life.
The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft
and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry.
I mean that's a pretty strong statement. For God to say that rebelling is as the
sin of witchcraft? I mean the penalty for being a witch was death.
He's saying look, if you're going to rebel and go against the Lord
and go against God's commandments, you know, it's as bad as
witchcraft in his eyes. Now I'm not saying that it's a death penalty
just because you talk back or something like that, but in God's eyes it's
a wicked sin. That's what he's trying to drive home here is that it's that wicked.
Genesis chapter 3 in the Bible, for sake of time
we're just going to move on here. I mean you think about the rebellion that took, don't worry
about that brother, just don't worry about it, I got it on the camera going.
Another example of this would think about Adam and Eve.
Did they disobey? Did they resist the authority that was given to them?
Did they disobey the commandment to not even retrieve the knowledge of good and evil?
They sure did. Were there not consequences for that?
By one man's sin, death passed upon all men. We're still
dealing with that. So again, there are serious consequences
when we rebel. 2 Kings chapter 2 verse 23
and it says, and he, talking about Elisha, right, who came after
the prophet Elijah, went up from thence unto Bethel and as he
was going up, by the way, there came forth little children out of the city
and mocked him and said unto him, go up thou bald head, go up
thou bald head. So, you know, it's kind of an interesting story.
You know, where is this roving band of little children coming
from? First of all, it's like, where are your parents? How is it
there's these little kids out mocking people, right? And it says
that toward the end of verse 24, it says that there was forty and two
children of them that were attacked by this bear, as we're about to read, right?
So there was at least over forty of these kids.
So it's just like these, and it says little children, you know, and it just goes to show
you that even little children, if left to themselves,
can become rebels. And they can even be so bold
as to mock the man of God. And I'm assuming
that they knew who Elisha was. I mean, he was probably pretty well known up to this point.
Everyone kind of knew that he was going to be the runner up after
Elijah, that he was Elijah's protege. And they're saying, go up thou bald
head. So, you know, maybe he's probably
a bald guy. You know, that's not anything to mock anybody over.
But they go up there and they're so willing, you know, so bold and so brash to
mock a man of God over his appearance. That's pretty low
to just start mocking people over the way they look.
You know, that's a low thing to do to anybody.
Because here's the thing, we can all do that to one another. We can all find a flaw with
one another and go, ah ha ha, you're this, you're that, right?
But when you're willing to do that to a known man of God
like Elisha, it's like a next level of disrespect.
And we should learn to respect the man of God because there's always consequences. And we know the consequences
in this story, right? Verse 24, and he turned back and looked on them
and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two
she bears out of the wood and terror of forty and two children of them.
That's a pretty graphic story, right?
The Bible's got some wild stuff in it, you know, no pun intended, but
these bears are coming out. And it's she bears, you know, they're mad, right?
Now I don't think he killed them. It's because they tear them. Maybe they did die,
I don't know. Or maybe it was just enough for them to maybe think
mocking the man of God is not such a good idea. Making fun
of the way the man of God looks and disrespecting him is probably not the way to go in life.
This is kind of a shot across the bow for these kids maybe.
Maybe the rest of them kind of got away and thought, well I don't want to end up like
a little Billy over here with a scar down my own face.
We all know scars are cool, right? For guys we all think, I'll get a couple
of scars, that'd be awesome. Well, you know what?
This isn't the way to get them. This wasn't fun
for them. Sometimes you get that scar and it's like, yeah, I was doing this or that and it's kind of
a cool story and you're having fun doing it. But this isn't it. This is people
getting tore up in a very bad way. And for what? For the rebellion.
For a being, for mocking the man of God. And you know, I want to take time to go to number 16
but we got to move along here. Go back to Judges chapter 1.
We all know the story of Korah, Dathan and Aviram.
When they withstood Moses and they went against Moses and they wanted to
usurp his authority. That was rebellion.
They were way out of line. And we all recall that there were severe consequences
for that, weren't there? The Bible says that the earth opened up and swallowed
them and all that pertained unto them, their wives, their children,
all of their belongings, all went down alive,
excuse me, into the pit.
Look, there's consequences for rebellion in our life. Now look, just because you
back talk your parents or tell the boss
off at work or just treat the man of God poorly
or rudely, I'm not saying the earth is going to open up underneath your feet.
They're going to go in. I'm not saying some wild animal is going to come out
and attack you, but there are going to be consequences.
A lot of times those consequences are just built in to that rebellion.
God doesn't even have to do anything. The child that rebels against
their parents and doesn't listen to them, often it's because they're getting
involved in some sin and they're being told, you need to stop that. No, I'm going to do it anyway.
Well then they just suffer the consequences that come along with that sin.
I don't want to go on about that either, but look at Jude chapter 1 verse 8.
It says, likewise, in verse 8, Jude chapter 1,
likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh. What do they do?
They despise dominion and speak evil of
dignities. These people that
go on to verse 11, it says, woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily
off the air of Balaam for their reward and perished in the gainsaying
of Cori. That's referring back to Korah that we would have read about in number 16
that I reminded you of a moment ago. So what was Korah's
problem? What was his rebellion? It was the fact that
he despised dominion and spoke evil of dignities.
He despised dominion. He didn't want people having dominance.
He didn't like the fact that there was somebody that was an authority in their life.
And listen, we don't want to be that person who
because there's consequences. The authorities that are put in our life
are put there for a purpose. God has ordained those authorities
in our lives and we ought to respect that. We ought to
honor that, as the Bible says. We should respect those people and we should
respect church leadership. It's kind of the one I want to focus in a little bit.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5. I'm almost done. 1 Timothy chapter 5.
It says,
it says in verse 17,
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor.
Double honor. You know, we should be
seeing, we should be looking how we can honor them more, not less.
Not saying, well, they're only worthy of this much honor. Okay, well, whatever how much you think
that is, double it. Because that's how much they're actually worth.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor.
Being against a man of God in a church is a wicked sin.
It's wicked. And number 16,
if you haven't read that, you need to go read that. Because that's exactly a really
good story about the type of things that happen.
How wicked it really is.
We should count them worthy of double honor.
Especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle
the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward.
So again, part of that honor is that they should be paid. And that's
another sermon. Pastors should be paid. You can go to 1 Corinthians
9. Several of the pastors are escaping right now.
But the Bible does teach that pastors should be paid. And if you don't
believe that, well, that's fine.
All the pastors I know, if they don't get paid,
they'll keep pastoring and just go work a job. If that's what they need to do.
Because they're not in it for money. They're in it for the Lord. But part of that honor
is that, hey, we should support them financially.
Because it is work. You see how much I struggle up here.
It's not easy. It's not even like we can tell.
We're really having a hard time. There's a lot of preparing that goes
into it. First you've got to live it.
You've got to live what you're preaching. You've got to study. You've got to
prepare. You've got to pray. And then you've got to stand and deliver.
And that's just the preaching part of it. Forget about the fact about how
we rely on these people to counsel us, to give us advice, to guide us,
to lead us, and to watch out for our very souls.
So of course they should be worthy. Paul said, if I have sown unto you spiritual things,
is it a big deal, and I'm paraphrasing obviously, is it a big deal if I reap of you
carnal things? He's saying
whatever he's going to gain financially pales in comparison
to what he's given spiritually.
It's priceless. You can't really put a price on it. But he says there, thou shalt not muzzle the ox,
and treadeth out corn. The labor is worthy of his reward. Look at verse 19.
Against an elder receive not an accusation, but for two or three witnesses.
And this is an important one. You say, well, how do I count
my elder? How do I count my pastor? How do I count the man of God worthy of double honor?
This is a big one. This is a big one. You know, receive
not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
You know, because here's the thing. The man of God is a target.
He's a target of the devil. And he's going to have people, the devil's going to try
to bring him down. If he's doing his job and getting results,
he's got a target on his back. And the devil's going to try and attack.
Now, how is he going to do that? By trying to bring up accusations, by trying
to besmirch his character, by trying to, you know, get people
to rise up and rebel and to bring accusations against them. I mean, think
about just recently with Pastor Bruce Mejia
out in First Works, L.A., right? He was being
attacked, literally had his church bombed by the Sodomites.
Now, let's say during that process of just some person emailed the
church, emailed Fifth Word and said, hey, I don't know if you know this about Pastor Mejia,
but X, Y, and Z, why don't you look into it? You know, the Bible
says that we should even give that a second thought.
I mean, why would we? When a man of God is being attacked
like that, why would we even give that a second thought?
Because it's clear what it is. It's obvious what it is. It's just some hater
trying to bring the man of God down, right? So against
an elder, we should not receive an accusation but before two or three witnesses.
Look, if somebody ever comes to you about a man of God, a pastor, whatever, and says, hey,
did you know about so-and-so and tried to bring an accusation of it, the first thing you should say
is not, first of all, you should say something,
okay, and to that person. And what you should say is, where's your evidence?
Where's your two or three witnesses? You know, and if they don't have that, you know,
the Bible says an angry countenance driveth away
Ah, it's missing. Right, but that's how you handle people
like that, with an angry countenance. We should drive them away.
I wish I could remember the rest of that because it's really, it's so appropriate.
But look, you say, hey, where's your evidence? Oh, you don't have any?
I'm not going to listen to another word you have to say. Where is
your two or three witnesses? Oh, you don't have any? Don't talk to me about it at all.
Don't bring it up again. And look, this happens all the time.
You know, I talk to pastors, you know, I have some pastor friends and sometimes
they tell me about some of the things that they're dealing with and it's
like, well, why wasn't this church member just
rebuking this person? When they're bringing an accusation,
no evidence. When they're trying to bring down a man of God,
no witnesses. You know, that's the time to say,
hey, you need to knock it off. You know, and at that point, I probably would
go to the pastor and tell them, hey, just so you know, so-and-so is lying
about you or trying to, you know, whatever. And it
says in verse 20, them that sin rebuked before all, that
others also may fear. Now this is, verse 20
is not for all sin.
I've heard people try to say, oh, we should rebuke sin in the church.
And look, it's out there, folks. I knew a guy who went to a church. Every
service, they passed the microphone around and everybody stood up and said, I did this sin and I did that sin.
And they had like a group confessional. That's not
biblical, okay? And look, it was our job to rebuke all sin
that everybody else, that's all we would do here. Because we're all sinners.
You know, we'd all have to just, we'd just spend the whole service just airing out
our dirty laundry of what happened this last week. That's not what it's talking
about. It's talking about them that sin, meaning those that bring an
accusation against an elder without two or three witnesses, rebuke before
all that others also may fear. You know, you don't
call out just every sin, do you? But those that bring a railing
accusation against an elder, a false accusation, the Bible says should be
rebuked before all. At that point, church leaders should
say so and so has said this, this, thus and this about
an elder and it's not true. And they should be publicly rebuked
and they should be rebuked sharply so that others would learn to fear and not just
receive every little thing that they hear about some elder.
Because here's the thing, you're going to hear things about elders.
People are going to bring you stuff and try to poison you because the devil
wants to bring that man down, okay? That's, it all,
it's all connected that way.
And here's the thing, you know, why should we respect church leadership? Because of the fact that church
leadership has earned that position. It's not something that's just, you know,
handed out willy-nilly. If you're in 1 Timothy chapter 3, look
at verse 8, even the deacons, you know, such as myself, we have
a qualification, qualifications that we have to meet up to. We have
qualifications that we have to meet up to. It says in verse 8, likewise must the deacons be grave,
not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre,
holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proven, then let them
use the office of a deacon, being found blameless, even so must their wives
be grave, not slander, sober, faithful in all things.
Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, right, meaning they have never been divorced,
rule their children in their own house as well, for they that have used the office of
a deacon, well, perch themselves a good degree and great boldness
in the faith which is in Christ Jesus, okay? So here's, here's all the, and there's
the qualifications for the pastor that precede that, right? And you can read them.
And here, here's the thing. What if I didn't respect
those qualifications? What if I just said, yeah, I know the deacon, but so what?
You know, that, that wouldn't be right, would it?
Everyone in the room would probably, I would assume, would expect me to have respect
for these qualifications or step down, right?
Or say, hey, if you don't meet that, you need to step down, you need to quit. I mean, this is
what's, this is the requirements for the job. You know, we would
hold the deacons, we would hold the pastors to that standard of respecting these
qualifications, and look, if we're going to do that, and that's right, and we should,
okay? You know, there's all these, these so-called deacons
out there that aren't, don't have faithful children, that have been married multiple
times, that they don't do any of these things, okay?
They don't do the work of an evangelist. They're, they're, they're what we call
moss-backed deacons. And all they're interested in is some title
and, and then just trying to flex their muscle in the local church, and look, they are not
the authority of the church. They, they act as an authority, you know,
underneath the pastor, you know, with his best interest in mind, with his wishes in
mind, doing things that he would want, I understand that.
And I try not to go off, because I've heard about these deacons that are out there recently,
and it just, it just, it boils my blood, that people, and people
just throw that term around, they deacon, like it's just, you know, I'm a deacon,
I'm, you know, my, my aunt was a deacon, you know, here all the time, you know, my mom's
a deacon at church, like everyone just gets to be a deacon, like, and then, then when
you actually have a biblical deacon, and you try to explain that to people, they're like, oh,
I've never heard of that. Oh, I've never, I've never heard of it that way. It's like, yeah, it's a thing.
It's kind of in the Bible, you know. So,
look, you would expect the deacons, you would expect the pastors to have respect
for these qualifications, right? That should be expected. That's right. That's good.
Meaning this, that if they meet those qualifications, they are then
worthy of the respect for having met those qualifications.
And I'm not saying, you know, you gotta come wash the deacon's car
or throw roses at his feet, you know, and, you know, if you want to do that,
you know what I mean? But there should be a level of respect there.
And again, I don't feel like we have a problem with that here. I'm not saying
that at all. But it's out there. It's definitely out there.
And if we accept, if we expect
the leadership to meet a certain standard, then we should respect the fact that they have.
That's basically what I'm saying. And here's the thing, and I want to close this by saying this, is that
you know,
if we want others to respect, you know,
our God-given authority, you know, we have to respect the authorities
in our lives, right? I mean, don't we want all men to respect God?
Don't we want all men to know the Lord and to submit
to the gospel and to obey the gospel and to be saved,
right? And we would want them to show respect to the word of God
and things like that. Well, you know what? We need to do that ourselves. We need to make sure that we're
showing respect to God-given authorities in our life. And
if we want others to respect us, maybe we are that God-given authority.
Maybe we are that husband. We are that father. We are that parent. We are
that mother. We are, you know, that deacon, pastor, whatever.
We are that employer. We're that supervisor. We're somebody who has
people under our authority, and we want them to respect us.
You know, here's the thing. You got to lead by example.
You know, respect is something that has to be earned. It's not something that can just be demanded.
Now, when it's earned, once it's been earned, yeah, of course, then it can be demanded.
You will respect me because I have earned it, right? But we have to earn that respect.
We have to lead by example as these different
authorities, all right? So, again, you know, there are,
you know, the Bible does teach us that there are many people in our lives that we have
to honor, that we have to respect that leadership. And if we fail
to do that, you know, there are consequences. But, however, you know, on the flip
side of that, if we do obey, you know, if we do have respect, if we do have honor,
you know, God will bless that. You know, God will give grace, and God will help
us. Let's go ahead and pray. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the God-dained
authority in our lives. Lord, thank you for our parents. Thank you for,
Lord, our employers. Thank you for our pastors,
others who are fulfilling the roles of
your ordained leadership in our lives. Lord, I pray you'd help us to honor
them and to respect them and to treat them well. And, Lord, to understand,
Lord, that they are looking out for our best interests, Lord,
even if it's maybe not somebody that has a
specific role in our life, but maybe they're just an older Christian. Maybe they're just
an elder person who has learned through experience of life. Lord, help us to respect that.
Help us to respect the fact that we can learn from others and that
there are people in our lives that are simply looking out for us. And, Lord, even though
they don't have to, Lord, that's what they're doing. And, Lord, I pray you'd help us to respect them
and to honor them and to obey them so that we can in turn honor and obey
you. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.
Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we get go tonight. We're going to sing song number
257, Look and Live.
Song number 257.
Man, is it hot in here? Is anybody else hot?
And so-so? Alright.
I guess it's just me then.
I've a
message from the Lord, Hallelujah.
The message unto you are there.
Church recorded in His
Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that you are with me.
Look and live, look and live.
Look to Jesus, now and then.
Church recorded in
His Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that you are with me.
I've a message from the Lord,
Hallelujah.
The message unto you are there.
There's a message from the Lord, Hallelujah.
Jesus said,
it is true.
Look and live, look and live.
Look to Jesus, now and then.
Church recorded in His Word,
Hallelujah.
Church recorded in
His Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that you are with me.
Church recorded in
His Word, Hallelujah.
Look to Jesus, now and then.
Look and live, look and live.
Look to Jesus,
now and then.
Church recorded in His Word, Hallelujah.
It is only that you are with me.
I will see you how I
keep Hallelujah.
To Jesus, may we be fine.
To Jesus, may we love His name,
Hallelujah.
I trust in His name,
Hallelujah.
Look to Jesus, now and then.
Church recorded in His Word,
Hallelujah.
Thanks for coming everybody.
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