(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, well first I want to thank Pastor Jason Robinson for giving me a chance to preach. As he mentioned, we've been friends for a really long time and sometimes I think back to when I got saved because I got saved when I was 18 and I used to tell people when I first got saved and I'm going soul winning, you know, I've only been saved for a short time. I'm coming up to the point where it's like half my life, you know, because I'm turning 35 next month and it's easy. Last year actually I preached on my birthday and then this year I'm preaching on the anniversary so I guess I always come at big occasions so to speak but I just want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to preach here today and I know there's a lot of people from out of town and honestly this sermon is really more to edify the people that are here today but honestly if you live in another location you can go back and can help you appreciate the pastor that you have and the name of this sermon is a gathering shepherd not a scattering shepherd and we're here in Jeremiah chapter 23 and this is a very famous chapter that's used to preach against false pastors and false prophets and false religious people out there but I want you to notice here in verse number one of Jeremiah 23 where it says, Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. And now notice how it uses the word pastor then it says scatter the sheep of my pasture. Now what is the word that we use for someone who takes care of sheep? We use the word shepherd and what you're going to see in the Bible is that pastor and shepherd are used synonymously in the Bible. There's basically no exception to them. Obviously someone who literally takes care of sheep would be someone who's a shepherd when it refers to someone who's taking care of a group of people, saved people, it could call them pastors or shepherds and these are interchangeable because here in verse number one it says pastors but it says scatter the sheep of my pasture. Verse number two, therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people, ye have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them. Behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. And so what God is saying here in Jeremiah is that there's false pastors, false prophets, they're supposed to be feeding the people, they're supposed to be gathering the people but they're not doing that, they're actually scattering them. It says later on in the chapter he didn't send them but they ran anyway. Aren't there a lot of false pastors out there that God doesn't want them out there? They don't care what the Bible says, they've never even read the Bible cover to cover, they never even use any Bible verses, they're not being sent by God but boy they're running and spreading their message and it's spreading all over the TV and people love the Joel Osteens and all he's doing is scattering sheep, he's not gathering any sheep. He's a false prophet, he's a phony and yet most of the pastors out there are phonies. When Jesus was alive who did he preach against the most? Religious people are non-religious, religious people and if he was around today the people he would preach against are the false pastors and prophets and religions that are out there. Now turn to Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13. Now I want you to understand that when it comes to being a pastor of a church there are many different roles that you have. Quite honestly the word pastor is really one role of that job that you have. See the Bible uses the term elder, bishop and pastor. Now these are all representing the same job but there are different roles of that job. We're going to look at that here in a second and what you need to realize is that at Mountain Baptist Church your pastor has a lot of responsibilities. We're really referring to the job of being a shepherd and caring about the sheep though. Obviously there are many things that are important but I believe the most important one is just actually caring about your members, trying to feed your members. There are many things that are important but at the end of the day what you really care about is you have a man of God that actually loves you and cares about you. See the terms pastor, bishop and elder are all biblical but I think the reason why the term pastor is the one that we know is because it's the one that means the most to us. Look my son Zephaniah, I have many important roles and responsibilities toward my son but at the end of the day what he cares about the most is just that I love him, that I'm there for him, that I protect him, I help him out. Now yes as a father who my son's only a year and a half old I make a lot of mistakes. I don't have experience which is kind of what an elder refers to but at the end of the day my son cares that I actually care about him. That's the number one most important thing and when it comes to a church the most important thing is that your pastor, if he's a saved pastor, that he actually cares about you. Now obviously the true shepherd, the perfect shepherd, the great shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Hebrews 13 verse 20, Hebrews 13 verse 20, 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. Now turn to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2. So the Lord is referred to as the great shepherd. He is the perfect shepherd, he's the true shepherd. He gave us an example when he was here on earth. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ did. And when you look at the life of Jesus Christ he actually cared about the people that he was with. It's not just that he was preaching but he actually cared about those individual people. It says in 1 Peter 2 verse 25, for ye were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. And so a shepherd would be a pastor but then it uses the word bishop and this is another word for someone who has this job. Now a pastor is really the role of taking care of the sheep, feeding the sheep, loving and protecting those sheep. The job of a bishop is really being an overseer. It's more of how you run ministries and structure and organization. Now obviously when you're new at running a church that's something you're going to learn each year. You know it takes some time, it takes some experience. You know I've been running Verity Baptist Manila for less than a year and there's a lot of things I wish I could do a do over about how to structure things and organize them and that takes time but at the end of the day even if you make mistakes along the way what you really care about is your pastor actually cares about you. Isn't that the truth? And so yes you make mistakes of organizing things and running things but the question is does your pastor actually care about you? And when it uses the term pastor or shepherd this is what it's referring to. Turn to 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5. You know I feel like before I started Verity Baptist Manila and even before I moved to Verity Baptist Church I honestly feel I was pretty fortunate because even though I went to some churches that had some wrong doctrines honestly the churches I was at I felt like those pastors cared about me. You know I still pray for the pastors here in West Virginia, churches that I stopped going to in Morgantown for various reasons and I don't think they're bad people. I think they're good men of God and what I can honestly say about those men is they actually cared about me. Honestly many people are at churches and their pastors do not care about them at all because it's just a job to them. The role of being a pastor they don't care about. They just want that title and they want that full time job but they actually don't care about their members. Look when you're going to take on the job of running a church you better care about the people you're taking care of. It's not just about getting a big number of people. You actually care about those people in your church. Now one thing I can tell just from the outside looking and anybody who could tell even if they're not at this church is that your pastor actually cares about you. He's very involved in this church. He's here for this church. You can tell that he actually cares about you and at the end of the day when you're part of a local church what you need is a local man of God that actually cares about you and that's what you have here at Mountain Baptist. Now let me turn to 1 Peter 5 myself as well. There's one thing I want to highlight here. 1 Peter 5 verse 1 the Bible reads, The elders which are among you I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. And so it mentions here the elders and the elder is another term for someone who is a pastor but it represents a different role. Now the term bishop we don't really use and one reason why we don't use it is probably because the Catholics use the term bishop and we're not Catholic around here. We're not Protestant. We don't want to be linked up with that. So we don't really refer to people as a bishop but that is a biblical term if you were to say bishop Jason Robinson. That is a completely biblical term even though it's not really what we use in our modern vernacular but it is a biblical term. Then you look at the word elder and you generally wouldn't say elder Jason Robinson but that is a completely biblical term. Unfortunately the Mormons have kind of ruined that term and don't call me an elder, okay. Now you know at my church in Manila sometimes people will call me pastor Matthew Stuckey and that's not biblical for me because I'm not at that point where I have faithful children. We have our second child on the way. And honestly when people say that I don't get mad at them. But then every once in a while we'll have little kids come to church and they'll say Father Matthew and it's like wait a minute I'll let you say pastor I won't rebuke you but wait wait don't call me father. It's like that's a little bit too far. But these terms elder, bishop, pastor these are all biblical terms even though elder and bishop are not the ones we would always use. What does an elder refer to? Well it refers to someone who's got experience. Someone who's a little bit older. Obviously the more time you run a church the more elder and more experienced you are. Now before he started this church he had been a soul winner for over a decade. He had taught Sunday school and junior church and ministries and helped out on bus routes. He had experience training people. He had a lot of experience but at the same time the more you run a church the more you learn more experience. Each and every passing year he's going to get better at that. Each and every passing year someone who starts being a pastor is going to have more experience, get better at running things but at the end of the day when you start a church you can care about your members quite a bit from day one. Even if you don't have as much experience you can love and care about those church members from day one and I want you to appreciate what you have here at Mountain Baptist because you have a pastor who's going to get better at his job as time goes on, who's running things great but he's going to get even better, even get even more experience but what you have from day one is a pastor that cares about you and I don't believe that's ever going to stop. And when you're running a church that's something you can never forget no matter how big the church gets is that you actually care about your members. Verse number two says feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind. Now it mentions filthy lucre because many pastors are in it for the wages of unrighteousness. Think of Balaam, think of the filthy lucre, think of the pastors out there, the Joel Osteens that never say the word sin because he doesn't want to offend people. What he doesn't want to do is have his bank account shrink. He doesn't want to offend people because he wants money, that's what he cares about. He's for filthy lucre and the wages of unrighteousness. Verse number three, neither is being lords over God's heritage but being in samples of the flock and when the chief shepherd shall appear he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. And so the Bible refers to Jesus as the chief shepherd, the great shepherd. Obviously he's the perfect shepherd but there's one problem and that is that the Lord Jesus Christ went up to heaven 2,000 years ago. Now obviously we know he's always with us, you're saved, you're indwelled with eternal life, I understand that. He's with us as we go out soul winning but you actually need a man of God in local areas to run things and operate a church, preach the sermons, get things organized. You need local men of God and that is what the Lord ordained. Now turn to Matthew chapter nine, Matthew chapter nine. You see it's very exciting that when it comes to a church like this, when it comes to a church that puts sermons online in today's world, many people from around the world can watch those sermons and they can help change their lives. But at the end of the day what we need is local churches with local men of God. Yes it's great when people watch the sermons but what you need is a local pastor. And look I'm not saying you have to move this church but if you do not have a church you even go to you need to find a church. You need to find a local church that you can attend because you're not going to be a soul winner, you're not going to do anything for God if all you do is listen to sermons online. You need a local church. See the online ministry, the goal is that people would get edified by it and then move to their local church or get involved in their local church and honestly not spend all their time listening to sermons online. Because you need to help out that local church and if you listen to the pastors online that's what they say. They say don't just listen to the sermons online, find a church and get involved. It amazes me how many people just listen to sermons online and a church starts in their area and they don't go to that church. It's like what in the world? And some of those people are the ones that are really vocal about hey plant a church right here, I'll be here and the church comes, they come to one service and you don't see them again. And that's it. I know of multiple people that were there at our first service in Manila it's like we moved across the world to start a church in your town. You live in the same city and you made it to one church service. You're asking for a church and that's it? It's like are you kidding me? And yet that's the same story throughout the entire world. But what's so bizarre about it they don't even realize what's the most important thing is that they have a local man of God that cares about them. Now look I love the online preaching, I love Pastor Anderson, I love Pastor Jimenez, but the truth of the matter is that your pastor cares for you a lot more than Pastor Anderson or Pastor Jimenez does. You say why? He doesn't even know you. He doesn't know who you are. And so why in the world would you just listen to someone online, someone who doesn't know you, doesn't even really care about you because he doesn't know you. Look you know some of you people in here I know you, I've been friends with you for a long time, but you know some of you I'm just kind of meeting and the truth is I'm not going to care as much about you as your local man of God is going to care about you. And what you need to do is be thankful for the church you have and get involved with the ministries of that local church. And look your pastor and me we went to churches where we didn't always agree with all the methods that were done, but you know what we did? We got involved with that church and helped with those ministries even if we didn't fully agree with it. And there's people in this room that can testify that's the truth. You say why? Because whatever church I got involved with I said I just want to be a blessing and a help to that church. Now look there's no children's ministries here in terms of you know junior church and stuff like that, but both of us helped out with junior church and the children's ministries. You say why? Because we wanted to help out the pastor and the church and be a blessing to that church. And what you need to do, especially if you're a member of this church, is be a blessing to this church. Now if you go to some other church, you live elsewhere, you've driven in hours away, be a blessing to the church you're at even if it's not perfect. Still you could have a man of God that actually cares about you and that's the most important thing. In John chapter 9 it says in verse 35, and Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. There's so many people here and Jesus says I can't do this alone. There's a great multitude. I can't take care of all these people. And he was literally there at the time. It was just too many people. It says in verse number 37, then saith he unto his disciples the harvest truly is plenteous but the labors are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labors into his harvest. Now yes we often apply this to soul winning and that's a great application but one way you can apply it is just being a man of God that takes care of sheep in your local area. And that is the job that God calls you to do if you're going to be a pastor. Yeah you know if a sermon like this preached here in Fairmont, West Virginia, somebody in some other country hears it, you know, praise the Lord for that. That's great. It helps. It edifies them. But number one is just that you edify the people in your church. You try to help the people in your church. Now turn to Exodus 2, Exodus 2. And see you have to understand that when you're taking over a church, when you're running a church, you cannot just look at it as it's your job that you kind of just get through and get paid the bills. This is my eight to five job and I'm done at the end of the day. No you have to actually care about those people and be invested in those people. That's what God expects you to do because that's really the role of being a pastor or shepherd. Now it says here in Exodus chapter 2 verse 16, Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. This is literally talking about shepherds but there's a lot of symbolism here in Exodus chapter 2. And what you're seeing is a situation where people are coming to the water and they're being driven away by the shepherds until Moses basically rescues them. Verse number 18, And when they came to rule their father he said, How is it that ye are come so soon today? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock. It says an Egyptian, Moses, delivers them from the hand of the shepherds. Sadly in today's world that is what's taking place. The shepherds are basically destroying the people. The shepherds are confusing the people. The shepherds are messing people up on doctrine and they have to be rescued from these shepherds. Look I've knocked doors here in West Virginia, knocked doors of people that were very religious people. I remember knocking the door of someone who was reading a Charles Spurgeon book when I walked up. What a shock they weren't saved. You say why? Because he was a five point Calvinist teaching lordship salvation. And this woman took like an hour to get saved. She was a very nice lady and it took an hour and she kept saying during the conversation, you know, I just don't know if I'm one of the elect. And it's like, well, you can't know if you're one of the elect when you're basing your salvation based on your works. And I preached the gospel and it took a long time and she ended up getting saved. But what's taking place is she's being driven out of the hand of these evil shepherds that are lying to her. You're preaching a false gospel and people are confused. And all throughout West Virginia, what you're going to find when you knock doors, the vast majority of people are unsaved. And not only are they unsaved, but even the saved ones, they go to churches where they learn nothing. They're being fed nothing. They're learning absolutely nothing and you need a man of God to actually start a church and actually feed those people and care about those people. Turn to Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah 23. Now the truth is that honestly a saved person who's preaching a sermon, who's preaching three sermons a week, they should be able to teach me something. You say, why? Look at how thick this book is. I mean, this is infinite. If you're a saved person, look, you're in this room as a saved person, you're a man of God in this room. Look, if you get a chance to preach a sermon here for 40 minutes, you ought to be able to teach the people something. They ought to be able to learn something from your sermon because when you prepare a sermon, you learn a lot every single time. I promise you your pastor would say the same thing I do that when I prepare sermons, I'm like, man, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Wow, that's a great example I could use. You're learning as you're preparing and what I don't understand is how you sit through churches with saved pastors and they teach you nothing. You learn nothing. And most of us have been in churches like that, independent, fundamental Baptist churches where you don't learn that much from the Bible. There's a problem there when the shepherds are supposed to feed the sheep. It's like, don't you have anything in this book to feed me? I mean, I don't have the whole Bible memorized. Do you? I mean, even the chapters I have memorized, I don't understand half of them. I'm just like, I don't get everything that's going on here. So it's like, can't you teach me something if you've studied and prepared a sermon or are you just not spending much time on your sermon? Are you just reading commentaries and picking up some highlights to write a sermon but you're not actually spending real time and getting God to help you out with that sermon? I believe that's what's actually taking place. Turn back to Jeremiah 23 and let's look here at verses 1 and 2 where it says, woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. See it's bad enough that these pastors, these are not teaching anything, but there's pastors that are lying false prophets that are deceiving and what they're doing is they're scattering the sheep because if you're not gathering, you're scattering. And we're talking about being either a gathering shepherd or a scattering shepherd here today. And unfortunately, most shepherds are scattering. But quite honestly, many of these scattering shepherds on the outside, they put a smile on their face, they act really nice, and sometimes they say the right things and you think they're good. In reality, their whole goal is to actually scatter sheep and confuse sheep. Now turn to John chapter 10, John 10. And so we're going to look at three points here today of what it means to be a gathering shepherd. And the first thing is simply this, that a shepherd needs to lay down his life for his sheep. Basically, they lay down their life in terms of not caring about what they want or what helps them. Basically, they're a lover of hospitality. They're basically someone who would, as the Bible mentions in Titus and 1 Timothy, basically they lay down their life, they actually care about those members. Notice what it says in John 10 verse 9, I am the door, by me if any man in or any shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And he's contrasting basically a good shepherd himself as the perfect shepherd and a false shepherd. And see, the false shepherds, they are stealing their thieves. You say, why are they stealing? Because by lying to people, they are stealing their money. People are donating their money thinking this is a man of God, thinking it's to a real church. In reality, they're stealing money from those people because they're lying, they're not doing what they're supposed to do. Look, if you work a job and you don't do the work, you don't deserve to get paid. And if somebody's a pastor and they're not doing the work, they're not teaching and they're lying, they don't deserve to get paid. They're phonies, they're false prophets, and these false prophets, they're actually stealing. The John MacArthur's, they're stealing. You say, why? Because they're false pastors. They're stealing. They don't deserve to get paid when they're phonies and they're liars. Notice what it says here in verse number 12, and it said in verse 11, he giveth his life for the sheep. Verse 12, but he that is in hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth because he is in hireling and careth not for the sheep. If you could get this image in your head of a real man of God and a false man of God, You see, a real man of God actually cares about his sheep, and when the bad guy comes, the wolf comes, he's actually there to protect his sheep. But the false prophet, when the wolf comes, he kind of just heads the other way and says, well, you know, this is just a job to me. I don't want to get hurt. Because he doesn't actually care about those sheep. And see, Jesus is giving us an example, because he is the true shepherd and the great shepherd. And see, a true shepherd is supposed to lay down his life for the sheep. Come to John 15, John 15. And see, when you really think about what he was saying there about seeing the wolf coming, think of a wolf as a false prophet. See, when it comes to a church like this, if your pastor sees the wolf coming, what does he do? He warns you about the wolf. He tells you, hey, you know what, they're a phony. They're a false prophet. They're a devil. Why don't other pastors do that? Because by preaching this sort of sermon, you're not going to get as many members or get as much money in your pocket. This sort of preaching, unfortunately, it drives away people that don't really want to live for God. Now, it doesn't drive away people that do want to live for God. But unfortunately, most people don't want to live for God. The people that do not want to live for God, but really act like they're great Christians, they outnumber us by quite a bit, don't they? And see, this sort of preaching, it will drive away the non-denominational type crowd. It will drive away the people that don't want to go soul winning. It will drive away the people that don't really want to have their toes stepped on from time to time. But here's the thing. Your pastor is not concerned about gathering a bunch of people that don't really love him. Don't really love the Lord, I mean. He wants people that actually love the Lord and want to serve God and do something with their lives. And look, here in West Virginia, I believe this church is going to grow year by year. Slowly it's going to grow, and eventually it's going to become a more flourishing church. And you know, one day, who knows what's going to happen five years down the road, ten years down the road. But unfortunately, there's not that many people that want to live for God. And when a church grows, it doesn't just go like this overnight. You know what happens when a church grows? It goes like this. It's slowly growing. Then you have ups and downs, depending on the Sunday. People are sick, people are out of town. Then you kind of go up and it's like, oh wait, a family gets kicked out for being false prophets. You never know what's going on. And then eventually it slowly gets bigger. Everybody expects a church is just going to skyrocket in growth. No, you know what really grows very quickly? Weeds grow very quickly, don't they? Is that what you want in your backyard? I mean, weeds grow really quickly, don't they? Look, churches that skyrocket in growth, they're just weeds that you need to pull out of the ground. And a non-denominational church could start right in the same area, and I promise you, it would grow faster than this church if it patterned itself after the world, because the world loves its own. But this is the church that's going to go knock the doors and get people saved, though. That's the difference. In John chapter 15, it says in verse number 12, this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Now Jesus says that, you know what, I want you to love in the same way that I've loved you, and he talks about laying down his life. Had Jesus laid down his life yet in John chapter 15? Now we know Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but he hadn't actually been killed at this point, okay? What he's trying to tell you, though, is not only is there a literal laying down your life, there's a symbolic sense as well. The Bible says that when a man gets married to a woman, the husband is to lay down his life for his wife. Basically care about her needs more than your own needs. That's what you're supposed to do. And Jesus gives an example, and he's always saying, esteem others better than yourselves, and look not on your own things, but the things of others. Basically you're laying down your life and saying, it's not about what I want, it's about what other people want. And the whole point of the Christian life is it's not about you, it's about other people. You're not meant to just gratify your flesh and make yourself happy, you're meant to try to help other people out. That is the example that Jesus gave, and when it comes to being a shepherd or a pastor, running a church, more than anything, you must be someone given to hospitality. You must be someone who's willing to lay down your life and say, I care more about helping my people than my personal needs. Some things I want to do I'm going to have to set aside. Look, if you preach three sermons a week, you're working a full-time job preaching three sermons a week that are sermons that people will learn and they'll grow and be edified. Look, it takes a while to write a sermon. If you preached a full-length sermon, you know it doesn't come in 30 minutes. There's a guy one time who ended up being a phony and a false prophet, he got kicked out of church, and he was bragging to me one time because he said he spent 15 minutes on his sermon for a preaching night. And I'm like, why would you brag about being lazy? Because when I preach 10-minute sermons, I would spend a lot of time. I'd say, man, I'm going to practice this sermon, try to make it better. It's like, I wouldn't brag about, man, I only spent 15 minutes. It's like, I hope you're lying. I hope you actually spent more time than that. But look, to preach a real sermon that's 40 minutes, 50 minutes, an hour long, it takes more than two hours to write. It takes a lot of time, and it's really hard to tell how much time it takes because it takes every single day reading the Bible for an hour and slowly gaining more knowledge. And honestly, you're thinking about those sermons during the week. Your whole life, you're just thinking about what you're preaching. It's often said about preachers that you can tell what they're preaching a few days before they preach a sermon because all they're talking about is what they're going to preach in a couple of days. And I know I'm guilty of that, that I will preach my sermons a few days ahead of time, just whatever I've been studying and preparing for the Sunday. And so you have to understand that those men of God, they're spending a lot of time. And what a shepherd needs to do is actually lay down his life for his sheep. He cares more about his members than he does his own self sometimes. Now turn in your Bible to Ezekiel chapter 3, Ezekiel chapter 3. And honestly, if you've ever really been involved in a church or worked for a church or even volunteered, it is amazing how much time it takes to make a church run and operate efficiently and effectively. It takes a lot of time. I worked at Verity Baptist Church for a couple years, and you know, I was always hoping I'd have a week where it wouldn't be that busy, but it always was busy. There was always stuff to do. You get done with the Red Op Preaching Conference, and then there's something else that takes place. There's always stuff going on, and you're always busy, and you have to realize that if you're signing up to be a pastor, you're not signing up to edify yourself. You're signing up saying, I'm willing to lay down my life for others and edify other people. You're not signing up to become famous, and if you say you want to be a pastor and your goal is to become famous on YouTube, you need to get a different job. You need to just become a member of a job instead of getting filled full of pride, because that is not the reason why you should want to be a pastor. You should want to be a pastor because you say, I want to just help in that area and start a church and just edify those people and lay down my life and give those people a church. Notice what it says in Ezekiel chapter 3, and the second point we have here today is that a shepherd needs to feed his people. Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 17, And so what God tells them is, it's your job as the watchman to send out the warning, and the people have the option if they're going to obey or disobey. Now if you don't send out the warning, then both of you are going to be guilty when they don't live a godly life and they mess up, but also you because you didn't send out the warning. But if you send out the warning and they choose not to obey, it's not your fault. The sad thing about preaching is that when you prepare sermons and there's certain people that you know need this sermon, they're struggling in this area. It's very obvious to you and to everybody else. You preach that sermon about how you need to make sure that you read the Bible every single day. You know what ends up taking place? The people that need to hear that sermon, it goes right over their head. And then the people that already read the Bible for an hour a day or really read the Bible, they say, man, thank you, pastor, I needed that sermon and I've really been kind of struggling with this recently. The people that actually need the sermons usually, they just let it go straight over their head because people don't like being rebuked. And people hear a sermon that they need to apply to their lives and it's obvious and it just goes straight over their heads. You've got a guy who hasn't been working a job for a year, living off the government and you preach a sermon on laziness and then he's like the one person that doesn't get that he's actually lazy and it goes way over his head and he doesn't apply it. But unfortunately, that's usually the way it works with preaching. What do you see with the major prophets in the Bible? God basically says preach it and they will not hearken to you. Isn't that what usually takes place? And they preach the message and few people hearken. And honestly, it can be a little bit depressing when you're a pastor or you're preaching sermons because you preach the sermons, you work for hours on that sermon, you deliver the message, you try to feed those people and the people that need to hear it, it goes straight over their head. But you know what? It doesn't matter whether they're going to listen or not, your job is to send the warning as a pastor. And see these other false pastors, they intentionally don't send the warning because they want to gather up those people that really don't want to live for God because they want to build a big church. Notice what it says in verse 20. Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die because thou hast not given him warning. He shall die in his sin and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not and he doth not sin he shall surely live because he is warned also thou hast delivered thy soul. And so what it says is that you need to send out the warning and if somebody actually harkens to it, it can deliver their soul. Now we're not talking about being delivered from going to hell, but we're talking about being delivered from a life being destroyed for making stupid choices. Now turn to Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel 33. And so what you need to understand, and this is true when you go soul winning as well, it's not your fault if people don't get saved. Look if you know how to give the gospel and you've prepared and studied, now if you don't know how to give the gospel then yeah it kind of is your fault because you need to learn how to actually explain it because otherwise they're never going to be able to get saved. But if you know how to give the gospel and you've prepared, you've got the verses memorized, you know how to explain things and you go out week after week and nobody's getting saved, you can't force people to get saved door to door. Now look the truth is that this church is not going to win as many souls of the Lord as we do in the Philippines because it's just a lot more receptive. But it does not mean that the work you're doing you're going to get less rewards because you get less saved because you're rewarded for the work you do, not based on the souls that you get saved. And so if you go soul winning for five hours this week, if you went out yesterday for three hours or four hours and nobody got saved, you did your job because your job is to send out the warning. And you can't help it if the person who opens up the door is a hardcore atheist. You can't help it if the person who opens the door is just this die in the wool Pentecostal that's never going to believe and is speaking in tongues while you open the door. Look, yeah they're not going to get saved. It's not your fault. But at least you're sending out the warning. That is what your job is, is to send out the warning. It's the same with preaching sermons. You send out the warning and it's not your fault if people just in their free will decide, you know what, I don't care what the preaching says. I don't care what he says. I'm still going to date an unbeliever because I want to. I'm still going to drink alcohol on the weekends because that's what I want to do. You can't help it if you preach a sermon exactly on that. You make it clear to them and they just choose to let it go over their head. But you know, you can't help it if you don't even send out any warnings. I was in Guyana for about two weeks, a long time ago, a few years back. And I remember, you know, I ran into some people that were not Christians and I remember one person in particular, although a few people said the same thing. And this person said that they weren't a Christian. They're a hairy Christian. I think it's a type of Hinduism. And they said, you know what, I'm not a Christian, but they said, you know, there's one Christian I really like. He said, I love Joel Osteen. And you know what, what's funny is that I heard a few other people mention Joel Osteen as well, people that were not Christian, and they love Joel Osteen. Now the name T.D. Jakes also came up a few times, but Joel Osteen, you literally could hear him. You're walking by. You could hear him on the radio. Man, these people that are not Christians, they love Joel Osteen. It's funny because they wouldn't love me very much. They wouldn't love your pastor very much, but they love Joel Osteen. But it's funny because the people that actually love God, they're not going to love Joel Osteen. They're not going to love T.D. Jakes. You know, the reason why people love Joel Osteen is because he never offends anyone. He never sends out any warnings. He's just trying to please the people. But see, your job as a pastor is to send out the warning. It's not your fault if somebody gets offended and leaves this place because, you know what, they just didn't want to hear the message. Your number one job is to just send out the warning. Now obviously, we need to try to send it out in the right way. I'm not saying being a jerk to people. Obviously you preach sermons, you want to be bold and yet be gentle at the same time. There's a way to say things. But at the same time, some people will walk out of here no matter how you say it. Because of what you said, they will leave no matter what, and that is not the pastor's fault when that takes place. The truth is when you're preaching hard sermons, you're doing lots of soul winning, you have a church that takes strong stands, your church growth, it's going to be slow and steady. It's going to be difficult. It's the same with our church in the Philippines. We get lots saved, but our church growth, it's difficult. You say, why? Because most people don't want to live for God. It's the same in any country. It's the same in any location. That's just the way it is. But it's not our fault as long as we're sending out the warning and doing what the Bible tells us to do. Remember in Ezekiel 33, let me just read to you in Jeremiah 23 real quickly where it says, And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more nor nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. And see what he says is I'm going to set up shepherds and they are going to feed the people. Notice what it says in Ezekiel 33 verse one. Again the word of the Lord came on to me saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchman, if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people, then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. Look, if you warn somebody, hey, the building you're in is on fire right now. You need to get out. And they choose not to get out and just burn to death, that's not your fault. Look, if you're warning somebody that, hey, you know what, a sword's coming to get you, and they just choose not to listen and they get destroyed by that sword, that is their fault. But if you're a pastor and you don't warn people, especially when you know that they need that warning, that is your fault. It is your job to send out the warning and it is their freewill choice. Will they believe and apply it to their life or will they choose not to apply it to their life? Verse number five. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning. His blood shall be upon him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth and warn them from me. And the Bible speaks about someone who's a watchman and sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet. You know why God uses that example? Because it happens all the time. There are people that are meant to be watchmen, they're pastors. And even in the IFB realm that see the problems, they know what the Bible says, but they don't preach it. Look, there are people and IFB pastors out there and they know what they need to preach and they choose not to preach it. Why? Because they're not worried about feeding the people that they have. They're worried about just gathering lots of people. And what they're actually doing is scattering sheep. Now they're gathering wolves and false prophets and phonies and people that don't want to live for the Lord, but they're actually scattering the sheep that actually want to live for the Lord. Now turn in your Bible to Ezekiel 34. Now let me explain to you a misconception about what hard preaching is, because when you're in a movement like this or a like-minded church, it can be kind of confusing what hard preaching is. Because within a church like this, preaching about the wickedness of the LGBT, that's not really hard preaching. You say, why is that not hard preaching? Because everybody agrees with that in this room. Everybody agrees. You know what the hard preaching is? How about that sermon about husbands need to love their wives? That can be some hard preaching. You say, why? Because it's not easy all the time to lay down your life. A sermon about how wives need to submit to their husbands, that can be some pretty hard preaching. Yes, it's hard preaching in the general world, preaching against the wickedness that's out there, but it's like, man, if people can't figure out the wickedness out there, I don't know what to do with them. And a church like this, honestly, what really feeds the people in the real hard preaching are the ones that can kind of step on your toes sometimes. That's the real hard preaching. You say, why is that hard preaching? Because a sermon against the LGBT will not make anybody leave this church. But a sermon that might step on your toes, that might make you leave. See, everybody loves hard preaching when it doesn't apply to them. Isn't that true? But when the sermon comes down and hits home a little bit and you're a little bit guilty, that's when you start getting a little bit mad and frustrated. And see, the truth is, I've listened to plenty of preaching from this church, and he preaches some sermons that are going to step on your individual toes. That's called hard preaching, and that's actually called a pastor that actually cares about you, because he's feeding you with what you need. Yes, we need the sermons against the false religions. We don't shy away from it, but that's not what this whole ministry is built on, because the real hard preaching, what really feeds the people, are those sermons that will step on your toes. And look, the Word of God will step on anybody's toes from time to time. If your preacher never steps on your toes, you do not have a gathering shepherd. You have a scattering shepherd. Look, when I was at Verity, there were plenty of times where the hammer came down right on my toe, and I'm like, ouch, that one got me. Look, the truth is that if your pastor actually cares about you, he will preach things that offend you, because he's more worried about you getting right with God than he is about, oh, no, they might get mad and leave the church. He says, you know what, I'm going to preach those sermons that are a little bit uncomfortable that I don't really like preaching, because those sermons aren't fun to preach. Look, it is not fun to preach a sermon when you know it could offend certain people, and this might make them leave. Sometimes I preach something, and I realize in my head, hey, this is going to offend a few people in this church very possibly, and I hope they're willing to apply it to their life. But the reality is, whether or not people are going to just flee and get offended, that is not your fault. Your job as the pastor is to warn, and you should be thankful you have a man of God who's willing to preach the sermons that sometimes they hit a little bit close to home, because those are the sermons that help you actually change your life. Notice what it says here in Ezekiel 34, verse 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds. Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? He eat the fat, and he clothe you with the wool. He kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the flock. See, there are pastors and false shepherds. They are living off their sheep. They're feeding off their sheep. They're getting that donation money. They're going to the outback and these fancy places. They're living off their sheep, and they love it. They love to do that. And they're not preaching the truth, because they don't care if you get devoured by the wolf. It doesn't matter if you get devoured by the wolf as long as you're sending in your tithe money. It doesn't matter if your life is destroyed. Hey, your marriage is destroyed, but you still got that job. You're still tithing money each week. You know, I'm happy. That is the reality. And if these false pastors would be honest, that is what the words coming out of their mouth would actually be, because that's the truth. Verse number four, The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd. And they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill, yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. So the reality is that all of us, our lives will fall apart without a good church. We need a church where we have the preaching that changes our lives. We have the fellowship. And quite honestly, there are people out there, their lives are broken, as the Bible says here. They are searching for something. They need help. And quite honestly, they need a man of God to help them keep their lives on track. Every single one of us, our lives will go off the rails without a church teaching us right and wrong and edifying us and motivating us to read the Bible and to live for God. And the reality is that at most churches, you're basically starving to death all week. You come to church, and then you get fed nothing. The sad reality is most Christians don't read the Bible. The truth is most people don't really read the Bible that much. And the truth is most people rely on their churches to kind of jumpstart them because they're dying spiritually. But unfortunately, they come to church, and they learn nothing usually. But that is not the case at Mountain Baptist Church, is it? Don't you come to this church and learn things every single week? You get motivated to live for God. If you've been here for a year or two years, I promise you, you know of areas of your life you're changing because of this church. Look, never forget that. And look, when you get used to a church, the excitement's gone. This church has been around two years. You know, the first month it was exciting, the first two months it was exciting. Or you just moved here and it's exciting. Hey, do not forget how great this church is once the excitement wears off. Because the excitement will always wear off. Look, when I moved to Verity Baptist, it was super exciting for a couple months, and that excitement wears off. And then you have to remember how great the church you have actually is. You have to remember how great that church is and how it's making changes in your life because the excitement will wear off eventually. Turn to Nahum chapter 3, Nahum chapter 3. And honestly, some of these passages in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, you know, honestly they would have a lot more meaning if we just slowed down and actually thought about what God is saying. Just imagine a shepherd who's supposed to protect his sheep, and then a wolf comes and they just run the other direction. That is what the false prophets actually think about you. But sadly, that is what a lot of saved IFB pastors think about you as well. That's pretty sad. That when the wolf comes, they actually just say, you know what, I don't really care about my sheep anyway. This is just a job to me. I'm just here to make a little bit of money. Notice what it says in Numbers, Nahum, Nahum chapter 3 verse 18. Nahum chapter 3 verse 18, Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria. Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust. Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. Throughout this country, even though this is probably the country with the most soul winning and the most great churches, sadly most people, they live in areas and they're scattered upon the mountains. Look, before Mountain Baptist Church started, there's a bunch of people scattered upon the mountains with no church to go to. Look, and sadly throughout this country, throughout this world, people are there and they would live for God if they just had a shepherd that cared about them, but there is no shepherd that's willing to lay down their life and to feed the sheep. Turn in your Bible to 1 Samuel 17, 1 Samuel 17, and so the first point we had here tonight was that a shepherd, a good shepherd is supposed to lay down his life for a sheep in all areas of his life. He's supposed to feed the sheep, but the last thing I want you to realize is that a shepherd needs to make sure the sheep are okay or protected even if he's not around, okay? Notice what it says in 1 Samuel 17, and I understand 1 Samuel 17 is probably the best chapter of the Bible. It's the most exciting, the David versus Goliath chapter, but we're going to look at some kind of forgotten verses here in 1 Samuel before he goes and he fights Goliath. Verse number 12, now David was a son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons, and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next onto him Abinadab and the third Shema. And David was the youngest, and the three eldest followed Saul. So basically, before this battle takes place, David does not go to this battle. The three eldest, they go to fight the battle, and David is just staying at home. You say, why is David just staying at home? Well, David had a more important job to do than go fight this battle. You say, what was more important? Verse number 15, but David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. Now yes, we're talking about being a shepherd. We're talking about running a church and sheep. But there's symbolism used here in 1 Samuel 17. You say, why is this more important than killing Goliath? Because this is the job that David was given. David had not been given the job to kill Goliath at this time. His job was to take care of those sheep. And he said, I'm not going to leave the sheep to fight some battle, because what I was told to do, what my job was to do, was actually just take care of these sheep. Notice verse number 16, and the Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented himself 40 days. And Jesse said unto David his son, take now for thy brethren an eaf of this parched corn and these ten loaves, and run to the camp of thy brethren, and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of the thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge. So basically, Jesse tells his son, I want you to leave the sheep now. I want you to go to the battle. But he says, I want you to basically help supply them for the battle. Now what actually takes place is David gets to the battle, and it's so exciting that he has to get involved. It's kind of one of those things where you see that something's not getting done, because nobody's willing to fight Goliath. And David gets there, and he says, man, I'm going to fight this battle, because nobody else is doing that. But he goes, and he's just there to supply his brethren. But I want you to notice what it says here in verse 19. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines, and David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper. Notice how before David kills Goliath, he leaves the sheep with a keeper? You say, why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? What about the sheep that you supposedly care about in your local area? Why would you leave those sheep to fight a more important battle? Look, whatever God has you doing, that is the important battle you need to fight. And look, it's important no matter where the church is, no matter how big the church is, you just take care of the sheep you have. Look, what I believe is that David was a man who just really looked at his responsibilities and he took them seriously. See, that's what you always see with David in the Bible. Actually, go back to 1 Samuel 16, and you'll see the same thing. 1 Samuel 16 is your turn to 1 Samuel 16. Let me read you in Zechariah 11, verse 17. See, the Bible speaks about someone who would leave the flock, leave the sheep, as being a wicked thing. You do not leave the flock to fight some more important battle. Notice what it says in 1 Samuel 16, verse 1. And so what's taking place in 1 Samuel 16 is a king is being selected. And so Samuel's going to select a king, and it's going to be one of Jesse's sons. Now, notice what it says in verse 11. So basically, Samuel's selecting a king, and David says, You know what? I've got something more important to do than possibly becoming the king. What's more important? Well, I've got to take care of the sheep. That's the job I've been given. See, every other son goes to the battle, and they don't get selected to be the king. They all go to be selected where they're selecting a king, and David does not go because he's actually taking care of the sheep. Why? That is his job he was given. You say, Brother Stuckey, you know, man, I work this job, and I don't make that much money. It doesn't matter what your job is. Knowing your boss is the Lord, you take that job seriously. Whatever your job is, you take it seriously. And if God can trust you with something small, then he might give you the opportunity for something large. But before David fought Goliath, in 1 Samuel 16, 1 Samuel 17, he's just taking care of the sheep. You say, Why? Because that's an important job. That's the job he's been given. Look, David was not trying to lift himself up. Notice what it says in verse number 12. Because notice at the end of verse 11, And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. See, God saw someone that cared about his job that he was given. He says that's the guy, because this is not a guy trying to lift himself up full of pride. What's funny is his brother in the next chapter accuses him of that very thing. He says basically, you know, You're supposed to be keeping the sheep. What are you doing? You're trying to lift yourself up. He's doing the exact opposite. You know, when you decide to live for God, people will literally accuse you of the exact opposite thing of what you're doing. You're trying to just live for God and, you know, be a devoted follower of God and serve God. And people will accuse you of being prideful and lifted up when you're actually the exact opposite of that. But if you notice David, his whole life, all he was doing is just taking care of those sheep. And see, when it comes to a pastor, the most important thing is that he actually cares about the members that he has. He's actually there for these members. He's actually laying down his life for you. He's actually feeding you. And he's actually making sure you're taken care of throughout the week and throughout your entire lives. Now, look, obviously, you know, your pastor's a sought-after preacher. He preaches great sermons. And quite honestly, though, I've been very impressed because even though he does speak at various churches from time to time, what he's most concerned about is the people in this room. And you that are a member here at Verity Baptist, or not Verity Baptist, but you here at Mountain Baptist Church, you are well aware of that. You know that your pastor actually really cares about you. And all he's really concerned about is the sheep that he's given him. You know, maybe down the road this church will grow and there'll be church plants and things like that. But right now, what is he concerned about? Just take care of the sheep that we have here. And you know what? If God blesses us, we'll grow and he'll give us more sheep. But the most important thing is just taking care of the sheep you have. And when you look at the roles of being a pastor, bishop, or elder, yeah, you know what? Having the experience of being an elder, that's very important. You need experience and not be a novice before you start the church. But honestly, experience is gonna grow every single year. When it comes to overseeing things and being a bishop, if you've been a manager at a company, you probably have experience of running things and that will help out. But quite honestly, you start a church and there's so many ministries going on, it's gonna take time to be structured and organized. But when you start out, you need to care about those sheep. But when you get better at these other things and your church grows, you must not forget the first thing, and that is to actually just care about the sheep you've been given. And you that are members here, you should be thankful that you have a man of God and he actually cares and loves you and you've got a great church here at Mountain Baptist Church. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and help all of us apply this sermon to our lives. You know, help me as I run a church to apply this to actually care about the members that we have and to love them, God, and help your pastor continue to, help the pastor here at Mountain Baptist Church continue to love his members and care about them and help the members here, God, realize what a great church they have here at Mountain Baptist Church. And others that are in this room and maybe visiting from other places, God, help them to just be a blessing to their churches and do whatever they can to serve that church, God, and help that church out. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.