Shepherding - Brokenness 06-16-2021 — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:00 Introduction and Review of Shepherding

And always, with absolute certain dependency upon the king of kings and the lord of lords. We, would never want in any way to be presumptuous before you. Although I have to confess father, I'm so often that. Instead father, we'd like to begin by just casting ourselves on you and giving you this hour. Let this hour be your hour, your hour of instruction, your hour of teaching, of conversation, of discussion.

And father, if that could be done so that you would illuminate our souls, allow us to maybe hear something that is put in just a certain way, Give us insight into your... For your church and for your body so that each individual part does its share so that we might grow into the maturity of our head no longer being tossed about by every wind of doctrine or being really fooled by the cunning craftiness of individuals. But rather, we would be fruitful and we would bring glory, maximum glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray in his name. Amen.

Alright. Well, last week we had a lot of ground to cover. And just to help make sure we're all on on the same sort of proverbial page, The first series of six sessions we did or whatever it was really was just to talk about the heart of the shepherd because I I would think that we we need to know that heart whether we are an elder or not, we're still going to need to shepherd. And I think all of us could perhaps agree with that statement. We shepherd somebody whether you're a teen, a young adult, middle age or older, we shepherd somebody.

We shepherd our wives, we shepherd our children, we shepherd our grandchildren, we shepherd the assembly even in an unofficial capacity. Women shepherd women, women shepherd girls. And so there's tremendous importance to understand just the shepherd part of life. And that was our focus. And so we began to look at the Lord Jesus and we said, how do you think...

What do you think about shepherding? How do you view it? What's your philosophy? Then what we did was we sort of took a turn on the beginning of the seconds... Second series and we began to say, alright, shepherding is important but how does that really relate to the elders in the assembly?

And what do they need to do or to think and how do they do? And so we began a little being we launched into this discussion by first of all looking at at the gift set of Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four is a very interesting passage because it seems to me that those gift those individuals who are gifts to the church seem to have a very unique or I shouldn't say unique but perhaps unusual function. For example, the apostles and prophets are laying the foundation. No one else just said to lay the foundation.

These guys are said to lay the foundation and that makes sense because the new revelation of God, the mystery of God is now revealed as Paul says in Ephesians three through him, an apostle. And so we can kind of grasp that that okay, they have unique function. Well, does that mean that these other gifted individuals such as the evangelist or this shepherd or teacher have the same kind of motif? Are they for a specific role? And it appears that their role is defined in the next verse which is verse 12.

That they might equip the saints to do the work of the ministry and so that the saints then become solidified so that they are not doctrinally thrown off course and not even fooled by individuals who want to take advantage of them. But rather there's the maturing as the truth is spoken in love so that the body which seems to be small can grow into an adult sized body that matches the dimension of the head of Jesus Christ. And when that's done, what you will find is a tremendous stability and maturity so that every joint actually is functioning. I was thinking about the number of joints in the bible and I lost count after about 300 or so. And and, you know, every joint should be being exercised and put through its range of motion and its utility.

And as each joint does its share, there comes a growth that come... That comes from God himself, from Jesus Christ. And so these sort of gifted gifted gift set of individuals have a unique role. Now if you are a fan of Bill McDonald, he has a very nice chart of this in his commentary and it's sort of a exponential increasing chart that shows the model of really growth for the body of Christ and and for the body of Christ in other locations. And so so this is something we had to consider because we wanna make a distinction between that and the elder.

Now, it is clear that the elder is told to, as Peter says, shepherd the flock of God. But does that mean that we need to have gifted individuals like Ephesians four eleven? Do we need that kind of shepherd teacher only? I don't think so. I don't think so at all because it seems like if that were true, then why would one of the qualifications say apt to teach?

I mean, you wouldn't have to say that if that person was a pastor slash teacher. So that doesn't make any sense. So it seems to me the elder can have a differing gift, but he needs to do the work of shepherding. Kinda like me. I'm not an evangelist, but I need to do the work of an evangelist.

Evangelist. What do you do? Well, ideally, you take those who maybe are gifted shepherds and bring them in to teach and to explain and to help get the body ready to do their work. And then those who learn that then are able to teach others also according to second Timothy two two. And then internally, you start to train your own shepherds.

So that's sort of the model that I think is being expressed. But getting back to the elders, they learn about shepherding which is why we started with the attitude, the thinking of the shepherd. When we went to first Peter five, we saw there were really one major command, shepherd the flock of God. And then and then it identified this word overseers, one who gives attention, alertness to the whole dynamic. And what we found there was that this is a role that requires hands on effort but also a role that requires a sort of administrative sort of take a step back and look over the whole field effort.

There's a there's a dual dual role and those words come out in the New Testament as Episcopas as well as overseer. Episcopas... Excuse me. Episcopas and then as the word elder and and the second word elder. And the idea here is that there is a a little bit of maturity in the role as you oversee the flock.

Overseeing the flock will require sometimes hands on in in in elbow grease work and sometimes will be... It'll be necessary to delegate others in some aspects of the shepherding work. And so we have a little bit of latitude as it comes to shepherding. That's very good for the body because it's it's really unattainable to ask the elder to do all the shepherding in the assembly. That is virtually impossible.

Not to mention the fact, in some cases, it's highly inappropriate. I I could never call up a 13 year old girl and say, I'm one of the elders and why don't we go out and catch some coffee and we can talk about your spiritual life. That looks like I am a predator. And so clearly, we have to train others to do shepherding and that's that's part of what we do. We oversee.

8:41 Qualities of an Elder: Humility and Courage

You're forward in it. That's your natural passion that God gives a person. And then, of course, not as overlords, not just excuse me, an individual that would dominate. You get that flavor from Mark ten forty two when Jesus was making a statement about how the Gentiles rule. He said, no.

No. No. I want you to do it as as... Be an exemplary. I want you be an example, a tupos, a type as he says.

He says, I want you to give the shape of the original version of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd. That's what I'm after you to do. Now it doesn't mean that's the only way you shepherd. Doesn't mean that's the only way you go about... But he's given some tenants some...

How should we say facets that you don't wanna forget. Now that's our review and that may have generated questions for you and I'm happy to take some questions at this time. I have many more things to say and just in case you wonder about the future topics, if the Lord allows us tonight, we wanna walk through Acts chapter 20. And that gives us more aspects of the work of the shepherd. I wanna do that because we eventually have to talk about, well, how do you recognize the elders?

What what is the process? What is the goal? What is the process? What is the end goal? And and one of the things it says, recognize those who labor among you.

So we probably be... Ought to be very familiar with the labor and that's why I'm... I would wanna take the adjust that and look at first Peter and also acts. Then the next thing we'll talk about after that is how the elders ought to work together. And the...

Aspects are in... Not only as a unit with unity, but also with our wives. How does that work? Because each of us usually... Most most of us will be married as elders.

And how does that work in in communication? And how does that work as a... As function out there because truthfully, an elder can't be an island. The... In the guise of God, the the two are one and so they actually would work in conjunction but yet recognize us an elder.

So where do you draw the lines and how does that work out in real time? And then thirdly, just some of the real practical aspects of elder in shepherding, visitations, dealing with various complex issues. Now I haven't mentioned tonight in the curriculum anything about Ezekiel 34 or Psalm 23 or Isaiah 40. Those are other passages that give us insight into the shepherding work. But I thought it might be better if we start to turn our focus more to the local issues.

So if you have any questions, those are... That's kind of the lay questions will be answered when we get there. But I'm happy to entertain them and do the best I can with with this moment right now. Roll on. Alright.

Let's move on then. Alright. I want... I'm going to turn... If I have the privileges to share the screen, I'm going to show you a little little bit of a outline for, axe 20.

So let me get back to where I can share the screen and find it. There we go. Okay. You should see acts 20 on your screen. Is that good?

You can see that alright? Somebody raise a thumb up and we're good to go. Great. Thank you, Andy. Alright.

Let's turn to the passage. Let's read it and we'll go through it a little bit line by line. And again, we're looking at the work of the elder. Alright? So here we go.

Paul is traveling back to Jerusalem. He is ending one of his missionary journey And upon doing so, he calls for the elders of Ephesus to meet him at Meletus. Meletus is a little bit of a ways down the coastline or up from the coastline from Ephesus. And and so this is sort of a... How should I say a pretty important meeting.

Hang on. Excuse me. And the reason why it's important is because Paul had spent a large portion of time at Ephesus. Paul was there when the church was born and it was born out of a huge riot and and it was born out of some violence and so the church had a history. Paul himself had specifically commissioned individuals to service or to serve at Ephesus such as Aquila and Priscilla, they had time there.

Timothy seems to have had time there. And if we can believe church history, it appears the apostle John may have had residence there in his way... His last years of life. What a person to have in your assembly, the apostle John. I mean, he was there.

He saw it all, you know. I I I would wanna say, John, what was the what was the heartbeat of the savior when you put your head on his chest? Was it a 100 and beat... Beats per minute or a 120? You know, I just you you just had a eyewitness.

So this would be a pretty important assembly church. And so when Paul takes the time to do this, it's a pretty important moment for us. So Paul... And from Meletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. Notice they're plural.

Notice the word church is singular. And when they had come to him, he said to them, you know, from the first day that I came to Asia, he's talking about Asia Minor, and what manner I always lived among you. Now he doesn't say what that is immediately, but he'll... Excuse me. He alludes to that what it is now, but he'll expand on that later.

This is what he says. Serving the lord with all humility... Let me get my cursor here. Serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. He's referring to the on...

How the church came into existence and the riot that occurred and how the Jews were quite upset with him. How I kept back nothing that was helpful but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem knowing that the things that will happen to me there except... Knowing... Not knowing the things that will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city saying that chains and tribulations await me, but none of these things move me nor do I count my life dear to myself, sounds like Philippians, so that I might finish my race with joy and the ministry which I have received from the Lord the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Now, that's the first half of the paragraph of the passage and so I wanna look at this first half. The first thing I want you to see when we talk about an exemplary elder, Paul is modeling this. Remember, he taught these elders so what did he teach him? He taught them first by his disposition. He was a humble man.

Look at that. Verse 19, serving the Lord with all humility from the very moment I got there. I didn't waste any time to get after the work. That's something that we wanna remember as elders. We don't waste time to get after the work.

We do it and he says, and and I did it consistently in in a manner in which I always lived among you. There was no inconsistency. Now in a day like ours when we have testimonies of of inconsistencies in people's lives even after they've gone home to be with the Lord, we really have to take that one seriously. The internal consistency of a man of God serving as an elder is absolutely paramount. Let me be more specific.

There can be no hidden sin. I'll say that again. There can be no hidden sin. Now when I say that immediately, the eye... The...

Comes up in the mind of sexual sin whether it be fantasy sexual... Fantasize sexual sin in the world of pornography or on the world of literature one reads. But let me say it this way, hidden sin can also be bitterness, can also be anger, habits like drinking. It can be gambling. It can be all kinds of varieties of hidden sin.

I'm not labeling the same which one. I'm just saying the principle is as Paul said here, read it there, I... In a... In what manner I always lived among you, There was nothing hidden. He was a transparent person and that's exactly what an elder has to be before the flock.

A transparent person. We don't have it all wired. I'm not gonna pretend to have it all wired. I'm gonna try to take my unwired state and bring it to God. That's the example.

Now notice it says, of course, he did this with all humility. That's what happens when you're transparent. He did not think of himself more highly than he ought to think. He wrote that in Romans. And so he has this very clear perception of who he is before God.

Now that's a very important thing. One of the things that elders and even young elders as it says so in Timothy, that we'll struggle with is our own pride. The... As well, you know, I am an elder. And we think that that might grant us perhaps without saying it out loud, some measure of respectability, some measure of kind of...

How should we say... Now, it is clear that the bible does talk about honoring elders, but it does not say that the elders demand the honor. What does it say about us? We serve. That's what it says.

And last time I checked, the servant that Jesus Christ described, I actually didn't think he deserved anything. He only deserved to continue to work. And so we have... Hang hang on. Gracie?

I'm sorry. I'm on the phone. Okay. I I... Would you close the door for me?

Thank you.

And so we have this situation in which humility must be a part of everything that we do. It has to be. So brothers, when we talk about recognizing elders, this is the kind of disposition you're looking for. Selflessness, humility. Sometimes when you ask a brother, would you ever consider...

Would... Or do you have a desire to be an elder? Lot of men are humble and so I would never presume that upon myself. So I changed the question. I say, if God called you to be an elder, would you be willing to serve?

A little different question. Takes the issue of humility and redo... And and retakes it off the discussion tree so it's not a roadblock to get to finding out where brothers at. So humility, selflessness, transparency. Alright.

21:26 Steadfastness and Courage in Ministry

So he was vested emotionally, that's the phrase tears. Trials, that's the the difficult part which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. So although there was resistance and we can read Acts... These passages in Acts where he had resistance. I think that was around acts 16 when there was even some persecution.

He said, in spite of all of that, I went forward. Now when you're looking at the facets of how an elder works and the work that he does, there needs to be some appropriate courage. The courage that I'm referring to is not the courage that happens because I I am gifted and I have something to offer you. That's not what I'm talking about because I think that's the wrong attitude. It's the courage that we siphon from from the one who says, I I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth and I give that authority to you to go make disciples.

That's our courage. It's in the Lord Jesus. It's in his commission. It's in his vested authority in us. That's why we do what we do.

But because we have a humble disposition, we don't abuse that particular courage. So in Paul's case, we taught and we hear... He taught and he taught on even when there was resistance. Now we're gonna have to do that. An elder part of his work is that he's gonna have to teach on difficult things when it may be difficult for people to hear.

That's part of our job, saying the hard things. Now there's all kinds of ways you can say hard things. You can beat the flock with your words or you can increase learning by sweetness of lips. I suggest that you on the ladder by increased learning by the sweetness on your lips that is you make it palatable for the sheep to hear. All kinds of ways to do that from a homiletical perspective.

My favorite is to simply say, now before the Lord, I have something that's gonna be hard to hear and I wanna prepare you for it. It's hard for me to hear. It applies to me as much as it applies to you, but I think there's something we at least need to consider before the living God. That type of preparation, sweetness of lips can help you say the hard things when the hard things have to be said. You can expect some resistance to it, some fallout.

And in fact, a wise elder will... Or elders will see the topic that needs to be addressed, look at the flock and predict who would have troubles hearing it and visit them preemptively before the word has to be said publicly. It prepares them for it. This is part of the courageous thing. We we also prepare the flock.

But we do so because we have the authority of God. Not for abuse, not for overlord, but for the for the exercise of his word, his precise word. Next, look at the next one. I put in title full disclosure. How I kept nothing back that was helpful.

So number number one, Paul was looking to be helpful and whatever it was that would do that, he was gonna be about it. So what do we do as elders? We are trying to be helpful to the flock. We are not trying to to shame the flock into obedience. We are trying to build them up, make their muscles strong, make their fortitude strong, make their courage strong.

How do we do that? Well, we teach the whole counsel of God but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly in from house to house. Here's something the elders have to do. You and I have to be fully... Full disclosure of the entire truth of God's word.

It'll come up later in this paragraph, in this passage. But specifically, this phrase or this line is talking about taking the word of God to wherever the the sheep can be found to listen. So this idea of house to house and publicly covers both ends of where we serve. We'll serve publicly. Elders are apt to teach.

We have to be. And and so some of that will be publicly. Now the public thing may be the whole body or it may be a subsection of the body, people call that small groups or it may be a focus group. It might be for parents because they need help with parenting or it might be marriages because they need help with with their marriage. But no matter what it is, it might be have a public element to it.

And then there's the phrase house to house and this is some of the work that we do. We go and we visit the sheep. I mentioned this earlier on one of our sessions in John, but in this case, the emphasis is on actually teaching from house to house. Again, that can be very formal. We'll have a bible study at the dining room table or it could be simply reemphasizing the ministry of God's word from the previous week.

Or if you know someone is struggling, say for example, with being secure in Christ that that in a casual conversation that can be brought up about certain passages would be... Which speak to that. One of the men that I learned this from most was Vernon Schleef. Vernon Schleef was a brother, Sorry. Not Vernon Schleef, Herman Lum.

Herman Lum was a brother that in the end of his life, he was at one of the... I think, Pittsboro or something. But before that, he was in the... I think it was in the Virginia, Tennessee region. There was a small assembly in Maryville, Tennessee and when I was younger, I traveled there for another event but...

Or Herman was there and I called him up and he said, want you to come with me, Steve. And he would go and he would visit every individual that was part of that very baby assembly. And he he got in my face one time very kindly for for... Herman was a very gentle man. And he said, Steve, now when you come to places like this, don't give your pat messages.

That's what he said, your pat messages. But you get into the homes of people's lives and you find out where they're at so you can give the right portion of God's word for the right moment at the right time. That's house to house ministry, Steve. That's what he told me. And I watched him as we went to one house and as he sat down with one of the brothers who was sort of on the fence about meeting and this is what he said.

He said, brother, if you're going to make a go of this, you can't be on the fence. You're gonna have to be there all in or don't get in because the work of God will require all of you to be in. I remember that. It was a very very gentle conversation but he minced no words. He was fully disclosing house to house.

I high... I was schooled that day in a way I would never have never have understood, but I realized what he was doing. He was taking his roadmap, his his plan right out of Acts chapter 20. Alright. What else is there?

29:00 Facing Opposition and Maintaining a Clear Conscience

And see now, I go in in the spirit to Jerusalem not knowing the things that will happen to me except the holy spirit testifies that chains and tribulations are before me. But none of these things move me. Do you hear that? See the resolve of Paul. None of these things move me nor do I count my life dear to myself.

Now this is the key part for the elder today. We're gonna have to do some things that are hard. Right? I'm going to have to say some hard things. For me as a physician, I've had to say many hard things to people.

Some people will not like us for what we say. Some people will will be very upset at us. That's part of this whole dynamic. My fellow elder Rob Kerr, he was a brilliant... Is a brilliant man, but when we were elders, he said to the assembly one day, he said, no.

Most assemblies issue uniforms for their elders. They come with concentric circles in the front and it has the same photo of the same concentric circles in the back. So if you miss the bull's eye in the front, you could always aim for the bull's eye on the back. I thought that was brilliant actually. And then he said in the most serious voice, he said, let's not issue those uniforms here.

That was brilliant. That's genius communication. But what he what he was what he was saying was people are gonna get upset and they're gonna try to be very very harsh. That's a danger. Right?

Now it's not the same danger that Paul was talking about. He was talking about what seemed to be end of life persecution, end of life trial. He didn't know where it would lead him but it looked serious to him. The principle is is that there are going to be trials and resistance and people that are not going to appreciate your shepherding. Could be a personality issue, could be a misperception issue, could basically just be a rebellion issue.

One time I preached a message that had to deal with a study to show yourself a workman approved unto God who does not need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth. So I preached the message and I said, now the old King James uses the word study, but really what he means is the diligence that would go in to perhaps academic study is the diligence you need for the word of God. That's what I said. I would be hard pressed to say that was an overextension of the hermeneutics And this guy was mad. But, you know, and we got outside or he left right away and I try to look at those who try to avoid conversation and how should I say hunt them down.

And so I found him in his car and and he said, well, I think you are way off the off the reservation way off the reservation because that does not mean to study like you're in college. At that point, I could have said, that's not what I said, you weren't listening. But I just let him go on and he said to me, now I'm not rebuking an elder. I wanted to say, oh yes, you are. But I decided I should keep my mouth shut because the Lord Jesus, he did a good job at keeping him...

Keeping his silence and I let him go on and he was quite upset with me. Now think about that. What is it... There's gotta be something else to be upset about definition of terms when really that wasn't what was articulated from the pulpit. And I think what was going on was that he was maybe maybe a bit jealous or just covetousness of just serving God.

I don't know. But I think there was an ulterior motive. That means that no matter what I did in the assembly, I couldn't do the right thing. Now, that would really paralyze me. That would be like an obstacle going to Jerusalem for Paul.

You could get all hunkered down and fearful like a scared cat on a hot tin roof and not be able to function at all, crippled. What I think he's saying is the work of the elder cannot let external things cripple you. Now, you don't need to be a bull in a China cabinet either, but you also don't need to be so afraid you can't do the right thing. I think that's generally speaking the principle. But none of these things moved me nor do I count my life dear.

What does that mean? We're in this intending to die in the field of battle. We may not come back. That's what that means. I don't hold my life dear.

If this is the way God wants me to sacrifice it, then so be it. Some people are asked to sacrifice their life in a cold jail in a Middle Eastern prison. You might be asked to sacrifice your life in a non jail, in a difficult assembly in The United States. But see Paul had the attitude, I don't count my life dear. So that why?

I may finish my race. This is what the elder has in mind. We would need to finish what he's given us to start or die trying, whichever the case may be. The ministry that I received... See that Paul's personal product.

I receive this from the Lord. So when the Holy Spirit makes you an overseer, it is truly a divine call and we need to understand that. That's what gives us our stick to itiveness. And of course, it's always gonna be about the true gospel of Jesus Christ. So these are what we're about.

This is kind of the work that we do. Now let's go on to the next set. Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to forward this a little bit. I want you to look at verse...

The next cut phrase. And indeed now I know you all I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my face no more. See the finality of it all. Now verse 26. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

What does that mean? He has a clear conscience. In verse 27, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. What do we do as elders? We are either teaching or organizing others to teach so that the whole council of God is brought forward.

Now there's many ways to teach the whole council of God. There's the J. Vernon McGee way, Genesis one one to Revelation 22 or 21. There's there's no way to stop. There's no way to to to do it that's classic.

But the goal is the whole counsel of God and that includes the tough ones. So brothers, as you gather as elders, one of the key things you wanna ask yourselves each year, I think every year with the Lord Jesus presiding is, we need to teach the whole counsel of God, father. That seems to be the testimony that you gave to Paul and he articulated to the Ephesian elders. What segment do you want us to teach this year? We know that we may have to take breaks to deal with problems, but what's our underlying theme?

What is it you want us to go through? And we have done that in our assembly for many years. So we taught through church truth back in the early two thousands. I did a lot of that teaching personally. Then we taught through the life of Christ and we're still doing that series.

We taught through all the historical narrative of the old testament and we asked ourselves what is... What do we learn about this character about God? What do we learn about Jesus Christ comparatively either positive or negatively? And then how does this apply? And we asked every speaker to do that about the characters and chronological presentation.

And so... And and then we did we we did a book studies. We've done Timothy and Titus and and we'll do Ephesians and Romans. I think Romans and Ephesians are foundational for the for the local church. I...

We did Hebrews and John because the Lord Jesus was outside of our midst and we needed to get him back in the middle. So we wanted to talk about Christology which forced us to be a student of Leviticus. So it's... Sit down and and we ask that question, Lord, what is the... What counsel of God do you want going forth for this period of time?

And are we weak in an area that we can't teach it ourselves? Who do you want us to bring in to take care of that teaching for us? Some things are so sensitive, it's best said by an outsider. And so we we did that. We brought in evangelist.

We had other areas in which we asked somebody to specifically address. Sometimes the area of divorce and remarriage is such a volatile topic that the elders have to get together and study that themselves and come up with a position for you. You have to study your own thinking on church discipline. That's a big part and it helps to teach on that. It can...

It helps the flock to know sort of the boundaries. Right? So the whole council of God. Have you seen a series on the minor prophets? That's very hard to call it...

To see that. I did a series on the fear of the Lord. I I had never heard any teaching on the fear of the Lord. And so so these things, we think about the whole council and what we're doing but what we're not doing. You have to think about that for the Sunday school.

What kind of curriculum do you want them to have between zero and eighth grade? Because around eighth grade, they start to become abstract thinkers and then how do you want to tailor it for their abstract thinking to go from the facts of the bible now to the abstract application of the truth. So there's different ways to think that through. So when we talk about it, I I I say that... I tell you that the elder has to think this through.

What's our strategy? What's our way? Alright. That's the clear conscience we're supposed to have. Now look at verse 28.

39:17 Taking Heed to Oneself and the Flock

In other words, I acknowledge totally, fully that I can sin and deny it because I can lie to myself or be stubborn, But also, I can also just be blind, not willfully blind but ignorantly blind, negligently blind. And I fear that and I don't want to be serving as a shepherd and and not see the log that's in my own eye. And so, heed to yourselves. Now, he told Timothy to that. Take heed to yourself and your doctrine.

Not only what you teach but that you practice it. That's a big part of what the work of the elder is that we cannot extend ourselves with beyond... We can't take the teaching and not extend our life to match the teaching. And then, of course, take heed to the flock. Looking at that flock, thinking about that flock.

That's

one

of the beauties of doing house to house visitation. Coming up with a methodology to do that. We'll divide up the seven men, eight men and and the assembly is divided into quarters and two men will take one quarter and two men will take another. And then we'll rotate that a third of the way through the year or a quarter of the way through the year so that each two elders are constantly visiting a portion of the flock and we can manage the work more appropriately. Whoever we didn't get visited during our time, we'll pass that to the next next two elders that have to do the visitation for my...

For the next... For this quarter 25% and I'll move on to the next 25%. You see, this is just creative ways to look to take heed to the flock, listen to where they're at, understand some of the things that they say but they don't say. That tailors a lot of how some of the series we've done, some of the needs that we saw. We found a great need for child training and so we did that.

We did that for our people. Taking heed to the flock is of course looking at what they're reading, where they're getting their information. There's so much available today that it's virtually impossible to stay ahead of everything. So you have to take some journals. Christianity today, not everybody has to take it but maybe a couple of elders will take that just to hear the trends.

Sometimes you'll you'll have to go to somebody who's even more adept at that. That's why I like Warren Henderson and Dave Dunlap. If there's anything foul out there, they gotta beat on it before most people. I I I I query them. I asked them.

I said, hey, what do you know about this? Have you heard about this? Warren is such an excellent brother. If he hasn't heard about it, he'll go he'll go research and get back with you. That's tremendous.

That's tremendous for the elder. In other words, you don't have to do every piece of the work, you need to oversee the work. And so that's part of taking heed to the flock. Why? He owns it.

It's not yours. He owns it and so you're being a caretaker. Now let's move on so I don't bore you to death. And now you look at the next slide and you go, I can't believe this. Look at this.

Verse 28, among which the holy spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the flock of God. Notice the the idea of the the word overseers which is of course a noun, this idea of collective management so to speak. But then the verb is to shepherd which is that pastor word and this idea of taking care of the full life cycle of the sheep. The emphasis is not on the title or the noun overseer nor on the verb to shepherd which is what an overseer is doing. The emphasis on...

Is on the spirit of God's installment. That is very important. When we recognize an elder, we are not actually voting them in it to office. We are simply... Listen to this closely.

We are discerning what the spirit of God has already decided and is doing. This is incredibly important. That's what they were doing when Paul and and I think it was Silas went back through and they identified elders. It wasn't that they said, okay. You look like a good one and you look like a good one.

Oh, and over there you look like a good one too. Alright. Does everybody agree? Fantastic. We're in.

No. It wasn't that. The spirit of God had identified them. This is what the scripture says and we compare scripture with scripture, had identified them. And so what are we doing?

Well, we clearly can't vote. What if we vote against the spirit of God in a different way? No. No. No.

We are discerning what he's already doing. Well, how do you know that, Steve? What do you discern? It's not only what you discern, it's how you discern. How you discern is in tremendous prayer individually and corporately.

What you discern is the work that they do and therefore the quali... And as a result the qualifications that they hold. And you match them up that way. But I I have more to say about that later, but that's a hint at where where we're gonna go. So the spirit of God, he is the active agent in the assembly.

When we are meeting together, the spirit of God leads worship. Right? I like to joke with people. They say to me, do you... Steve, who's your pastor at your church?

I said, oh my goodness. The pastor of our church is so well known. He is actually... He's actually been wore... Awarded tremendous acknowledgement for his his insight in the bible.

In fact, you could probably say the pastor of our meeting has written the bible, the lord Jesus Christ. Then they say to me, well, Steve, who is your worship leader? Oh my goodness. He's just like the pastor. He's the holy spirit.

Now because we can't see the Holy Spirit, we have an anemic view and appreciation. At our assembly, we needed reteaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We didn't know. And once we began to see that, it made discerning what he was doing a little bit easier to do. So the spirit of God, very important.

We have to we have to really acknowledge and and sort of keep him and his ministry not to overtake the person of Christ, but to make sure we're dependent upon him. It's not some mystical thing where we, you know, have a movement of our bowels and say, oh, that was the movement of the spirit. We usually call that indigestion. But what it is is through prayer, through his word, the spirit of God has a way. It's very unique where he confirms it to you.

And then when several of us are confirming the same thing in the same way, truly that sounds and smells like the hand of the spirit of God. And that's exactly how we recognize the elders in our assembly. We had months of prayer, collective prayer as a body and individual prayers and sub collective prayer and the elders that were there and the spiritually minded men. And so this is the spirit of God discerning. Alright.

46:42 Defending the Flock from Internal and External Threats

Verse 30. Also from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Okay. So there are two things that we have to be on the look for defensively. There is outside influence that is designed to destroy the flock.

It's in the phrase not sparing the flock. That means they wanna decimate the flock. Gotta be on top of that. Whether it be doctrinal or just somebody coming in to, for example, stalk our our women. People do that.

They think we're easy play. Then there are those who rise up from within. Now that's the more painful one. Usually, we got our radar up from the... For...

On those who are from without. But somebody who has a ulterior selfish prideful motive and then turns on you after five or six years together, that one you don't see coming. There's a passage in Philippians... Let's see if I put it on the slide. I think I did.

Oh, I'm sorry. I... Oh, yeah. There it is. Philippians three eighteen through 19.

And that one talks about those whose God is their belly. Now, was never sure if Paul was talking about people from outside the assembly or inside the assembly. But as I've studied that over the years, I began to conclude and I could be wrong, but it seems to me that Paul actually might be talking about people from within the assembly. You say, well, Steve, that's very strong. I know.

But did not he identify individuals like Hymenaeus and Alexander in the same breath? They had strayed from the face saying saying that the resurrection had already occurred. They started out with Paul. And and and John has some similar, although it's apostate language to those that they were of us or they were with us but they were not of us. So in other words, there is something that happens to people and people do have a way of of changing and you may not be aware of it.

Maybe it's been dormant all along and they've just been a prideful man and finally they got enough of it and wanted to to to rattle their savers. So we have to be careful on both. Now the response for us when it comes from within is in second Timothy chapter two where it says, the servant of the Lord must be gentle, able to teach and with meekness correcting those who are in opposition if by chance God might grant them repentance and save them from the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. In other words, it is our goal to see them rescued from the clutches of Satan whose goddess their appetite may no longer be. But make no mistake, you have to be aware of that.

You don't have to be paranoid. The Lord God is your protector. You don't have to be over overly cautious. You just have to be cautious. That's all.

It's part of what we do. And finally... Oh oh, boy. Couple more. We get down to verse 32.

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. Notice the primacy of the word of God. Now that goes without saying that you and I have to be individuals that cling to God's word. We have to know it backwards and forwards. Brothers, elder...

You as elders, you don't have to live by this rule but quite honestly, I think you and I should be reading through the word of God three three or four times a year. That's only once every three months. We can read a novel in a week when we love it. I think I think we can... We we should be so familiar with the word of God, we start to be able to see the patterns and we we just write those patterns out.

I think the word of God has to be such that if you... If I were to cut your artery, you would bleed God's word. I think the word of God has to be that precious to us. And I mean precious not just in the meeting to tell everybody it's important. I mean precious privately.

In the last few years, I have, by the grace of God, been given an appetite for his word I never knew was possible and I love it. I hate to say this to you, sounds like I'm a nerd, but I could spend all day studying God's word and not have enough. It is that thrilling to me. I see... Every time I open and it's like opening a treasure chest to see Jesus.

And I love what I see. I love looking at him and I love thinking about him and I just am thrilled. We've got to be those kind of elders. Cling to the word of God. It's the only source of growth.

Purity. Look in verse 33. He says, I have coveted no one silver or gold. Yes. You yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities and for those who are with me, I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus which actually aren't recorded in the New Testament.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. Do you see it? Do you hear that? Paul is saying, I was pure. I had no personal gain.

So I think there are gonna be some of us who work and some of us who don't work. Some of us who work part time. In my work career, I I persistently tried to get myself set up so that I only worked part time. And in fact, the one year I went to go to my fellow doctors and said I'd like to work thirty hours a week and I would be willing to take a cut in pay. All my other colleagues said, wow, we want to work thirty hours a week too.

Can you wait one year, we'll hire four doctors and we all work thirty hours a week and no one takes a cut in pay? I said, well, that's not what I was after but if it will help you, sure. The very week that we hired the last doctor was the week we recognized elders in our assembly. That was 2001. I'll never forget it.

It was God's way of validating this fact that go ahead, work with your hands but I'll take care of you. I'll take care of you. And ever since then, that has been my goal to work less so I can serve the Lord more. See, personal, no personal gain. Work with your hands, a clarity of our transparency.

53:30 The Importance of Prayer and Compassion

Notice they were so compassionate. The elder is compassionate, hugged, kissed, cried together but it came with prayer. Brothers, one of the things that you as elders will do is you have to be the best most consistent prayer meeting of the entire assembly. There are gonna be days in which you wanna talk about everything. You got a lot of thoughts flying in your head and I'm gonna suggest to you, don't open your mouths except to say, let's pray first.

And then you just spend however long it takes praying. And if there's any time left over, then you'll talk and you will find that those prayer meetings solve more problems than you could have while you discuss them. I'm not saying any of this to to shame someone that already knows this. I'm just reminding us that we, out of all the things we are, we are are about two things, the word of God and prayer. But I think most of us in the work of the elder will say, we are about the word of God 90% of the time and we are about prayer 10% of the time.

I would suggest that we need to be about the word of God a 100% of the time and the prayer and prayer a 100% of the time. There is no there's no fifty fifty. It's one hundred one hundred. We're invest... We're vested in both arms.

And so these are the things of the elder. This is what they do. This is how they they are thinking, how they're guarding, how they're being led by the spirit of God. These are the things that you look for when it says recognize those who labor among you. Single those out who labor among you.

I actually think that's what Paul was helping do when he came back and identified the elders from their... From... On the return trip of his missionary leg. He was simply saying, they're doing this work. The spirit of God seems to be setting them apart.

Can we all not see that? That's all. I think that's what's happening. Okay. I'm gonna unshare my screen.

Wow. That was an hour. Alright. Questions? Derogatory remarks.

Where's Josh?

Oh, Josh. Josh, he texted me. He said he had another function at the assembly tonight that he needed to attend. I said, well, that's a terrible excuse. No.

He was doing what we're talking about. How can we fault the man right?

Steve, I appreciate your point about this thought of an elder being crippled. Can you expound on that more? Or crippled by the, the thought that... I I don't understand exactly what you meant by that. Crippled by the the thought that, some would, say the wrong thing, some that would, the controversy, what do you mean?

Well, sometimes to get into a situation in which people in the assembly are very strongly opinionated about a matter. Unfortunately, the opinion is kind of dominating and taking the assembly down the wrong path. Maybe it's a path more not necessarily and I mean this nicely in our age, but maybe the path is towards to the assembly being more of a political activist. You know, and whether you agree with that or not, I'll just use that as an example. And so you have to come by and you're going to have to sort of curve that tide a little bit, know.

And the scripture that comes to mind is a good soldier of Jesus Christ is not entangled in the affairs of everyday life that he might please the one who enlisted him a soldier which is second Timothy chapter two. And to say that is very hard to do especially if there's a strong opinion that goes the other direction. And sometimes we as elders will become fearful to say that kind of discussion. Maybe it doesn't need to say be said publicly, maybe it needs to be more private and we're afraid to have that conversation. We become paralyzed by such fears.

Paralyzed by the worry of the fallout. And I'm not saying we should just rush ahead like we're a bull in a China cabinet, but we also need to be careful of our own fears. They bring a snare to a man. That's what I'm saying. Does that make sense?

Yes. That was very helpful. Thank you.

Yes.

Next next question I had was, you you mentioned the the thought of, no hidden sin. Yes. And yet, I I think you were saying in the sense of being open, open book in a sense, but you're not saying sinless. That's not a qualification of an elder.

Oh, of course not. Of course not. I'm sorry. Did I... I didn't mean to interrupt you.

Did you finish your question? Please. Okay. Okay. So clearly, the idea of sinless perfection the side of eternity seems to be a a very...

A non existent concept in the scriptures. I refer you to Romans seven and first John chapter one specifically. Very hard case to make hermeneutically. What is a good case to make is that the Christian does sin and that and in fact if you say you don't sin, you kind of make God a liar. That's not a good thing.

And so and so clearly, we have to say that the Christian does sin. But what I'm talking about is the Christian who does sin and covers it up without confession. That's the first John one nine right in the passage that deals with how we as Christians need to deal with our ongoing sin. And so the the cover up is is really what I'm going after. And the cover up is a really easy thing to do.

I alluded to this earlier and I I want you to know I preface this comment by my tremendous respect and appreciation for the ministry of our brother Ravi Zacharias. But there's, of course, been things that have come out that have... I don't know if you haven't followed his case, which some... Sometimes you have to because the un... Unbelieving world brings it up to me like it happened at a bible study last Tuesday with me.

But, you know, the ministry hired an attorney firm to do the investigation. They came out with a 12 page report which is available online. And it and it found some measure of truth to some of the people that had come forward. Now, I am no way at all would disparage doctor Zacharias. I I have great respect for him.

That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is how easy it is to carry on in a role that has high visibility and an elder has high visibility and be able to hide sin that should never have been part of our lives. And so if we have that struggle, then I think it behooves us to at least go with our... Go before our fellow elders and say, now you should know. This is something that I I I...

This is my weak temptation. And as it stands today, the Lord has given me... Or I have enjoyed the victory of the Lord Jesus. But also know that it is my my go to sin. What do I mean by that?

When I see drug addicts and alcoholics saved from those habits, when they get stressed, what is it they go to? They go to the drugs alcohol. It's their comfort sin. It's what they found easing their pain and anxiety when they were struggling with that. Well, pornography can be that to people.

Overeating can be that for people. Going out and being... Buying everything under the sun can be that for people. Those are the hidden sins that we want to be honest about. And and so I I have that relationship with several individuals myself.

I... My history is is very sorted in that way. I was exposed to pornography when I was six years old. Some of the activity that happened in my life at that age would easily be under the indictment of sexual abuse today when I look back on it. So that has always been...

So I have to really watch myself. And so, so when I'm alone, I try not to be alone. And I tell my fellow elders this and I tell, my fellow full time workers this. And so I confide in him in that way. So this is what I'm talking about.

Not just the fact that we sin. That's... We understand that. But it's the cover up, the continued cover up. Now that's what we can't have.

Does that answer your question, Rahul? Alright.

Yes. Very helpful. Thank you.

Very good. Well, there's a lot of information to digest. And as you think it through, I know... I think it was a... Is it next is it next week?

I I can't remember what next

week. We're gonna take a week to cover.

63:25 Observations from Experience: Wives and Elders

Yeah.

I think that's right. And I just if you would allow me a few minutes just to make a couple of observations from our experience, it may be a benefit. One of the things that we did when we started to recognize elders is we sat down and we also interviewed each prospective person alone with their wife. Okay? Now back then we didn't have elders so we had those who were recognized as spiritually mature who did this.

And so my wife and I were interviewed together. Interviewed sounds such a formal thing but then we were visited. And the very first year that came by, my wife said, oh no. Steve's too busy to be an elder. Now I had to have the right heart attitude and actually say, wow, she knows me the best.

And if she thinks I'm too busy, maybe I'm too busy. And and that was a big pill for me to swallow but it was really true. Over the next year, she helped me see what I was doing and and and we tried to thin responsibilities and then the workplace changed. So a year later comes by, same interview happens again And the question is posed, now Janet, last year you said that Steve was too busy. Do you feel like God has changed that in your marriage and family life right now?

And she goes, you know what? I think so. I think so. And then she said, I I would have peace if the Lord had Steve be an elder. Now she wasn't using that as a trump card to hold a gun against anybody's head.

She's just being an honored sister before the Lord. So those are some of the questions that we asked, but we did it kind of privately so that the lady could speak freely. Additionally, not that a wife would ever want to trash her husband, that's not it, but sometimes there are some things that are not well known like having a temper. Right? We're good at hiding it, but when we're at home, everybody scatters.

Been more than one person I know like that. And quite honestly, I have lived like that. And so those kind of conversations are very good. So that's about kind of life and genuine life and that kind of stuff. There's a series of questions that usually need to happen about confidentiality.

And this is the kind of conversation that we usually have on the mid portion... Front to mid portion. And we'll say something like, well, you know, as an elder, your husband will know things that no one else will know. And quite honestly, he he can't really reveal them. And and we don't know the type of communication that is between you and your husband, but we we need to say that not all things would be acceptable for, communication to a spouse.

Now that doesn't mean you can't communicate. It just means that you may not be able to go into all the details that he knows. But we need you to understand that he's bearing those details without necessarily being able to express them to you, but he expresses them to us. We need you to be praying for him. The next thing you need to know is that what you do here, where maybe you hear, oh, I met with this family.

They're struggling with finances. Just a general topic, nothing detailed. What you need to know is that you have to be a dead end of all information. You can't act like you know. You can't pass it on to someone as a prayer request.

You actually have to be a dead end of information. And before you think about the husband, your husband becoming an elder, this is a part of what you would have to do as a wife to support your your husband. And we're simply going to say that if you feel that is something that you can't do, there's no harm, there's no foul, but let's just be honest on the front end and and if it's not gonna work for you as a couple, then by all means, just say so. We... No one condemns for that.

It's it's it's just good honesty. And we kinda handle that upfront so that there's an opportunity to decline if they know that's too much of an issue. But we point out what it means to be confidential. We say it in those terms. We're polite but we definitely are clear.

And the third thing that we talk about is influence. We say to a wife, you are the most influential person in your husband's life And and that ought to be. He listens to you. He trusts you. That's supposed to happen.

But we're gonna ask you to be mindful that knowing you have that influence, that it doesn't become a tool or a weapon in the wrong hands. So that if by chance, something really bothers you, you would, influence your husband to a certain pattern of of decision to resolve the conflict that that has been bothering you. What we want is the glory of Christ and the spirit of God to lead these men. Now that may be in consideration of your input, but we're just asking you to be self policing so that the heart or the influence you have may be used in the way that that does bring the glory of Christ to its maximum level. And so that's what we say.

Those three things are really hard things to say, but there are things that we have to to bring out on the front so that we can develop a confidence within the oversight and with the... And with our spouses that preserves the unity of the flock. Does that make sense what I said? I was trying to be very specific, and I hope it communicated well.

Very good. Thank you.

Sure. Wow. Guys ask hard questions.

Yeah. Yeah. I think you went straight from preaching to meddling now. So Oh,

I'm so sorry. Wasn't that my intention? That's the spirit of God's job.

Very, very, very kind. Very good.

All right.

Thank you very much, Steve.

All right, gentlemen. All right. Well, in the will of the Lord, I'll see you in two weeks. And, just a personal note, thank you. Thank you again.

This is a real highlight for me to visit with you. I cherish our moments and, I just want you to know, I love you all deeply and I'm praying for your assembly very... Quite regularly.

So... Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. The Lord bless you.

Amen.

71:30 Closing Prayer and Benediction

And when I read how you handle people both individually and collectively and those who are in opposition like the Pharisees and the Herodians, I marvel at you. You are the consummate shepherd. So teach us, oh God, teach us to do the work of the shepherd. Qualify individuals, Lord. Even now, some might be making this business decisions that will entangle them.

Protect them from that. Father, if if we're on this call and and we've compromised our fantasized morality, oh, God, protect us. Take that away from us. Father, we want no sin in this. We want no flesh in this.

We want the spirit of God and only his spirit. So I pray for Westlake, oh, God. Put this upon and bring this to the power of your spirit and the manifold wisdom of God and let Christ be glorified to his maximum degree through this assembly. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Alright.

Lord bless you.

Thank you, brother.

Shepherding - Brokenness 06-16-2021 — 1 Peter 5

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Shepherding - Brokenness 06-16-2021 — 1 Peter 5

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