Part Three/Q And A - 2 — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:00 Thanksgiving for the Shepherd

It's always unnerving to hear a moderator say, well, let's all remember. I'm afraid somebody's going to raise their hand and say, when the guy said amen, that was my favorite part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean at the closing prayer. Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ is, oh, what a magnificent shepherd he is. Father, we're like sheep And we're looking at the rest of the sheep or the rest of the herd of the universe and we're just saying, wow, we've got a great shepherd. He takes care of us. He's out in the morning before we're up. He's making sure the water's not poisonous.

He's freshening the soil. He's preparing the grass. And it's just as if he's constantly in motion. We have a great shepherd. And we would like to say thank you for caring for us who are such dependent.

And quite honestly, sometimes we just feel useless. But you never think of us as useless. In fact, you commission us to be useful. And then you gift us to accomplish that commission. And then you strengthen us moment by moment along the way and you transform us into the image of your son.

Father, I don't know of any other way to say it, but you are all in all. And we just want to thank you. Now, Father, this next hour requires your all in allness so that the word of God, not the word of man, the word of God is given and the people of God receive your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right.

Are we up and running here, my friend? There we go. Okay, now we're going to turn a little bit more to a practical note. And I do think I owe you an apology. I took us a little longer, sorry about the break.

I want to just apologize now that I'm probably going to ignore the clock. Okay, that's good. Now, but what I want to do is we started to kind of give this vision, this sort of, I don't know, vision mission stuff. And we were talking about soul save souls, disciples, soul set out, remember true worshippers. We sort of narrowed that down a little bit more church universalchurch local function and the different parts.

And we looked at principles of the different parts. And then we saw what we were supposed to become, unified in love, stability, recognizing the instability of those around us. And then we're supposed to be motionful. That's not the right word. We're supposed to have motion to us.

Now, I want to just give a little bit of a balanced statement. Sometimes what assemblies do is they say, Okay, we need to be busy. And so, man, we just run. We got busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. It's not about busy.

It's about the quality of the heart in the activity. Let me say it this way. If you do not abide in me, you can do nothing. Did you hear that? That was the lord Jesus, John 15.

Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in me. Question, What do you call all that stuff that I see that wasn't born out of abiding in Christ? It's counterfeit. Counterfeit? Steve, souls got saved.

I know. But the measurement of the master gardener is not if souls are saved, it's how the fruit was produced. And the way that God has authorized and commissioned and sanctioned, the only way that fruit can be produced is abiding in Christ. That means the central artery of the vitality of Jesus Christ comes through that analogy of the of the vine and it then spreads out in the little arterials of the branches so that the nutrition, the sap, the slurry of vitality then produces that little flower that makes that little grape that is harvested, crushed, and used to refresh the soul that has to all come from one source, Christ. So, isn't necessarily about activity.

It is all about the source of the fruit production. So, we are to be busy, but let's not mistake the fact that if we miss our necessary attachment, our necessary extraction of his vitality, his nutrition to us. We've missed it. Let me confess to you. There have been times in my life where I got up and shared in the breaking of bread, and it was not because I was abiding in Christ.

Anybody here do that besides me? No one, I'm just the only one. Thank you. Thank you. He said for the record that some of us are more spiritual.

Now it's on tape. Okay. Now, the point I'm saying is is that that sounded good to everyone else. It looked good to everyone else. People came and said, oh, thank you.

That was I really blessed my soul blah blah blah. But I knew. I knew. It was counterfeit. And you know who else knew?

5:47 Mandatory Attachment to Christ

Okay, now let's go on to this section. How do we get along? Okay, this is designed for a little bit of more practicality, if you will. So, I'm going to do this in a couple of ways. We're going to talk about personal, corporate, and then I'm gonna focus upon the relationship between the elders and the flock.

It's very important you understand, the elders are not over here and the saints are not over here and there are two ships passing in the night. You know what we call that? Terrible. That's not how it works. We're going to have to get everybody on the same page and there are different roles, different functions, but it is a left hand right hand phenomenon.

If you had two right hands, how do you clap? If you had two right hands, how do you brush your teeth and open the door at the same time? No, you can't. You need both to be complementary. That's what it means to have left and right hand, right?

And that's what we want. We're gonna talk heavily about that. Now, what time am I supposed to end? Like noon ish? 12:10.

Good. Okay. Alright. I love it. I love it here.

Alright. Corporately. Now, these are general instructions. Okay? So, I won't belabor too much time on this.

But obviously he says here, to love one another. See that? If you love one another, so will you be my disciples. It is the discipleship authentication stamp of approval. Loving one another.

Now, you've probably heard that all of your life. A new commitment I give unto you, that you love one another. What does John say? We love because he first loved us. And, oh, by the way, love one another.

So, one another becomes sort of a cliche term and we begin to sort of think of it as, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that, I know that. You ever hear, whenever I'm taking care of older patients, I say, well, probably should quit smoking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, doc, I know, I know, I know. Well, you got nicotine all over your fingernails. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's not how we're supposed to know it. It's not supposed to be known so you can pass it on a test. It's supposed to infiltrate your existence so that I actually see life and do life with that in mind, loving one another. Now, if we had time, we could go through facets of the love of God. I have this PowerPoint on the different facets of the love of God and what it looks like and what it feels like.

We don't have time. But suffice to say that generally speaking, as a corporate body, we love one another. It was a great indictment one day when somebody came into our very struggling assembly thirty years ago, and they said, You know, don't think there's much love here. Said that to us. That was like taking a spear and running it through me because you know what?

It was totally true. We're totally off, we're totally chaotic. But it was a great blessing when about twenty years later, the lord changed us and somebody came in out of the blue, off the street and said, there's a lot of love here. I went into my closet. I got on my knees.

I wept and I thank god for changing us to the image of Christ. So that's a goal, right? That's, personally, that's what we must do. All right, carry each other's burdens. Now, this one's in Galatians six:two, You are strong, bear the burdens of those who are weak.

That's a normal part of what we do together. We bear each other's burdens. Now, bearing each other's burdens, traditionally, you'll hear the example or the application say, So, when we come to somebody and we say, How are you? We really don't want to hear, I'm doing terrible. We just want to hear, I'm fine.

Thanks. I'm not talking about that. And I think burying each other's burdens is more than a casual sort of greeting on Sunday. Definitely so. But burying each other's burdens happens sometimes in an invisible manner.

In an invisible manner. I'm talking to Ann and I'm just using you as an example, brother. I'm talking to you on a Sunday morning and and and you didn't finish this comment but you said enough where I caught that you were in pain. Do you know how I can bear your burden even though I may not have a chance to communicate to you the rest of the week? It's called, here, right there.

Camel knees, baby, that's what it is. And I get on me and pray and I plead to God for you. And guess what? I'm bearing your burdens and you never knew it. See, that is one of the most effective and the most godly way to bear each other's burdens.

And so, what happens is, as you've been praying privately and laboring because you just heard a comment off the cuff and you're you're when you see them, you you actually have vested interest. Hey, how you doing? Are you doing okay? Is that is is everything good? Andy's going, yeah, it's fine.

Wait. You okay? Why are you asking about me? See? Because I was asking about you at the throne of grace so much so that I couldn't get you off my mind.

That's one way to bear each other's burdens. It's personal, isn't it? And that's part of what we do. It's a general call to this. Alright.

11:06 Serving One Another

I lifted it out of the text. Now, serving is an interesting phenomenon. Because serving has to be done in the manner that Christ served. So, he not only said, I came not to be served, but to serve, but he served in a certain disposition and a certain manner. So, here's what he did.

He gathered the boys together at the upper room. The upper room was off their radar because the Lord Jesus had to tell them to go make the preparations and they met with the guy with the thing on the head that told them where the room was. So, they were like clueless, right? Now that's hard, you know, when you're with people and they're clueless about what needs to be done, so you have to go tell them and you wish they would have done them on their own. Wow, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?

It happens. Right, so that's one aspect. What was the other Well, it says in the text of John 13 that Jesus having supper having ended. What happens when supper ends? Well, it's gonna happen to you at lunch.

You're gonna fill your tummy, the blood that goes to your head normally goes to the head goes to the tum tum, and the tum tum takes away all of that great oxygen, and right after lunch you go, I think I need a nap. And you know what? You do. But that's what happens. You get disaware if you will.

It's not even a word. But you, the point is, is that you're you're sleepy. I'm going to say stuporous, but you know it sounds like stupid. I don't mean that. It's you know sleepy.

And so, that's the upper room. And here you got his disciples who are unaware that we even should actually set up the Passover. And then in the moment, we're kind of like, right? So very unaware. And then what else is going on?

We got Judas. Judas, he's over there like this. I sure like to get some of that money. And he's got total false motives, total fake reasons, and the guy's just a fraud. Do you ever work with somebody who lies to you?

Lies about you? Lies in front of you, behind you, inside of you? I don't know. You ever work with somebody like that in the workplace? What do you want to do with them?

Kill them. Alright. No, you're thinking that, but I'm saying it. Here's what you want to do. You don't do that, of course not.

You don't do that. No. But, the emotions of that degree of vehemence is right there. Lord Jesus treated him with respect. It is possible that he might have washed Judas' feet first based on Edersheim's description of the upper room and the guy that received the sop would be on the place of honor.

It is possible. That Judas was the first one. Wow. What a statement. That's not all.

The disciples are, the rest of them are going, hey, you guys. I've been thinking. You know, a couple days ago, we were talking about who was gonna be the greatest. I think I figured it out. It's gonna be me.

Can you imagine the lord Jesus hearing that? Hearing that. They're talking who's going to be the greatest like the greatest couldn't hear them who has perfect pitch and hearing and the greatest is in the room. You don't do that. Can you imagine that?

I'm in a group of of esteemed ER physicians and I walk into the conference and I say, wait a minute, wait a minute here, I think I can take the lecture, I'm the greatest. They would call this group of people called security and I would be out of there. Here we're doing the same thing to the great, now the greatest doesn't go into a lecture. The greatest doesn't go into some sort of tirade. The greatest quietly gets up and puts on the clothes of a slave so that he can wash their feet and in the process of washing their feet, he takes off the towel that had wrapped his body which means that he had stripped himself of all dignity voluntarily to make the feet comfortable by the towel that he wore with his body.

He used his body as a microwave, let me tell you something. That's serving one another. So if you think it's hard serving because maybe some people are disinterested or some people are not aware or maybe they're focused on themselves or maybe somebody's kind of got ill motives or just an inflated estimation of their commitment like the disciples did about going to him, going with him to the cross. Don't feel bad at all. That's normal.

Now, we as a body don't want that to be our norm. We want to have all of us on that same page of Christ likeness and serving. Absolutely. But if by chance serving happens to be in the setting in which there's all these negative permutations and parameters, you are being like Christ. And it doesn't get any better than that.

Remember, mercy is mercy because it shines brightest against the black backdrop of great need. So, there's a lot of need, you just join the Lord. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Okay, moving on. Compassionate.

16:27 Compassionate and Forgiving One Another

Now, my kids know that in our family, Gracie is the youngest. And Gracie has had the most privileges of all the children in the family. Why is that? Because I intend to spoil her. No, no.

It's because I'm old and tired and she's my last. And, you know, And, you know, I want to enjoy some time with her. It's funny, we're sitting on the couch and I said, are you manipulating me, Gracie? She goes, yes. What does that mean?

Never mind, you don't need to know. The older siblings give me such a heart to, Dad, you're being a grandpa. That's because I am. Not to your daughter! Okay, okay, okay, okay.

I'll toughen up. Gracie, you can go to bed at nine instead of ten. Right? Compassionate, tender hearted. Gracie is a person, I just have a soft spot for her, right?

Just a soft spot. Now that's, you you ever meet somebody, know, just, you know, you strike me a certain way and you just remind me of my whoever and, you know, I just tender for you. That's how weird to be. To everyone. Everyone should be a tender spot for you.

Right? Ray? Sir. Got a tender spot right here, buddy. Yeah.

Don't ask me. No, just kidding. Okay, now let's move on. Those are personal. How about corporate?

Okay? Corporate. Obviously, we are to make disciples. You heard that one before because that was the Matthew 28. Now, it's interesting, in the passage, the verbs are weighted a certain way.

And the primary verb in the passage is make disciples. The other four verbs, which is go, teach and baptize, are secondary verbs, meaning they follow the primary verb of make disciple. And so he's really saying, you first of all, first and foremost, you make disciples and you do that in the following ways. You have to go, that's the soul's saved. You have to teach, that's soul's disciple.

Then you have to baptize. That's the growth of the of the Christian, right? And so he says, this is the process of a making a stibe. We are in the business of making disciples as a corporate body. That's what we do.

If somebody asks you, what's your church is about? We make disciples of Jesus Christ. And we don't mean smart people. We mean loyal subjects of the king. In our assemblies, which I am very thankful for, we have focused in many ways on knowledge base, and you know that's good.

You can't obey unless you know. But what we've done is we've actually substituted knowing to be equivalent to obedience in the body of Christ. Just because you know it doesn't mean you've obeyed it. And what we have to do, a true disciple, is this. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

So part of our discipleship is to not just impart knowledge. So when you ask me, would you come in, when somebody says, Steve, would you come and disciple me? They usually mean like a Bible study on steroids. That is not discipleship. That is part of discipleship, but it's not discipleship.

I am going, my job is to lead you to the point and to the process where you engage and receive God's word as the only rule of law in your life so that that's who you become like Christ. Remember, discipleship is a god of very specific endpoint And it's not just about Bible studies. Okay, moving on. All right, as a body, we have to have unity. I beat that horse pretty hard on the last section, so I won't, except to say that John 17 is a pretty big passage.

Turn there. John 17. These are all trying to be as we focus to practicality. Now John 17 is the words of the Lord Jesus in the upper room, and he begins to pray about you and I. Imagine that.

Two thousand years ago, the lord Jesus was praying about you and I and any in this passage, he says, verse 20, I do not pray for these alone talking about the disciples but also for those who will believe future tense in me through their word. That would be you and me. That they all may be one. Does anybody have any trouble with that understanding that? That they all may be one.

There there's no fancy parsing of anything. That's what it says. We are that we may be one as you father are in me. Notice the word as, it's a use of the word comparison. Use of a comparison.

As you father are in me and I in you. So question, how one is the father and the son? Are they on the same page? Do they think the same things? Do they do the same things?

Do they act the same way? Yes. You see the, you see me, Jesus said, you see the father. You want to see the father? You see me.

You know the stuff I do around here? It's not because I do it on my own. Well, I do the will of him who sent me. The words that I speak, they're not my words or the words of my father. I'm working the work of my father and I do it in the same manner as he does.

He's been working until now, so am I. They are one. And he says, I want that oneness to be exactly the same kind of oneness that you have as a body. Then he links this. Oh, this is this is like allowing the crown jewels to be played with the children.

He says this, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me. What does it what does it mean when we say that the world may believe that you sent me? You know what we call that? It's a doctrine. The deity of Jesus Christ.

The deity of Jesus. That Jesus is the son of God. That you, father, sent me to this earth. The messiahship, if you will, of Jesus Christ. That is like one of the basic truths in all of the Bible.

That's the one we die for. Alright, the deity of Jesus Christ. And he attaches it, its identification and its declaration to our oneness as a group. Who does that kind? That's risky.

That's dangerous. That had, that's fraught with the possibility of absolute failure. So, when the lord Jesus does that, he's saying to you, I have such investment and and faith and and encouragement and strength in you that I am not afraid to take the very key doctrine of all of my teaching and attach it to you guys getting along. Wow. I don't...

I never do that. I don't... I do not give the car keys of the new car to the two year old. Here, go spin it around the block and fill it up with gas, will you? They can't even reach the pedals.

You see that? That's crazy. But God would do that. What does that tell you? How much he values you.

23:37 Corporate Presentation Decorating Doctrine

I'm trying to go fast. That's why I'm running around like a rabbit. Okay? Titus. I'm so embarrassed.

Every time I preach, forget where every book in the Bible is. Every time. Titus two ten. This is a section that talks about various functions of the body, various pieces of the body. He talks about older men, older women, younger women, younger men, bond servants, and then he gets down to this and he says, verse nine, for context, exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things.

So, he's given instructions about their behavior and their function of life. Not answering back, alright? You know, boy, we know about answering back. Not pilfering, stealing from the boss but showing good fidelity. That means faithfulness that they may look look at the word, adorn the doctrine of god.

Now, that is a summary statement really of all the people he's addressed in this paragraph. And what he's saying is, as a body of people, as defined in that sort of letter to the church at Crete, he's saying, I want you to dress up, if you will, to decorate the teachings of the Lord Jesus. How do you do that? By your behavior as a corporate entity. As a corporate body.

One of the day, we got a call from a mother. We just started going to this neighborhood, very, very drug infested neighborhood, broken homes, broken lives. And one of the mothers called and said, hey, you guys have been picking up my kids to go to the kids club two weeks. I don't know if you know this, but this mom just lost her job and her kids can't have Christmas. I go, I don't know, you're just a church and everything, we didn't know if you could do anything about that.

So clearly the world thinks of the church as, you know, a bank account. And so we got together and we began to pray. That's always a good thing to do. And we prayed and said, Lord, you sent us this phone call, obviously so, what do you want us to do? And as we prayed about it, we came across this passage that our conduct would adorn the doctrine of God.

So, decided that we were going to buy that family Christmas presents. Now, I don't know your view on Christmas, doesn't matter. We were going to adorn the doctrine of God, and to the world Christmas seemed like a Christian holiday. So what we did is we bought presents. Now, you have to understand broken families have multiple levels.

So there was the boyfriend she was living with, but the boyfriend had another woman who had another one and another woman, and they all had children. So there was about 10 of his kids. She had the same thing. The 10 of her kids. $750 later, we got him each a gift.

We took him over Christmas morning, gave them all to him. And guess what we did? We adorned or decorated the doctrine of God. Of course, we put tracks with everything we gave out, but, you know, we didn't have a chance to articulate the gospel at the front doorstep. They were doing back flips and jumping jacks in the living room, all 35 of them.

And all we did was gave him presents. We adorned the doctrine of God. You know what happened after that? They defended us. Every time I pulled the church van, which is actually my personal van, kind of like yours, right into that neighborhood, they would come out in the street and they would tell the drug pushers.

That's the church van. You leave them alone. You touch them, I'm going to hurt you. We had no fear. We went everywhere for ten years in that neighborhood, everywhere.

You see, you adorn the doctrine of God. It's noticed that the doctrine of God has value. Now, as a corporate entity, that's what you do. So, we could be criticized, Well, you've taken the Lord's money, you should have sent it to something in Africa or something in Asia or something like that. But we just felt the Lord wanted us to do that there.

That was our Asia. That was our Africa. Actually, that was our drug infested property. And we actually saw kids saved. You see, I tell you that so that you can see that as a corporate body, you can think that way because it fulfills the principle as a corporate body.

Collective honorable conduct laced with good works. Peter says the same thing. I'll read it to you, if you will. First Peter two. First Peter two eleven, and it says the following words.

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims. That's the key, first of all. We have to think of ourselves as just passing through. We're not, Abraham did this. Abraham had only two pieces of things he ever owned in all of his life.

What did he own? Well, he owned altars. He built them. Places of worship and sacrifice. And he owned a graveyard.

Nothing else was his. You see, that is how we have to think. That this world is not my own. Hebrews 11 says that. You need to understand, we are looking for a better promise.

A better city. A better place. But I'm I'm afraid. I am concerned that the bride today has got her eye fixed on the next new I 14 iPhone. Is there a thing I said?

I 15. I don't know. I I'm concerned that we are we are looking for the next great Marvel movie. Which I don't think it was that great. I think we're looking for the next great James Bond movie.

There you go. Okay. All you action folks here, right? You see that's not, that's not what he's saying. As a pilgrim and sojourner your eyes are in a different set of values.

Look at this, abstain from flesh and lust tells you what to avoid, which war against the soul, that means it destroys you. Number two, have your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. Now why? Sounds like the same verse we just read. Because they're gonna come after you with criticism.

They're gonna come after you with great statements that will attempt to subvert the name of Jesus Christ. Give them no reason. That's what it says. That their conduct honor among the Gentiles that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they observe, glorify god in the day of visitation. Then, the day of visitation meaning, when we all get caught up and god is judging the human race, they're going to say, you know what, God, we were kind of wrong when we were criticizing your church back then.

And you know, we can actually see now that they were doing good works and we're really sorry. You see that? God's using you as evidence to mount a case against them. Hopefully, to bring them to repentance because God is kind to the evil and unthankful through your good hands. But also, that if they do refuse Christ, God says, I sent you messengers and you ignored them.

What messengers did you send us? The church at West Lake that provided you with food that Saturday night when you had none. That was me, through them. You spoke evil of them, but you were speaking evil really of me and I provided for you. See how that works?

That's what we think. That's how we think as a corporate body. Alright, let's move on. Noon is coming too fast. Alright, so this is where, now we're gonna switch.

31:29 Shepherding the Flock of God

That means you're in the middle of the sheep and the sheep are surrounded with the by around the So, there's a there's a there's an intention of god for the two to be together. Please understand, I do not think an elder group is some sort of boys club that meets on Saturday night so we can talk about everybody And if you have that philosophy, you're starting from the wrong basis. This is different. This is totally different than anything you've ever seen and the shepherds were going to start with you. Okay?

Now, some of these I'll turn to, some of I won't. This one's clear. Remember, it says, shepherd the flock of God. When we taught back in the spring, I took you to John 21 and it's very interesting. He said to Peter, he said, I want you to feed my lambs.

So, what's the baby lambs need the most? The babies, they need food. That's how they grow. Then, the next one he says, I want you to tend my sheep. The word tend means pastor or pasturish.

So, you're out there taking care of the adult sheep from babyhood all the way through its life cycles. So, a shepherd, what he does is that he is required by god, I might add, to bring a help a baby lamb get its nutrition and then grow from that all the way through toddlerhood, school age, pre high school, high school, a young adulthood into adulthood and that's why we are involved in every facet of a sheep's life. Not because we're nosy. That's why it was assumed. You just wanted my business.

Well, actually, fleshly speaking, I don't wanted your business. But spiritually speaking, God wants me to be in your business. That's on purpose. It's on purpose. Now shepherds, they cannot be stupid.

What do I mean by that? They can't be in everybody's business so they can hold the goods on you and have, you know, have meat on you, so you know, we manipulate. But that's the accusation. That's wrong. We take all that we know and we're on our knees and before our face before the living God for your soul.

That's what we do. You'll never know, but you'll certainly experience the benefits. And so the flock of God, it requires you to be involved in all that life cycle. I remember one believer, he was in our chapel here, I'll start over here, and you know, I met him ten years ago and man, he he was rough. He was really rough.

Bad home, bad thinking, bad decisions, terrible outcomes. Move him along and you know, getting a little better and we meet and we pray and and and he's sort of start, stop, start, stop, moving along, comes to me and says, Steve, I said, I I want to go to the DITP. I want to be trained and and I I want to live for god. Okay, brother. Okay.

We pray some more. I see his life. He's actually made some pretty big changes. We send him to DITP. I get a call.

He says, you know, Steve, I've had a couple of really hard meetings, I may need to quit and come back next year. I said, well you got one or two choices brother, you can quit and come back or you can humble yourself and let the Lord change you again. He says, I'm gonna go with a ladder. And he does that and he becomes humble and he writes letters of apology to everyone there and to the instructors. And you know what?

I saw that guy go from a little infant toddler, now he's becoming a young sheep spiritually. That's what we do. And so when you as sheep, as you sense that and you sense the interaction of the shepherds or maybe they've asked others to help in the shepherding and somebody sort of inquiring about your spiritual condition, that is not offensive. That's appropriate. That is the way it's supposed to be.

That's the way it's god designed it to be. No, we don't use it as gossip and no, we don't use it as as manipulation but god has designed the shepherds to shepherd and in order to do that, they're going to have to be with you when you are flat on your back out on the pasture and you can't get up because you're eating too much and the wolves are going to take you apart. So don't fight that. Don't fight that. We fight it too much.

We put up those roadblocks. I know there's things that are private and you want them to stay private, but it is important in a body life that there's at least perhaps maybe one or two people that they have that permission to be in your life. I have men like that and I'm a full time worker. John Heller, Scott DeGroff can ask me any question any time of the day or night, And I don't mean the easy ones either. And if they don't ask me, I tell them.

That's way it should be. Alright. Now, leading the flock of God. Alright. This isn't...

I need you to turn to this one. Hebrews thirteen:seven. Hebrews thirteen:seven, thirteen:seven, thirteen:seven. It's just the first phrase. It says, Remember those who rule over you.

That word is lead. So if you find that there are shepherds in your lives that are saying, listen, as a body we want to go this way. We're weak on evangelism. We want to bolster our evangelistic effort. And then they come to one of you and say, listen, I noticed you have an interest maybe apologetically.

Can you give us an apologetic maybe two messages on how to deal with, I don't know, Islam? You know, that's not meant to to put you in a bad light and prove your ignorance. That is part of leading. Leading is important part of their function, and you have to let that leading happen. Now, you elders, do not lead in the flesh.

You can't live. Spiritual work was never designed to be in the flesh. Look at Saul. He was a leader and he operated in the flesh and man, the people were a chaotic. Yeah, he couldn't get him to come together to fight the enemy and then when they did, he limited them in their strength because he didn't let them eat and they didn't have the fullness of the battle.

38:09 Teaching the Flock of God

So, when you come and sit and you say, Well, today we're going to look at the minor prophets. We'll be in Zechariah. You're not supposed to go, Oh, no. God, boy. Genealogies again.

You know, now obviously we're not trying to serve food that's stale. No, no, no, no. But you have a certain responsibility as a flock to look to what the spirit of God has to say and the teachers have a responsibility to prepare the food well and to give his word for that moment, that hour. So, yeah, teaching is all part of it. Let's move on.

I'm taking up too much time. The responsible for the flock. Hebrews thirteen:seven. You're already there. Look at this.

This is big. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive. I'll talk about that in a moment. For they watch out for your souls. Many of the flock miss that responsibility that I to, I am to watch out for you.

I am to keep an eye on you. And what happens is saints get into a church and they go, oh, I wish you'd quit watching me so close. No. God is demanding this of them. In regards to that, they're supposed to protect the flock.

Acts Acts twenty twenty nine through 30. I want you to know I told you these things because wolves will come from without. What does a wolf dove do? Kill, steal, and destroy. And men will come from within.

What does that do? To have a subversive role and pull people out. Listen flock, listen, listen, listen. The elders are charged to protect from dangers from outside and dangers from within. So, you can augment that process by not being a reproducer of of taking offenses for someone else, siding up and being that way.

No, no, no. You can be a fire extinguisher of the fiery tongue, not a fire catalyst to the fiery tongue. That's good body life. And I think that body life needs to be replicated and duplicated. I know you've been through some hard times, some disciplining times.

That's when the body needs to come together. That's when the body needs to say, you know, I may not think this way, I might agree, but you know what? I trust God to trust those men, and I'm going to use my questions as moments of prayer to ask God to direct us in His will. And if the elders are not in His will, may God redirect them and me. That's what you do.

Not go to the next brother and say, Can you believe that? Can you believe those guys? Who do they think they are? I'll tell you who we think we are. Nobody's.

We think we're pieces of dust that God has somehow asked us to care for his flock. And quite honestly, on any best day, we feel so inadequate, you might as well not even count us. That's what we feel. Alright. Protecting the flock, prayer.

Is anybody sick among you? Call the who? Call the deacons of the church. Didn't say that. Call the elders.

The primary ministry of my tenure as an elder has been to pray. I know Denzel knows exactly what I'm talking about. He's looking right through me right now. I was at an elders conference. I've gone to many of those over the years.

I was with Herman Lum. Do you guys remember Herman Lum? Oh, what a guy. He had the horned rimmed glasses that you saw from in the nineteen fifty's when somebody worked on the accounting books, you know. And he's a short guy, probably about this tall.

White hair, all pulled back. And I was in a seminar, there's only 10 of us. And his seminar was titled, How to Deal with Problems in the Assembly. Just for an hour. This is how he starts off.

Do you remember, did you meet him? Yeah, yeah. This is how he talked. Well, see if I can do it right. Well, sometimes we have problems in this assembly and we pray about them and they go away.

We can close in prayer now. That was a seminar, that was it. It was literally thirty seconds. Alright, I'll never forget it. I never have the nerve to do that.

Right? But man, man was that good. And you know what we did as elders? We actually stopped our talking at least once a month and we would meet and we say, nobody say a word. No words.

Let's just pray. Those are the longest elders meetings we had. I'll never forget, my brother, he pushed back from the table after an hour and a half. Like he ate a roast dinner. Now, that was an elders meeting and we got up and we left.

That was it. Now saints, I need you to see that. Because the mystery of being a shepherd is no mystery. It's just confidential. Another aspect I didn't put up here is confidentiality.

Elders have to hear things. It's hard and you'll tell them, and you know, elders here, they have to be confident, they have to be, you know, like attorney client privileged, physician patient privileged. I know things that I could never tell you, and I can't divulge it at all, you know. I mean, that's just part of it. You have to trust them.

And elders, you have to trust that the sheep are trusting you. All this body dynamic makes it work. Let's talk about the sheep before I lose my hour here. Okay? Flock.

44:21 The Flock Recognizing and Following Leaders

That's why I stand in a little bit of a disagreement of the old idea that we don't have elders today because we do not have apostolic succession. It is true there is no succession of apostles. Capital A in terms of the guys that's I witnessed the lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection and his life. That is true but I don't think it's true that we should have non elders because we don't have apostle succession. That negates Paul saying, well, I left you in Crete so that you may set things in order like put elders in place.

That kind of negates that whole idea. So, I think we should recognize them and that means acknowledge them and that means that that you're acknowledging a sense and here it is. You ready? That I have accountability to god through these individuals. That I have responsibility to God through these individuals.

That I have an accounting to give to God through these individuals and he actually says make sure that accounting is a good one. That's what it means. It's way more than say, who are the elders? Oh, there's a guy over there. He's a bad dresser, but you'll like him.

That's not it. There's fundamental, foundational thinking that the sheep has to have towards that elder. Okay. Remember and follow, are shepherding examples around you. That's Hebrews thirteen:seven.

Let's go back to there. And that's part A. That's the part I skipped. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, alright? Now, that's a tough one, okay?

Because it says, obey. Obey. You know, this is this is America. We don't obey anybody. Alright?

That was tongue in cheek. You're supposed to laugh. Okay. Thank you. What he's saying here is he's using language that is like the Lord Jesus.

And it's language out of Philippians two. The language is that he submitted himself, he humbled himself and being submissive even to the obedience which was at the point of death. Same language, same verbs involved. He's saying, you be like Christ in your disposition to the elders. Now, people say, well, some of our elders, I know, know, they're a little weird, you know, they're kind of not together.

Okay. So, then you go to first Peter three and this is a prototype example used in the marital setting and he said, now, wives, like Sarah, who trusted in god calling Abraham lord. So, what happens when you think the elders are off and believe me, I'm an elder. We can be off. We can be rationally sane to the exact wrong conclusion.

Trust me, it happens. What do you do? Well, it says, like it, like Sarah, she trusted in god to direct through this husband who by the way was off on at least two occasions. And therefore honored him calling him Lord. Now you do not need to call your elders Lord.

Okay, don't. I'm not saying that. But when you think they're wrong, when you think something's not right, when you think there's a danger, a radar flare goes up that, Oh, is this a bad doctrine? You go before the Lord and you ask the Lord, who is their chief shepherd, to instruct them, press them, reshape them. And when that happens, you watch an incredible phenomenon that you are honoring the principle that the Lord Jesus said, when the centurion said, I'm likewise a man under authority, and I tell men to go and they go, and to come and they come.

And he said, Jesus, you're just like that, and you are the ultimate authority, and you tell this disease to go, it'll go. You tell Satan to go, he'll go. You tell this problem to go, it'll go. And Jesus said, man, I've never seen somebody with such faith. You are exercising that same faith which Jesus complimented, and you work through that way.

Now I know it's gonna raise questions. Well, what about is there ever a time I should leave? It's funny you jump to that. We jump to that right away. Because why do you want to play that card so fast?

Why don't we concentrate on playing the card that's right in front of us to play? And when it's time, if the Lord wants you to leave, I think he'll show you that. But first, let's do what he's first instructed us to do and then we can talk about step number two. A lot of times we just jump to step number two without even being obedient to step number one. We jump to step number two because it gets us out of following step number one.

That should not be part of your fellowship. All right, finally, it says yield to those shepherds. That's what it means. Obey those who rule over you. Be submissive.

That's the word. It's the same word that was used by the Lord Jesus. Now, saints, it sounds scary, but it causes you to follow, to trust Christ as Christ trusted his father. Did you know that? First Peter chapter two and it says, and he, although he was reviled, did not revile in return.

Although he was threatened, he threatened not in return. But committed himself to him who judges righteously. Who was that? His father. Just like Sarah did it, so did Jesus do it.

In fact, you follow Sarah's example because it's the example of the savior. And we are to duplicate that very divine authorized model that Christ himself produced for us. Alright. Finally, this one, verse 17, chapter 13 of Hebrews. You must read it with me.

Please do. And it says, let them do, as those who must give account, know that word must is a very strong word, must, they have to give an account, then he turns to you and I, the flock, let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. See, he's putting some onus on the flock. He's saying, listen, they got to give an account for you. You think that's easy?

No. And the problem is, is that I'm not giving them the responsibility of making the good report. It's not like you see in business where if the workers don't do it, the head goes. I'm making you responsible. I'm making you responsible to make sure that you are obeying in the ways that I've asked you to obey already in the scriptures so that when your name comes up at the judgment seat of Christ and they call it out, Steven, what about Steven?

I'm supposed to be the one that has worked in such a way so that those elders will say, well he was a saint that was faithful with your lordship. See how that works? That they would be able to give a good account of you, Otherwise, it's very unprofitable. That means you do not have a contribution to make. A lot of attitude going on there.

I've been on both sides of the fence. I've been a sheep under authority and I've been the one who has to have the authority. And I understand both. Just like I I've I've worked in the workforce and now I'm a full time worker. I understand both.

I understand their struggles and I understand you disagree and I understand all of that but I think beloved, there is a godly way to handle this and that's what we want to do for this generation to come. We want to go back to that original pattern. It's funny. We say we believe in headship until you disagree. That's an awful thing.

I've seen too much. Alright. Respectfully in the face of questions. That says this, and do not receive an accusation against an elder unless there's two or three witnesses. You know what he's saying?

Give them the benefit of the doubt, check out the case, and if you find there to be evidence, go. And go not with two, not with one voice, go with two voices so that there can be a sense of dignity and respectability in the discussion. Now elders, if you ever have to have a pro... Been a pro... Be approached like this, I gotta tell you, you have to have a non defensive posture.

It's called meekness. And you wanna take that in and receive it. And if there's sin, confess it because it's not about preservation of your dignity or preservation of your position. It's all about the savior. And if it's all about the savior, saints do not use that scripture willy nilly.

I don't like him anyway. We're gonna take him out. Wow. The Lord's pretty clear in Hebrews. He judges that kind of thing.

Alright. And this is my last slide so we can eat. Alright. I tell you all this as a sampling of how the body works. And right now you've recognized elders and there's the flock.

And I want to see you grow in such a way that on these daily aspects of life, you actually have harmony. There's a proper regard for the elders and there's a proper regard the elders must have for the sheep and it allows you to come together, not split you apart. I want you to know, saints, that the elders cannot tell you everything they know. They want to, especially if somebody comes and criticizes them. They want to tell you everything, but they can't.

Because if your life was on the line in that situation, you would not want all your dirty laundry exposed either. So, you're gonna have to trust God in them. Now you elders, you're on your faces because you don't wanna act outside of God. And when the sheep see that heart, it fosters a mutual trust. And by the way, mutual trust brings that loving relationship together in the spirit of God.

So you've come a long way. I am very convinced that you are a rare commodity in the North American assembly world. Rare. But I'm also very convinced that the Lord will lead you to the next step. To the next level of body life that you will enjoy as believers and you will say, this is lovely.

I can't believe God has made this great thing and you know, individually and corporately and corporately and individually and elders and flock and flock and elders and the deacons in play and praise God for his wisdom. And you'll start to declare the manifold wisdom of God for the unity that is here on a piece of real estate in all the world and you'll say, God is glorious. And you'll become true worshippers. Don't you want that? Who doesn't want that?

Anybody not want that here? You can raise your hand. I didn't think so. We all want that. My prayer has been for thirty years.

Lord, I don't ask you to take away problems. I ask you to help us manage them biblically. So, you won't be free of problems. You'll just see the great hand of the spirit of God deal with our problems. Okay, I'll stop there.

55:43 Questions and Prayer

Let's pray and shall I thank the Lord for the food? No food? Okay, great. So we'll have a break, lunch, and then we'll get together for the Q and A. Dear Father, thank you again for the lovely scriptures that you've authored for us, The lovely words of God that have really a profound effect upon us.

I'm fearful father because my heart is so slow. My heart is so procrastinatory. My heart is so hard on many things. And sometimes I just wonder why you even put up with me. But I'm grateful that this work of Christ has extended well beyond any imaginable sin of my life.

Father, I thank you that you're that same God to the West Lake Bible Fellowship. I thank you, Father, that you have extended your grace to this family of believers. I thank you, Father, that you have shown much mercy and harmony. You have let your true colors be reflected in the people here. Oh God, I pray.

I pray for them and that you would expand their walk with you, both personally and corporately. Expand their ministry, their service to you, but most of all

Part Three/Q And A - 2 — John 15

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Part Three/Q And A - 2 — John 15

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