Hebrews 13 will be our text for
today. We're going to be going through
a series in the book of Hebrews simply entitled Hebrews. But I wanted to start in the
13th chapter because the 13th chapter is a closing chapter
for those of you who are familiar with the book of Hebrews. It's
actually a wonderful chapter with some very important contemplations
to be derived from it. But mostly it's because chapter
13 sums up the whole series in the book of Hebrews which is
rather lengthy and complex because the writer of the Hebrews is
doing a historiography of the people of God and God's objective
to save his people and the journey from chapters 1 to chapters 12
can be very challenging if you don't have a background in Hebrew
culture, Jewish culture and understand some of the very, very serious
and complex theological elements therein. But he seems to come
up out of his focused attention of establishing the new covenant
in Jesus Christ for the people of God, both Jews and Gentiles.
And he starts to become very practical, very, very practical
in the closing chapters of the book of Hebrews. for which we
have our title today, The Warrant for Leadership. The Warrant for
Leadership. So I want us to think through
why is it that God gives us leadership? Why does God give us leaders? And the writer to the Hebrews
will press this home in chapter 13, the importance and the benefit
and the warrant, the grounds for leadership. He is compelled
as he closes this letter to the Hebrew people to urge them, to
urge them to maintain some things that are already taking place
in their life. Maintain them. He's not telling
them to start something. He's telling them to maintain.
Now when you are being encouraged to maintain something, you already
are given the benefit of the doubt of having initiated something,
started something, and began something. Something is occurring
in your life which is good and worthy of being exhorted to maintain. Like the Apostle Paul in Ephesians
chapter 4, he will tell the people of God to continue in love, continue
in peace. Continue in faith which are things
that are given to the people of God by God's spirit by which
we walk with God and one another You and I are not to start faith
or start love or start peace But we are to walk in that as
an inherited gift As we were dealing with the whole concept
of how people often are walking in assumptions of this and that
and they discover that they are part of a movement are engaged
in a a Institution or part of an ideology that had long before
them started they wake up and they are operating out of assumptions
and when your assumptions are challenged then you are sort
of startled because you didn't quite recognize that you were
walking in Assumptions you hadn't tested or proven those things
that you walk and we do that we all walk in that our children
walk in the assumption the assumptions of our life until they come to
a point where they have to examine what we teach to see whether
or not they will truly from the heart embrace what we have imposed
upon them as assumptions. Assumptions can be good if they
are right, but assumptions can be very dangerous if they are
wrong. In the present context, the writer to the Hebrews is
saying for them to continue in some things. And what he's describing,
children of God, is very important. He's describing a culture. He's
describing a way of life. He's describing a manifestation
of the grace of God in the people of God collectively, and he's
encouraging them after 12 wonderful exhortations to look to Christ
to continue in these things. So in verses 1 through verse
5, or rather we might say verse 6, he tells them to continue
in a life and ethic or ethos, a pattern of sustained love. Sustained love. Let brotherly
love continue. Sustain it. You guys see that?
So obviously if we're doing it, the only problem is we have to
be careful not to stop doing it. continue in brotherly love,
continue in hospitality, continue in outreach, continue in purity. Those are sort of the five things
that underscore verses one through six that we might call children
of God a gospel culture, a gospel culture. I also might call it
the life of an evangelical community. We can also say it is an extension
of the person of Christ manifested in the body of Christ. If we
look at these particular descriptions of what he is exhorting the people
of God in this culture to do, to love, to be hospitable, to
outreach, and to walk in purity, these are all the things that
Jesus did. When Jesus was here, Jesus walked in love with his
fellow men. When Jesus was here, he was hospitable
everywhere he went. When Christ was here, The major
expression and effort of his labors were outreach, were they
not? And in his engagement with the
culture, as the revelation of the invisible God, as the mediator
between God and man, as the evangelist par excellence, as the lover
of the souls of men, as the savior of sinners, friends of sinners,
he kept himself pure. as an individual who was holy,
harmless, undefiled, perfect in all of his being and attributes,
his motive, his intentions, and his methods of entering into
the life of men and women. He engaged them. This is what
it means to walk in love. You can't walk in love with someone
you don't engage. This is what it means to be hospitable.
Y'all remember what hospitality used to be like? You forgot,
it's been a long time. Hospitality is when you open
your doors to people and let them in. And you suck with them
and you fellowship with them. And what's yours is theirs and
what theirs is yours. There's a kind of openness with
hospitality that used to be part of our culture long ago when
we were poor and broke. Y'all remember that? When eating
together was a wonderful thing. when the neighbor could be walking
down the street and all you would say, hey man, stop, come on,
let's eat and talk. That's called hospitality. That's
the way our master was. If you read the Gospels carefully,
and I recommend that you do, learn what he said, yes, but
watch what he did, because he was, by both his doctrine and
his life, the revelation of the invisible God. And he transfers
that to us. continuing in love, continuing
in hospitality. Our master also was given to,
he was given to outreach. The text tells us in verse one,
two, and verses one and two particularly, or one, two and three, as we
continue in brotherly love, do not be afraid or forgetful to
entertain what? Boy, when the last time you had
a stranger in your house, for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares. Remember them that are in what?
When last time you visited somebody in prison as being bound with
them. Do you empathize, sympathize?
Do you put your feet in their shoes? Because that's what you
have to do to go visit them. The energy and motive and drive
to impel you to get up out of the comfort zone of your own
home and space and house and the security of your lifestyle
to go visit someone in prison requires a sympathy and empathy
on the inside. You have to be burdened with
a care for that person to get up and go visit them, to go see
them, to go talk to them, to go witness to them, to go encourage
them, to affirm them in their faith. You probably don't know
this. I've got a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ in prison
who are longing for brothers and sisters in Christ to visit
them. See, that's what our master said
in Matthew chapter 25. If you did it to them, You did
it to me. See, this is what I meant by
what's in front of us is a culture of evangelism. It's a manifestation
and extension of the person of Christ. The church here that
the Hebrew writer is saying, continuing these things, continue,
don't stop these things because these are the fruits and efficacious
work of Jesus Christ in your life. See, this group of people
who are believers in Christ, they're not simply sitting down
listening to doctrine. They're engaged in a culture
of outreach, hospitality, and giving. And they're serving in
a community that's broke. And I mean broke spiritually,
I mean broke psychologically, I mean broke socially, I mean
broke domestically. Our culture is broke, isn't it?
But see, Jesus was in that culture. And the church of the Hebrews
obviously got the message from the Master, didn't he? And our
writer to the Hebrews is saying, don't stop that. You guys continue
walking in love towards one another. Let brotherly love continue.
That's the word Philadelphia. Let brotherly love continue and
let that brotherly love spread out into hospitality, outreach,
and purity. Remain pure now. Listen to what
he says over in verses four and five. This is very important.
Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers
and adulterers God will judge. Remain pure. Let your conversation
be without covetousness, remain pure. and be content with such
things as you have for he has said I will what never leave
you nor forsake you you know what the writer is saying in
verse 5 in order to be the kind of evangelical culture that is
continuing in brotherly love and also at the same time bold
enough to be hospitable to strangers and at the same time maintaining
boundaries and parameters so that your faith is not corrupted
by this culture you have to believe God You have to walk by faith. You have to trust that God will
keep you as you live an evangelical life. Because it's easy to draw
back and simply put the walls up and fence yourself in and
not do anything but go to church. This is what's so important about
the 13th chapter of Hebrews. The writer to the Hebrews understood
the Hebrew culture. And the writer to the Hebrews
understood that these people have been used to fencing themselves
in because they were a small people group. The Jews have always
been a small people group. And there was a sort of innate
sense of inferiority. And so the basic law of self-preservation
is to protect yourself. You know how we have our fenced
homes and our gates and our bars and our alarms and our guns and
nobody gets in? That's the kind of attitude we
have today. It's really antithetical to the gospel. Because underlying
it are a number of maladies that are both spiritual and psychological
that would indicate that we are not really walking by the kind
of faith that God has called us to. Suppose you had a nightmare. And that nightmare was you went
to sleep tonight in your nice cush beds in your safe home. which we all have. And I pray
for that when we are in our prayer service. Don't I say just repeatedly,
Lord, take us home safely. Lay us down on our pillow. Let
our sleep be sweet. Wake us up tomorrow with our
mission. I'm assuming that we're going to have a good night's
sleep. Some of our brothers and sisters in third world countries
don't assume that. You hear what I'm saying? You and I are rich,
aren't we? We are highly favored, aren't we? We are blessed beyond
degree. We have lived a life of unending,
uninterrupted blessing like I don't know what compared to our brothers
and sisters who are simply asking us on this side of the water
to pray for them. Because sometimes they don't
even get a good night's sleep. And all I'm saying, Saints, is
there is a warrant for leadership. This is what the Hebrew writer
is about to let us know. There's a warrant for leadership. The
leadership helps you and I stay on point. It's critical to maintaining
the goal and objective for which God calls us. Because I don't
know, I might get one honest person in the house, we drift. We drift. And the drifting sometimes
is imperceptive. You kind of just when once you
and I stop operating out of an intentionality to do what we're
called to do That's being mission minded where we have to put enough
energy in to make sure that we are staying on course with what
God has called us to do all you got to do is cut the engine off
on that boat and The current is going to drift it in the way
in which the current is going and you will look up and you
will be far off Your course, isn't that so? Far off your course. And so the Hebrew writer is,
as it were, encouraging and exhorting the people of God to maintain
this beautiful culture of love and hospitality and outreach
and purity. And by the way, this is the very antithesis of our
present secular culture. Our culture is not operating
out of love, it's operating out of hate, which is rooted in fear. Our present culture is not operating
out of love. It's not connected to God. How can you walk in love
when you're not connected to God? It is operating out of a
sense of, hey, people used to, when I talked about this as being
an underlying problem in the world, people look at me like
I'm crazy, but the Bible tells me that the nations are angry
and they've got their fist in God's face. You read it for yourself,
Psalm 2. Why doth the heathen rage? People say, now pastor, why are
you saying people are angry? People are angry because they
don't get to be God. And they're angry because there
is this looming reality that something greater than them hangs
over their head. And they live in hostility towards
God. But that's rooted in fear. You know, a lot of the anger
that our society is exhibiting is rooted in fear. Now, fear
is the absence of love. Because perfect love casts out
fear. But we have every reason to fear
when we don't know God. We're like Adam and Eve as a
culture hiding behind the trees, sowing fig leaves. Am I persuading
you now? And so we are building a life
and legacy of not inclusion, but exclusion, isolation, building
up barriers, hiding ourselves. People now live the preponderance
of their life in a cubicle in front of a computer screen. Your
children, my children, our world is increasingly isolating itself. This is the exact opposite of
an evangelical culture where you meet people, not just your
brethren, strangers, new people. And so if you and I are rooted
in anger based upon hate, which is also rooted in fear, fear
is rooted in unbelief. We don't have actually the power
or motive to actually engage people. So we're, we're cutting
ourselves off and we're operating like our present culture that's
saints. I'm just going to use one more example of what I'm
saying just to persuade you that this is antithetical to the gospel
and it must not be. You live on a particular block,
a city block, and it may have 50 homes on that block. How many
of those people you know? You've been there for 6,500 years. How many of those people do you
know? I'm talking the neighbor right next door, on either side. Now you promise you will call
the police if somebody breaks into their house, but you won't
take the time to say, hi, I'm a Christian. Do you know God? Hear what I'm saying? Now this
is what I meant by living under a set of assumptions in a culture
that was already prefabbed for us and we're just simply going
with the flow. The Christian community has to actually be
intentionally different. And what the writer to the Hebrew
is saying, you must be this, you must be this, you must be
this, because we can drift. We can simply become identified
with the culture. We will be cultural Christians
without any salt light impact whatsoever, because we're simply
drifting along. I'm making some sense, am I? This is the warrant for leadership
of which I want to now call your attention to five critical points. It's very clear that the purpose
for being under authority is to help you and I stay on point. Leadership assists the people
of God for maintaining their position, maintaining their calling,
maintaining their mission. It keeps you and I from strain
and being distracted. Leadership also keeps us from
sinning. Leadership will keep us from perishing. It is for
this reason in the book of Hebrews from chapters two all the way
to chapter 12, one, two, three, four, five chapters are devoted
to sincere and serious stinging warnings about allowing the deceitfulness
of sin to harden our hearts and to keep us from doing what God
has called us to do. Leadership loves the body when
it warns the body. And so leadership is critical.
And I want to establish the premise that there is a warrant for leadership
based upon our text. Now, what the writer to the Hebrew
is saying to the people of God in that they are doing that very
unusual thing of living a culture that is very crystal centric
and evangelical in nature is we need you to continue doing
what you're doing. And in order to do that, you're
going to have to remember and obey your leaders. Verse 7 says, remember them that
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Verse 17, obey them that have the rule over you and submit
yourself to them for they watch for your souls as they must give
an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for
that is unprofitable to you. The writer to the Hebrew uses
the word overseer or ruler three times. Verse 24, salute them
that have the rule over you. So there are three imperatives
here. Remember them, obey them, and salute them. You guys see
that? Remember them, obey them, and salute them. Why? Because
God has given leadership to establish structure in his church so that
the church can maintain its calling and purpose. God has given leadership
in order for the church to maintain structure, to maintain its calling,
and to maintain its purpose. Point number one, therefore,
in your outline, remembrance and obedience. You guys see that?
Remembrance and obedience. Now, when the writer to the Hebrews
is saying to you and I to remember them that have the rule over
you, He is saying that we are to meditate upon, reflect, and
consider highly what it means to have the privilege of someone
being in a hegemonic status or a hegemonic state. The word is
hegemony, from which we get in the political term, our institution,
the governing body. We have a hegemonic society where
we have a government. We have an administration. We have a legislature. We have
a judiciary. We have an executive branch,
both locally in every state as well as in Washington. And they
have the hegemony over us. They govern us. They have the
authority over us because we're under constitutional law. Is
that true? And what God is saying here is
leadership in the church has the government of the church.
They're governors. That's what the word literally
means. That means they are authorized by God to make sure the body
is functioning according to the Word of God. That's their authority. It's for our good. It's in order
that we might arrive at our destiny, might be able to fulfill our
purpose and calling. And the writer to the Hebrew
says that we are to remember them, remember them. And in your
outline point number one, remember them, regard them, Remember them
and regard them. That means you don't just kind
of think lightly and passively about them. You think seriously
about them. You think in this sense. What
is the benefit and privilege of a leader or a government or
a set of authorities over my life, particularly in the spiritual
sense? Because we're talking here about the church. I know
on a personal level, having been the pastor of this church for
a long time and in relationship with people on an authority level
for a long time, that I highly impress people. My personhood,
my calling, my gifts, my authority, my relationship to you as a pastor
influence you greatly. I know that in God's providence,
he has chosen leaders, elders and pastors to actually be a
voice inside your head Advising your conscience about right and
wrong consistently Am I telling the truth? I know that it can
be so impressive. Sometimes you actually hear my
literal voice Telling you what to do and what not to do On occasion
because we have a wonderful relationship. You will come to me and say pastor
I had a dream and boy if it was I heard your voice. That's what
kept me out of trouble. I heard your voice Well, that's
what the Spirit of God uses as the vocal instrumentality by
which the word of God is communicated to you and lively controlling
or at least advising you when you are about to make decisions.
It's the same as parents are to children. Children hear the
voices of their mother and their father or the authority that's
over them. and even if they want to be out from under and extricate
themselves from their influence, they can't because God has set
up that hegemony in their life. You know how you get 60, 70,
80 years old and you still trying to get your mama's voice out
of your head? And it doesn't go anywhere. And that's because
God has set parents up to be authorities in your life. Parents
are designed to be authorities. They're designed to speak into
your life. Now the word hegemony means that Invested in the parents
authority is why you hear me on the Monday show asking you
the question by whose authority are you doing what you do? Because
our present government is functioning out of a non-biblical authority.
They are not operating out of God's authority and that means
disaster. I And if parents are functioning
out of a non-biblical authority over their children, that means
disaster. And if leadership in the church is functioning out
of a non-biblical authority over you, that means disaster. Because
our authority is usurped. Our authority is bogus and spurious. It's a false authority. But when
our authority is God's Word, which is one of the highlights
or one of the attributes or characteristics of leadership, when our authority
is God's Word, it is in the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
same as Christ speaking to you. He that heareth you, he said
to the apostles, here's me. And he that hears me, hears my
father. This is how important the warrant for leadership in
the church is. That's why the text says this in verse seven,
listen to it again. It says, remember them which have the
rule over you, who have what? Spoken unto you the word of God. So leadership is supposed to
leave an impression upon your soul of a sense of biblical authority
when you think about them. If we are doing our jobs correctly,
more than our personality and our personal relationships that
we have with one another is the fact that when you think about
your leaders, you think about how they have taught you biblical
truth, how they have explained the word of God to you, how they
have laid out the scriptures to you and pointed you to Christ,
and how they have, as it were, helped you to grasp God's authority
in your own life. Now, if you're a child of God,
you appreciate that. You appreciate the fact that when you think
about your leaders in your church, you think about the word of God.
You think about the gospel. You think about the grace of
God. You think about the beauties of Christ because of their efforts
at teaching and preaching. And really, that's what the emphasis
that the writer is speaking of, particularly in verse 7. He says,
remember them and regard highly their position, their hegemony,
their authority, regard it high enough, as we have in our outline,
to replicate it. Notice what he says in verse
7. Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God, whose faith do what? Now you aren't
following anybody's faith but your own. Isn't that a radical
imperative though, Brother Sam? Isn't that a radical imperative?
The radical imperative is this, that leaders are not only to
be heard and highly regarded with regards to them being a
mouthpiece for God by which you have a more vivid and clear understanding
of biblical truth, but you are also inclined to or exhorted
to follow their faith. That's absolutely astonishing,
isn't it? Now, what that means, I want you to get this, all that
means is this, that leadership is not simply a voice teaching
you something behind a radio. That leadership is not simply
the oraculation of words, no matter how sound and precise
and accurate the theology is. Leadership is a visible, practical
manifestation of the gospel both in word and in deed. so that
the congregation, the members, the believers are encouraged
to follow the pattern of their faith, which means leadership
has gone out in front of you with a lifestyle, committed to
the gospel, by which now you can track it, because that's
what the word follow means. The word follow means to track,
to track it. It means to see where they're
going, approve of where they're going, and go where they're going.
It means to see where they're going, approve of where they're
going and go where they're going, if where they're going is right.
If they're obeying the word of God, then you follow them as
they follow Christ, as Paul plainly said. Now that's not only the
responsibility, child of God, that's your privilege. Because
if you aren't occupying the office of overseer or leader in the
church, then it assumes that you are occupying the role of
following, right? Because if you are neither leadership
nor following, you are a rebel. And if you are a rebel, you are
going to waste your time. You are going to be distracted
in your life. And you're going to be spinning
your wheels because you are wiser than God. You guys get that? And so what the writer to the
Hebrews is saying is the privilege and benefit of leadership when
it's obedient to God is that you will have a comfortable and
very efficacious experience with God's word because they will
be sound in the faith. They will be teaching you comprehensively. Biblical truth where you know
you are hearing from God. You're not guessing that you're
hearing from God. You know you are hearing from
God. You know you can open that book and when you read you know
that the teaching that you are under corresponds with the scriptures
and thus you can follow them. You know also that they don't
live a life of hypocrisy. You know that they are not walking
in deceit, in a cloak of covetousness. contrary to what you are hearing
today about leaders. You know that biblical leadership
does not live a lifestyle of avarice and greed and opulence,
which is clearly diametrically opposed to the pattern for which
they must follow, which we'll get there in a moment. There
can be no comfort for an eternity bound soul trying to obey the
Word of God when you have leaders that you know in their life do
not obey the Word of God. You are now torn between the
authority of scripture and the authority of the leadership whose
lives are in opposition to biblical truth. And so what the writer
to the Hebrews is saying to us is, as you submit, that's what
chapter 17 we'll get into in a moment, as you submit to biblical
leadership, here's what you're submitting to. Not merely a skillful
rhetorician who can make you hoop and holler, shout and dance
in the church. but an individual whose life corresponds with biblical
truth, and he and they are a living testimony of commitment to the
gospel through and through. That becomes a privilege for
you. So when you are examining who I am going to submit myself
to, you must examine both their doctrine and their life. That's
1 Timothy chapter 4. Paul told Timothy, make sure
that no one despises your youth, but be thou an example of the
believer in word and in deed and in doctrine and in purity
of life. Continue in preaching, exhortation,
reading the scriptures. That's what you're called to
do. Don't get caught up in this, that and the other thing. You'll
be distracted and the people will be distracted. Your job
is to preach, preach, preach and teach the Word of God. And
if anything, your people are complaining that you are doing
too much of one thing. Now you're halfway doing your
job, preacher. Why does he always preach, always
teach, always preach, always teach? Because you and I need
to be under the Word constantly. You cannot be a jack-of-all-trades
and be a master of all trades. You have to give yourself over
to the ministry of the word. You have to go deep into the
scriptures. You have to know God's spirit.
He has to be operating in your life, not only to transform your
mind so you can speak biblical truth into the life of people,
but conform your life to the image of Christ so that the people
have a pattern. The people then will be comfortable
in their soul that they're not being deceived, even if they
haven't caught up with your life yet. The pattern has been carved
out. When you think about your leadership,
you think about how they live, how they serve God, how they
commit themselves to Christ. So listen to the language. Remember
them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you
the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of
their conversation. That is lifestyle. Consider the
end of their lifestyle. Now, verse 17 puts it like this.
I'm going to tie the two for time's sake. Obey them that have
the rule over you and submit yourselves unto them. Obey them
that have the rule over you and submit yourselves unto them,
for they watch for your what? Now, what an impossible task
for leadership. Now, government will tell you
that too. You hear our politician. Whenever
they get on the mic, it's a controversial issue. They get on the mic. Now,
we're here trying to do the people's business. We're here trying to
do the people's business. Now you know they're not there
doing the people's business. This is the thing that ticks
you off. They get on their mind. We're here to do the people's
business. This is the people's country. When was the last time
the government asked you anything about what they wanted to do?
I don't remember the last time I got a piece of paper in the
mail that said, you know, Mr. Gistin, We represent you. Now, these are the issues that
we actually want to get involved in. But because we are representing
you, we really need to know what you think about this before we
actually deliberate this. When's the last time you got
something like that? No, you haven't. You haven't. And so we struggle
with the fact that our leadership is doing whatever it wants to
do, and we have to pay for it. In the church, it's not that
way. Your submission to biblical leadership, your submission to
it, is never a blind submission. Your submission to leadership
in any sense is never a blind submission. In fact, your outline
will state that very clearly. It's never a mere blind submission.
Remembering and regarding and replicating, that is you are
to model them, is not on the basis of a blind obedience, but
rather an informed obedience, a biblical obedience. a mutually
relational obedience. Pastor, what are you saying?
It is really the job of the congregation to know the leadership well enough
to be able to trust them, to follow them. Do you recall what
1 Thessalonians, it's not 2nd, but 1 Thessalonians chapter 5
verse 12 and 13 says. Mark what it says, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 verse 12 and 13. This is what they say. The Hebrew
writer, the writer to the Thessalonians says this, And we beseech you,
brethren, to know them which labor among you. You guys got
that? To know them. You know what that means? You're
not guessing who they are. You know what that also means?
You're not receiving second-hand information from other folks
in the congregation about who they are. You're not being told
third-hand or fourth-hand about who they are. You have invested
enough energy to listen and watch, observe and actually engage leadership
to know them. It is a mutually relational knowledge
that cuts down a whole lot of junk in the church because you
know the church ain't heaven. And so what the apostle Paul
said in the book of Thessalonians, you guys need to know your leaders.
You need to know who they are. You need to know what their job
is. You need to know their challenges. You need to be corresponding
with leadership so that the leadership under which you are called providentially
can do the best job they possibly can. Whether you know it or not,
a large part of the success of leadership is your compliance
to biblical truth with regards to leadership. Did that go over
our heads? Whether you know it or not, if
your leaders fall and you had nothing to do with their encouragement
and building up and strengthening, and collaborative effort in the
cause of the gospel because you were too busy isolating yourself,
shutting yourself in, protecting your goods, or whatever the case
may be, part of that lies on the congregation. Because it's
supposed to be a community wherein they are engaged on a consistent
basis. See, actually what I'm describing
to you, children of God, is the life of Jesus Christ. That's
all I'm describing. When our master hit the planet,
and he hid up under the authority of his mom and daddy for some
30 years and then he was called by God and the Holy Spirit came
upon him to empower him for ministry. He got up out of that water and
began to preach simultaneously calling men and women to himself
in order to have fellowship with them, then with him to set the
model that the ministry of the gospel is communal in nature.
That leadership doesn't hide from the congregation. It doesn't
separate itself from the congregation. It doesn't live up on a hill
while the congregation is down on the ground. There is a mutual
relational dynamic here by which leadership is assisted by the
prayers and the love and the cooperation of the fellow brethren
in order to get the job done. So it's kind of like this, just
to keep it practical before I get to my next point. If leadership
is used by God on a significant level, naturally we would understand
that they must have a wonderful fellowship and congregation.
Because there's no way for leadership to advance in their calling and
gifting without a fellowship assisting them that way. Like
behind every good man is a good woman. Behind every model leadership
is a family of believers. who are committed to loving God
and making sure there's no scandal that comes upon Dad. My family
can take me down. Are you hearing me? My family
can take me down. And if God's grace doesn't stay
on my family, then I have to take the hit for them not living
for the glory of God. But my family can cause me to
be disqualified from the ministry. My church, the church can do
that too. So what I'm saying is that there is an interrelationship
essential to the advancement of God's glory through the mouthpiece
of God, where if people are saying, that ministry is a blessing to
me. When you hear the word, that
ministry includes yourself as a congregation. For which, verse
19 in our text says, pray for us. Verse 18, pray for us, for
we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live
what? See, we're not LA preachers here. That's a facade. It doesn't even correspond to
the truth. And any person that spends five minutes believing
that crap doesn't know the word of God or has no interest in
obedience to the gospel. None. None. None. And so the people of God
are called to remember their leaders and to obey them. And
honestly, quite honestly, in verse 7 and 8, there's an interesting
tie here. You need to know that so I can
move on. I want to get done here. When it says, Remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation,
the writer jumps into verse 8 and says, Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever, You know what he does? He reminds
the congregation that true biblical leadership will come and will
go. They're only human. Moses came
and Moses went. Joshua came and Joshua went. David came and David went. Solomon
came and Solomon went. All the apostles came and all
the apostles went. But Christ remains the same. He is the resident shepherd of
the church. He sits on his throne and governs
his church. He never leaves. He never forsakes
us. He works through one leader,
and then he works through another leader, and he works through
another leader, because he is the same yesterday, today, and
forevermore. It's speaking to the immutability
of our resident shepherd, the high priest, prophet, and king
of the church. that he never goes anywhere.
There are times, however, when leadership is going to be removed
either by death or by God's providence. He changes it up and it ceases. Contextually, what it's actually
implying is that they are to remember the leaders who have
gone before them, who have died, and often through martyrdom. See, Hebrews chapter 10 speaks
to us about the sufferings of the gospel. Do you remember when
God illuminated you to the truth and how you had to suffer for
the cause of the gospel and how they took your goods and took
your resources and you suffer for the name of Christ? We want
to exhort you to continue in the faith. We want you to understand
that you have need of patience so that after you have done the
will of God, you might receive the promise and we have no pleasure
in those that draw back under perdition. Remember that exhortation?
That was because the context of the Hebrew church is this,
saints. They were suffering for the gospel. And guess what? When a church is in a culture
or a country suffering for the gospel, guess who naturally has
to take the first hit? The leaders. The leaders have
to step out in front of the sheep. When the enemy is going to be
given power by God to arrest and persecute and kill leadership,
leadership has to be ready to take on that task for Christ's
sake. because the leadership has as
its model Christ. Christ is our model. Christ is
our revelation. Christ is our wisdom. Christ
is our knowledge. Christ is our pattern. Christ
is our goal. And we know they killed him.
And we sign on the dotted line, I am ready to die for the cause
of the gospel, that these sheep might keep their eyes on Christ.
And if we don't, if we don't sign on the dotted line, we are
not shepherds of Christ because he laid down his life as the
great high priest and forerunner of all his people. And we have
an anchor to the soul, steadfast and sure in heaven for us, Jesus
Christ. And every God-sent, God-anointed,
God-ordained preacher has an anchor to his soul. And that's
Christ, his great shepherd. And do you know what that means?
As Christ was killed, so we are ready to die for the cause of
the gospel. And that's the pattern that we set for the church. That's
the pattern that we must set for the church. Elders and deacons,
and those of you aspiring to leadership, anything short of
that commitment to Christ, you are not qualified for leadership.
Anything short of that, you are not qualified for leadership.
You must give yourself totally to the God-man who made himself
the mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus. You
must abandon yourself as leaders to total dependence upon Jesus
Christ and the power of His Spirit to lead you, even if necessary,
to death, that the sheep might have a clear pattern a clear
type, a clear example, a clear model into the presence of God,
for which when we die, they remember us. When they kill your pastor,
you go, you know, I remember that brother. I didn't always
like them, but I loved him because he kept us on point. He didn't
let us get distracted. He warned us when we got too
carnal. He warned us when we got too selfish. He warned us
when we got too secular. He warned us when we got too
worldly. He warned us when we were stopping and halting and
being distracted from our calling. I didn't like being waked up,
but I needed to be waked up. I still wanted for leadership
because our master did that. He is the, as our fourth point
says, he is the prototype. Christ is the prototype. He's
a source and inspiration of leadership. He is the example. He's the pattern
of their life the immutable and unchangeable nature of Jesus
Christ in his office as shepherd high priest and apostle of The
church he is the standard he did all these things and he suffered
for us and he left the ultimate and unchanging pattern for the
Ages to come and this is where you and I are presently in the
midst of an age where all sorts of things are what changing?
Every day you look up they got a new law I knew this and knew
that I'm here to tell you the Word of God doesn't change The
truth doesn't change the glory of God does not change and when
men and women are born again Obtaining a new nature in Christ.
You don't change back and forth to meet the whims of culture.
I You become a unique culture over against the present culture
to let this present culture know that it's going the wrong way.
Wrong way. And my job, right along with
my elder's job, is to get up every morning and take a deep
breath and draft the true and the living God and have him to
have his way in our life so when we speak to you you hear something
of the truth you hear something of the truth you hear something
of the truth all I want you to do when you think about me and
you test me and you discern whether or not I am this that or the
other thing all I want you to ask is this did he tell the truth
did he tell the truth and did he live it I don't even care
about the rest. Did he tell me the truth? Did
he tell me the saving truth? Did he keep me on point with
Jesus? And did he live out the gospel by the grace of God? Can
I legitimately claim that that man did not love Christ? You have to, these are questions
you have to ask. Can I tell you why? There's a
day of accountability. Our fifth point. His accountability,
their accountability is your joy or your sorrow. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls
as they must, as that they must give an account. Now, mostly
this text is speaking of the final presentation. You see that
in your outline. Mostly, this text is speaking
to the fact that there's a day in which God will judge the world.
It is. Mostly, this text is speaking
on an eschatological level where all of God's shepherds, for all
of time, who have been given stewardship over the people of
God, will have to answer to God for the life the people of God
are living. But I want you to consider and entertain this on
a practical and present level. Leadership is accountable now
for you. We are accountable now for you.
And so God doesn't have us, as it were, thinking about, oh,
what am I going to say to God on the last day when I have to
give an answer for this person, that person, or the other person?
God lays on the heart of leadership a sense of stewardship and accountability
for every one of you right now. So leadership in the church is
to bear upon their soul a constant remembrance of the members of
the church. so as to pray for them. Pray
earnestly that the Spirit of God would be a reality in your
life, that He would keep you, that He would watch over you,
that He would take you by the hand and lead you into maturity. Because that's the call of the
church, to lead the membership into maturity, so that you can
do what God has called you to do. That's what leadership is
praying. God, we're talking, but we know if we're the only
one talking, nothing gets done. We're praying because we believe
that it's not by power nor by might, but by your spirit. We
are praying because we know unless God raises the dead, you are
just plain church. We are praying and begging God
because we know that by the works of the flesh, nothing gets done.
And we are asking God not only to make you authentic Christian,
real Christian, bona fide Christian, but to grow you up and to keep
you. So we are watching for your progress. We're watching for... I'm just telling you how this
goes. See, you need to know this because do you think that leadership
goes to bed every night not praying about you? Not concerned about
you? Do you think it's possible to
be a valid leader? And a leader carries all of the
different metaphors and analogies in the scriptures that God has
depicted. I'm a father. You understand
that? I'm a father. I'm a servant.
I'm a brother. I'm an overseer. All of that
means that you are in my heart, as Paul said, you are in my heart. I have to be concerned about
your soul's welfare, not just because you are under my leadership.
Your life don't ultimately reflect my mind, yours, but because I
have the hegemony, I am obligated to know the welfare and state
of the flock. And the best way for me to do
that is be earnest in prayer every time God passes you on
my mind. Lord, you know You know. You know where they are. You
know if they are continuing in the Word. You know if they've
got their mind stayed on Christ. You know if they are engaged
in their calling. You know if they're drifting.
You know if they're digressing. You know if they're slipping
into lethargy and coldness. You know if they've stopped reading
their Bibles. You know if they've stopped with
all of the things that we have learned is the culture of the
church. Lord, you know. And then we have to shape our
ministry accordingly. And then we try to blow the billows
of exhortation to warm the embers of your dying soul to get you
to wake up. Because the journey is long.
And you don't get to boast about how you have triumphed as if
you've taken your armor off. You haven't finished this battle.
Keep your armor on. Sharpen your sword. Get used
to your shield again if you can find it, that you might quench
the fiery darts of the wicked one that has taken your mind
captive and has caused you to not even be able to open your
Bible for weeks and months and call yourself a believer. That's
what we pray about because we live in a culture where leadership,
you know, the government will help you hogtie me and burn me
at the stake. with green wood and pitch. If I get too insistent upon you
obeying Christ, the government will help you. They will charge
me for abuse. You can go in and file lawsuits
against me. He's so psychologically abusive. He talks too loud. He's too hard. He's too mean. When your soul
is at stake and the soul of your children and your grandchildren
and you see it, because we all see the same thing. We see that
we are in a mess in our community. We see it. We see it. And so leadership is an attention
of being loving and coy and careful, but at the same time, real with
you, real with you, which means I have to be real with God. We
have no authority, but God's authority. We have no message,
but God's message. We have no gospel, but God's
gospel. But we believe the gospel is not only able to save you,
sanctify you, build you up, give you an inheritance among those
that are sanctified, but qualify you, to use you, to do what God
has called you to do, bless others with the truth of the gospel.
And we also believe that the gospel has the power to recover
your soul when you fall into the pit and you don't want to
get out. But you decided to come to church
anyway, because the Lord know how to get you to church. even
when your head is on backwards and start talking to you. This
world is dark, saints. This world is dark. And our churches
are in trouble. You might as well be honest.
And then when I say our churches are in trouble, I'm talking about
us. I'm talking about us. You are in trouble. I'm in trouble. You don't have to go looking
out there. Just examine what you're doing
in the course of a week. Our desire as leadership is not
only to see your Growth and your progress but God recovering you
because we all make mistakes, don't we? We know that salvation
sanctification and usefulness Progress and and and development
in our walk with God is a long arduous task That we can't always
figure out in terms of how and when But we trust that God is
faithful enough to get the job done So what leadership does
I'm done here is leadership strives to tell you the truth from that
primary place to which we are called, and that's the ministry
of the word. Hoping that God will take the word and put it
on your conscience and then catch up with you when you get in trouble
and bring you back to him. And we are there when you're
ready to talk. We are there when you're ready to deal with your
issues. And we understand that the gospel is something that
allows us to come into the presence of God every time we come together
and worship and confess our sins. We have a great high priest.
We'll get into that in the book. Whoever lives to make intercession
for us. And his blood avails with God. It's able to clean the vilest
stain. The blood of Christ is able to
raise you up out of your sinful mess. It's able to recover you
from your bondage, set you free, and empower you again so that
you can walk with your Savior over and over and over again.
We know that. That's why we preach the gospel.
And we call you, child of God, we call you to look to Christ
and trust Christ. Be honest with Him. Lord, I need
help. And I promise you, I promise
you, He will never leave you nor forsake you. That's the God
that sits on the throne and has loved us enough to give Himself
for us. And He's gonna have a people
for Himself. For Himself. I love Him, don't
you? I love Him. I love Him.