Well, last night we heard the
great responsibility God has given to your pastor, and tonight
we're going to hear God's Word to you, the church. Now, you've
been together for some years now, and I know that you've proven
yourselves faithful, and so these are not things that are new to
you that I'm going to point out from God's Word. These are things
I'm trying to put you in remembrance of things that you know. But
it will be a big change for somebody that's going to be a part of
this congregation, and that's for Kimberly and the children. Your husband is going from being
only your husband to now your husband and your pastor. And
the children, their father will be their pastor. That's a big
change. It's a very big change. My family will tell you this,
and you've probably heard this, but a pastor's family hears for
every one message he preaches, they hear it three times. They
hear what he's planning to preach before he gets to the pulpit,
then they hear him preach the message from the pulpit, And
then they go home and they hear him preach what he meant to preach
and what he should have said, forgot to say. My daughter says
that she would like to tell all pastor's children that to always
be aware that anything you say or do will likely show up as
an illustration in your father's sermon. But besides jokingly, it is a
very serious change for a wife and children. And the things
that I'm going to say here tonight that apply to the church apply
to you. They apply to you, they apply
to believing children. Now, and I'll remind you of this
too, this is God's Word to us. This is God's Word to us. Christ
our Head, this is His command to His church. Now, Ephesians
4 tells us that Christ redeemed His people. He ascended to God's
right hand. He gave ministers as gifts to
His church. He gave gifts. He gave His preachers
to His church. Now, one thing to always remember,
And all of these things we're looking at tonight, remember
that Brother Kevin is Christ's personal gift to you. And if you're as thankful for
Him always as you are now, that will help you tremendously when
you face trial. This is Christ, a faithful pastor
is Christ's gift to you, His church. So remember that. So what should I be as a member
of Christ's body, a member of the church? What should I be
and what should I do for my pastor? What should I be, what should
I do for my pastor? I'm just going to go through
some scripture and show you some things the scripture Let's turn
first of all to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. First of all, be in every service. Be here. when he stands to preach
the gospel, be here. Hebrews 10 verse 24 says, let
us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more
as you see the day approaching. Our Lord Jesus Christ finished
the work God sent Him to do. He finished the work. He fulfilled
all righteousness. He fulfilled the law for His
people. He gave the law fullness. He gave it the fullness of what
it demanded for His people. In a positive way, He fulfilled
it in perfect love. In a negative way, He answered
the justice of God and paid the wages that His people owed to
divine justice. He fulfilled the law. He finished
the transgression for His people. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. He brought in everlasting never-ending
righteousness for His people. He fulfilled all the Law and
the Prophets, everything that's written of Him. He arose as the
God-Man, the glorified God-Man, and entered into the holiest
of holies. and sat down at God's right hand.
And all His people were risen together with Him and sat down
together with Him. He fulfilled, He filled full
everything God sent Him to do. He fulfilled the law for His
people. You in whom Christ dwell, you
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He's all your salvation.
Scripture says you are complete. in Christ. How complete am I? Scripture says, He is the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. If you have
a concordance and you look those words up, the words at the first,
before the comma, and the word after the comma are the same
word. And here's what it means. You are as complete in Christ
as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's how
complete you are. As complete as He is, the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now that's a blessing, brethren.
It's a blessing to know this. We cannot break the law of God
before the judgment seat of God. You think about that. We can't
break the law of God. Our old man has been crucified. He's dead. The justice has been
poured out on him. He's been crucified. Paul said,
I am crucified with Christ. It's a reality before God. And
the law's been fulfilled by Christ for his people. We've kept it
perfectly and we can't break it. before the judgment seat
of God. Now I know in you and me we never
fulfill it and we break it constantly. But I'm talking about where it
matters. I'm talking about before God. We can't break it and we
fulfilled it. Isn't that good news? Now as
real and as true as Christ fulfilled all that the Father sent Him
to do, Scripture says now He's risen and God has given Him all
power in heaven, in earth, under the earth, in this world, and
in the world to come. All power. Now He had it as God
the Son. Now He has it as the God-man. All power. There's someone in
glory who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, who's
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, who knows everything
about you and I and everything we suffer, and that one who's
seated there has all power over all. Now as real as He fulfilled
everything the Father sent Him to do, He's right now filling
all in all. He's the head over the church,
which is His body, and that church is the fullness of Him who filleth
all in all. His body won't be complete unless
every sinner He redeemed is called into His body and every member
is in His body and His body is complete. We're the fullness
of Him. That's why in Ephesians 4, Paul said, this gospel is
going to be preached until we come to the fullness of the stature
of the measure of Christ. That means until every single
elect, redeemed child, every member of his body has been called
into the body. And He's filling all in all. He's filling. He fills His pulpit
with His pastor. He fills His pew with His people. He fills His pastor's heart with
the message He'll have him to preach. And He fills the heart
of His people with that gospel, making it effectual in the heart. He, just like He fulfilled all
things in righteousness for His people, He's fulfilling all in
all right now through the preaching of the gospel. He's doing it.
He's doing it. Turn over to Isaiah 61. I'll
show you this very quickly before we move on. Isaiah 61, it says here, and I want you
to see this, I want you to see now who it is preaching. Who's preaching? When the preacher
stands up to preach, who is preaching? Alright? Isaiah 61. Now you know
this is Christ speaking because He read this in the synagogue
and He said, today is this scripture fulfilled. This is speaking of
Christ. Now watch what it said. Isaiah
61. He said, The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek. Now look in the second verse
and look there where it says, to comfort all that mourn. Do you see that? To comfort all
that mourn. God anointed Christ to preach
the gospel to comfort all His people that mourn. Christ is
the one who comforts all His people through the preaching
of the gospel. That includes all His people.
He's the one that preaches and comforts all His people. You
can take the word all and put it here for all of these blessings
that Christ accomplishes through the preaching of the gospel.
And it's Christ who does this for all His elect. Let's read it together. Verse
1 says, The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto
And you can put in the word all to all the meek, to all his elect
meek children. He has sent me to bind up all
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to all the captives,
and the opening of the prison to all them that are bound. Look down at verse 3, at the
end there, "...that they all might be called trees of righteousness,
that they all be the planting of the Lord, so that He gets
all the glory." What are you saying, Timothy? Are you saying
Christ does this in all men through the world? No, I'm talking about
just His elect, just His redeemed. But what I'm saying to you is,
all His people who are comforted through the Gospel, it's Christ
preaching that did it. All His people who have their
hearts bound up, it's Christ preaching that did it. All His
people who were in the prison of their sin and are set free,
it's Christ preaching that set them free. Our Lord is alive. Our Lord is living. Our Lord
is working in the midst of His people through the preaching
of the gospel. And when we hear this Word in
our hearts, it's not just a man preaching to us, it's the Lord
Jesus Christ preaching to us in spirit, through the Spirit
of God. As real as when He walked this
earth. as real as when He walked this earth. We think of heaven as being some
far off place and death being such a vast river between us
and it. That's nothing for Christ. He's preaching through the Spirit
of God and He's making it effectual in His heart because He has to
get all the glory. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
is not only our High Priest, He is the High Priest that entered
in the holiest of holies who ever lives to make intercession
for us, who accomplished our redemption. He's not only our
King who has all power so that He can send His gospel and make
it cross the path of His redeemed child, He's also our prophet. He's the preacher. He's the one
who gets the glory for preaching this gospel. and he's using an
earthen vessel, a clay pot, and he's put this
treasure in this earthen vessel so that the power is his and
not a man's. It's Christ that's doing this.
That's what I want you to understand. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, I'm there in the midst of them. I'm there
in the midst of them. He said, He walks among the golden
candlesticks, His church. The Hebrew writer said, see that
you refuse not Him that speaketh from heaven. It's Christ preaching. Now here's my question. If you
knew Christ was going to be standing right here preaching the gospel,
wouldn't you be here every time? He is. He is. I'm dead serious. Christ is preaching
the gospel where His gospel is going forth in spirit and in
truth. It's Christ preaching it. When you wake up Sunday morning
and you're tired, remember that. And at midweek when you've worked
hard and you're tired in the afternoon, the traffic's bad
and you're finally getting the rain, remember that. Christ is going to be preaching
tonight. I'm going to be there. You that
have younger children, the best thing you can do for your children
is have them here when the Gospel is preached. Our son loves sports. If it's a ball, he plays it and
loves it. But my wife and I, from the time
he was a little fellow, We've told him, if it interferes with
midweek service, you can't play. And if it interferes with Sunday
morning service, you can't play. And that forbid him. He had a
coach contact him about playing travel sports, wanting him on
his team. But they play Sunday morning.
And he told him, he said, I can't do it. He said, I'll go hear
the gospel preached on Sunday morning. Now, the Lord hadn't
blessed that to his heart yet. But all we can do, we can't change
their heart. And it's no guarantee that God
will. But God says He honors those
that honor His Son. Have your children sitting under
the Gospel. Best thing you can do for them.
Best thing you can do for them. Now then, secondly, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Esteem your pastor highly in
love. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse
12, We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among
you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem
them very highly in love for their works' sake, and be at
peace among yourselves. Know your pastor who labors among
you, who God has put over you in the Lord, who is sent to admonish
you, and esteem him very highly in love for his work's sake."
We esteem the office of the President of the United States. We esteem
the office of a king. Did you know that when God made
Israel, He didn't put a king over them? He put a preacher
over him. He put his prophet over him.
That's how highly we should esteem God's preacher. Like men esteem
the president, the office of the president of the United States,
we should esteem our pastor that highly. That's what he's talking
about right here. Now, he's only a man. He's a
sinner saved by grace the same as you are. But God uses His preacher to
preach on God's behalf. That's why we're to highly esteem
Him. It's because we highly esteem
Christ who's preaching through Him. That's why. And those who
highly esteem Christ do highly esteem their pastor. They do,
for His work's sake, because He labors to bring them a message
from God directly to them. And they esteem Him highly. And
they do so in love. They do. God's pastor, some people
think that he only preaches three or four hours a week when he's
standing in the pulpit. But he labors. It's a labor to
get a word from God. It is. And he has the pressure of knowing
every word he preaches will either bless or damn his hearers. There's no neutrality in hearing
the gospel preached. Every single word that's going
forth, God's going to either bless it to the heart of his
child or it will be a word to damn the rebel in the Day of
Judgment. That's something that Paul, when
he said that, he said, who's sufficient for this? That's a
burden to the faithful man. Who's sufficient for this? Now,
as Paul said, it's not that we say we have any sufficiency of
ourselves. There's nothing in a man to brag
on. But our sufficiency is of God.
God's who made us able ministers of the New Testament and it's
God preaching. Paul said we're ambassadors for
Christ as though God did beseech you by us. That's why we esteem
Him highly. for His work's sake. I've worked
some pressure-intensive jobs. I've worked some jobs that had
pressure and work that was hard work, but nothing compared to
being a pastor. Nothing. Get this, brethren,
and this is so. I know this is so. The blessing
you receive from God through Brother Kevin The blessing you
receive from God through His preaching and the peace you have
from God through His preaching is going to be directly linked
to your esteem of Him and your love for Him. Think about that. If you don't have any esteem
for somebody, you can't hear anything they say. Nothing they
say is going to benefit you. It's going to be directly linked
to how highly you esteem the Gospel of Christ, Christ Himself,
and how highly you esteem this earthen vessel that He's using
to labor and preach this Word to you. That's necessary. It's
necessary. God gives His people a heart
for His pastor, just like He gives the pastor a heart for
His people. So, esteem Him highly. Thirdly, Go to Hebrews 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Follow your pastor as he follows
Christ. Follow him as he follows Christ. Verse 7, 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,
their conduct, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and
forever. Follow the faith of this man. Follow him as he follows Christ. That's what he's saying. The end of everything God's faithful
pastor says and the end of everything he does before God's people is
to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to do anything
that would lead... there's people that the Lord's
entrusted me to be a servant unto. I don't want to lead them
away from Christ in anything I say or in anything I do. I
want them to know Christ. I want them to be shut up to
Him. I want them to have all their care on Him and Him alone,
to know He alone is their salvation. That's what God's faithful pastor
wants. That's what the words he speaks in the pulpit and out
of it. The things he does in the church,
in his life, in his home, he's doing it because He wants you
to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And He does not want to be an
influence for bad. He doesn't want to be an influence
to turn you from Christ. He doesn't want to be a hindrance
to you knowing Christ. I told Brother Kevin last night,
in the home, in the church, wherever you are, know that your brethren
are watching you. Our Lord said don't do anything
to be seen of men. That's as bad as committing sin,
lewd sin in front of folk. Don't do anything to be seen
of men, but do everything knowing you are being seen of men. They're
watching you. So what you do, you do it faithfully
to Christ to lead on to Christ. And you, the Lord says here,
you follow Him. Follow His faith. Follow His
faith. The same One who became our surety
in eternity, He never ceases loving His people. He didn't
stop loving us when we fell in sin. Isn't that amazing? Aren't you thankful He never
changes? Our Lord Jesus, when we were in rebellion all the
years that we didn't know Him of our life, He never ceased
loving us. He never ceased being gracious
toward His people. And now that we know Him, we
stumble, we fall in sin, He never ceases loving His people. He never ceases being gracious
to His people. So, as you follow your pastor,
as he follows Christ, remember that Christ never ceases loving
His people. Remember it because This is who
He's leading you to. He's leading you to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's leading you to this One
who changes not. His Word doesn't change. His
means that He uses doesn't change. And this man is sent to lead
you to this One. This changeless, immutable Savior. That's who He's sent to lead
you to. Brother Kevin's gonna study. He's gonna pray. He's
gonna study. He's gonna pray. He's gonna study.
He's gonna pray. He's gonna do that for you. You
follow him in that. When he preaches the gospel and
you've heard a message preached, don't just run right up to him
with objections to something he said. Think about this. God's preacher is not going to
preach off the cuff. He's going to spend weeks studying it and
getting the message from God and have checked it and double-checked
with the Scripture so that when he speaks it, It's according
to this Word. And if you're not sure it's according
to this Word, don't speak it. And if you don't know what it
means, skip it! Because it's better not to say
anything on it than to say something that's not according to this
Word. But when He speaks it, He's going to speak what He studied.
You give it as much time as He gave it. You study it as long
as He studied it, and pray about it as long as He prayed about
it. Follow Him in that. What did James say to us? My
beloved brethren, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to
rap. Receive the engrafted Word that's
able to save your soul. Receive it. Give yourself to
study it. Follow Him in that. Follow your
pastor in bearing his burden the same as He's born yours. Now, you told me last night,
you told Him last night not to put any burden on the people.
That's right. But He's just a sinner. And He's
gonna stumble. And when He does, you think about
that. When you see Him stumble in sin,
you think, He's born with my burden. And He prayed for me. Follow Him in that as He follows
Christ. You bear His burden and you pray
for Him now. Follow Him in that. Remember
how He spoke the truth to you in love when you were stumbling
and struggling and so you speak the Word to Him in love. Follow
Him as He follows Christ. And then the next thing He says
there in Hebrews 13 and verse 17, and this is our next point,
obey and submit to your pastor. Now, I know we live in a world
where this is, no, don't tell anybody to obey and submit. But
listen to what God says to His people. Verse 17, "'Obey them
that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they
watch for your souls as they that must give account, that
they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable
for you.'" Think about it. When Christ walked this earth,
Whatever direction He gave, spiritually or temporally, the best thing
His disciples could do was obey and submit to Him. Best thing
they could do. The mother of our Lord said,
Whatsoever He saith to you, do it. Whatever He says to you, do it. Well, as we walk through this
life of faith, the best thing we can do, whether we understand
what Christ is doing or we don't understand what Christ is doing,
the best thing we can do is obey our Lord Jesus Christ and submit
to Him. Best thing. And Christ is teaching
us in this passage right here that one of the ways we do that
is by obeying and submitting to Christ's pastor. Well, where
does it say that in the text? It says, because your pastor
is going to continually give account to Christ. You see, Christ
doesn't just send His pastor and then turn him loose and let
him go and just whatever happens, happens. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He sends the pastor, He's ruling the heart of His pastor.
I'm not talking about, now listen carefully to me, I'm not talking
about a man who proves unfaithful. Christ is ruling him too, but
he's not ruling in his heart in a positive way for good like
he is his faithful pastor. But that faithful pastor, the
only reason he's faithful is because Christ is ruling his
heart. Christ is ruling his heart. Christ has the reigns. Christ
is continually directing him, and he's directing you through
him. Now, somebody will say, well,
and I've met men like this. Well, that's just too much. You're
giving too much power to a man. No, I'm not giving any power
to a man. Christ is the power. Christ is
the power. What if my pastor makes mistakes? This is the whole point. He's
going to make mistakes. And he's going to make a lot
of them. And you are too. You are too. But you see, this
is one thing that is the wisdom of God in putting us together
in His body and using this means to call out His sheep. This is
so wise to me. I think it's incredible wisdom. Because one, by using us like
this, we're hearing the gospel preached and we're hearing the
doctrine. We're being taught the wonderful
good news of our Redeemer. We're being taught about His
all-sufficient grace. And as we're being taught, you have brethren here that Christ
has fitly framed together that are going to Do something dumb. Do something sinful. Do something
irritating. Do something that's offensive. And we're going to have to bear
their burden. We're going to have to bear with
it and be long-suffering and speak the truth in love. And
all the while, wait on Christ to work in the heart and trust
Him to do it. Did you see what Brother Cass
read that scripture? Our Lord loved Martha and Mary
and Lazarus. And the next verse says, and
therefore He waited two days when He heard Lazarus was sick. You see your brother, your sister
stumble in sin. Brother Kevin makes just a bumbling
error in judgment. And you just want to fix it right
now. You want to correct him right
now and fix it right now. Our Lord waited. So Lazarus died. And he was in the grave four
days so that everybody would know that when that man came
forth out of the grave, the Lord did it. And He'll wait. He'll wait. He'll wait like He did that woman so
that He brings us down to the place we need to be and he teaches
us he's the one correcting his child. He's the one teaching
his child. And in the process of correcting
brother Kevin, you know what he's going to do? He's going
to grow you too. In the process of correcting
this brother that's fallen, he's going to grow this sister and
this other brother over here too. He's using it all and He's
teaching us that what we're hearing, the grace we're hearing about
is not only a doctrine, it's truly sufficient grace that's
working actively in the hearts and amongst His people. He's
really working in our midst. He's really working in our hearts.
And you learn our Lord really is alive. He really is present,
ever present with His people. He really is growing us and teaching
us. You know, you all have been through
some trouble, and you've learned some things through that trouble
that the Lord's taught you that you couldn't have learned any
other way. And it's going to prepare you for having a faithful
pastor. It's going to prepare you now
for having somebody that's going to treat you as Christ would
treat His people. It's necessary. And it's so wise. You know, not only do we get
the gospel by which He saves our soul, we get to learn about
His grace and experience it firsthand. Isn't that wisdom? Isn't that
wisdom? Well, let me get to this fourth
thing. Ephesians 6. Ephesians chapter
6. Pray for your pastor. Ephesians
6.19, Paul asked his brethren, he said, Pray for me that utterance
may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador
in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Every
single time that the men stand in the pulpit to read Scripture
back at home, every time they stand in the pulpit to read Scripture,
without fail, they always pray for me, for their pastor. They
always do. I can't tell you how necessary that is and how important
that is. For me. For me. You see, when
we pray, the purpose of prayer is God already knows what He's
going to do. You know that pastor in Ezekiel
where he told them everything He's going to do and then He
said, what I'm going to be inquired of for this to do it for you. You're going to pray to me and
ask me to do it for you. Prayer is us acknowledging Prayer
for a pastor is us acknowledging that we need Christ to govern
our pastor. We need Christ to sustain our
pastor. We need Christ to give him the
message. We need Christ to give him boldness
to preach the message. We need Christ to make that word
go forth effectually. We're acknowledging that our
pastor has no ability to do any of these things. We need Christ
to do these things in him and through him. That's what we're
praying when we're asking God for personal things. We're acknowledging
we have no power but Him. And you know what? That is what
I need to hear all the time. I need to hear my brethren pray
for me as their pastor. Not so I can sit there and go,
oh, they're praying for me. I sure am special. No, because
if I understand it right, what I should understand is they're
praying for me because I ain't that special. They're praying for me because
I don't have any power. I'm utterly dependent on Christ. And that's good to be reminded
of. And it'll be good for Him to be reminded of it. Pray for
Him. Not just here, though. Pray for
Him at home, too. Pray for Him often as you think
about Him. Pray for your pastor. Pray for Him. Alright? And then stand with your pastor.
2 Timothy 1.16, I'll just give you these and I've got to move
on quickly. But 2 Timothy 1.16, when all
his brethren had turned away from Paul, they had all turned
their back on him because he was in prison, he said in verse
16, 2 Timothy 1.16, the Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus,
for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found
me. The Lord grant unto him that
he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in how many
things he ministered unto me at Ephodus, thou knowest very
well." Our Lord Jesus suffered. He suffered bearing the sin of
His people and the judgment of God. He suffered being forsaken
of all. forsaken of God, forsaken of
all. And He suffered that to put away
our sin so that we won't ever be forsaken of God. We'll never be forsaken of Him.
And He gives us brethren to stand with us and encourage us to continually
look to Christ. One of the greatest gifts He's
ever given is His people. His people. Brethren, brethren,
you stand with your pastor. You stand with him. He's going
to stand between you and the wolf. And as he does so, you
stand with him. What do you mean by that? I mean
when he's holding up the banner, Christ, Jehovah Nissi, and he's
declaring the gospel and his arms get tired, hold up his hand. You lift up his hand. Hold up
his hand. You put Christ the Rock under Him. Set Christ the
Rock. Stand with Him. Whenever some of Satan's ministers
come and they start to slander Him and slander His name, stand
with Him. Stand with Him. As long as He
faithfully preaches the Word to you, stand with Him. Stand
with Him. I don't care who turns against
you, stand with Him. That's why the scripture tells
us to never receive an accusation against an elder, a pastor, a
bishop, his preacher, unless it be before two or three witnesses. Don't even listen to hearsay
slandering your pastor. Don't even listen to it. Don't
even give ear to it. If it's not proven, if it's not
been substantiated with two or three witnesses, don't even give
an ear to it. Why? Because he's the minister
of Christ and we don't want to bring reproach on Christ and
we don't want to bring reproach on his gospel. Stand with Him,
just like you'd stand with Christ. He's speaking Christ's Word. Stand with Him. And then lastly,
provide for Him. He said in 1 Timothy 5, verse
17, He says, Let the elders that rule well
be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in
the Word and doctrine. For the Scripture saith, Thou
shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the
laborer is worthy of his reward." Now, this should be the easiest
responsibility Christ gives to His saints, because everything
we have is free. Our Lord freely chose us by His
grace. He gave freely the unspeakable
gift. He gave His only begotten Son. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich. And our Lord promises us who
have been redeemed by our Savior, God is able to make all grace
abound towards you. Listen to this certainty. He's able to make all grace abound
towards you that you always, having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work. Being enriched by Him,
in everything to all bountifulness." That's certainty, isn't it? There's
nothing we have as children of God that God did not freely give
us. Nothing. And if He's given us
His Son, everything else we need, He'll provide it. And so Paul
said this, if we've sown unto you spiritual things, If we've
given you unsearchable riches, lasting riches, is it a great
thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If we've given you everlasting,
eternal, unsearchable riches through preaching the gospel,
is it really that big a deal? to receive some carnal trinkets
for our earthly provision to just sustain us so we can keep
preaching. That's what he's saying. That
makes it seem kind of what it is, doesn't it? That
makes you see what it is. I told Brother Kevin last night,
I said, never live above the congregation. You heard me say
that. Don't ever live above the congregation. I told him, cut
out every expense he has to cut out, unnecessary expense, so
that he's not a burden to you. That's necessary for God's faithful
pastor. And I say the same thing to you
in order to provide for him. And that's reasonable. That's
reasonable. Your pastor has the same responsibility
to provide for his family as you do. So make it so that he doesn't
have to entangle himself in this world. Make it so he can be in
that study, studying for you. What I've seen is the churches
that made it so their pastor could give himself to study and
bring them a word, those seem to be the congregations that
the Lord has really blessed the most. He's really provided for
them, really in a major way. I know he blesses all his people,
but I'm saying, if he's having to work, and Kimberly's having
to work, and the kids are, they're little, but then they get older,
and because neither one of them are around, they get in trouble,
and there's just all kind of problems in his life, and he
hasn't been able to study, and he's not going to be preaching
to you, what he'd be preaching. Everything's going to be suffering
because of that. But where the pastor's provided
for, where he can devote himself to the job God's given him for
you, that's where there's a healthy
congregation, where Christ is blessing it. Now, after you've done everything
that you should, after you've provided for him and done everything,
pray with David. Who am I? And what is my people
that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sword?
For all things come of Thee, Lord, and of Thine own have we
given Thee. O Lord, our God, all this store
that we've prepared to build Thee a house for Thy holy name
cometh of Thine hand, and it's all Thine own." God just is not going to let
us get any glory, is He? Isn't that a good thing? Everything
we have, He gave it to us. We're not giving Him anything
He didn't already give us. So remember that. Brethren, I
know you'll do these things. You've proven yourself faithful,
and I know you'll do these things. And we'll continue to pray for
you, you brethren in New Jersey, and we intend to do everything
we can to help you. We love you, and we're thankful
for you, and we're with you. We're with you. And we pray God
will richly, richly bless the work here. I look forward tomorrow
to bringing you a message and getting back to just straight
preaching the gospel to you. That's what I'm looking forward
to tomorrow. All right. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank You for
these blessings. We thank You for these instructions.
Make them truly large in our hearts and make us truly hear
these things and bring them to remembrance often. We thank You,
Lord. You've not left anything out
of order. You've done everything so wisely
and so sufficiently. And we thank You that You continually,
continually bless us with the Gospel and with everything we
need. Lord, make us to fulfill the
purpose for which You've given us in this world. Make us to
hold forth Your Gospel, the Word of Life. Make us preach Christ
and Him crucified all over this world, in this place, wherever
you open the door. And Lord, help us make it so
that we are not a distraction in any way from Christ. Make Him the focus, and don't
let us, Lord, bring any reproach on the Gospel. We pray for Brother
Kevin, we pray for the church here, and ask you to continue
to bless them. Forgive us our sins, Lord. We
thank you for your tender mercies. Amen.