Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Cords That Hold Pastors and Flocks Together │ Msg 68 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Cords That Hold Pastors and Flocks Together │ Msg 68 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Pastors have been compared to shepherds since the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the church. The apostle Peter encouraged the church elders to
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  Speaker 1: shepherd the flock of God among you. The word pastor
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  Speaker 1: itself comes from a Latin word that means herdsmen. Just
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  Speaker 1: as shepherds guide and tenderly care for their flocks, so
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  Speaker 1: pastors lead and serve and care for the needs of
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  Speaker 1: their congregation. However, relationships between pastors and flocks are not
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  Speaker 1: always as serene as the pastoral image might imply. Sheep
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  Speaker 1: sometimes stray and sometimes bleat behind the shepherd's back. Pastors
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  Speaker 1: sometimes fight with the sheep, and sometimes flee altogether. Often
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  Speaker 1: fed up with the flock and in search of greener pastors,
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  Speaker 1: pastors vacate pulpits on an average of once every three years.
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  Speaker 1: Think of that one or two sheep with a little
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  Speaker 1: goat in them can butt heads often enough with the
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  Speaker 1: pastor to make his ministry miserable. The lingering, unresolved personality
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  Speaker 1: conflicts can drain both his emotions and his energy. Sometimes too,
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  Speaker 1: the sheep can crowd the shepherd to such an extent
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  Speaker 1: that his personal time for study and growth are eaten away. Gradually,
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  Speaker 1: his life in teaching begin to lose their cutting edge,
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  Speaker 1: growing dull and ultimately ineffective. Also out of either insecurity
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  Speaker 1: or a desire to set a sterling example, some pastors
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  Speaker 1: are reluctant to be real and open and vulnerable. All
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  Speaker 1: pastors have needs. Never forget that underneath the ministerial garb,
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  Speaker 1: they are just sheep like everyone else. They hurt when
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  Speaker 1: they're bitten, they fight or run when they're threatened, and
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  Speaker 1: they shiver in the cold wind when they're shorn back.
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  Speaker 1: In Second Thessalonians, Chapter three, verses one through five, the
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  Speaker 1: apostle Paul reveals a lot about himself as a pastor
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  Speaker 1: shepherd and about his relationship to the flock at Thessalonika.
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  Speaker 1: In doing so, he indirectly instructs us in strengthening the
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  Speaker 1: pastor flock relationship. Let's read this passage together from the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament, the letter named Second Thessalonians. It's in chapter three,
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  Speaker 1: the first five verses. I'll begin with Second Thessalonians three,
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  Speaker 1: verse one. Finally, Brethren, pray for us that the word
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just
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  Speaker 1: as it did also with you, and that we will
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  Speaker 1: be rescued from perverse and evil men, for not all
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  Speaker 1: have faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will
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  Speaker 1: strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have
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  Speaker 1: confidence in the Lord concerning you that you were doing
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  Speaker 1: and will continue to do what we command. May the
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  Speaker 1: Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and
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  Speaker 1: into the steadfastness of Christ. Ministry is supposed to be
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  Speaker 1: a joyful thing, but often it seems as though it's
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  Speaker 1: more of a marathon of misery. It hadn't ought to be,
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  Speaker 1: but it often seems like it is. In recent days,
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  Speaker 1: I've had the privilege of being with a body of
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  Speaker 1: sixty seventy people in ministry. We were tucked away in
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  Speaker 1: a little conference center not too far away from Fullerton,
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  Speaker 1: and we spent an overnight together, and I had the
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  Speaker 1: joy of us speaking, and really I had a greater
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  Speaker 1: joy in listening. I never learned anything while I'm talking,
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  Speaker 1: but I learned a lot while I'm listening, and I
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  Speaker 1: learned a lot. I had a chance to be with
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  Speaker 1: people who have been in ministry less than a year,
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  Speaker 1: and some who have been in ministry thirty five in
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  Speaker 1: more years. Our ages span from the mid to late
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  Speaker 1: twenties all the way to the mid to late sixties.
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  Speaker 2: It was a great time. Really, it was.
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  Speaker 1: I like it when real people come together and talk
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  Speaker 1: about real things. And you might wonder what pastors talk about. Well,
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  Speaker 1: when pastors aren't around, congregations talk about pastors, and when
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  Speaker 1: congregations aren't around, pastors talk about congregations. So we sort
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  Speaker 1: of did that, Mark Twain said a number of years ago.
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  Speaker 1: War talk by men who have been in a war
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  Speaker 1: is always interesting, whereas moon talk by a poet who
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  Speaker 1: has not been on the moon is likely to be dull. Well,
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  Speaker 1: there wasn't any moon talk, and our time together it
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  Speaker 1: was Yeah, I'm afraid.
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  Speaker 2: A little of it was war talk. And when I drove.
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  Speaker 1: Back from the conference, I, unusual for me, drove slowly
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  Speaker 1: and I just let the cars pass me, and I
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  Speaker 1: took my time. I held it down to fifty five
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  Speaker 1: sixty on the way back, And while I was driving along,
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  Speaker 1: I did a lot of thinking. I did a lot
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  Speaker 1: of thanking. Also, I am I have the privilege of
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  Speaker 1: ministering at one of the great spots, if not the
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  Speaker 1: great one, and in my life most every other place
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  Speaker 1: looks good. In the rearview, mirror because I can't wait
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  Speaker 1: to get back home to be with the people I love.
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  Speaker 1: I got to thinking about my life and the lives
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  Speaker 1: of those men and women I had been with whom
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  Speaker 1: I really do respect. There are folks in the trenches.
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  Speaker 1: There wasn't a theoretical mind among us. There are people
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  Speaker 1: that are down in the grit and grind of everyday life.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them are in tough places. I was thankful
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't in some of those places. Some of them
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  Speaker 1: are in wonderful spots and they're encouraged. And I came
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  Speaker 1: away with several concerns.
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  Speaker 2: I guess I would put it.
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  Speaker 1: I have several pastoral concerns for my colleagues and ministry.
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  Speaker 1: I guess if I were to list them, there would
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  Speaker 1: be three, four, maybe five of them. That kind of
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  Speaker 1: came to the top of the surface in the car
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  Speaker 1: as I was driving home. First, I'm concerned about short
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  Speaker 1: term commitment. Seems as like, seems like men in ministry
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  Speaker 1: more and more are looking for someplace to go to
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  Speaker 1: get away.
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  Speaker 2: From where they are.
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  Speaker 1: That's what I call the green grass syndrome. I had
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to tell them that the grass was not
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  Speaker 1: greener in most places wasn't even edible. They were probably
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  Speaker 1: where God would have them. Except for a few rare exceptions,
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  Speaker 1: they just needed to gut it out. They'll get through
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  Speaker 1: the hard time and there'll be a good time. Weeping
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  Speaker 1: may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: One person wrote. It is generally known that twenty percent
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  Speaker 1: of the American population moves each year. Traditionally, pastors have
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  Speaker 1: transferred more often than those in other professions. There are
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  Speaker 1: several hundred thousand pastors serving parishes in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: A conservative estimate is that twenty five percent move annually,
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  Speaker 1: or well over one hundred.
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  Speaker 2: Pastors a day.
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  Speaker 1: Some religious leaders believe that one third would be a
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  Speaker 1: more accurate figure, or nearly two hundred pastors moving every
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  Speaker 1: day of every year. Because our church in Fullerton has
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  Speaker 1: had only two pastors and it's thirty one great years
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  Speaker 1: of history, we tend to forget that. But most ministers
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  Speaker 1: will not stay four years in the same place. Most
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  Speaker 1: youth workers won't stay one year. We're a body of
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  Speaker 1: people in ministry on the move, and that concerns me. Now,
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  Speaker 1: some people need to move. In fact, I'm of the
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  Speaker 1: opinion some churches need to simply close their doors and
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  Speaker 1: give up, just let the job be done by others
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  Speaker 1: more effective in the community. That may sound like heresy,
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  Speaker 1: but I really believe that not all of them, and
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  Speaker 1: not most of them, but some need to say we've
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  Speaker 1: had our day, or we're never going to get to
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  Speaker 1: our day, and we need to simply say it's over.
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  Speaker 1: Short term commitment concerns me. Another one, and probably more
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  Speaker 1: than that, is what I would call lingering unresolved conflicts.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how many fellows I talk with who
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  Speaker 1: have a running concern or battle with one man or
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  Speaker 1: one woman, or a few, a little cluster, a power
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  Speaker 1: block of people in their church, and this lingering unresolved
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  Speaker 1: conflict is just siphoning their energy and stealing their joy,
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  Speaker 1: and I hurt for them. There are always people who
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  Speaker 1: will oppose ministry, and some of them find their way
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  Speaker 1: for some unrevealed reason, into a church, and for a
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  Speaker 1: greater unrevealed reason, they won't leave. They just want to
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  Speaker 1: stay and make problems for the leadership, and not the
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  Speaker 1: kind of constructive criticism that is always needed, not the
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  Speaker 1: kind of objective counsel that.
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  Speaker 2: Says, let's look at the other side of this but
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  Speaker 2: just the kind of person that says no. No.
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  Speaker 1: I've got a friend who has been in a church now,
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  Speaker 1: it's been about forty years, and some of the board
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  Speaker 1: members were there when his predecessor was there, and they're
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  Speaker 1: still on the board. And I was with him a
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  Speaker 1: year or two ago, and he said to me, I
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  Speaker 1: ran into one of those old guys, and he said.
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  Speaker 1: One of those guys said to me, I'm sorry to
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  Speaker 1: miss the board meeting the other evening. Pastor I was
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  Speaker 1: looking forward to voting no, says he always votes no.
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  Speaker 1: Sort of an unresolved lingering conflict. I found that among
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  Speaker 1: some of those guys, third was a lack of sufficient
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  Speaker 1: time spent in the study.
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  Speaker 2: And by that I don't simply mean in.
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  Speaker 1: The Book of God, which of course is part of
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  Speaker 1: that time, but with the person of God. Too little
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  Speaker 1: time just alone with God, and it may be better
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  Speaker 1: spent outside the official study, perhaps in a quiet place,
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  Speaker 1: maybe in the early morning hours at home or any
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  Speaker 1: secluded place where God can break through the den and
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  Speaker 1: speak to the man or woman of God concerning his
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  Speaker 1: will and his word. I found men too busy, and
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  Speaker 1: I challenged them to slow down, making too many meetings
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  Speaker 1: and feeling the necessity of being at every one of
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  Speaker 1: the committee gatherings and doing all the work of the
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  Speaker 1: ministry while the people watched it being done.
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  Speaker 2: It's not right, it's not even biblical.
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  Speaker 1: My heart aches for men who are no longer spending
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  Speaker 1: sufficient time with God. I think one other I would
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  Speaker 1: list would be a reluctance to be real, to show
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  Speaker 1: oneself vulnerable. How easy in ministry to build oneself into
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  Speaker 1: a castle and to surround it by a moat, and
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  Speaker 1: to breed alligators that fill that moat, so people can't
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  Speaker 1: even draw a bridge to get to us. I heard
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  Speaker 1: this week from a man who's taken the place of
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  Speaker 1: another minister who had been in the church for almost
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  Speaker 1: ten years, and he said, you know, in my predecessor's case,
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  Speaker 1: some of the people weren't even sure if he had
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  Speaker 1: three or four children.
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  Speaker 2: That's after he had been there almost ten years. And
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  Speaker 2: it's just being too closed.
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  Speaker 1: People want to know the one who ministers to them,
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  Speaker 1: and they want to know that his world, like their world,
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  Speaker 1: is real and it includes some struggles. It's kind of
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  Speaker 1: comforting to know that he, like they have feet of clay,
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  Speaker 1: and that he has a deep and abiding need for prayer. Well,
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  Speaker 1: now that we're sufficiently depressed, I probably would mention limited
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  Speaker 1: vision and lack of confidence.
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  Speaker 2: Last, some of the men, for some.
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  Speaker 1: Reason just have restricted vision, and they lack confidence, confidence
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  Speaker 1: in God, confidence in God's word. The self image problem
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  Speaker 1: is a major battle of men in ministry in case
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  Speaker 1: you wonder what ministers struggle with. Some of them are
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  Speaker 1: just now finding themselves and they don't like who they're finding,
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  Speaker 1: or they're just discovering the extent of the call to ministry,
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  Speaker 1: and it frightens them. Some men are terribly intimidated by
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  Speaker 1: people who have prestige, or have money, or or speak
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  Speaker 1: with authority for the community, or have been in the
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  Speaker 1: church for years, and so their vision is a cut
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  Speaker 1: in on like you'd cut in on a runner's stride,
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  Speaker 1: and some are just ready to quit. This is a
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  Speaker 1: day of tremendous opportunity. And that's not meant to be
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  Speaker 1: a cheerleading statement. It's true.
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  Speaker 2: This is a day in.
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  Speaker 1: Which there is great spiritual hunger. Amos's words are right.
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  Speaker 1: There is a famine in the land, and it's a famine.
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  Speaker 2: For the word of God. There's a famine for love
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  Speaker 2: and compassion.
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  Speaker 1: Mixed with the teaching of the Word of God, it
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  Speaker 1: seems like it's an either or thing. You either get
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  Speaker 1: good teaching or you get a lot of love. You
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  Speaker 1: either get an overwhelming sense of compassion in this place
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  Speaker 1: while you starve, or you get big doses of food
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  Speaker 1: dropped on you like truckloads.
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  Speaker 2: And you don't feel like anybody cares after the instruction
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  Speaker 2: is over. We need balance.
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  Speaker 1: You know, our Lord promised that the gates of Hell
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  Speaker 1: will not prevail against his church, and that's true. In fact, Paul,
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  Speaker 1: writing to Timothy in the last letter he ever wrote.
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  Speaker 1: Second Timothy said these words in chapter four, words that
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  Speaker 1: have become rather familiar to some of us. Verse two,
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  Speaker 1: preach the word be ready in season and be ready
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  Speaker 1: out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience
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  Speaker 1: and instruction.
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  Speaker 2: It was a strong word. They come with a staccatto
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  Speaker 2: exclamation point. Preach it, be ready, exhort, reprove. Why would
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  Speaker 2: he say it with such passion? Well, because the world's
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  Speaker 2: system is so convincing. Congregations drink in, breathe in, and
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  Speaker 2: breathe out the system of the world all week long,
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  Speaker 2: and we get it from our televisions. We get it
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  Speaker 2: from our news magazines. We get it from our schools.
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  Speaker 2: We get it from our neighborhoods, we get it from
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  Speaker 2: our clubs, we get it from our social contacts. We are.
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  Speaker 1: Breathing in and out all the smog of the world system,
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  Speaker 1: and then an hour or two a week, we're getting
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  Speaker 1: straight scooped from God. And sometimes it takes a strong
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  Speaker 1: exhortation from God's word just to get our attention. And
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  Speaker 1: a man who does that is often viewed as crotchety
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  Speaker 1: or loud or cranky. No, don't misread passion and desire
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  Speaker 1: for holiness for crankiness.
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  Speaker 2: Don't misread that. Why was he exhorted like he was
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  Speaker 2: Verse three?
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  Speaker 1: Because the time will come when they people around the community,
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  Speaker 1: people in the church, the populace, the hoy poloi, when
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  Speaker 1: they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have
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  Speaker 1: their ears tickle, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in
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  Speaker 1: accordance to their own desires, and will turn their ears
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  Speaker 1: away from the truth and will turn.
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  Speaker 2: Aside to myths. We don't live in a vacuum.
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  Speaker 1: When you say no to the truth, you say yes
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  Speaker 1: to myth. When you say no God I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to know what you think about it. Then we say
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  Speaker 1: yes to the world. I want to buy into your lies.
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  Speaker 1: It's just that simple. It's a black and white thing,
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  Speaker 1: very clear. Contrast, Look at verse five. How is Timothy
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  Speaker 1: to respond in a world like this? But you, very strong,
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  Speaker 1: emphatic people will do this. They will want that.
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  Speaker 2: All kinds of teachers with ear tickling tongues will tickle
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  Speaker 2: the ears of listening audiences.
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  Speaker 1: But you, He says it in Chapter three, verse ten.
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  Speaker 1: He says it in Chapter three, verse fourteen. He says
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  Speaker 1: it in Chapter four, verse four, verse five.
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  Speaker 2: But you.
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  Speaker 1: Be sober, and all things endure hardship, do the work
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  Speaker 1: of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. A ministry is not
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  Speaker 1: to be endured, it's to be fulfilled. Great word, by
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  Speaker 1: the way, this word means to bring to full measure,
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  Speaker 1: to discharge all the duties connected with it. Fill your
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  Speaker 1: day full of the things that mark your responsibility as
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  Speaker 1: a minister of the Gospel. I love the way John
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  Speaker 1: rw Stott writes on this passage. When men and women
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  Speaker 1: get intoxicated with heady heresies and sparkling novelties, ministers must
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  Speaker 1: keep calm and sane. Even if the people forsake Timothy's
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  Speaker 1: ministry in favor of teachers who tickle their fancy. Timothy
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  Speaker 1: is to fulfill his ministry, he must persevere until his
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  Speaker 1: task is accomplished. Calvin adds these words. The more determined
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  Speaker 1: men become to despise the teaching of Christ, the more
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  Speaker 1: zealous should godly ministers be to assert it.
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  Speaker 2: But being men, we tend to back off.
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  Speaker 1: We tend to fold our arms and sigh at conferences
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  Speaker 1: like I attended all what's the use? Or when our
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  Speaker 1: dreams crash and burn. Our tendency is to become bitter
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  Speaker 1: and think all the world is against the truth, when
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  Speaker 1: in fact that isn't real. Many more in the family
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  Speaker 1: of God believe it than don't. And the hunger level,
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  Speaker 1: if it may not be great where you live, believe me,
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  Speaker 1: it's great around the world.
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  Speaker 2: There's a starvation setting in upon God's people.
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  Speaker 1: Now in light of all of that, and that was
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  Speaker 1: quite a seventy five cent introduction, wasn't it. At this rate,
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  Speaker 1: we'll be here an hour and a half, my goodness.
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  Speaker 1: Go back to second Thessalonian chapter three.
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  Speaker 2: Let's take a look at five.
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  Speaker 1: Verses in second Thessalonians three that point out four responsibilities
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  Speaker 1: of the minister of the gospel, followed by four responses
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  Speaker 1: or responsibilities of congregations who are surrounded by the teaching
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  Speaker 1: of the Gospel. It's a very simple outline. There's some
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  Speaker 1: truth here for the pastor in the first three verses,
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  Speaker 1: and then there's some truth here for the flock, and
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  Speaker 1: about the middle of verse three down through verse five.
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  Speaker 1: Let's take a look at them. First of all, let's
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  Speaker 1: dissect the pastor. That sounds like normal stuff, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 1: Let's do it for a few minutes. Finally, brethren, now understand,
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  Speaker 1: this is a preacher's Finally, it doesn't mean it literally.
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  Speaker 1: It just meant to wake you up so that you'll
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  Speaker 1: listen a little longer. He's got a whole chapter of
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  Speaker 1: things to say, but this is one of those in
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  Speaker 1: between finalies, and he's.
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  Speaker 2: Addressing these words to the Christian.
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  Speaker 1: So do I you're a Christian, and if you're involved
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  Speaker 1: in a congregation, and if your growth in Christ is
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  Speaker 1: important to you, listen to what God says about the
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  Speaker 1: person or the persons who minister to you.
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  Speaker 2: Finally, brethren, pray for us. Pray for us. Let's stop
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  Speaker 2: right there.
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  Speaker 1: The first thing I would list regarding a good minister
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  Speaker 1: is admission of need. He openly says, I need prayer,
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  Speaker 1: pray for us. I found that he asked for prayer
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  Speaker 1: in Romans fifteen thirty. He asked for prayer among the
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  Speaker 1: Ephesian Christians. In Ephesian six nineteen. He asked for prayer
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  Speaker 1: from the Colasian saints in Colisians four, verse three. He
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  Speaker 1: earlier asked the Thessalonians to pray for him. In chapter five,
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  Speaker 1: verse twenty five of the first letter. He even said
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  Speaker 1: in verse twenty two of the letter he wrote to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the slave owner Phileman to pray for him. Paul is
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: readily admitting his need for prayer. Why because he's merely
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a man. He's just a human being, and he could
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: easily be intimidated. He could easily get off course. He
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: is no way a self assured guy who pulls his
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: own strings and opens his own doors. Oh he could,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: but he learned in the flesh it doesn't work. So
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: pray that God would open just the right doors, and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I would march through them unafraid.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: I love the way Spurgeon put.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: It in one of his fine works out of the
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: metropolitan tabernacle pulpit. Low, your minister, but a stripling from
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the country, all untrained in academic lore, knowing nothing but
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: just the doctrine of the Cross, came forth before the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: multitude to tell out simply the word. How he felt
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: his nothingness then, and how often he told you. So
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: you cried to God, and the child the lad was helped.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: What mighty deeds were done in the conversion of hundreds.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: But now we have a name, and there.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Is a great temptation to rest upon our success and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: for men to think there is something in the preacher
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: that he can gather the crowd and can preach the word,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and it is sure to be blessed when he preaches it. Brethren, again,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I say we are nothing. Never think for a moment
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: that the one who ministers the word to you can.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Pull it off in the flesh, or has any interest
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: in doing that.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: When under God's control, I happen to be the one
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: who ministers in the church pulpit, and I readily and
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: on a regular.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Basis, admit my great needs.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I struggle just as you struggle.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Just as you battle.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I fight within myself just as you fight within yourself.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Given to myself, my garden would become full of weeds,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and I would raise plants that would poison my own life.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: But your prayers for me and for our staff will
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: keep us on target and keep us pure. I readily
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: admit my wholesale need for prayer, and I do so
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: without reservation. The minister is to be vulnerable. He is
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: to call for help. He is to let people see
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the cracks and gaps and needs in his life. That's
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: why Paul asked for prayer. The second thing I would
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: list is a declaration of the objective that's in the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: last part of verse one. Pray for us, and what
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: am I to pray for? That the word of the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Lord may spread rapidly. The word means to run, That
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the word of the Lord may put on sneakers and
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: run the race, that there would be nothing to hold
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: it back. Pray that the word of the Lord will
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: run with speed, and that the word of the Lord
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: will be glorified, just as it did also with you.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: He's got great memories of the Thessalonian flock. He remembers
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: when he ministered to them. The word of the Lord
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: struck those people, and they hit the ground running and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: they're still running for the cause of Christ. Pray that
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: what happened in Thessalonika would keep happening wherever I go.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: I love the way he puts that, that it would
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: keep running. Don't don't miss the affirming clothes, just as
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: it did also with you.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: While I was away.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: One thing that repeatedly came to my attention as a
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: reason for discouragement was the lack of enthusiasm among those
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: pastors congregations. I don't know of anything that just drains
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: at the heart of them or the gospel, like an
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: unenthusiastic body of people.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: They just sort of sit soaken, sour, just save sanctified
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: and galvanized. They just kind of get set in a rut.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Just keep the machinery going, pastor. It's a burden for
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: all of us, but try to stay on top. And
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: God bless you, God bless you Master.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: The declaration of his objective is that the word of
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the Lord would hit the road running, and that the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: people would be revolutionized within, so that if necessary, they
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: stand all alone in their company, or all alone on
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: their ball team, or all alone in the classroom at school,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: or all alone in their neighborhood if necessary. When the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: word of God takes root, it revolutionizes the person. But
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: when it is simply an intellectual exercise, all it does
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: is satisfy idle curiosity and makes you heady and high
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: minded and stuffy and snobby. He said, I pray, and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I ask for you to pray that the word will
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: run second or third in the list would be a
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: recognition of human opposition.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: That's in verse two.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: And while you're praying, I recognize that there's human opposition.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: That we may be delivered from perverse and evil men,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: for not all have the faith. Literally, there's a definite
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: article the faith. Look at the kind of men.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: He refers to. Perverse is a word that means capable
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: of outrageous and harmful acts. Did you hear that? Did
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: you hear that? Verse two?
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: That we may be delivered from people who are capable
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: of outrageous and harmful acts against others, and evil speaks
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: of those who are thoroughly corrupted themselves and intent on
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: corrupting others. That's what the minister of the Gospel must
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: face as he stands for the truth in the face
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of people who don't love the truth, or, as he
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: calls it, people who do.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Not have the faith. I've got to thinking about that,
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: to thinking.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: About Paul's words to these people. And this is among
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: his earliest letters far as we know. First Thessalonians was
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: written about fifty fifty one AD, and already he talks
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: about opposition. So I thought, well, I'm going to go
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to the very last letters he wrote. First, Timothy, I
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: want you to turn there also, that's the very next
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: book to your right, and I'm going to see if
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: he had opposition at the end of his ministry. And
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: I found someone verse eighteen of Chapter Onemothy one eighteen.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: in regard to their faith. He even has the guts
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: to name them. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: I have delivered over to Satan so that they may
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: be taught not to blaspheme. You think that opposition wasn't strong,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: so strong that Paul, rather than fighting those men, said
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I deliver them over to Satan. For the destruction of
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the flesh.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Well, did that cause them to leave him alone? Nope?
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Last letter he wrote two Timothy, chapter four once again,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: verse fourteen, same man, intense opposition. Alexander the Coppersmith did
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: me much harm. The Lord will repay him according.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: To his deeds. Can you beat that?
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Here is a man thirteen fourteen, fifteen years in ministry.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: He's founded churches, he shaped lives, He's forged out a
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: theology for the New Covenant. He has been God's man
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: of the hour all the way from Jerusalem to Rome.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: And maybe even into Spain. And all along his steps
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: have been dogged by the same old Alexander, the same
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: old guy that's determined to make life miserable for him.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Mark it down. Anyone who stands for the truth will
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: face the opposition of men who are unprincipled, men who
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: oppose men, and women who oppose the truth. Few people
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: have said it better than Alexander White.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: He writes very well.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Regarding Alexander the Coppersmith, White says there was no man
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: among Paul's many enemies who so hated Paul and so
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: hunted him down as this Alexander the Coppersmith Alexander followed
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Paul wherever he went, poisoning the minds and the hearts
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: of all men to whom his tongue or his pen
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: had access. One of our latest and best authorities thinks
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: that Alexander even followed Paul to Rome and did his
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: best to poison Nero and his court still more against Paul.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: But whether he made that malicious and superfluous journey or no,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Alexander certainly did Paul, in his good name and his
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: divine work, all the evil that his gifts of speech
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: and pen could do. It is no wonder that the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: constant presence of Alexander and his implacable and sleepless malice
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: was about too great a trial for Paul to bear.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Think of that implacable, sleepless malice. There was an any
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: man who stands for God today who doesn't have enemies
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: who stand against him. When you pray for your minister,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: pray for those who oppose him. And these may not
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: be great in number, but they may be extremely effective.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they're just a little sniping things.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they're just they're just kind of nagging cranks and nuts.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: You know, I've agreed for years with Ironside where there's light,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: there's bugs, and they're just buggy people. They just they
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: just nip at you and and and bite at.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: You and drag you down.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: The apostle Paul had such opposition, and I repeat, not
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the kind of opposition that simply says, we want to
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: look at the other side of this, but the kind
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: that says, no, no, no, I resent it. I don't
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: like you. I don't like the way you declare God's truth.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, I don't like the truth. Quit talking like that,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and in a number of different ways try to stop it.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Back to second Thessalonians, opposition from the human element.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: But I love the balance.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I call it the flip side of that is the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: proclamation of God's faithfulness. You with me so far, the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: admission of need, the declaration of the objective, the recognition
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: of human opposition, and now the proclamation of divine faithfulness
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: verse three.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: But the Lord is faithful. Now that's the answer. See.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Rather than turning the pulpit into a hammer to fight.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: His battles, the apostle says, simply, the Lord is faithful.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: He will take care of the opposition.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I will not lose my target by getting involved in
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: those side light skirmishes.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: The battle is.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Bigger than that person or two or three. One of
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: my messages to those young and older men in ministry was,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: don't get off target because you've got somebody that doesn't
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: like where you're going.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: God is faithful. God will fight for me. He is there.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I can call upon him. He sees me through. He
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: will never leave me, he will never forsake me. And
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: even when the other person gets the upper hand, God
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: is unintimidated. He is the one that everyone else must
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: ultimately change their course to meet. I thought of that
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: when a friend of mine mailed me this conversation from
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the sea. Listen, the helmsman reported to the officer on
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the deck, we are closing on collision course with another ship. Sir,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: the senior officer on the bridge, tell him to alter
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: course fifteen degrees and maintain open contact with my bridge.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, Sir, replied the sailor.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Almost instantly, the radio crackled a voice saying, negative, change
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: your course fifteen degrees. The officer snapped back, this is
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the ship of the United States Navy. Change your course
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: fifteen degrees. Immediately the voice replied, negative, change your course
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: fifteen degrees. The undaunted officer becoming agitated now said you
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: will change your course fifteen degrees. Now, mister, I am
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: an admiral in the United States Navy. The response still calm, No, sir,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: I repeat, change your course fifteen degrees.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I am a lighthouse, all right. Can't you see him
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: grabbing the wheel? Get this thing in another direction. I'm
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: a lighthouse. That's God's faithfulness. Go to the lighthouse. Ultimately,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: everything will have to change its course.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: When it's on a collision course with a lighthouse and
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: I'm fighting you, they're fighting a lighthouse. He'll defend itself.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Don't lower yourself to their skirmishues. It's not worth a hassle.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Like my dad used to say, don't worry when a
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: mule kicks you just consider the source.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Just a mule.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Now, so much for the pastoral side of things. Let's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: dissect the congregation. I've been looking forward to doing that
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: for Sue a loan from the flock. The Lord is faithful.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: First of all, there is protection from attack. I love
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: the way verse three concludes protection from attack. The Lord
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: is faithful. He will strengthen and protect you from the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: evil one. Now, the reason I love this is because
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: all of the responsibility rests with the faithful God. Many
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: a pastor spend sleepless nights worrying about his anxious over
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: how they're going to behave.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: And what they're going to do in this situation.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: And maybe another cult has moved within two or three
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: blocks of that church building, as is the case with
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: one man I spoke to, and I.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Says, well, you have the truth. Theirs is founded on error.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: You have the living, faithful God to uphold his message.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: He will do it. The protection of the flock is
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: in the hands of the Living God. And by the way,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: even when some wander and stray, they become a point
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: of strength in later years. I thought of that when
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: I read in Luke twenty two this week, verses thirty
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: one and thirty two. Jesus said to the apostles, Satan
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: has desired to have you plural, that he may sift
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: y'all plural, that he may sift y'all as straight as
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: he would sift sand. But I have prayed for you
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: and you singular peter you. When you have turned around,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: you will stre than the brothers. Same word is strengthened
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: here in verse three. He will strengthen you.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: What am I saying.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: I'm saying sometime it takes the experience of dipping into
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a wandering lifestyle to become even stronger in later years.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: If your past has been marked by wandering from the
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: truth and you're now back on course, you're part of
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the answer for a stronger congregation. God needs your testimony,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: or at least the flock needs your testimony.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: Let's put it this way. God can use your testimony
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: in the flock.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Some of the great messages that I have heard I've
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: heard from baptismal waters.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: I've heard from people who have.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Gone dipping their lives into the lowest dregs of society,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and then they've come back and they've turned completely around,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and they've declared faith in Christ. And now in those
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: waters they stand and they tell you the difference God
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: has made now that they're walking with him. What a
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: strengthening point it is to our faith. The protection from
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: attack and this is a word for violent attack. He
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: will strengthen you. The word is steridzo. We get that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: word for the drugs from this word strengthen steroids to
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: make one stronger. This is God's strengthening and God's protection.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: You know what I thought about, well, on this point,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I thought of the terrorist activity in our day, and
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I thought, how much at the mercy of the terrorists
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: we really are. When I pack my bags and make
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: my way to an airline terminal, I am at the
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: mercy of the moment, and so are you. When I
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: get on that airplane, or when I take that public
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: transportation from one spot to another, I am at.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: The mercy of the terrorist.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: And you know who I have to trust in aside
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: from my God, God, my government. Those who have the clout,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the authority, those who have the military might, those who
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: have the intelligence and expertise to spot out the troubled
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: areas and to protect me as a citizen of this country.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: And I trust them. I must, or I would never
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: travel in the same way. I must trust to my
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: God the protection of this flock.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: It isn't my task to look into keyholes and to
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: check through a window shades and to pry and peer
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: into personal lives. It's God's job to protect this assembly.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: There will be times when I will be called in
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: to confront when it becomes obvious to me that the
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: body is hurting or is being scandalized.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: But for the most part. I rest easy.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: It's God's job to keep this body pure, and he's
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: doing it. In fact, the next verse, verse four, talks
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: about cooper with the leadership. I'd list that also protection
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: from attack and now cooperation with the leadership. We have
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: confidence in the Lord concerning you that you are doing
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: and will continue to do what we command. What a
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: great congregation those Thessalonians were. I'm impressed with Paul's positive confidence.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: He is confident that they are doing exactly what he commanded.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: And if you want to trace that command back, he
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: commanded them in chapter four of First Thessalonians to abstain
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: from sexual immorality, and he says in Second Corinthians, chapter three,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: I'm confident you're doing that.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Let me take off.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: My ministerial mantle for a moment and just sit down
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: by you and tell you something a little bit of
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: my philosophy of ministry. I don't believe that it is
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the shepherd's job to skin the sheep alive. I believe
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: it is the shepherd's job to exhort and to reprove,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: but not to beat the sheep. Beaten sheep may look obedient,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: but actually beaten sheep are whipped and defeated.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Every once in a while.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: It might be wise for you to say, I thank
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: my God that when I leave the ministry of this place,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I leave encouraged.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I don't feel whipped and beaten. That's on purpose.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: We commit ourselves to building up the saints for the
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: work of ministry, not beating them into place. There is
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: a place for discipline, but there is no place for
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: sheep beating. I've had people come to me and say,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons I stick around is because I
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: don't I for the first time in my life, I
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: don't leave reminded of every dirty sin in my life.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: I know some of them are there, but I'm encouraged
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: to deal with them.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: And you are you see.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: I try to take my cues from Paul's style, and
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: that is to have confidence in the Lord concerning you.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Interesting how he put that he didn't have confidence in them.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: In the flesh.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: He had confidence in the Lord concerning them. By the way,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: you are behaving, aren't you? Yeah, you are behaving. You
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: are walking with God, aren't you. I believe you are.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: I operate from that point of view. I remember coming
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: in from dates and my dad on occasion would be
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: waiting up and he would say to me, as I
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: would stick the keys on the bureau.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: You did behave tonight, didn't you. I believe you did.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: But what a stirring up it is, even when I
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: hadn't behaved, But it made me want to come to
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: my dad if I was in real need.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: We believe in your son, That's why we trust you
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: with the car.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: I believe in your flock. That's why I trust you
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: with the truth. I equip you with the truth, and
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: I believe you behave.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: That's why I suppose I live my life shocked on
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: occasion at the flock when I hear a scandal that
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: has occurred.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: Because I believe the best in you.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: See, I think it works around this third principle, and
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: that is a cooper That is a cultivation of a
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: love for God. Don't write that incorrectly. Cultivation of a
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: love for God. And may the Lord direct your hearts
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: into the love himself, into the love of God. Let
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: me explain it.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: It's easy to misread it.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: It's easy to think he's saying and may you come
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: to realize how much God loves you.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: No, that's true, but that's not his emphasis here.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: His emphasis is, may God direct your hearts into the
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: responsibility of loving him.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: It was in seventeen.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Oh seven that Isaac Watts wrote, We're the whole realm
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: of nature. Mind that were a present far too small.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Love so amazing, so divine demands my.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Soul, my life, my all. What a switch you would think,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: he would say, Love's so amazing, so divine makes me
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: feel warm and cozy, I go blanket around. No. Love
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: so amazing, and love so divine, demands that I love
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: him with all my heart and soul and might and
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: strength and mind. I neighbor as myself. The demands of
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: the love of God are great. His love drives me
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: to holiness. His love for me unmasks my pride and.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: My arrogance and says to me, you owe me your life,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: and you're all the cultivation of one's love for God.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: You know that's what caused Chuck Holsen to write his
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: book Loving God. I smile inside when I hear people
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: talk about first buying his book thinking it was to
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: talk about the love of God, and they found this
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: is a book of exhortation about loving God in return.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: There's no question that he loves us.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: The question is does my life reveal a love back
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: to him. It isn't a question that my wife loves me.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: The question comes do I love her in such a
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: marvelous way that there's.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Harmony in the home.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: And she knows how significant significant she is to me personally.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Cultivation of a love for God. Now, finally, determination.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: To endure for Christ. That's the last one.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: May the Lord direct your hearts into the steadfastness of Christ.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: This was a hurting flock. Remember, these were people who
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: were being mistreated by cruel tyrants, and their tendency would
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: be to slip and slide and to lose their moorings.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: And what they needed was that old word I was
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: raised on. It's an old homespun word called sticktuitiveness.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: Were you raised on that word? Son? You gotta have sticktuitiveness?
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: Stay at it, stay at It's this.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Determination to endure for Christ. One man calls it the
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: passion of patience. I was encouraged when I found in
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Eugene Peterson's book A Long Obedience in the same direction
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: these words. Stick to itiveness is one of the more
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: inelegant words in the language.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: He writes, But I have a special fondness for it.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Nevertheless, I heard the word a great deal when I
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: was young, mostly as I recall from my mother.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Now he unveils a little part of his life. This
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: is great.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: I was a creature of sudden but short lived enthusiasms.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: I had a passion for building model airplanes, and then
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: one day, mysteriously, all desire left, and the basement was
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: littered with half a dozen unfinished models. Then stamp collecting
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: became an all consuming hobby. I received an immense stamp
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: album for Christmas and joined a club, been acquired piles
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: and piles of stamps, and then one day, unaccountably, the
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: interest left me.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: The album gathered dust, and the mounds of stamps were
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: left unmounted. Next it was horses.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Each Saturday morning, my best friend and I would ride
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: our bikes to a dude ranch two miles from town,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: get horses, and ride up into the Montana Foothills, imagining
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: we were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, or less pretentiously,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: Gene Autry.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: And the Lone Ranger.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: And then overnight that entire world vanished, and in its
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: place girls. It was during these rather frequent transitions from
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: one enthusiasm to another. I was slapped with the reprimand Eugene,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: you have no stick touitiveness. You have stick tuitiveness? Or
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: are you kind of high and low, up and down?
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: You don't move through life?
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Your ricochet bounce from one fad to another fad, one
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: fashion to another speaker, one singer to another kind of music,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: and you know where in the world you are. You
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: lack steadfastness in Christ. You last a long obedience in
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: the same direction, he says later, I found that the
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: church has a better name for it, perseverance.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: Perseverance give me or.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Leave from me most qualities, but don't take away from me.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: Perseverance.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: That's what gets me beyond my feelings. That's what keeps
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: me on target. That's what gets a job done. How
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: do pastors and flocks stay together? What are some of
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: the secrets of long term ministry so that we don't
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: change pastorates about every time we change our minds? What
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: are the secrets of staying together? Well, this is no
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: inspired list, but I got two or three things in mind.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: First would be a personal commitment to pray. A personal
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: commitment to prayer, Let's put it that way. To prayer
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: you pray for me, I pray for you. We pray
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: for each other. We pray in season and out of season.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: We pray each other through highs and lows. We pray
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: ourselves into the will of God. We pray ourselves through opposition.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: A personal commitment to prayer. Second would be a mutual
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: agreement on essentials. We can't get along very long if
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: we disagree on essentials. Those non essentials are many more
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: in number. However, so how you part your hair is
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: up to you. Whether you want to wear a wig
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: is up to you.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: Whether you want to.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: Dress in fashion or out of fashion, that's up to you.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Whether you want to take a bath or not, that's
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: up to you and a few people who sit around you.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: A lot of personal things of whatever kind of car
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: you want to drive, drive that kind of.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: Car, it's up to you. Wherever you want to live,
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: it's up to you.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: When it comes to the essentials of the faith, we
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: got to agree, we can't get along. We got to
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: have the freedom and we got to have the sticktuitiveness
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: to agree on essentials. And don't make your list of
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: essentials too long, or you start getting legal, you start
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: getting petty. That's the sign of a young pastor. His
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: list is longer than older pastors. Number Three sacrificial involvement
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: in ministry. We got to have that, and it can't
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: be one way. I can't be the only one sacrificing,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: and it's not fair for just a few of you.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: We got to be in this together. That has to
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: do with such things.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: It's how we spend our time and how involved we
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: are in the financial support of a ministry. It has
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: to do with what are we going to do when
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: it comes to the Lord's Day and how much in
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: service are we going to find ourselves?
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: Are we going to be among those that just sit
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: and soak and sour?
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Are we going to get in the action and it's
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: going to involve sacrifice or we can't get the job done.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: I can't preach when I feel like it. I've got
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: to preach even when I don't feel like it. You
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: can usually tell when that happens too. Fourth is a
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: humble acknowledgment of need. A humble acknowledgment of need. We
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: all have to see ourselves as being in the same boat.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: We all have needs, and I acknowledge that and you
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: must too. Sometime I need a reproof. Sometime I need
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: to be put back on course.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: Sometime you do too. Sometime I need a good shake
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: from the hand of God, or from a brother who
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: loves me too much to let me play in the traffic.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: And sometime you need that too. There's one thing we
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: certainly need, and that is to be preoccupied with a
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: living God. Don't let me get in the way of
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: that deal the show.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: I love the little note that was written to Phillips Brooks.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: When he got discouraged, he would return to these little
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: notes he filed away from people who loved him. One
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: man wrote, I am a tailor in a little shop
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: near your church, and whenever I have the opportunity, I
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: always go to hear you preach.
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: Each time I seem to forget all about you, for
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: you make me think of God. Let's bow together.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: I want you to be comfortable in the Lord's presence
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: for just a few moments, please, just a few moments.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: How much time have you spent this week thinking about God?
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: I mean even if you weren't working on your Sunday
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: school lesson, or you weren't preparing your sermon, or you
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: weren't getting ready to give a talk.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: On spiritual things.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, just when you weren't thinking about anything, do
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: you think about God. Maybe that's the reason your life
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: has been marked by lack of joy rather than the
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: presence of joy. Maybe that sticktuitiveness is getting a little
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: thin because you're thinking only about yourself rather than the
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: greatness of God. Ever made a trip to the cross,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Ever bent in the shadow of the cross and told
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: the Lord that you need him and you take him
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: as your savior. Come on time for that journey. If
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: you've never made it, And if you're one of these
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: people still trying to fight your own battles, I'll tell you.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: Your opposition is going to win. There's too many of them.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: Rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for him. He will
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: reward you. Let him fight for you, even if you
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: know you're right, Let him fight for you. And so, Lord,
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: today we thank you for the Church. This was your
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: original idea. Your son announced that he will build the church,
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: and the gates of Hades would never prevail against it.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: And we have lived all through these centuries and realized
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: that that promise is still good and will be forever.
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you for the privilege of being able to communicate
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: these things today, and I pray that this message will
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: be used as an effective and sharp tool in the
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: lives of those who lead the church, as well as
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: those who are a part of your family of the
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: Body of Christ. I pray that as a result of
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: digesting these truths, that changes might occur, and good might result,
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: and ultimately greater glory be brought to your name as
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: we serve you through the local church. Thank you, our
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: Father in Jesus' name, for the privilege of being able
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: to participate in this eternal work together, and for your
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: blessings and for your favor. We ask as we continue
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: to serve you in this manner, in the name of
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus, I pray Amen. The preceding message, Chords
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: that Hold Pastures and Flocks Together, was copyrighted in nineteen
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: eighty six, nineteen ninety one, two thousand and two, and
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four by Charles R. Swindahl, Incorporated. All rights
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: are reserved worldwide.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.