Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24481 - A Pastor Feeds and Protects the Flock - Acts 20:25-31

Transcript

#24481 - A Pastor Feeds and Protects the Flock - Acts 20:25-31 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

0:04
Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
0:08
Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
0:12
To learn more about the many resources available through
0:14
Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
0:18
visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
0:24
Calvary Church app. Now.
0:25
Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
0:30
Amen. Open your Bibles.
0:31
Acts chapter 20 is where we are verse by verse through the book
0:35
of Acts. We're spending a little bit of
0:37
time in what's known as this, what I'm calling this pastoral
0:41
chapter I in the life of Paul and in the life of the early
0:46
church, and I've entitled our Bible study today.
0:49
A pastor feeds and protects the flock, and you could say that
0:55
for a leader. You can say that for a parent.
0:58
You can say that for a friend. We have a responsibility both to
1:02
support and encourage and feed one another, but also to protect
1:07
one another. And if you haven't already in
1:10
our study through the book of Acts, if you haven't already, it
1:13
really is time for you to step up and serve.
1:16
It really is time for you to see your life as belonging to Jesus
1:21
and allow him to use you in ways that you haven't been used
1:24
before. That that is the sum of the book
1:28
of Acts even up to this point. To be the church, to yield
1:32
ourselves to him in fresh new ways, to follow the leading of
1:35
the Holy Spirit, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, to step out
1:39
in faith, to face new things, to put ourselves in a position of
1:43
vulnerability where we do trust the Lord.
1:45
To be used at work, to be used, used at school, to be used in
1:48
the church, to be used in the neighborhood.
1:50
If you haven't already, please step up and serve and obey the
1:54
Lord. You know why?
1:55
Because God is not finished with His work on the earth.
1:58
Did you know that He is not finished.
2:01
We're going to come to a place and not too many chapters, and
2:03
it'll be a lot faster to get to the end now than it was to get
2:06
to where we are. We are now.
2:08
We're going to get to the end of Acts, Acts 28.
2:10
We're going to get to the very last chapter.
2:12
We're going to get to the very last verse where it talks about
2:15
Paul just being faithfully serving and then writing into
2:18
the sunset. And many people will turn the
2:20
page and we will too. We'll go to another book of the
2:22
Bible and we'll start in chapter one, verse one.
2:26
But you know, even though we have closed the chapter on Acts,
2:28
and even though the book of Acts in its written form is done in
2:33
another way, the book of Acts is not done because God is still
2:36
working in the church today. Now, I don't mean he's writing
2:39
new books of the Bible, not at all, but he is still working in
2:43
the church today through you and through me.
2:46
Some people have even tried to describe that as referring to it
2:50
as Acts 29, that Acts 29 are the Chronicles of your life and
2:56
mine. And again, God is not writing
2:58
new chapters of the Bible. But in another way, He really is
3:03
in ours. We get to be a part that gives
3:05
the book of Acts is our history as the church and it is it is
3:10
the roots of this church. This church was born in the book
3:15
of Acts. That's our history.
3:16
If you if you're looking for a history of the church, you got
3:19
to go all the way back to the day of Pentecost.
3:21
And some could even say, and I would make that argument go all
3:24
the way back to the last chapter of John when Jesus breathed on
3:28
the disciples and they received the Holy Spirit there.
3:31
That's the history, and this is where our church comes from, the
3:36
ongoing work of God on the earth today, which brings us to where
3:41
we left off in Acts chapter 20. Paul the Apostle, or now we know
3:46
him as Paul the pastor, has drawn the elders of Ephesus, the
3:53
leaders of Ephesus. He's invited them and they have
3:56
come to him at the city of Miletus.
3:58
Why? Because Paul is on his way to
4:00
Jerusalem. He's on his way to Jerusalem for
4:02
a couple of reasons. One, he wants to make it there
4:05
originally for the Passover, but now he's going to be there for
4:08
the day for the Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost.
4:12
So he's on his way to worship. But secondly, he has money.
4:17
He has the tithes and offerings or the offerings of other
4:20
Gentile churches that he has collected that he will take to
4:25
Jerusalem and deliver to the hurting Jerusalem church.
4:29
They're struggling. They're going through a downtime
4:31
financially. And other churches that are
4:34
stronger and the Gentile world have given of their money.
4:38
And now Paul is going to deliver it to help a struggling church.
4:42
He's called the elders together because as we'll see in today's
4:46
section, he really senses that he's never going to see him
4:49
again. And he's giving him his last
4:51
words, his final words. They're brief, but they're in
4:56
depth. The only sermon to believers
4:59
recorded in the book of Acts by Paul.
5:03
And we've studied it verse by verse up to this point.
5:06
And up to this point, Paul has been descriptive in his
5:10
encouragement to the elders. He's described different
5:13
characteristics that make a good servant of the Lord.
5:15
Now he's going to become a little more protective.
5:20
And thus the title of our study today.
5:22
Feeding and protecting both are essential and necessary.
5:29
A pastor and leader's responsibility far goes far
5:33
beyond just the teaching of the Bible.
5:35
We are not only responsible to feed the flock, but also to
5:38
protect it from false teachers and wolves in sheep's clothing.
5:43
With that in mind, pick up with me in verse 25 of Acts chapter
5:48
20. Paul says, And indeed, now I
5:52
know that you all, among whom I've gone preaching the Kingdom
5:55
of God, will see my face no more.
5:59
Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the
6:04
blood of all men. Remember, Paul spent three years
6:09
in Ephesus, which is where we are able to see him develop his
6:12
pastoral gifting. We know him as missionary, we
6:16
know him as preacher, we know him as evangelist with Ephesus
6:20
and a little bit with Corinth. We see his pastoral gifting come
6:24
out and there he is. You can get the scene.
6:27
He's got these leaders before him.
6:28
It's an emotional time. I'm never going to see you
6:31
again. I I don't know what before I I
6:33
know I'm going to Jerusalem, but I don't know what's going to
6:35
happen. And here's the thing.
6:36
I just want you to know he says I have a clean conscience.
6:41
I have done what God has called me to do.
6:43
I have in if in Ephesus, in this city, guys, I just want you to
6:47
know I'm clean. Everything that God wanted me to
6:50
do, everything that God told me to do, everything that God
6:53
commanded me to do, I have done. And because of that, I am free
6:59
from the blood of all men. I can, I can look to God.
7:03
I can stand before God, kneel before God with a clean
7:06
conscience that I have done what God has wanted me to do.
7:10
Church, I want you to have that same sense in your life.
7:13
I want you to do all that God has called you to do, and I want
7:15
you to be all that God has called you to be.
7:18
I want you to have that confidence, and it's not a
7:21
arrogant confidence at all. It's a peace it.
7:25
There's a sense of I have fulfilled what God has called me
7:29
to do today. Up to this day, I've done what
7:31
God's asked me to do. It's not like I've done it
7:34
perfectly or it's not like, and I can speak for myself.
7:36
I can just speak out loud for myself.
7:38
I believe even with all my imperfections and all my
7:41
weaknesses, that I can stand before God and say, yes, Lord, I
7:44
did what you asked me to do. I, I learned from my mistakes
7:48
and I, I desire to obey you and I have done.
7:51
And that's where Paul is. He's just standing there.
7:53
Look, man, I'm not going to see you guys anymore.
7:54
And I just want you to see. I want you to remember in my
7:57
life, you saw faithfulness. You saw faithfulness, but the
8:02
question in verse 26 is that how can he say that what was the
8:08
essence of what he felt and what he sensed was what God called
8:12
him to do and we learned that in verse 27, one of the most
8:15
important verses under the foundation of our church right
8:18
here, this verse, verse 27. He says This is why because I
8:23
have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
8:31
That is what God called Paul to do, to give the city of Ephesus
8:37
the whole counsel of God. Everything that God has given to
8:42
him, he gave to them. He didn't shun it or some of
8:46
your Bible translations might say avoid it.
8:49
He didn't skip around the hard parts or dance around the
8:53
difficult things. He gave it everything to them.
8:56
What we would say today is that our goal is to give you the
9:00
whole counsel of God from the beginning of Genesis all the way
9:04
to the end of Revelation, the whole thing verse by verse,
9:07
chapter by chapter, however long it takes us to get there.
9:12
I mean, one day I hope to be able to say exactly, I can't say
9:15
that today, but to say exactly what Paul said, that I have
9:18
given it all to you. I mean, so far I've made it
9:21
through the entire New Testament.
9:22
So I've taught the entire New Testament verse by verse from
9:25
the beginning of Matthew all the way into Revelation to our
9:29
church. And I've done, I think about 50%
9:33
of the Old Testament verse by verse.
9:35
We've gone through Genesis, we're in Exodus right now.
9:37
Again, we're in Leviticus. All you, you can see on the
9:40
website all the books that I've done verse by verse.
9:43
And one day I want to be able to say I've done it all.
9:46
But I can say today, I can say today with confidence that I
9:50
have done all that God has asked me to do up to this day, that I
9:53
can stand with a man I have not shunned to give you everything
9:56
that God has given to me for you.
9:59
It's very important. I'm not going to back away or
10:02
shy away. I'm not embarrassed by the word
10:04
of God. I'm not afraid of it.
10:06
Did you know you do not need to be afraid of the Bible?
10:09
Anything that you read, you don't need to be afraid of it.
10:12
You don't need to shun it or avoid it in your own personal
10:16
life. If you like to write in your
10:18
Bibles, you can circle that word shunned there in verse 27.
10:22
It's a word that means to withdraw.
10:25
It's a word that means to shrink back.
10:28
They used it in the ancient days in the Greek language to
10:30
describe when a ship would take down their sail and it would
10:35
begin to go off course, Paul says I didn't go off course.
10:39
I didn't avoid it. I I didn't shrink away.
10:42
I gave you everything that you needed.
10:45
In effect, he was saying, I knew the direction that God wanted to
10:49
take this church and take this city.
10:51
And no matter what I faced, I didn't take you guys off course.
10:56
And he shared with them how to follow Jesus in the New Covenant
11:01
based upon the revelation of the Old covenant.
11:04
They needed the whole word. One of the things we would say
11:06
here is that God has given us the whole Bible so that He can
11:10
make a whole believer. And you need it all.
11:13
Every single word is important to God, even if we don't
11:17
understand it at the time. That seems to be the biggest
11:21
barrier with the Bible. And that is, well, you know, I
11:23
started reading a pastor, but I just don't understand it.
11:25
So I put it down. Don't do that.
11:28
You're going to face things that you don't understand.
11:30
I've been studying the Bible for 30 plus years and there are
11:32
still things that require deep study that even after I study,
11:36
I'm like, yeah, I'm not quite sure what he went there.
11:38
I'm not really sure about it. So here's I'm going to give you
11:41
permission. You come across something you
11:43
don't understand, skip it, set it aside and really focus on the
11:48
things that you do understand. Don't take away the things that
11:53
are super crystal clear. Let me give you one like,
11:55
because if you say, well, there's some things that are
11:57
really hard, I'm not going to read the Bible anymore, then
11:59
you're going to skip the things that are super easy.
12:01
Like how about this one? Tell me if you just say Amen or
12:04
yes. If you understand this, this is
12:06
what the Bible says, don't steal.
12:09
You understand that? Yes.
12:12
Amen. Yes.
12:13
Well, you know, I'm just not going to read the Bible because
12:15
I don't understand whatever Melchizedek is.
12:17
OK, set my Calzadek aside and go to the one you do understand.
12:22
Yeah. Don't steal, don't lie, don't be
12:24
a gossip. Be nice to each other.
12:27
Treat others as you would want to be treated.
12:29
Jesus said look at the flowers and remember the faithfulness of
12:32
God. That's pretty easy to
12:33
understand. Like, just keep your focus on
12:36
the things and here's what's going to happen over the years.
12:38
You know what's going to happen. You're going to understand more.
12:41
You will understand more. It takes time.
12:44
You have to. This might help you.
12:46
When I was born again, I did not even own a Bible.
12:51
There wasn't a Bible in my apartment.
12:53
I could care less about God. I could care less about the
12:56
Bible. I didn't have one.
12:58
I needed to go buy a Bible for me and my wife.
13:01
And so I went down to the Bible bookstore where it was near our
13:03
house. And I say, hey, we just got
13:05
saved this church and we need a Bible.
13:06
And they said, well, this one's popular.
13:08
So I bought two of them, but I found out that that Bible was
13:12
jacked up and I'm like, what is my problem?
13:16
I can't even buy the right Bible.
13:17
I I mean I don't it was hard, but I threw those Bibles in the
13:20
trash because they were the wrong Bible.
13:22
They had taken the Bible and changed the words and gender
13:25
neutral and I'm like, oh man, I don't even know how to pick a
13:28
Bible. So instead of that store, I
13:31
didn't trust them anymore. I'm like, I can't believe it.
13:33
I went to Ro Reese's Church for a service.
13:37
I was a brand new believer. And after service I walked by.
13:41
They were in a strip mall. Don't.
13:42
So you had to walk by the tanning salon and the liquor
13:44
store and as you were getting it, then you went to their
13:46
bookstore and I said, hey, I just stopped.
13:49
I don't even know how to buy a Bible man.
13:50
I'm brand new believer. I don't even know how to buy
13:52
one. They point behind him.
13:53
Well, Pastor Raul uses that one. I said that's it.
13:56
That's the one I want. I got one one of those from
13:58
Marie and I got one of those for me and a different one from
14:01
Marie of the new King James. I haven't left it.
14:03
And so if, if God can teach me the Bible and he has, you can
14:08
learn too. There's nothing special about
14:10
me. God, he has given me the Holy
14:13
Spirit and he's given you the Holy Spirit.
14:15
So if you just read your Bible every day and pray, you'll learn
14:18
the Bible. We believe it's sufficient.
14:21
I believe, I believe that the whole counsel of God is all
14:25
sufficient for all of our spiritual needs.
14:30
Every question, every issue, everything that you need is
14:33
found by faith in Jesus Christ. And if you will just read the
14:37
Bible and pray, take notes during Bible study, receive,
14:41
saturate yourself with the word of God, you will learn faster
14:44
than you give yourself credit for.
14:46
But you won't learn if you don't have the Bible, and you won't
14:48
learn if it stays closed. You know, even today, it's very
14:52
discouraging. I had to think about this as I
14:53
came into the pulpit today. But just thinking about the
14:57
landscape of Christianity Today and how much the Bible is not
15:00
used and not taught. I think, you know, in ancient
15:06
history, or at least over the centuries, I think of the Roman
15:08
Catholic Church, how they refused for so many years, like
15:13
decades, centuries, they refused to make the Bible available to
15:18
the people for a couple reasons. One, they call they'll never
15:21
understand it. Only the priest can understand
15:24
it. And they would set up the
15:25
priesthood so that they would train the people.
15:27
You, you can't have the Bible, but if you ever want to know
15:30
anything of the Bible, you have to come to the priesthood.
15:32
That's not true. If you're a born again believer
15:35
and you open the Bible, you can understand it.
15:38
God will reveal you don't need me or anyone else.
15:41
Although God has given pastors and teachers to teach us, you
15:45
don't need us. You have the Lord and you have
15:47
the Bible and he will help you. I also think in modern
15:50
Christianity how there are churches today that discourage
15:55
the use of the Bible. They literally discourage it
15:58
because they say, oh, it's outdated.
15:59
It's not. They say, oh, it's not
16:02
contemporary, it is. Oh, it's not relevant and
16:05
absolutely is, or it's you can't ever understand it.
16:08
That's not true. And so churches will not use the
16:11
Bible and or there'll be people walking into church today where
16:16
there'll be a Bible right there set up on the pulpit so the
16:18
cameras can see it. And it's right there as the
16:21
perfect prop that it is, but it's never used.
16:24
And it's there. It looks good.
16:26
Look, we have a Bible. We believe in the Bible, but
16:28
they don't use it. They don't teach it.
16:30
It just becomes like a like a trampoline.
16:32
You know, I was talking to a kid before service today.
16:34
Well, how'd you, how was your week this week?
16:36
Well, I got to go to the trampoline, play sky something
16:39
or whatever it is. And I think about how many
16:41
people they use the Bible as a trampoline to go off into their
16:44
own things and share their own opinions.
16:46
That's not going to help you grow.
16:48
You're never going to understand the heart of God if you're not
16:52
studying the Bible verse by verse.
16:55
There are churches today that will use the Bible but not teach
17:01
the Bible. And there's a big difference
17:04
because I mean, you can make the Bible say anything that you
17:06
want. If you take one word and jump
17:08
off and trampoline off into the next, you know, I don't even
17:13
know I don't do that. So I don't know how you do it,
17:15
but you just like, oh, you know, weak, don't you?
17:18
I mean, I don't even know how to do it.
17:19
I just like I was trained to let the Bible say what it says.
17:22
And all of us have to yield to it.
17:25
We can't make it up along the way.
17:26
This is what it says. This is what it means.
17:29
And so this is how God's going to use it in your life.
17:31
There's a word that's that is given to this type of teaching
17:35
verse by verse. It's called, if you ever hear
17:37
it, expository teaching. That's the kind of church you're
17:40
in a church that's committed to expository teaching and there's
17:44
different styles. You have walked into a church
17:46
where my style of expository teaching, where God has created
17:50
me is to emphasize application. Application.
17:52
That's why you're going to hear a lot of movement.
17:54
God has gifted me with exhortation and encouragement.
17:57
And so that you're going to see, you're going to feel moved a
17:59
lot. You're going to feel moved
18:00
because I believe that that's important.
18:03
Other expository teachers, they like to go much more deeper and
18:06
explain every single Greek word and Hebrew word to you.
18:09
And, and you have to understand, I do do that, but that's not my
18:13
emphasis. And you go, Ed, how do you do
18:15
that? Well, I did it for you when I
18:16
asked you to circle a word, and right next to it, I gave you the
18:19
Greek definition of it. I may not have mentioned the
18:22
word, but I mean, if I did mention the word, what are you
18:25
going to do with it? Are you going to go to work
18:26
tomorrow? I'll go.
18:27
Hey, I just want to let you know I learned this Greek word.
18:30
And then they go. What?
18:31
Yeah. I was in church.
18:32
And I want you to know I've got 10 Greek words for you.
18:35
Sit down. What will be more profitable for
18:38
you, Teaching somebody the Greek word or coming alongside of them
18:41
and looking at them in the eye and go.
18:42
Are you OK? Can I pray for you?
18:45
Can I serve you? You won't believe.
18:47
I learned a word at church yesterday.
18:49
It's about not avoiding the Bible.
18:51
Have you been avoiding the Bible?
18:52
That to me is more powerful. That's how God put me in the
18:55
body of Christ. But that's the beauty of the
18:57
body of Christ. He uses all of us.
18:59
He uses all of us. And so there are some teachers
19:01
that go deep, deep, deep, deep, deep.
19:03
And I say, God bless you, but in this church, you're going to be
19:06
moving. It's moving, constantly moving.
19:09
I want you to be uncomfortable. I don't want you to settle down.
19:12
I want you to examine your life. I want you to know that God has
19:15
a plan and a purpose for you. He has a plan and a purpose for
19:18
your family and for your kids and for your grandkids and your
19:21
singleness and for your problems.
19:23
Even if you had a bad week, God's going to use that bad
19:26
week. If you turn to Him, you're going
19:27
to learn from it. You don't have to live in
19:30
bondage to worry all the time. You can trust the Lord with your
19:33
life. You can learn from your sinful
19:35
mistakes. You can recover.
19:36
I want you to know by the time you leave here that though a man
19:39
or a woman falls seven times, he'll rise again.
19:42
Isn't that good? Do you know where that came
19:44
from? The Bible?
19:46
It's in the Proverbs. So hopefully you're reading the
19:49
Proverbs a chapter a day, gaining the wisdom of God.
19:53
So this isn't important. I haven't marked green in my
19:55
Bible because it's one of those verses that's foundational to
19:59
this church. That's why.
20:02
That's why you could join the church in 2020 when we opened up
20:07
early on. We opened up super early during
20:09
COVID and you could join the church.
20:11
And there we are in the book of Acts.
20:13
And here we are four years later.
20:14
Hello, We're still in the book of Acts.
20:17
Why? Because we're going to teach it
20:19
till we finish it. And then we'll go on to
20:23
something new and something new because God has something for
20:26
us. And then the context is so
20:28
powerful. I just did this midweek.
20:31
I showed the church midweek those that were with us, how
20:34
knowing the context of a scripture is so important.
20:39
And I paused because we have a little bit more time on
20:41
Wednesday. I paused and I proposed a very
20:44
important truth that's that could be controversial to some
20:47
people. But I said here, I didn't make
20:48
this stuff up. Just go one chapter back and see
20:51
what God said about himself. That's all I'm doing is
20:54
explaining what God already said.
20:56
But if you drop into the Bible at one point and you don't
20:59
understand the whole counsel of God, which you would refer to as
21:03
context, then you miss a lot in the Bible.
21:08
And so this is vital. We are not going to be a church
21:12
that's filled with entertainment.
21:14
I don't want you showing up and go, you know, entertainment.
21:16
You know why there's so many churches today that have
21:18
emphasized entertainment is because it draws a lot of people
21:22
who doesn't want to be in a place where you're laughing all
21:25
the time? And you know, it's just so fun.
21:27
It's so fun. I mean, I mean, there are always
21:29
as occasion. I mean, I mean, let's just be
21:31
honest here. Sometimes I do say a joke you
21:33
laugh at, right? Sometimes, like sometimes I get
21:36
you laughing. I mean, as a matter of fact, I
21:37
want to be better at it only because I was taught if I can
21:40
get you laughing and you're ha ha ha with your mouth.
21:43
So I can take the truth and just shove it right down your open
21:45
mouth. Like I want that in your life.
21:48
See, I just got you right now. I want that in your life.
21:50
But but I'm not, I'm not the best joke teller.
21:52
I appreciate your courtesy laughs and such.
21:55
But but if you were in a church, was like a stand up comedian all
21:57
the time and just like, yeah, well, who wouldn't?
22:00
Who wouldn't want to be in a place where come on, draw we
22:03
come on, come on, we got all this in and you know, we'll be
22:05
the church that doesn't hurt your feelings or we'll be the
22:08
church that makes you laugh all the time.
22:09
We'll be, how about this? Just be the church that Jesus
22:12
wants you to be and love people and teach them the Bible.
22:15
How about that? That's what the church is for.
22:17
This is the only place really where God is ordained for
22:21
pastoral teaching of the Bible to His flock.
22:26
And you're in a church that's committed to it.
22:28
I'm committed to it. We teach book by book, chapter
22:31
by chapter, verse by verse. It's expository teaching, and
22:35
we're unashamed of it. I am not ashamed of the gospel
22:39
and I'm not ashamed of the methodology.
22:41
And I always have to pause here because I am so passionate about
22:45
it and speak so strongly. I want to pause here and say we
22:49
don't have everything perfect here.
22:51
We're not. I'm not saying we're the best
22:53
and not, I'm just saying that you are in a church and this is
22:57
what we're committed to. So that way you can measure it
23:00
any way you want to do it. And we realize that God uses
23:04
other churches and other teachers.
23:05
That's not our business, actually, because the Bible says
23:07
they stand or fall before their maker.
23:09
But in order to make you understand what the landscape
23:12
is. You may have been in a church
23:15
that had the Bible but never taught the Bible.
23:18
And then in six months you learn more in the Bible than you did
23:22
in 30 years. Why?
23:25
Because the Bible is powerful. And that's one of the reasons
23:29
why we started Grace FM, because we just knew.
23:34
I knew, I knew there was a lot of motives, but one of them was
23:38
I knew that if there was regular Bible study on the air, like
23:43
constantly, that it would bless every church in our area.
23:48
It would bless every church. Every believer will always be
23:51
blessed with the systematic teaching of the Word that every
23:55
believer in Denver and Colorado is not going to come to our
23:58
church. I mean, obviously, but if we
24:01
could create an environment where in their car or in their
24:04
kitchen or they would are on the run and there are air pods, they
24:08
would get the word of God. It'll bless every single church.
24:11
The body will be stronger and it will be amazing to see people
24:15
grow because the Bible works. Church, the Bible works in your
24:21
life. If you'll just open it and take
24:23
it in, it'll change your life. That's what Paul's saying here.
24:27
Notice now let's get to a few points before we head out.
24:31
In light of the teaching of the word, Paul now gives some
24:34
direction and some protective direction.
24:37
He says, and there's a few points if you're taking notes,
24:39
here's point number one in verse 28.
24:42
He says therefore, OK, so let's pause and just explain that this
24:45
is a concluding word, right? So when you see it, therefore,
24:48
he's making a conclusion. Another way to think of
24:51
therefore, is in the Bible is to always ask what it's there for.
24:54
What's he concluding? So he's making a conclusion.
24:57
And here's here's what he's saying.
24:59
Because I have given you the whole word of God, and there's
25:03
been a church planted here, and I'm never going to see you
25:05
again. And I want you ready because of
25:07
that. Number one, take heed to
25:09
yourselves. Jot that down #1 take heed to
25:13
yourselves. Pastor, leader, believer,
25:17
servant of the Lord, mom, dad, single, married.
25:21
Listen, listen, listen to the word of the Lord.
25:26
Take heed to yourself. The most important person to
25:30
take heed of is yourself. Take heed to yourself.
25:34
Make sure you have a growing devotional life and make sure
25:37
you're you're maintaining your integrity.
25:39
Make sure your character is solid.
25:42
Be a woman of prayer. Continually be connected to
25:45
Jesus, abide in Christ. I love how Oswald Sanders says
25:49
it in his book Spiritual Leadership.
25:51
By the way, start praying. Our school ministry just started
25:54
yesterday. Got a brand new class.
25:56
This is one of the books that's part of their curriculum,
25:59
Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders.
26:01
And this is what he says in his in his book, Listen.
26:06
And I quote, if the world is to hear the church's voice today,
26:10
leaders are needed who are authoritative.
26:13
Spiritual and sacrificial churches grow in every way when
26:19
they're guided by strong spiritual leaders with the touch
26:22
of the supernatural radiating in their service.
26:26
He goes on to write. Often truly authoritative
26:28
leadership falls on someone who years earlier sought to practice
26:33
the discipline of seeking first the Kingdom of God.
26:36
Then as that person matures, God confers a leadership role and
26:41
the Spirit of God goes to work through them.
26:45
And what I like about this quote is that that simple thought that
26:48
God confides leadership on someone who probably years
26:52
earlier made a decision to seek first the Kingdom of God and
26:56
through their maturity and growth, then God says, that's a
26:59
leader. That's the woman I want to use,
27:01
that's the man I will use. But you've got to decide.
27:06
You have to decide that Jesus, I'm not going to serve 2
27:09
masters. Jesus, you get everything from
27:13
me, and there's three things when you take heed to yourself,
27:15
there's at least three things that automatically benefit you,
27:19
Number one. Number one, when you choose to
27:21
take heed to yourself regularly, you're going to put a guard up
27:24
in your life. You'll guard against spiritual
27:27
weakness. You will be stronger, not
27:30
weaker. When you pay attention to your
27:32
own spiritual life, you will be stronger.
27:35
The church is weak today because men and women are not paying
27:38
attention to their own personal walks.
27:40
And instead it's like, you know, I'm, I'm telling you right now,
27:42
the church is weak today not because of the government, not
27:45
because of secularism, not because of, of the economy.
27:49
The church is weak today because men and women in the church are
27:53
not paying attention and being obedient in their own spiritual
27:56
life. That's the source of weakness.
27:59
It's much more convenient. Oh, I can't believe the politics
28:02
and I can't believe the economy and I can't.
28:04
Hey man, this stuff has been with us from the beginning of
28:06
time, and you have the power of the Holy Spirit.
28:11
You've got to pay attention to yourself #2 when you pay
28:14
attention to your own personal walk, it, it puts up a guard
28:18
against wandering, a guard against weakness to a guard
28:21
against wandering. What do you mean?
28:24
Well, it's easy to stray away when you're not in the word
28:26
every day, when you're not in fellowship one another, you're
28:29
not breaking bread with one another, you're not taking heed
28:31
to yourself. It's easy to walk away.
28:34
There's always some temptation. The world always has something.
28:38
There's always something out there that catches our eye.
28:41
And it's like, well, I think that's what I want, I think.
28:43
But the Bible says no, yeah, don't worry about it.
28:46
And it's only because you haven't been paying attention to
28:49
your own walk. And then thirdly, when you take
28:53
heed to yourself, you put a guard up against spiritual
28:57
weakness or, excuse me, spiritual weariness because,
29:01
listen, serving God is labor intensive.
29:05
It can be tiring being a stay at home mom, tiring raising kids
29:10
and working tiring staying pure as a single, tiring on and on
29:15
the world's weary servings weary Dealing with people on their
29:19
worst days can be weary, but when you're taking heed to
29:21
yourself, you're walking in the spirit, not in the flesh.
29:26
It's like, OK, Lord, I know today's going to be challenging
29:29
and I'm going to go double into the word this morning.
29:31
I just know it's I get that sense and sometimes even we get
29:36
that sense here where you know, you're heading in, you go, man,
29:38
I just feel like today's going to be a challenging day.
29:40
You get that going to work too, don't you?
29:42
You left on Friday and go weekend and then Sunday night,
29:47
Monday and then you wake up on Monday and you go, you know, I
29:51
just I just get a sense it's not going to be easy today.
29:54
OK, And what do you do with that?
29:56
You got to go in and start praying.
29:58
Maybe you just like, OK, I'm going to pray.
30:00
I'm not listening to anything. I'm not even going to listen to
30:01
sermons. I'm just going to pray on the
30:03
way into work today. You would only do that if you
30:05
were paying attention to your own personal walk.
30:08
Now with that in mind, notice the second thing we're looking
30:11
at. So there's sub points and stuff.
30:12
You can jot them all down, but here's the second point.
30:15
That's in verse 28. The feeding and the protecting.
30:18
Now secondly, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock.
30:23
That's point #2 take heed to the flock.
30:26
Usually that supersedes everything where you think, well
30:28
I'm serving now, I'm a minister. I'm just going to take care of
30:30
the church, take care of everybody's needs.
30:31
No, no, no, no, it starts with you first, then the flock, then
30:37
and only then after you have watched over yourself can you
30:40
then watch over God's church because the flock always follows
30:44
the shepherd and we as under shepherds need to follow so we
30:48
can be followed. Looking unto Jesus the Chief
30:51
Shepherd. It's important that before you
30:55
because here's what I have watched this happen where I'll
30:58
see people care more about other people's marriages while their
31:01
suffers. I've seen people just pour in
31:03
and pour in while their own foam suffers, their own family
31:07
suffers, their own spiritual life suffers.
31:09
That is not God's will for you. It starts at home where you
31:13
serve out of the outflow of your home in life, not the other way
31:17
around. It's not God's will for you to
31:19
step into a difficult marriage and be ministering to them and
31:21
watch your own marriage break up or help somebody with their
31:24
wayward kids and watch your own kids walk away.
31:27
It always starts with the you first, you first, and then
31:32
you're able to watch over the flock and then thirdly, notice,
31:36
he says, take heed to yourself, take heed to the flock.
31:40
And then notice, he says, among which the Holy Spirit has made
31:45
you overseers. We learned that word last time,
31:48
didn't we? It's a pescopas overseers to
31:52
shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased with his own
31:55
blood. Here's the Third Point in
31:57
feeding and taking care of you. Give them the whole counsel of
31:59
God and you do it as a shepherd or a servant, right?
32:06
You're serving the flock. You're among the flock.
32:08
I'm I, I think it's bears repeating.
32:11
I know I've said it a lot, but I'll repeat it even today.
32:14
I am not the most important person in this church.
32:20
Neither are you. We are all the body of Christ.
32:25
I may have a different role here where I get different attention,
32:29
but it doesn't make me any more important than you.
32:32
It doesn't make me any. Now I have responsibility and
32:35
accountability and, and it's true that my sin and my mistakes
32:39
could hurt the church more than you, but I'm not more important
32:42
than you. I just have a different role
32:43
that's all. Same responsibility in the sense
32:46
that I answer to God, that God's looking for faithfulness, but
32:49
I'm I'm not more important than you.
32:50
The most important person in this church is not you, and it's
32:54
not me. It's the chief Shepherd, Jesus
32:57
Christ. It's his church.
32:58
We serve him. He shed his blood, for we didn't
33:02
shed our blood. Jesus shed his blood for this
33:04
church. And so it's important that we
33:07
are shepherding and feeding and taking care of and pointing to
33:12
people. And we're not a church where
33:14
people get taken advantage of. Because notice the next thing we
33:17
learn in verse 29 now is for I know this and you can feel the
33:21
tone of this if you read it slowly.
33:24
Paul's like, man, I just tell you, I it's almost, I could see
33:27
it on his face. He's pleading like you guys
33:29
understand, I've done everything I can.
33:31
I can't be here for you anymore. You're going to have to take the
33:33
mantle. And this is it.
33:35
Take heed to yourself, take care.
33:36
And he's pleading and maybe maybe there's even tears.
33:39
I'm never going to see you again.
33:40
And he's going through it and all of that.
33:42
And then he says, because I know this verse 29 that after I leave
33:47
savage wolves, mark that savage wolves will come in among you,
33:53
not sparing the flock also from among yourselves.
33:56
Men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away
33:59
disciples after themselves. So pay attention to what Paul
34:04
said. He says, I want you guys to know
34:06
you guys are the elders, leaders, church.
34:08
You got to understand savage wolves will be coming in first
34:14
of all from the outside. Did you notice that?
34:15
It says come in from, come in. So right, first they're out,
34:20
then they're going to come in. So there's always a danger of
34:22
the outside. And notice he doesn't say kind
34:25
wolves, pretty wolves, cute wolves, baby wolves.
34:29
He says savage wolves, destructive, ready to take
34:37
advantage and destroy and consume the flock of God, not
34:43
some little cute puppy wolf. It's funny this morning for
34:47
devotions, I opened up, I got up.
34:49
I get up super early. I open up the curtains to where
34:51
our little back door is. And in our back door, there's a
34:55
sliding screen there. It's kind of a little bit open.
34:58
And there's a little baby rabbit stuck behind the screen going
35:03
back and forth looking at me with its little nose and its
35:05
little ears and its little tail. Paul didn't say little cute
35:10
bunny's going to come into your church and it's not that cute
35:13
after all. I look at the Bunny and I go,
35:15
yeah, that's what you get. Stay stuck for eating all my
35:17
wife's flowers. It's not as cute as you think.
35:22
But he didn't say bunnies. He didn't say puppies.
35:29
He didn't say cats. There's nothing good with cats
35:34
anyways. But he didn't say cats.
35:38
He said. Savage wolves, they want to
35:43
destroy God's work. We've seen our fair share of
35:48
savage wolves here over the years.
35:51
They've come in, been revealed and they go right back out.
35:59
But it's sad because by the time they get in and get revealed,
36:04
they do a lot of damage. A lot of damage.
36:07
Jesus taught about wolves in sheep's clothing.
36:09
Watch out for false teachers, false prophets, false believers.
36:14
Which begs the question, doesn't it?
36:15
How do I know the difference? How do I know, pastor, who a
36:20
wolf is in sheep's clothing? How do I know a savage wolf?
36:25
Well, here's the answer. It can be really hard.
36:29
We don't always know. They do a good job disguising
36:33
themselves, do a good job. They look like sheep, they smell
36:37
like sheep, they sound like sheep.
36:39
It can be very challenging. However, there is a big
36:43
difference. This is something you can look
36:45
out for. There is a big difference
36:47
between wolves and sheep among sheep, and that's this.
36:52
Wolves eat sheep, sheep don't eat sheep.
36:58
And you go, Ed, that doesn't help very much at all.
37:02
OK, I want you to consider this wolves.
37:06
They take advantage of people. They draw people to themselves.
37:11
They wanted to do their own thing and get your eyes off of
37:15
Christ. This is the bottom line
37:18
foundation of every cult. Every cult to get you out of the
37:25
Bible make you doubt the Bible and then what will you do when
37:29
you doubt the Bible? You will follow them.
37:30
So they create environments. Well, you just come to me, come
37:33
to me. I can answer all your questions
37:34
and you want questions and come to me.
37:36
I can. And they subtly take you away
37:38
from Christ. And there's really only two
37:40
things available to people that want to take advantage of the
37:44
church. There's really two main things,
37:45
you know what they are, power and money.
37:50
Savage wolves want power over people to control you, take
37:54
advantage of you. Have you followed them, control
37:57
your life, make you super ultra dependent?
38:00
What do they call that codependent upon them?
38:03
And you know that's a wolf every day of the week or somehow cozy
38:08
up to you to take your money to extract from you money that will
38:13
continue to give to them. And that is not the way of
38:18
Jesus. I mean, you think about it.
38:21
There's three main cults that are active today.
38:23
There's the Mormons, there is the Jehovah Witnesses, and then
38:27
there's that cult that goes around the Jehovah Witnesses.
38:29
And Mormons come to your door and they're trained.
38:32
You got to understand something. They are trained to confuse you
38:35
in 5 minutes or less because if they can get you confused,
38:40
confusion breeds confusion, breeds vulnerability.
38:46
And if they can get get you confused about the Bible, oh,
38:49
that's not the right Bible. That's not the right Bible.
38:51
And you, you know they will take you away from Oh no, it's not
38:54
the, that's not what it means. Let me tell you what it really
38:56
means. And what will happen is as they
38:58
get you confused about the Bible, guess who becomes the
39:00
authority in your life? They do.
39:03
That's a savage wolf every day of the week, all day long.
39:08
The other cult that they don't so much go to your door, you
39:10
know, they meet you in Walmart and Starbucks.
39:12
I don't know how they do this, but I remember they came to me
39:15
once in Walmart. That's how I found out about
39:16
them. I'm just going to Walmart years
39:18
ago, looking for a DVD for the kids.
39:20
And somebody comes up and starts talking about the mother of God
39:24
and all kinds of weird stuff. And I'm like, dude, I'm just
39:26
here for a DVD for my kids, man. Who are you?
39:29
Where'd you come from? What's your deal?
39:31
And they're very, very popular. They're all over town.
39:33
So you watch out in Walmart. OK, You watch out.
39:38
But we don't need to worry about any of that stuff, You know why?
39:40
Because if you know the Bible, you'll know any falsehood.
39:43
It'll just automatically go, hmm, that doesn't sound right.
39:46
I mean, even online today online, like it's amazing that
39:50
the algorithms have a demonic part to them.
39:53
You got to understand this. The devil can get behind this
39:55
stuff. And I'm not trying to be extreme
39:57
here. I'll explain it to you.
39:58
The devil can get behind this stuff and use technology against
40:02
you. I, I mean, I saw it in my own
40:04
life, man. I I follow the Lord, I love him,
40:07
I care and I'm not on YouTube very much.
40:09
But I have been on YouTube recently looking at our page
40:13
because Brad here has been pouring his hour after hour
40:16
after hour for weeks and months and months now redoing our page
40:19
to make it more available and accessible.
40:22
And man, he's been working hard. So if you see Brad, you thank
40:25
him because he's been working really, really hard on this
40:27
project. So I'm up there looking at
40:29
things and I relaunched my blog and I'm embedding things and
40:32
there it is. For a long time, I never saw any
40:35
ads. But all of a sudden now I see
40:37
all these ads. I don't know why I got to figure
40:39
that out later, but I'm telling you, I love Jesus with all my
40:42
heart. And what's on the left hand
40:44
side? Nonsense like the weirdest stuff
40:48
trying to undermine my faith. I don't want, you know, there
40:51
was a video up there recently. I spent 28 days in hell and I'm
40:55
like, why didn't you stay there? What do you come back for, man?
40:58
Like, what do I care? I could care less.
41:02
That's not true. It's not biblical, but it's
41:05
right there. Check it out, Ed.
41:07
I'm not checking nothing out. And I probably could have
41:10
screenshot it and showed you all the weird stuff.
41:12
I didn't ask for that stuff. I don't click that stuff.
41:15
I don't look for that stuff. It's not on the cookies on my
41:18
computer. It's not in the browser.
41:20
But the devil's there using these things as much as we can
41:25
use technology for the good. The devil's in it, man, wanting
41:28
to rip us off. Whether they're at your door, on
41:32
your computer, on your phone, you've got to know the word
41:35
savage wolves come in. But also they're among us.
41:39
Do you see that in verse 30, also from among yourselves?
41:44
Listen, Church, I'm not naive to think that there aren't a few
41:46
savage wolves here today. It's a great possibility.
41:51
And so let me just speak to that small amount.
41:53
If you are a savage wolf here today, listen to this.
41:56
You are not welcome here. You are welcome to repent of
42:00
your sins, but you're not welcome here.
42:03
And even though you think you're well hidden, you will be
42:05
exposed. God will expose you, we will
42:08
confront you. And if you don't change, we will
42:11
not allow you to take advantage of this church.
42:14
Period. 100% we have experienced it before and I know we'll
42:21
experience it again. Our heart is for you to change.
42:24
But you cannot use this church for your own purposes, for your
42:27
own fake ministries, for your own stuff.
42:29
You cannot use this church. This church is the bride of
42:33
Christ, and we take care of the bride.
42:36
You know, I have the privilege of officiating wedding
42:39
ceremonies. I get to attend them.
42:42
And you, you're there, right? You're there.
42:44
You go to weddings and it's usually some wonderful place.
42:48
It could be the church all made-up or some beautiful venue
42:51
and candles and lace. I mean, it's awesome.
42:54
It's wonderful. I've been to some really
42:56
beautiful places and it's amazing.
42:58
And the music starts and the DJs good.
43:00
All of that is good. But then there comes a moment,
43:03
isn't there? There comes a moment in where
43:06
everything changes, and that's when the bride is revealed.
43:10
Every eye, everything stops. The candles don't matter, the
43:15
venue doesn't matter, the food doesn't matter.
43:17
Nobody matters. Everybody stops, gets up, turns
43:21
around. Damn, there she is.
43:24
And usually if I'm officiating and the guy next to me, I tell
43:27
them beforehand, hey bro, it's going to be amazing.
43:29
Make sure you don't lock your knees.
43:31
I tell him that don't lock your knees.
43:33
Because if the dude locks his knees and his bride is revealed,
43:36
boom, he falls flat. And so I see these strong.
43:40
I've seen guys like they're there and they're laughing and
43:42
they're so confident. And when their bride shows up,
43:45
they start bawling like a baby. I can't believe it's Oh my gosh,
43:50
it's amazing. Why?
43:52
Because the wedding is about the bride.
43:56
That moment the bride is special.
43:59
She's decked out, all focuses on her.
44:02
It's amazing. It's beautiful.
44:04
She's gorgeous in every way. Yes, in a few moments the
44:08
attention will be the bride and the bridegroom, but right now
44:12
it's the bride. And even as the bride comes up
44:14
with the bridegroom, I mean, she's the stunning one.
44:16
She gets all the attention. This is how God intended it.
44:19
God intended the bride to get special attention.
44:22
The God intended that the bride be protected.
44:26
I mean, if you saw and here you are at the ceremony and you see
44:29
these kids playing in the mud over there and they come running
44:32
with mud on their hands and they're going right for the
44:35
bride, even though they're not your kids.
44:39
You probably will get up and say, excuse me, children, please
44:42
don't touch. Now.
44:43
You probably won't do it that way, but you're not going to let
44:45
them jump all over the bride that she's not even your
44:48
daughter or you know, you're just invited, but you're going
44:51
to protect the bride. I'll tell you right now, the man
44:54
that's standing next to me, that's going to marry her, he's
44:56
going to protect her the rest of her life.
45:00
That's God's heart. Church.
45:02
You are the bride of Christ and we will protect you the rest of
45:07
your life. That is our commitment as
45:10
pastors and leaders to you. And I'm asking you to make the
45:13
same commitment for each other so that when the bride is
45:16
protected, what happens? The bride joins the bridegroom,
45:20
and with the church, it's flipped a little bit.
45:22
The bridegroom gets more attention than the bride.
45:27
Listen, we don't put our fingerprints on the bride.
45:31
We don't mess with the bride. We don't hurt the bride.
45:36
We don't make the bride cry. We take care of her.
45:40
We honor her. We protect her and the Bible
45:43
says the church is the bride of Christ and that's Paul's heart,
45:48
that's his desire for us. This stuff happens throughout
45:51
the Bible. You can jot it down.
45:53
Jan's and Jam Breeze came against Moses didn't end well.
45:57
Judas kissing the cheek of Jesus didn't end well.
46:00
Ananias and Sapphira bringing hypocrisy in the church didn't
46:03
end well. Demas forsaking Paul didn't end
46:06
well because God protects his church.
46:10
Over the years it has happened where we've missed one or
46:14
they've done so much damage, but it's too late for us.
46:16
There has been that over the years for sure.
46:19
I I know in my own ministry, God has given me a depth of
46:23
discernment more than I see in other people.
46:26
He has always used me that way throughout my entire life.
46:30
It's not perfect because I have missed some people and I have
46:32
read people wrong and for sure, but I have this depth of
46:35
discernment and I am committed to protect the body of Christ.
46:38
But even if I miss it, listen, even if I miss it, it doesn't
46:42
depend upon me. I thank God for the power and
46:45
the presence of the Holy Spirit in His church.
46:48
He'll get it. I can trust Jesus to take care
46:50
of His church and guide and direct us even if we miss it,
46:55
even if we miss it or make a mistake along the way.
46:57
Listen, you can trust Jesus Christ to take good care of his
47:05
bride and that's our responsibility as well.
47:08
Amen. So, Lord, thank you for your
47:10
word as we are just reminded of these essential, essential
47:15
truths. The bride is, is very valuable
47:17
to you, Lord, and so becomes valuable to us and and we want
47:22
to take care of the church. We don't want to use it for our
47:24
own purposes. We don't want to take advantage
47:27
of people. We don't want to take from them.
47:28
We don't want authority over them.
47:30
We don't want money from them. We just want to serve them
47:33
shepherds. We want to be used by you in the
47:36
benefit of other people's lives. So Lord, go before us as we head
47:39
out today in Jesus name, Amen. We pray that you've been
47:44
encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
47:46
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
47:49
Call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
47:58
To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
48:02
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
48:07
or download our free Calvary Church app.
48:10
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.