Marks of a Healthy Church 6: Elders 2/20/ 2022

Well good morning church it is good to see you here today I expect for the Lord to do some really awesome and amazing things been praying for you it's my honor every day to spend time interceding before the Lord for you and a couple of announcements before we get into it real quick firstly we have our business meeting tonight business meetings basically what we do is we hear about how's how's the money being spent and how are we doing and we make nominations and we vote on different things tonight we're going to be voting on a few deacons we're going to be talking about the constitution there's no voting on the constitution taking place we are we are going to be voting on changing up our service times and moving from two services to one service and so if you care about that then be here if you don't care about it you should probably come anyways and so if you're a member here and you know you don't want to get engaged remember that's one of the things that you did as becoming a member is you said this is my church family I'm going to invest in it I'm going to serve I'm going to have a voice I'm going to be a part of it we don't want you to be a distant cousin okay we want you to behave like a brother or sister in the Lord but anyway so those are some things that are happening you can grab a bulletin we got a bunch of different things that are happening whether it's we got a movie that's that we're gonna be showing on march 13th also last week we talked about evangelism and you'll see that there's an opportunity for our church to go down to the hoosier one conference that's down at second baptist church in springfield that's april third and

Fourth 4th and so if you care about sharing the Gospel and you want to be equipped on how to do that's going to be a great opportunity for you now today is wmu sunday and what that means is it's the women's mission union and what I asked was for our women on mission to come up and tell you a little bit about that ministry because I believe that it is vitally important for you guys to know exactly what it is so that way you can get involved and so what I would do is I would ask for our women to come up if you all would just greet them to the stage for me good morning my name is nandis bogard and as cody said today we're celebrating women's missionary union and what the organization does and what it represents wmu is an auxiliary of the southern baptist convention and was organized and formed over 133 years ago its focus for over a hundred years is to make disciples of Jesus who live on mission women's missionary union is biblically rooted mission focused church-based world aware and denominationally supportive we here today are members of women on mission which is a part of wmu and we're going to give you some insight into what we do in wam to support wmu and its goals now during the first service I forgot who I was so I'm going to tell you this I'm connie luttrell and I'm going to tell you about the organizations that fall under wmu there's about 10 of them and if you have been a part of one of those in your lifetime or if you've been a leader or whatever stick your hand up when I talk about it or stand up or something the first one we're going to talk about is mission friends and some of you may have known that as a sunbeam and that's

For preschoolers so any of you oh lots of people have been part of mission friend gas girls in actions that's girls in grades one through six yes and we still have an active group here at this church right now nandis nancy and cindy warren are the leaders of that group and they have about 10 that attend every week royal ambassadors which is ras was the boys there's several of you that have been in that I know children in action that's the co-ed group I don't know okay nancy and nandis have been the leaders there act teens is teenage girls and I oh I that's where you got to be a queen wasn't it you yeah you really did and so challengers was the teenage boys youth on missions was students in grades seven through 12 and women on mission I think at one time we were baptist women now we're women on mission and that's adult women so there's been a lot of you that have been part of that and that's the group we have going on right now here adults on mission is a co-ed organization for adults and then my mission is women 18 through 35 years of age and I believe that used to be called young baptist women or something they've changed some of the names so you probably were in it but maybe it wasn't called that so that was that's the organizations that all fall under that umbrella of wmu and I'm carolyn miller and even though I don't like to get up in front of people I am excited to tell you a little bit about our meetings and our projects we are baptist so we start out our pro our meetings usually by food and fellowship and we have hostesses that do a wonderful job with our with our

Refreshments we usually don't study out of a book but we have several speakers instead we have some of our own missionaries that come and share with us since we don't get to go across the sea sometimes and then we also have local ministries that come and share with us in fact they're all so interesting this last meeting we had a couple that was our own kathy hardin's children that have a ministry just down the road here where they do video gaming where teenagers can go on the weekends and play video games in a safe Christian environment there are so many ministries right now that we don't even know exist around here but we've done also many projects we've helped ministries in the we care we've helped our own missionaries in our church and their children in college we've packed goodie bags for our youth as they go to camp and also on mission trips we bake and deliver christmas cookies to the shut-ins we've even baked and taken cookies to the fire department we help with operation christmas child boxes and we make throws for our missionaries as they go on their trips and also with our partner church in wisconsin we've done pillowcase dresses for third world children and with the help of a lot of other ladies in our church we've made crocheted mats for the homeless and we've even made sanitary products for our girls in africa and so many more we also host the spring banquet to honor

Our church ladies and the gas and we would love to have any lady or even a teenager who would like to put feet to what we study to come and join us I'm kathy harden and an important part of our meeting each week is prayer cindy warren makes these paper crafts for each of our members each month and with them is a prayer reminder card and on the prayer reminder card it has the southern baptist missionary and their place of service and it's their birthday that day and so we include them in our prayers for that day we also include members of our congregation and our community needs I'm nancy mckinney I will talk about the offerings there are three special offerings collected each year by missouri southern baptist the lottie moon christmas offering goes directly to more than 4 000 missionaries serving throughout the world the offering was officially named in 1918 by wmu to honor lottie moon a missionary to china who urged churches to start the offering and give sacrificially gifts to the annie armstrong easter offering are used to support mission efforts in north america one hundred percent of the offering goes to train resource and send more than five thousand missionaries involved in church planting and compassion ministries across the united states canada and their territories this offering was named after annie armstrong who was the first corresponding secretary of wmu the third offering is the reuben al south missouri missions offering which supports missions throughout our state this includes projects in four areas of ministry making disciples collegiate ministries multiplying churches and developing leaders

Also part of that money goes to the missouri baptist children's home and another portion actually comes back to our local associations it's the responsibility of women on mission this group right here to promote these offerings and also to set our church goal for the offering I'm kathy bazantine there are flyers at the welcome area on the south end that we would love for the ladies to pick up the mission is to inform and inspire the Christian woman to influence her world for Christ they mentioned some of the things that we had done upcoming meetings though in march we've got the north american mission study and that's always super interesting because something's there that you'd never heard of april handball presentation for by our own joanna perkins may they mention the mission band quit in may we would love for all the women to be there even if you're not involved directly with the monthly meetings that we have that are on the first win monday after the first sunday at 6 30 and we meet upstairs in the newing new wing that sounds so weird and the gas meet every tuesday from 3 30 to 5 o'clock and I didn't mention first service how do they get here do you pick them up or do their parents bring them sometimes there's a bucks that can get them if the parents okay that or parents can bring them over but they will gladly pick them up if you work that out we would love for you to watch a short slide presentation and I won't say anything this service because they said all you could hear was music but you may see yourself ladies when you were very young in this video or boys that's true

Thank you [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] and so you're invited to be a part of that ministry it's important for us as a church to create a on-ramp for people to get plugged into to new and exciting ministries and to sustain older and existing ones and so that's your invitation so make time on that first monday after the first sunday of the month to make sure that you can yeah but to make plans to be here on those monday nights they do some amazing things and it's always awesome to hear about how God uses them now as you guys know we've been getting into the habit over the last several weeks of just taking the beginning of our service and just preparing our hearts for worship and so you might have come in here and you've got some heavy heavy burdens or maybe you're just not in a right mind for worship and if we were to just start worshiping right now your heart would be very distant from the Lord and I don't want that for you and so maybe right where you're at if you could just close your eyes and bow your heads and just ask the Lord to make your heart receptive for worship if you could maybe also just ask the Lord and confess that maybe maybe you just need to hear from him today ask him to open your mind as well and that you're receptive to what he has to say today Lord we do come before you this

Morning to praise your name in one voice God we ask that you would help us to be able to put aside all of those things that would distract us from worshiping you today help us to focus our hearts and minds completely on you because you are worthy Lord we are so easily distracted we're pulled down and out of this state of worship but Lord we ask that you would help us to make that not so today that we would instead worship you with all that we are it's in Jesus name we pray amen please stand and join me as we praise the Lord his mercy is more [Music] his mercy is more [Music] knowing he counts [Music] his mercy is more praise [Music] stronger than darkness [Music] his mercy is more [Music] the weakest the violence his mercy is more praise the Lord his mercy is more [Music] more [Music] of kindness he lavished on us his blood was the payment his life was the cost we stirred me the debt we could never afford our sins there are many this mercy is more praise the Lord his mercy is more stronger than darkness [Music] praise the Lord his mercy is more stronger than darkness

[Music] our sins they are many his mercy is more [Music] his mercy is more when our sins are so great I'd like to read to you out of romans and as we continue to worship this morning you can stand you can sit you can kneel to pray do what you need to do to worship I only ask that your hearts be engaged in worship this morning in the book of romans we read what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father we too might walk in newness of life for if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from sin praise the Lord his mercy is more and just as that passage talks about being resurrected with Christ well we'd like to read to you now out of revelation as to what it will look like once that resurrection has taken place for those who are in Christ revelation 5 and they sing a new song you are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slaughtered and you redeemed people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation you made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign

On the earth then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and also of the living creatures and of the elders their number was countless thousands plus thousands of thousands they said with a loud voice the lamb who was slaughtered is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing I heard every creature in heaven on earth under the earth on the sea and everything in them say blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the ones seated on the throne and to the lamb forever [Music] do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through do you wish [Music] is all creation groaning is a new creation coming it is [Music] is it good that we remind ourselves of this [Music] it is anyone worthy home is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll the lion of juna who conquered the grave he is root and the lamb who died to ransom the sleigh or is he worthy of our blessing and honor and glory is he worthy of this [Music] does the father truly love us does the spirit move among [Music] us Jesus [Music] he died [Music] anyone worthy

Is anyone is anyone at all to break the seal and open the scroll the lion of judah who conquered the grave these davids fruit and the lamb who died to ransom the slave for marry people [Music] he has made us a kingdom and praise to God to ring with the sun is he worthy [Music] is he worthy of this he [Music] is he worthy [Music] he is worthy amen [Music] cross [Music] my riches gained [Music] my pride [Music] this second verse says forbid it Lord that I should boast save in the death of Christ my God there is nothing else there is nothing else that's worthy of our boasting except for the power of Christ that dwells richly within us through his death burial and resurrection the atonement for our souls then it says all the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice him to his blood that's what I pray for all of us today I pray for myself even those things that this world makes look so good and charming that we would sacrifice them right here and now that we would sacrifice them on the altar of his blood because he's the only thing that's worthy of our praise [Applause] [Music] Christ

My God all the vain things [Music] I sacrificed [Music] see from his head his hands is [Music] of nations [Music] love so [Music] my life [Music] Lord we pray that you would help us to give you our all because you deserve it your love so amazing and so divine God let that change our hearts today let us not leave this place without the revelation of your love and mercy and grace without let us not leave this place without allowing that to change us Lord help us to respond to your Gospel today it's in Jesus name I pray amen well good morning church if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me to acts chapter six acts chapter six we're going to be in verses one through seven we were talking about Biblical leadership today we're in the series marks of a healthy church and last week we talked about evangelism and we had a great time in our community group talking about what Biblical evangelism is it's not just simply hey come to church with me you know it's it's great but you know it's it's more than that it's it's teaching the Gospel with

The aim to persuade that's what evangelism is we want to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ not in a persuasive kind of shove this down your throat kind of deal right we believe with all of our hearts that's the only message that has anything to do with our salvation it's the only way that anyone will ever be saved is through the proclamation of the Gospel and it's not just the function of what we do on sunday mornings although we will share the Gospel it is more importantly something that Christians do individually and so today we're talking about getting more into the nuts and bolts of Biblical like what a healthy church is supposed to look like and now we're going to talk about Biblical leadership and so what I would ask for you to do is well before we do that let me just say this we're going to talk about elders I'm going to talk about the congregation we're going to talk about deacons so I know a lot of you'd like to take notes and stuff those are the three big main points I can't remember whether they're filled in or not but those are the big three ones because we've got a lot of ground to cover now when we talk about elders it's weird for us to talk about that in a baptist church in a southern baptist church right a traditional historical first baptist church of a county seat you know kind of kind of church but what we're gonna talk about today is vitally important because I mean we're not presbyterians we don't have bishops we don't have synods or conventions or anything like that rule over us we believe in the infallibility the

Inerrancy the sufficiency of God's word we're not non-denominational we are unapologetically southern baptist and so for us as southern baptists according to our own doctrine we have agreed that what is in God's word is what we agree with and so let's read this passage let's apply it to our lives and let's stand in honor of God's word as we read acts chapter six verses one through seven now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number a complaint by the hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution and the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said it is not right that we should give up preaching the word to serve tables or the word of God to serve tables therefore brothers pick out from among you seven men of good repute full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty but we will devote ourselves to prayer into the ministry of the word and what they said please the whole congrega the whole gathering they chose Stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and Philip and procharus and nikonor and tyman and parminus and nicholas a proselyte of antioch these they set before the apostles they prayed and laid their hands on them and the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in jerusalem and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith and so God we do thank you for each person that's here Lord we agree that your word is good and holy and we ask Lord that if there's anyone here that doesn't know you that today would be the day that they meet you and that you radically change their

Lives and Lord for us as a church as we deal with bigger heavier weightier issues such as church leadership help us to not get so consumed with that we forsake the main call to go and make disciples of all the nations and we love you and we thank you and we pray that your word would win out in Jesus name amen well I want to give you a little bit of history here baptists they are separatists from the puritans separatists from the puritans basically what happened is that as baptists we take the word of God very seriously we believe that it is the sole authority in matters pertaining to salvation to spiritual things and so for us as baptists we hold to that unapologetically so now there were some things that we didn't agree with the puritans one of the first things is the view of the Lord's supper okay the Lord's supper we as baptists we believe that it is a symbol a memorial supper we believe that is that it is bread and it is juice or wine and we believe that we partake it and that it is a memorial of what Jesus did puritans they believe in what something called something called consubstantiation which means that it's kinda it's kind of ambiguous as opposed to the catholic belief which is transubstantiation which they believe that it literally becomes the literal flesh in the literal blood of Jesus and so when you drink it you actually feast on his flesh and drink his blood

And so we disagree with that we hold to a Biblical position on that we disagree on things like baptism we believe that it is upon someone's profession of faith that they are baptized and they enter into that visible covenant publicly with other people around to celebrate that you know we are not pedobaptists that means that we do not baptize infants we do not baptize entire families based upon the husband's profession of faith like the presbyterians do we are baptists we also disagree on church leadership you know when we look at church leadership baptists they've always been congregational we are congregational people that means that we believe in the wisdom of saved people that's why it's so important for us to exercise things like church discipline make sure that people are actually saved which people know no one likes to talk about that but we got to we also have to talk about things like who is allowed to join our congregation okay can't set the bar too high or too low since baptists have always been congregational there are no sign odds there's no councils there's no conventions that rule as an authority over this local church or any other southern baptist church in history so in other words when the southern baptist convention gets together they can't say hey first baptist church of camdenton has to do this the baptist confession of 1689 it's the second second major document that baptists held to it's very similar in the baptist faith and message of 2000 that's what it would be for 1689 in the article regarding the church which is article 26 section 8

This is what it says it says a particular church gathered and completely organized according to the mind of Christ consists of officers and members okay the officers appointed by Christ to be chosen and set apart by the church so called and gathered for the peculiar administration of ordinances and execution of power or duty which he entrusts to them or calls them to be continued to the end of the world are bishops or elders and deacons this is part of our church history a preacher named benjamin keach he wrote a thing called teaches catechism a catechism is a question a spiritual question and then a Biblical answer for example what is our only hope in life and death that we are not our own but we belong to God or what is the chief end of man that we glorify God and enjoy him forever those are that's an example of a catechism okay it's something that we as baptists have a heritage of and benjamin keach he actually wrote a catechism this is a picture of him as a result of writing that yeah because you know he wasn't anglican you know he wasn't catholic and so they put them in what's called a pillary and it's called the unjust sentence now benjamin keach unashamedly baptist he said he wrote a book in 1697 called bishops overseers or elders and basically they were talking about that back then it was synonymous terms baptist leadership it went like that where people had elders if you were in a baptist church you had elders all the way through colonial america through the 1700s even into the 1800s the first southern baptist convention was in 1845

The president's name was william bullion johnson and he was an elder at a church in south carolina and in his book the Gospel developed it says this each church had a plurality of elders a plurality in the bishopric of great importance for mutual counsel and aid that the government and edification of the flock may be promoted in the best manner so as we're talking about elders I want you to know this is not something that's new it's not something that's even new to baptists it's actually very historical and something that we've just gotten away from in the last hundred years in 1849 j.l reynolds he was a pastor a second baptist in richmond virginia he said the apostolic churches seem in general to have had a plurality of elders as well as deacons charles spurgeon great baptist preacher at metropolitan tabernacle in london he had a plurality of elders in fact the very first chairman of what was called the foreign mission board which became the international mission board his name was j.l burrows and he wrote what baptists believe and he said this the elders and deacons are the only officers Christ has instituted and so how do we get away from that to where all of a sudden you know if we talk about elders that it's kind of a scary thing well it started with westward expansion as populations moved west and started getting away from condensed populations and into more frontier settlements you had ministers preachers that would ride around on their on their horses and they would go from church to church to church oftentimes taking care of four five even six congregations all by themselves why not appoint elders in those churches

Well it just wasn't practical you had men that were literally trying to survive on the pioneer front lines and as westward expansion continued on that role of a preacher became just simply the senior pastor and churches began to become wealthier and wealthier and they could afford that one guy because that's all they'd ever known now in the 1980s something happened in the southern baptist convention as the conservative resurgence where they made the decision yes we believe in the inerrancy of God's word the infallibility of God's word the sufficiency of God's word the unchanging nature of God's word we believe in those things but one of the unintended consequences of that is men that actually believe it and as a result they we look at Scripture and we go well heck they've got they've got elders many elders so why have we gotten away from that we need to conform ourselves into the image of Christ and submit ourselves under God's authority in our passage today we see the apostles they're at this church in jerusalem and they're functioning in the role of elders at this point in time now later on as the church grows they actually appoint new elders and in first Peter chapter 3 Peter even refers to himself as a fellow elder so yes he was an apostle with apostolic authority but he was also an elder in a local church now think about this for a little bit these men that were so argumentative proud

Literally Jesus is about to go to the cross and they're arguing at the foot of this mountain after the transfiguration they're arguing about who the greatest in the kingdom is it's me Jesus right the sons of thunder get together they say hey mom can you as one of Jesus's relatives like a cousin can you go and try to convince Jesus to say that we will sit at your right and your left hand in heaven how on earth do these men that were so consumed with pride and things like that all of a sudden they're now the leaders of the church and they're doing so with tremendous wisdom how do they go from that to this they do it by the spirit of God they've been born again by the power of God and now they're ministering to thousands but there's a big problem in this local church that there are some widows and these widows are getting overseen because they come from a greek culture and they gree speak a greek language and these these apostles these elders of the church they are having to deal with things like the divinity of Christ the humanity of Christ they are preaching the Gospel to people that desperately need to hear it and now they've got to stop what they're doing and take care of some things in the church and so the apostles they come up with a plan and they say here's what we're going to do guys we are going to appoint seven deacons to distribute the food and so notice this if you're taking notes write this down elders lead they didn't ignore the problem they didn't say that's not my job they came up with a game plan to figure out exactly how to fix the problem and for them it was a by appointing men to the office of deacon

Now the elders they shouldn't have to stop what they're doing to fix those kind of problems but when the need arises they should step up to the plate and figure it out elders they lead by ministering to the flock and that means that elders should if you're taking notes write this down as well they should shepherd do you know how someone is a shepherd they smell like the flock that means that a pastor should be with the people they should talk to the people they should spend time with people grabbing lunch having coffee calling people on the phone shooting out texts sending out emails checking in on people making sure that folks are doing good doing visitations and things like that having people over but what kind of man should a church look for in an elder thankfully you know Paul doesn't say look for the coolest guy he doesn't say look for the guy that's been in the church the longest he doesn't even say you know the most influential guy and turn with me to the right to the book of first Timothy we're gonna be in first Timothy chapter three we're going to look at verse 1 verses 1 through 7. It says the saying is trustworthy if anyone aspires to the office of overseer he desires a noble task therefore an overseer must be above approach the husband and one wife sober-minded self-controlled respectable hospitable able to teach not a drunkard not violent but gentle not quarrelsome not a lover of money he must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children submissive for someone who does not know how to

Manage his own household how will he care for God's church he must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil moreover he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and into the snare of the devil so these are the requirements and there are several more in first Timothy chapter one you can go and look those up later but the whole point is that not everyone is called to be an elder not everyone is equipped to be an elder the word used here by Paul in first Timothy is that word overseer it's episcopa I've got a couple of the words up here for you guys there's really three key words episcopa it literally means overseer someone who is responsible for the people so the next term is presbyteros and that means elder that is someone who is literally it literally translates as elder or leader for community and then there's another word and this word is only used once it's in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 it's poymen it literally is translated as shepherd or caring for the flock but in some of your translations it might say pastor now why do I tell you all that because it's important because all these three words are pointing to one role and we find that in acts chapter 20. So turn over to the left acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. We were we actually studied this a few months ago it's where the it was when we were in the book of Ephesians and the ephesian elders they are called by Paul to go to this city of militis and so they come and he basically he

Says hey you leaders of the church you elders of the church come and meet me here and in verse 28 all these things kind of converge together it says this pay careful attention to yourselves to all the flock in which God has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood and so Paul he is talking to the presbuteros those are the elders that's his audience and if you if you have a real copy of God's word a physical copy you can look at verse 17 circle that tells you who they are talking to he goes down and he gives them a lot of warnings and a lot of instruction to these elders because he cares so deeply about that flock he had spent two and a half years with them ministering alongside them these are guys that Paul he served alongside his blood his sweat his tears are our characteristics in their lives now he says pay careful attention to yourselves verse 28 into all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood he's talking to the elders that are there but he also references the flock the flock of course which is in a direct reference to a shepherd a pastor exactly what they're supposed to do there are two minister to the flock and then he goes ahead and he uses that word episcopa in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood

So Paul has given us very clear direction here that there is a plurality of elders who lead who shepherd they oversee the flock and the church needs to be overseen it has to be because it's God's plan by a plurality of elders because it's wiser than just one man doing it's God's way and God's way is the best and elders they also minister through prayer if you look back over at acts chapter 11 or 6 excuse me acts chapter 6 with me they minister through prayer verse 4 it says but we will devote ourselves to prayer that's one things that a pastor an elder an overseer ought to be doing is praying habitually for the flock in acts chapter 14 the church in antioch was founded and it says there that right after that church was founded they founded that they appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord and while all the elders in ephesus were gathered there at militis which we just read about it actually says that Paul and the elders they knelt down and they prayed the church is also instructed prescribed like if you're sick to call for the elders to come and anoint you with oil it's in James chapter 5 verse 14. Is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up elders they are to be men of prayer because they are doing a holy work they are doing a work that God has called them to and they don't work just to work they worked to glorify the Lord

Because that's what exactly what they've called them to do God has called me and other men in our church to step into these roles and I believe it with all my heart that God's going to do some amazing things that's why in our new constitution it says explicitly that the elders are the church's spiritual leaders they consist of the pastors and other scripturally qualified men elected by the congregation then it goes through and it lays out the different roles and the responsibilities and duties of elders and the very first one is being a man of prayer it's a very first one listed then you look down at the bottom of the page there and it says that pastors and elders will meet regularly to pray to seek God's will for the church what else does acts 6 4 tell us that we will devote ourselves to prayer into the ministry of the word this is role of elders is to teach the word to preach the word to share the you might think well if we have a bunch of elders that means that cody's not gonna gonna take a step back from preaching and that's not necessarily true you know there will be guys that step up and they preach and that's good for our congregation to hear additional men expound upon God's word it's good and it's right and a case in point our church is very familiar with that back in I think it was 2000 and 2017 during that year pastor kirk he asked me to preach about 10 times that was that was a lot you know to ask but I was happy to do it I became a better minister I became became better at time management our church was blessed as a result of it because it equipped another young man to

Preach and stand before you when we needed it how much more wise is it for us to continue equipping men in our church to expound and preach on God's word appreciate that so let's talk about the benefits of having a plurality of elders because it is a part of God's revealed will for his church it's not a construct of man it's not my idea it's God's he has instructed the local church to have plurality of leaders for a reason and there's several benefits four of them firstly is Biblical accountability ministers need accountability I need accountability you need accountability to guard from doctrinal error to guard from pride when a pastor serves on his own as the senior pastor there's way too much authority given to that man way too much authority way too little accountability so when a church has a senior pastor where there is no one equal to him in power and if he begins making mistakes no one takes those necessary recourses for action you know what happens there's really only two options for that man it's either to fire him or wait until he burns out those aren't good options a plurality of elders guarantees that there are other men equal in status and authority who can confront the elder if he's being unreasonable if he's living in sin if he's harsh secondly balance no one man has all the gifts or the time necessary to minister to a church well some men are gifted preachers and teachers others are fantastic administrators some are great just discipleship guys

Others they've got a really clear vision for things some are solid at counseling by having several elders it allows for leaders to complement each other's strengths and weaknesses to better minister to the flock three burdens are shared caring for a church it can lead to burnout can in Paul David tripp's book dangerous calling which is a book on pastoral ministry and the calling therein of the six people that endorse the book or have their names on the cover there's only one that's still in pastoral ministry and that one's the author others they've either left Christianity altogether they've committed major moral failures or they decide that they just need to get out of pastoring and into academia even local baptist churches have understood that this is wise and it's what the Bible says I am thankful to the Lord for riverview baptist in osage who said we are moving to elders and we are thankful for the Lord doing that in their church and I look forward to what God will do in our church as well as we obey the Lord and what he's leading us to do as well we haven't even touched on things like church discipline yet but a lone pastor will tend to shy away from issues that need to be dealt with however with a group of godly men in these situations they can be handled and dealt with in a more God-honoring way and fourthly it better represents the nature and ministry of the church when we rely on a single minister to lead to guide to teach to cast vision to discipline to correct to rebuke it conveys that those kind of ministries are only really for special people really only for certain people

It's really for clergy and not for regular joes but moving to elders definitely communicates that ministry isn't just for special people it's for all believers it encourages godly men to think man one of these days I might be able to be an elder and be able to lead a church even though I'm an accountant or even though I own my own business or what have you and let's talk about the congregation real quick because if elders lead they shepherd they pray they minister through the word yah but they're also not the final decision makers you see the apostles in jerusalem they saw this problem remember please that the apostles they were serving as elders in jerusalem and they appointed elders later there too but the elders they came up with a plan they came up with a vision and they said church congregation this is the plan pick out from among you seven men of good repute full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word and what they said please the whole gathering so the elders they created a plan in the congregation they affirmed it this is exactly what we're shooting for in the leadership of the church as well elder led congregation affirming this means that the church still votes on budgets still makes motions passes motions shoots down motions that don't sound right but the leadership doesn't come from just one man but from a team of godly men who fulfill the requirements of being an elder

And the church nominated and they voted on these seven men but the church also voted and nominated or voted on other issues as well did you know that in first corinthians 5 starting in verse 1 it was a church discipline issue and starting in verse 1 it says it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans for a man has his father's wife and you are arrogant aren't you ought you not rather to mourn let him who has done this be removed from among you and it was put to a vote now we don't see the record of the vote but we do see the results of the vote if you look in second corinthians chapter 2 verse 5 it says that this man was put under church discipline this means they did not allow him to continue in fellowship he wasn't able to take communion with the saints they treated him not as someone who didn't know Christ but as someone who hates Christ militantly so remember that the goal of church discipline is not just to remove sin from the church but also have Christians see the severity of sin in our lives and this man he was grieved that his church family had done that and guess what he repented of his sin if we look in second corinthians chapter 2 verses 5 through 7 it says now if anyone has caused pain he has caused it not to me but in some measure not to put it too severely to all of you for such a one this punishment by the majority there's the result of the vote is enough so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort

Him or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow so you see that the command of the church was to forgive and comfort when a Christian turns away from sin the congregation is also instructed to follow the elder's lead I'm going to share some uncomfortable and Biblical words with you but it's what the Bible says and in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 it says obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account and let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you I mean those are those are heavy words aren't they like obey submit things like that they watch over your very soul and these are these are deep truths that I remind myself regularly of because I will give an account to God for how I lead this church let's let's wrap up and let's talk about deacons for a little bit because that's the last office of the church in every every church it seems to be that the deacon body is a little bit different deacons they are called to be the lead servants in the church lead servants and so look back at acts check chapter six the church it's growing it's got what 3 100 3 500 people there likely hundreds and hundreds of widows are there and let's realize that these seven men couldn't possibly handle all of that so it's more than likely that they had people that they served under that served underneath them and they were the lead servants they were responsible for the care

The physical needs to care for the physical needs of the congregation and it's interesting that the longest section of Scripture right here that deals with deacons doesn't actually talk about what deacons do and then in first Timothy chapter three you know it talks about the requirements but it really doesn't talk about what they do you know why it's because deacons are to be the behind the scenes servants who are just faithfully ministering to the needs of the flock that's what a deacon is if they're not doing that if they're not serving then they're just simply holding a title without performing the duties and that's not good either but you can see a complete list of that in page 8 9 of the constitution things that we have is caring for widows maintaining unity preparing the Lord's supper etc so what are you what are you going to do with all this because this is a massive change from where our local church has been but I think that's a clear command from Christ that there is to be a plurality of elders who lead the church and the congregation affirms and they follow and the deacons who serve the physical needs of the body it's it's Biblical it's beneficial and it conforms to God's plan for his church for whom he died I've had several people over the last gosh six months or so ask me cody are we not going to deacons anymore no but then again I'm not gonna use the pulpit as a whipping post and say this is exactly what we're going to do because I want to do it and now we had to wait for us to deal with a passage because we have to preach the passage but we as a church we have the opportunity

When we ratify the constitution in the near future probably a couple months but we get to follow through in obedience to God's will we can do that or we can harden our hearts to his clear instruction head hand heart head I want you to know that this model of church leadership is part of God's expressed will for his church these aren't cultural descriptions they're Biblical descriptions and if you want to ask more questions about it tonight at six will be a great time for you to do that at our business meeting if you don't care for business meetings tough as a as a church member you when you said I want to be a church member you said that you cared about this church so don't be a distant cousin as a part of the church family be a brother or sister and get involved and have your voice heard because it's important and I want you to search the new testament and study what the Bible says about elders and the congregation deacons and I actually took the liberty of printing out all the new testament passages that have to deal with elders and deacons and the congregation and they're available at all the exits you can grab them and look over them and I invite you just to be like the holy bereans and seek out God's word heart I want you to believe that God's blessing flows from obedience and not our rebellion and while God may excuse ignorance and use a church that doesn't have an unbiblical model [Music] when we become aware of our disobedience it's up to us to change change our course and to say okay God I agree with what you have to say

Because remember that's his plan for his church it's the church for whom he died and Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of this church and so God we do thank you for all that you've done and as we are just so thankful for your word and that you didn't leave us by ourselves to just figure out things according to our own wisdom God you gave us your own which is better and I just pray that as we stand and worship you that our prayer today would be to be submissive to your will we love you and as we all stand and worship together we glorify you in Jesus name amen [Music] when I survey the on which the prince of glory died my richest gain count but lost [Music] on all my pride [Music] see from his head his hands is [Music] oh the wonderful cross leads me come and die and find that I may truly live oh the wonderful cross o the wonderful cross all who gather here by grace drawn near and bless your name [Music] of nature mine

[Music] love so amazing [Music] my life my well praise the Lord if y'all could have a seat I know that I talked about a lot of heavy things today and I see a lot of scowls out there and that's okay I trust the Lord's word will do his work I want to introduce to you guys some friends of mine they've been attending here since what august or so somewhere around there yeah this is the gust of some family and so they've been through our church membership class and they've said you know this is a great church and we want to be here this is where we want to grow our family and so if you guys as church family would say amen and receive them into the fellowship say amen awesome we celebrate that with you guys if y'all would why don't we pray together and ask the Lord to bless us as we go out from here and so God I do thank you for the gust of sins Lord and Lord just thank you for the work that you're doing in our church and these things are hard they're uncomfortable for us to talk about but we know that your word wins out help us Lord to be submissive to your will and God as we go our separate ways keep us safe keep us healthy help us to remember the goal of winning the loss to Jesus Christ and not get caught up in all this in Jesus name amen thank you guys