What The Bible Says About Spiritual Leaders
Main Idea: God has gifted you with specific leaders who will equip you to accomplish His mission in your life.
THE SERVING LEADERS OF THE CHURCH
Those called Elders/Overseers/Pastors in scripture.
They oversee the church’s members and direction.
They lead in Christian living by personal example.
They guide through their teaching and warning.
THE LEADING SERVANTS OF THE CHURCH
Those called Deacons/Deaconesses/Servants in scripture.
They serve the physical needs of the church.
They serve the pastors by facilitating unity and church growth.
OUR RESPONSIBILITIES TO SPIRITUAL LEADERS
Obey their spiritual directives & imitate their walk. (Heb. 13:7, 17)
Pray for them. (Eph. 6:18-19, 2 Thess. 3:1-2)
Respect and honor them. (1 Thess. 5:12-13, 1 Tim. 5:19-20)
Care for their material needs. (1 Tim. 5:17-18, 1 Cor. 9:3-14, Rom. 15:27)
FURTHER RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
Elders/Overseers/Pastors: 1 Tim. 3, Titus 1, 1 Pet. 5, Heb. 13, Acts 20
Deacons: Acts 6, Rom. 16, 1 Tim. 3
Church Elders by Jeramie Rinne
Deacons by Matt Smethurst
Elders In The Life Of The Church by Phil Newton & Matt Schmucker
Finding Faithful Elders And Deacons by Thabiti Anyabwile
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by YouTube)
In completing this series, Tabernacle DNA, this last message, we're going to look at what the Bible says about spiritual leaders. Did you know that Jesus listed very few prayer requests for his disciples?
We're familiar with the Lord's Prayer, where we're instructed to pray for God's will to be done, for our daily provisions, for forgiveness, and for deliverance from temptation.
But one of the only other prayer requests that Jesus commanded his disciples to pray for is found in Luke 10 and verse number 2. The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.
Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
When the Bible talks about spiritual leaders, it's not talking about those sequestered away in towers on the mountains or those seven levels deep in bureaucracy or in academia.
It's talking about those actively involved in the same types of things that Jesus did, spreading the gospel, discipling people, and serving others.
So as we talk about spiritual leaders today, we'll talk about the two offices that the New Testament mentions as, here's the official spiritual leaders of a church, but all of us are called to be spiritual leaders in the sense that we would have a
genuine walk with Jesus and want to invite others along for the ride. The two specific types of spiritual leaders that we'll be looking at today that scripture says the New Testament church ought to have are elders, also called overseers, and either
pastors or shepherds, depending on your translation. I want to take just a moment and define some of those words for you. And maybe if you're new to church and you're wondering, all right, why are there all these words?
Why is there not one specific title? The word elder is brought over from the Old Testament in talking about how God spoke about the leaders in the nation of Israel. They were the elders, and it was something that didn't always denote age.
It wasn't just the oldest people are in charge. Sometimes it was this person is eldest in seniority. They have the most sway.
So you can have a young king who would be referenced as one of the elders of Israel. So it's bringing that over from the Old Testament into the New Testament. This is one of your leaders.
The word overseer. Maybe if you have an older translation, you might see the word bishop, which we wouldn't use the word bishop as often nowadays. But we might say, Oh, yeah, someone oversees this thing.
It's one of the words that scripture uses, the Greek word episkopos. And then the word in Greek, poymen, which is the word for shepherd. It's used about 17 or so times in the New Testament.
Most of the time, it talks about Jesus as our shepherd. And occasionally in one or two spots, depending on your translation, it might also say pastors.
So the word that we normally associate with the leader of a church today, isn't the one that's used most often in the New Testament. The word in the New Testament would be one of the elders. But appointment is a shepherd.
It's someone that helps to guide someone else along in the same way that Jesus is guiding us. In fact, Jesus in 1 Peter 2 is called the shepherd and overseer of our souls. If you will, he is called the pastor and bishop of our souls.
And Jesus said in Matthew 20 that he did not come to be served as we'll look at a little bit later, the word for service or serving or servant in the New Testament is very often the word diaconon or where we would get the word deacon from.
So Jesus says he didn't come to be deacon, to be served, but to serve or to deacon others and to give his life as a ransom for many. The role of spiritual leaders is to show people what Jesus is like and what he believes and what he does.
If you will, being a spiritual leader is a call to be a little Christ or a Christian. There is nothing in a spiritual leader that gives them greater access to God than you can have.
There is no access to greater holiness than you are capable of, and there is no greater knowledge than you are also able to learn from God's word. Spiritual leaders are not entirely different people.
They are Christians inviting others into the exact same walk with Christ.
So though we're focusing in today's message on spiritual leaders, I want to be very clear that the goal from scripture is that all of us as believers would pursue the holy character and knowledge of God that we expect from our leaders.
God doesn't say, I have this expectation of Christian living for the spiritual leaders, and the rest of you can keep to this level. God says, I'm calling all of us to that faithful following of Jesus.
The question could be easily asked then, if there's not something that's different about a church's spiritual leaders, then why have them? Why not simply have an entirely democratic process where there are no leaders?
And the answer is found in Ephesians 4, in verses 11 through 13.
Jesus himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's son,
growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. In God's sovereign plan, he gives local churches spiritual leaders so that the believers can be equipped with the knowledge, character, and maturity needed to show Jesus to the world
around them. For you today, God has gifted you with specific leaders who will equip you to accomplish his mission in your life. It's God's promise in Ephesians 4. To his church, he gives spiritual leaders.
Let's look at the first of these leaders. And first, we're going to look at the serving leaders of the church, the serving leaders of the church, those that are called elders, overseers, or pastors in Scripture.
The most common spiritual leader thought of in relation to a local church is a pastor or a minister or clergyman. But what does the Bible say about pastors?
Many books have been written on the topic, but I'd like to give my best attempt at a one paragraph summary, which is broken down sentence by sentence on our slides.
Elders, overseers, pastors are those called to lead the church by supplying congregational oversight, godly examples, and biblical teaching and counseling. Let's go back just one slide, guys. All right, there we go.
Called to lead the church by supplying congregational oversight.
So they're called overseers oversight, godly examples that they are elders, that they are those that are walking the walk that we are able to follow in, and then biblical teaching and counseling.
How the New Testament, especially in Acts 20, how it talks about pastors is you are shepherds in the sense that you are leading people to graze. You are feeding people through leading them to the pastures of God's word.
So there we have all three elements broken down in that sentence.
In the next slide, as evidenced by how the New Testament uniformly speaks of the role, each church should have multiple elders with the primary preaching elder and any others as occasion allows receiving financial compensation in line with 1st
Timothy 5, 17 and 18 among other passages. On the next slide, the elders should be obeyed, followed and respected by the members of the church in as much as their doctrine and spiritual walk are in accordance with the word of God.
If I ever say, hey, here's some Kool-Aid, you should drink it. Don't listen to me. If I ever say, hey, I know the Bible says this, but I think this would really bring in a crowd, ignore me.
But as much as our elders in our church are following God, are following God's word, their doctrine is in line with the Bible and their walk is in line with the Bible, we are called to follow.
Then in the next slide, the elders will give an account to God of how they led their local churches from Hebrews 13 and verse 17. A specific responsibility that does not belong to every church member.
On the day in which either I pass or if the Lord returns and brings us up, Roger, I picked on you last week, I might as well keep on picking on you.
But God's not going to ask you, hey, why did Tabernacle Baptist Church as a whole, why did they make this decision? Why did they do that?
It's not in your realm of responsibility, but for the elders of a church, for their pastors, for their overseers, they will give an account to God. It gives a weightiness.
Many of us can have great ideas on what a church should do or how it should do it. But for pastors, we have to wonder, what's God going to say on Judgment Day? And I love you all.
I want you all to keep me in line with the Word of God and following and obeying Jesus. But at the end of the day, if the choice comes between choosing to obey Jesus, because I know I'm answerable to Him or answering, I'll say Roy.
If I have to choose between listening to Roy or following Jesus, then I've got to go with Jesus because I give an account ultimately to Him. Just so everyone's clear, Roy hasn't tried to lead me astray in anything. Just so we're crystal clear.
Most of those statements that I've just made will be very familiar to those of you who've been in church for a while. It's kind of obvious. Okay, yeah, pastors, they live the Christian life.
We listen to them. They say, here's what the Bible says. We go, great, let's do it.
Let's follow Jesus. The possible new addition from that one paragraph summary might be that churches should have multiple elders or overseers or pastors. What in the world would prompt me to say that?
I'll give you a hint. The Bible. Whenever the Bible talks about the senior leadership of a local congregation, it always references that office in plurality.
So Acts 11.30. They did this, sending it to the elders by means of Barnabas and Saul, Acts 14.23.
When they had appointed elders for them in every church, not an elder for them in every church, elders for them in every church and prayed with fasting, Acts 15.22.
Then the apostles and the elders with the whole church, not with all of the churches, with the whole church, decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch.
In Acts 20 and verse 28, Paul speaking to the pastors of the church at Ephesus, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own
blood. Philippians 1 and verse 1, where we started off our series in Philippians many weeks ago now, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers, plural, and deacons.
First Timothy 5.17, the elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
Titus 1.5, the reason I left you in Crete, Paul here speaking to Titus, was to set right what was left undone, and as I directed you to appoint elders in every town. Not an elder in every town, elders in every town.
Why would there be multiple elders in a church? Isn't one enough? As one pastor once said in the previous century, isn't anything with multiple heads a monster?
Well, I hate to say it, but there's only one head of the church, and it's Jesus Christ, not Bryon Self.
Additional reasons for a plurality of elders, other than the uniform testimony of the New Testament, are the principles in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that in the multitude of counselors, there is safety, and that two are better than one, because they
have a good reward for their efforts, and a cord of three strands is not easily broken. One person alone can have blind spots, but three godly men would be able to look at a situation from multiple angles and spot solutions or additional
considerations that one person alone couldn't have. A clear question then is, how do you know who should be an elder in a church? Well, thankfully, God's word tells us.
Obviously, you've appointed me as an elder, as an overseer, a pastor of Tabernacle, so that's one, you've got at least one.
Pastor Ron is another obvious elder, one who has served as a main preaching pastor of a church for 24 years with many years of ministry experience before that.
But one aspect of elders being a gift from Jesus to his church, so back to Ephesians 4.11, Jesus gives them, it's not that we make them, Jesus gives them to us, is that Jesus forms a person to have the character and biblical knowledge to become an
elder before the church formally recognizes him as one. That is, we do not make a person an elder. We realize the men that God has given us that are doing the types of things already that an elder does. So what does an elder do?
And these are the dots on your outline. First, they oversee the church's members and direction. This is what's encompassed in the word overseers.
Who in our church do people look to for decisions or for spiritual counsel? Who do people call when a loved one is going into surgery or when there's difficulty in a job situation or in the family?
Who cares about the future of our church and reaching people with the gospel? Oversight of the church members and the direction of the church is one of the clear indications that you might be looking at a future elder.
Secondly, they lead in Christian living by personal example. That's what's encompassed in the word elders. Who do you know in our church that is a distinctly godly person?
Someone you'd say, yeah, they're not perfect. No one is, but I know they love God and love people, and they're doing their best to follow him. First Timothy 3, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5 all possess short lists of qualifications of elders.
None of which are something stronger than what God wants for every Christian. God doesn't say, all right, for you regular Christians, you need to spend five minutes in prayer, and for you pastors, you need to spend 300 minutes a day in prayer.
He doesn't give one list of things of, okay, here's the holiness of the regular people, and here's the holiness of the really righteous pastors. God says elders are not those that are super Christians.
Elders are those that are faithfully following those exact same instructions that God has for all of his children. But only those that are wholeheartedly living the Christian life are called to spiritually lead the church.
No amount of business acumen, likeability, or worldly wisdom can substitute for a simple walk with Jesus. So we can't say this person leads a seven-figure company. We think we need to make him an elder.
He'll really just catapult our church to the next level. Well, no, it's character. It's who a person is on the inside, what they do, how they talk to people, the words that they use, the way in which they say what they do.
Then lastly, they guide through their teaching and warning. And this is encompassed in the word shepherds or pastors. This is the one distinguishing mark of an elder, as opposed to maybe Christians at large or even deacons.
The distinguishing mark of an elder is that they are able to teach, as Paul would say in 1st Timothy 3. Who do you know that can explain and apply God's word? Maybe it's in a sermon setting.
Maybe it's in one-on-one discipleship. Maybe it's in small groups or classes. But who communicates the truth of God's word in such a way that you know what God wants from your life?
Many people think that an elder or a pastor receive a Samuel-like call from heaven to ministry, but that's not how the New Testament talks about it.
Instead, the New Testament says that as the spiritual leaders of the last generation help equip and mature the next generation, God begins to work in specific men's hearts to do for others what their elders did for them.
Then, as their godly character and leadership and ability to mentor or teach or preach becomes evident, the spiritual leaders and the congregation recognize what God's done in that person's heart and life, and they appoint him to become one of the
plurality of elders. Maybe that call to maturity and discipleship and passing on the faith to the next generation resonates with some of you today. I'd ask you to consider, does God one day want you to be an elder?
The very first qualification listed in 1 Timothy 3 is, if a man aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work. It might not be today.
It might not be for five years, but realize that God's plan might be for you to eventually lead and disciple alongside the other elders at Tabernacle.
And then maybe you're a believer for whatever reason that doesn't believe that God has equipped you to be an elder, to you I'd say have the same heart for loving God's word and God's people and seeing people saved and seeing the church go forward
that you want your leaders to have. Don't be content saying, oh yeah, other people can be spiritual. Other people can follow Jesus. I'm just kind of going to do my thing and cheer them on from the corner.
No, no, jump into the action. Do the same types of things. Have the same love for people that God has for spiritual leaders.
And secondly, we're going to look at the leading servants of the church. These are those called deacons or deaconesses or servants in scripture. As I mentioned, the word deacon is not a translation from the Greek language into English.
It's a transliteration. That is, they took the Greek letters of a word, deaconos, and substituted English letters for it, making deacon. So deaconos, deacon.
If the word was fully translated into English, as it is 26 times in the New Testament, you would read the words servant or table waiter.
Now, I'm sure you would ask, why does God talk about only two types of church leaders, and one of them is called a table waiter or servant? The answer is because of Acts 6. There you have this fledgling new church.
They're seeing thousands of converts, and they're caring for each other. They're being generous with their funds. And one of the things that the church is accomplishing with their funds is they are bringing meals.
They're helping out with the needs of widows. And there are not just widows from there in Jerusalem, those that have a historic Hebrew or Israelite culture, there are some that are called Hellenistic Jews.
That is that they adopted some of the Greek culture. They eat Greek foods, and they're not as concerned about the ceremonial laws of the Jewish people. They've got kind of their own culture.
And people from the Hellenistic Jewish culture, they come to the apostles and they say, hey, you know, we all bonded together to help widows, but our widows are being neglected in the daily distribution.
And so the apostles say this, it is not meet that we should, it's not suitable, it's not fitting that we would leave preaching and teaching the word of God and prayer and serve tables.
They say both of these things are good, but God has called us to do this, and so we can't leave this undone to be able to meet all of these physical needs.
So they tell the congregation, here's the qualifications of the type of table waiters for these widows that we're looking for, appoint seven men from this list of qualifications that will help us out with this.
And so the congregation does so, and the Bible says that as a result of that, that the word of God increased in the number of the disciples was multiplied in Jerusalem. This role of table waiter was later extended to meet other specific needs.
So they didn't say, okay, we've got oversight, but now we need like another house of legislation or something. It's not the Senate and the House of Representatives.
It's not, okay, the elders say some things and then the deacons, you know, they're rivals and they go against one another, or the elders oversee some things and the deacons oversee some things.
It's that the elders said, hey, we need this specific task. We need someone to oversee it. Will you do that for us?
This type of fulfill this specific need that we have was later extended to meet other needs, such as sending the letter of Romans to the churches in Rome, as we would read about in Romans 16.1.
Phoebe, the courier of the letter to the Romans, is listed as a deacon, a deacon of the church at Sentria. The exact same word used in 1st Timothy 3 and in Philippians 1, the only two other places that deacons are mentioned by name in Scripture.
And you can see that word deacon or deaconess there in the New International Version, the New Living Translation, the Revised Standard Version, the New Revised Standard Version, the Amplified Bible, and in the footnotes of the Christian Standard
Bible, the English Standard Version, the Legacy Standard Bible, the New American Standard Bible, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the New English Translation, and etc. I'm not making up a thing of deacons.
It's in the Bible, so I am responsible to tell you what the Bible says. And less suspicion arise that a deaconess is a modern feminist innovation.
Clement of Alexandria, who lived from 150 to 215 AD, mentions deaconesses in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, and the Roman magistrate Pliny the Younger, who lived from 61 to 113 AD, mentions his having tortured two deaconesses in order to find out
more information about the Christians. In addition, the historical understanding of 1 Timothy 3 and verse 11 is that it is in reference to deaconesses, as seen in the text of the American Standard Version, Amplified Translation, Legacy Standard, New
American Standard, New International, New Revised Standard, and the Revised Standard Version, and in the footnotes of the Christian Standard Bible, English Standard Version, and New English Translation. Why would I mention all those details?
Because as we mentioned, I always got to say what the Bible says, and I can't shirk to tell you anything that scripture says. But what are deacons called to do today?
Deacons and deaconesses are those appointed to serve the church by meeting specific physical needs and ensuring church unity.
The New Testament does not talk about deacons as leaders over the entire congregation, but as coordinators that lead in serving specific needs in the congregation at the request of the elders.
The deacons gain deep trust from the congregation by merit of their selfless service, as well as great boldness in the sharing of their faith.
Biblically, deacons functioned in a way very similar to how a director or coordinator serves at a church today.
That is, someone's over the benevolence ministry and works with a team of people to accomplish what the elders want done with the benevolence of the church.
Someone's over building and maintenance, so people aren't getting dripped on in a service or in a classroom. And so physical, tangible needs are met, and church unity is preserved and growth is possible.
So as with elders, there are likely people in this room right now that a year from now, five years from now, 20 years from now, God might have you serve in this role at Tabernacle or some other church.
And as with pastors or elders, we most often find deacons, servants, serving the church before they're ever asked to organize and lead others in service. Can I encourage you today?
You don't need a title to help a widow or to volunteer to fix the faucet or to help welcome people.
The healthiest of churches should have a problem in having too many servants that then the organizing help of the deacons can channel that for the maximum benefit of God's church. So in summary, what do deacons do?
From Act 6, they serve the physical needs of the church, and then they serve the pastors by facilitating unity and church growth.
In Act 6, it could have been very easy for the church to split between there's this one group of believers that are all made up of the Hebraic Jews, those that follow Jewish culture, and here's this other culture of Hellenistic Jews, and now we've
got these two churches. But the deacons, through their service of making sure that everyone was being served, they helped preserve church unity. And through meeting needs, that's how deacons help us today.
It is helpful to note that the deacons are not intended to be a rival power to the elders, like I mentioned before, with the Senate and House of Representatives in the US., but they are intended to organize and accomplish what the elders ask them to
do, just as in Acts 6. One pastor gave this illustration of, okay, what do elders do versus what deacons do?
He said, if the elders say, let's drive to Pittsburgh, it's not up to the deacons, it's not their role to come back and say, no, let's drive to Philadelphia instead.
They can legitimately come back and say, our engine won't get us to Pittsburgh, perhaps we should reconsider. That's very helpful, but in general, their job is to support the destination set by the elders. Okay, so that's what the Bible says.
I have some things listed there below. If you want to read more about elders, pastors and deacons, you can look at that in 1st Timothy 3, Titus 1, 1st Peter 5, Hebrews 13, Acts 20, Acts 6, Romans 16. And would encourage you to look at that.
If you go, hey, I've never heard about this plurality of elders before, multiple elders in a church, never heard of that brand new concept. Go read the New Testament. I promise I included like 1 10th of the verses that talk about it.
So look into God's word. See if what I'm saying is true. So then what's our responsibilities to spiritual leaders?
We know who they are. We've looked at the kinds of things that they do. We've seen that it's not something that maybe is totally unique to them in the actions that they do.
They follow Jesus, they disciple others. All of us are called to do that. Maybe not in the official stance, but all of us can serve.
All of us can help widows. All of us can bring others along in the faith. But what are our responsibilities to spiritual leaders?
First, we are to obey their spiritual directives and imitate their walk. Hebrews 13 verses 7 and 17 say this, Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you as you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.
Obey your leaders and submit to them since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
I heard it mentioned before, very rarely in your job will someone come to specifically undo the tasks that you have set out to do that at work. I know Owen, you help sell some different supplies and things at your job.
And I don't know that very often someone comes into your workplace and argues with maybe the customer you're talking with to say, oh, no, you shouldn't buy that. Oh, no, return it right away. You should not be buying this.
It'd be weird. But frankly, very often in the church, pastors do experience that. Thankfully, I don't believe there's been a point yet at Tabernacle where that's happened to me.
But sometimes that does happen that you're trying to say, hey, here's what God's Word says, we ought to obey. And then there would be people that would say, no, I think it should be done this way, or my grandpa thought it should be done this way.
We ought to follow and obey our spiritual leaders as they follow in God's Word. There's no point in having leaders or spiritual instructors if you don't follow them.
If you genuinely don't believe that they are following the Lord, then I would encourage you, like, find a place that you can worship that you can obey your spiritual leaders.
The command from God's Word is to obey and follow and imitate, and we don't get a choice on whether or not we get to do that.
We do get a choice on which spiritual leaders we personally adopt as our own, which, going back to last week with church membership, that's how it works.
If you say, yes, I will follow these leaders because I believe that they are following the Bible. As our church continues to move forward with our pastors, with our elders, the same is true for me.
If I say that the church member at random needs to listen to the elders, then if the other pastors and elders tell me something, I need to listen to them too. And I promise you, none of your church leaders want to make your life less fun.
Anything that we tell you from God's word is for your benefit and personal walk with the Lord. I've been so encouraged through having Pastor Ron here at the church.
I've been so encouraged even through having Gary here at the church where there's been situations where I'm like, man, this is a whole new animal. And Pastor Ron says, hey, why don't you do this? Or Gary will say, hey, what about this?
Why don't you send this car? Why don't you send this letter? Why don't you do this thing?
And I'm so thankful. Every time that I have done that, I have seen God bless and God's given me just freedom of spirit that where I was like way down, like, oh, I don't know what I should do.
As I listened to the pastors and elders that God has given our church, then I found joy in following and submitting to them. One of the things they often tell me is, hey, make sure you're not working too much.
And I tell them, okay, I'll also listen to Samantha and she'll trust me. She'll tell me if I'm doing too much. She's not here today.
She's serving in the nursery. But if she was here, she would sing. Yeah, that's right.
She keeps me in line, but thankful for that. And I promise you, any godly spiritual person will not say I am the end-all be-all. I've been so thankful for Pastor Ron.
Well, we've been able to have conversations where maybe there was a disagreement at first, and I said, hey, well, what about this verse? What about this thing?
And he, you know, having decades of ministry ahead of me, still submitted and listened, not because I was smarter, because I convinced him with great words, but because of what the Bible said.
And my encouragement to you would be, you have people in your church, leaders, elders, pastors, whether named so or otherwise, that are implementing this, obeying and listening, that they aren't the final authority of wisdom, God's word is.
And so when people bring God's word, they listen, would encourage you to do the same. Obey their spiritual directives and imitate their walk. Pray for them.
Ephesians 6, 18 through 20 says this, pray at all times in the spirit with every prayer and request and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
Pray also for me that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For this, I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.
In 2 Thessalonians 3 and verses 1 and 2, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not all have faith.
While not inherently different than in your life, Satan's pursuit to destroy people's lives is especially poignant when it comes to church leadership.
I know from personal experience the doubts and confusion that's brought when someone that's taught me God's word turned out to be living a life that was diametrically opposed to the truth.
Pray for your elders' holiness, for their families, for them to speak God's word and not be afraid or ashamed of it. Thirdly, respect and honor them. First Thessalonians 5 verses 12 through 13.
Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. And then First Timothy 5 verses 19 through 20.
Don't accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. Publicly rebuke those who sin so that the rest will be afraid.
If you consider Tabernacle your church, then I'd encourage you to respect and honor those that lead in our church.
Leading brings with it a target that's placed, not just from Satan and demons, but from the world around us and even disgruntled people within the church.
When there is sin and heresy, we are commanded not to sweep it under the rug or hide it for reputation's sake.
But if it's a matter of opinion, if it's a decision you wouldn't personally have made, but it's not morally wrong, then give your leaders grace and respect. I promise you that that is how they will treat you.
So view them with honor and go to bat for them. Fourthly, care for their material needs. Scripture has a lot to say about taking care of our leaders, especially those that are teaching the word of God.
But I've addressed that topic when we came to it before in Philippians 2, and last week just a little bit in the message on church membership, so I won't elaborate on it more here.
Other than to say this, if you've had someone that's taught you in Sunday school or small groups for 15 years, if there's a deacon who's faithfully greeted and loved you for 40 years, do something for them.
It doesn't have to be a full on tithe or a check. It could be a gift card or a personal note that says how much you appreciate them or some small thing that you've heard that they've needed that you give them.
Christians in the first century were known for their generosity with abandon. Let's not be hoarders, but let's show gratitude with what God has given us. Spiritual leaders aren't genetically special.
God didn't do some crazy thing that made myself or Pastor Ron unique and different from anyone else, that we are just morally superior in a way that no one else could ever be. We're not genetically special.
We're just Christians trying to follow Jesus faithfully and inviting others to come along. Are you following Jesus and are you inviting others along for the ride?
