Great. That's the kind of things we ought to pray about all the time. Do you realize that? Listen to me carefully.
! I think about the Psalm 73, where the Psalmist Asaph, he says this, who do I have in heaven but you?
And there is none that I desire beside you.
I think about 1 Peter, where it says, I love this verse, whom having not seen you love, though now you see him not.
That's a mouthful. I don't see him yet, but I love him.
And then it goes on and says, yet believing filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
I am convinced, and this is not the Ephesians passage, but it's applicable.
I am convinced that loving Christ is the bedrock.
It is the genesis.
It is the energy that we need for the growth and journey of life.
Would you agree with me?
And here's the truth.
We're not natural at that.
And so, like Stephanie, we need to not only sing the song, but we need to pray the song.
Lord, draw me nearer.
Well, I do want you to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5.
I said 5, and I meant 4.
Let's hope that that is the only error that I make this morning.
Last week, I tried to add two extra books to the Bible, and I was gently rebuffed by one of our dear sisters,
and I am very thankful for that, and I want you to know that.
I said that there are 29 books in the New Testament, and there really aren't.
And so, I'm here.
One of the things about newspapers is that they print their retractions like where?
Page 9, column 4, somewhere in the middle of the page.
Unfortunately, when pastors make errors, it is suitable that they do that at the beginning where they let you know they were wrong.
Do you understand that?
And here's the reason why.
Because I have the responsibility of always speaking the truth.
And when I make a mistake, God forbid, but when I make a mistake, I owe it to the authority and the supremacy of the Word of God
that I let you know that up front.
Now, saying 29, 27 is not a big thing, but we want to always be submissive to the authority and the accuracy of the Word.
Isn't that right?
And so, if I teach it, then I have to model it, and that's why we begin this way.
Let's read the passage of Scripture, and then we're going to pray together and ask that the Spirit of God
would equip us to hear and apply His sweet truth.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 12 and 13.
Actually, I'll pick up in verse 11.
That's where the thought begins.
He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Join me in prayer.
Precious Father, for us, prayer is not something that we do out of habit,
or because it's something that's kind of written into the order of our service.
It is something that we do because we are both desperately dependent upon You,
and we are supremely confident in Your work and Your power in us through Your Spirit and through our humble dependence.
And so, like the psalmist, we would pray this morning,
open our eyes that we might behold wondrous truths in Your law.
And like Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 2,
we are dependent upon Your Spirit, both me in the declaration of the truth,
and then in the lives of Your people in applying it and understanding it and enjoying it
and living in the light of the truth that You've given to us.
We pray that this morning as we study Your Scriptures,
that our hearts would be lifted up to say with awe and reverence
how great You are, how wise You are, how good You are,
and how blessed we are to be Your children
and be drawn together and put together into a body of believers
for the glory and for the sufficiency of the testimony of Christ.
We ask, Lord, that as a result of our hearing the Word,
that we would be different,
that the undeniable effect of the Word of God would be seen
in lives that are changed and lives that are growing in grace.
And we ask this in Your precious name.
Amen.
I remember last week at one point in the sermon,
I referenced the fact that Mark Dever summarized pastoral ministry
by four little statements.
He said that pastoral ministry really comes down
to preach and pray, love and stay.
As I was thinking about this passage in particular
and studying on it earlier, actually last week,
I remember thinking about my ordination service.
And I don't remember exactly, I didn't look at the date,
but I remember that after my ordination service,
I was given the privilege of inviting two different men to preach,
one who preached to me and the other who preached to the church.
And I asked my father to preach to me,
and I asked Dr. Bill Brock,
some of you are here who still remember his ministry,
I asked Dr. Bill Brock if he would preach to the church.
My dad preached from a passage in Deuteronomy
where Moses, as he was given that responsibility and burden
of taking the nation of Israel into the promised land,
across the wilderness, etc.,
he said, listen, I'm not going unless you show me your glory.
You go with me.
And he said, show me your glory.
And I remember that sermon.
I also remember Pastor Brock preaching.
And he dealt with the responsibilities that I had as a pastor
and the responsibilities that the church had to me as their pastor.
And I don't remember the particulars.
I will tell you that I took notes,
and I could pull those up and probably check those,
but I would venture to say that knowing Pastor Brock
and enjoying his ministry for the time that Judith and I were here
before he took us up there to north,
before God took us up there to northeastern Ohio,
I have no doubt that he probably relied on a passage such as Acts 4, verse 42,
where it says that this is what ministry consists of,
in Acts 6, where the apostles said,
but we will give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word,
and perhaps also on this passage that we're going to be looking at.
We're here, there, we're in this passage in Ephesians 4, verse 12 and 13,
where the Spirit of God, after having explained how wonderful the work of Christ is in the church,
he then brings it together in chapter 4, 5, and 6,
and says, all right, since Christ has done this in your life,
here's how you are to live.
And we are in the first part of those instructions
for how the believers are to live together as a community.
I remind you again that the tone or the individual
that this passage is actually written to
is not private individuals, but it's the body of Christ together.
And the starting place that the apostle has
in these lessons for how believers are supposed to live
is the matter of unity.
Not just kind of acquiescing to one another
and kind of getting along in a kind of Rodney King type of mindset,
but really that genuine unity that comes about
from all of us being under the same headship,
namely under Christ.
And in our lesson so far,
we've understood that he gives to us spiritual gifts.
We understood last week that he gives to you spiritual servants.
He gives to you gifted servants who are there
for the sake of the body and for its effectiveness
as Christ's instrument.
Now, what we are looking at today in verse 12 and 13
is really a clear statement of what a pastor's job is to be.
And so let's open the text and follow along
as we understand that, first of all,
pastors are called to equip the saints.
The text announced that a pastor teacher
is responsible for an equipping business.
And given the importance of having a clear understanding of the word,
this morning what I'm going to do here at the outset
is I'm going to explain two particular words
so that you are well informed.
And I want you to know that one of the benchmarks
or the standards against which my ministry is to be judged
is whether, first of all,
I speak the word of God with accuracy
depending on what God has revealed
rather than my own personal ideas and interests.
And secondly, that I speak it with clarity
and help you understand exactly what it is that God says.
I'm reminded of the fact that God intends
for His people to understand the word.
I think that's a very, very important thing to have in mind.
God intends for you to understand the word.
It's vital to you.
I think about the passage over in Deuteronomy chapter 30,
verse 11 through 14,
and just kind of fix that in your mind just for a moment
where Moses, towards the end of his ministry,
he says this about the word.
He says, the word is not far from you.
Do you know what he means by that?
He said, hey, you can get your hands around it.
It's there for you.
How many of you have had to deal with information
that was really pretty fuzzy for you?
It's like, I don't get this.
I don't understand this.
You have to work real, real hard
and it still kind of confuses you.
When it comes to electrical schematics,
Pastor Saul was a physicist
and he worked in physics and blah, blah, blah.
And when we have electrical issues here at the church,
we say, well, here, Pastor Saul, do this.
And he's good with that.
If it comes down to plumbing or carpentry,
we call me out of the reserves.
You know, okay, go.
Water just runs downhill.
Do you follow that?
And it's not so complicated.
But sometimes we deal with things we don't understand
and that's not the way the Word of God is to be viewed.
He wants us to understand it
and my job, among other things,
is to make it understandable.
God intends for his people to read the Bible
and understand what it is saying.
I want you to have that fixed in your mind.
He intends for you to be a people who know the Word.
And part of my job is to encourage, encourage, encourage, encourage,
keep on bumping you to make the Word significant
and supreme and valuable,
not just because it's the Word,
but because it reveals to you the glory of Christ
and the person of Christ
and the reality and nature of God.
Do you follow me?
How is it that we grow in loving Christ?
It will not happen if you sit in a dark corner and go,
mmm, it's not going to happen.
You are going to grow to love Christ
by learning what the Scriptures tell you about Christ.
It's the reason I would encourage you,
if you're, boy, I don't love him like I should,
I would encourage you to begin reading
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
Matthew, Mark, why would I do that?
You can't love somebody you don't know.
Do you follow that?
Read the Gospels.
Go to the book of Hebrews.
Read Hebrews.
Read the book of Revelation.
Are they easy books?
The answer is no.
But they will be books that will enrich your affection
for the Lord Jesus Christ
and give you legs on which to stand
when you work at loving him.
I want you to recognize that understanding
and applying the Bible is really one of the principal means
whereby we gain blessing from God.
And so as we are studying this morning,
we are going to see things that God intends for his body
to understand about the role and the responsibility of a pastor.
And understanding that is really part of where the blessing comes
from that man that God assigns to you to serve in that capacity.
I want to say something here in relationship to this matter of understanding.
An uninformed believer is at a greater disadvantage than an illiterate citizen.
Now why would I say that?
We value literacy.
And that's a good thing.
And having a literate congregation or having a literate nation
or a literate community is important
because being able to read and comprehend what is in print
is a very, very valuable resource in the lives of individuals.
But let me say it again.
An ill-informed believer is at a greater disadvantage
than an illiterate citizen.
And the reason is, is because economic and intellectual hardship is one thing.
Spiritual darkness and hardship is of a whole more significant nature.
Now we're looking here at the issue of the responsibility of a pastor teacher
and you mark there in verse 12, it says,
to equip the saints.
The Greek word that Paul chose carries the idea of preparing someone
and putting things in order so that the person is fully prepared to do their work.
It's not enough for a pastor just to kind of back the dump truck of truth up
on the platform and pull the lever and let it all go.
I have had two of my sons go into the military
and neither I did not do it,
but I will tell you that they both explained to me the experience
of arriving at basic and having the process take place
of turning them in from being just a yahoo
to being actually part of the armed services.
And it begins with little things like getting down to your skivvies,
getting your head shaved, and then having people dump a whole bunch of stuff
on your arms and out you walk.
And you have everything you need in that pile.
Now what follows is they teach you all about all the things you have in your hands.
And so equipping is not just shoving all that equipment out in a pile
and saying, well, there it is, do what you want.
It is, this is your business and you are going to learn how to use all this stuff.
I want you to understand that thankfully a pastor is not called to invent equipment
or the training process.
The things that equip the saints are the Word of God.
I want you to turn back.
You're in Ephesians there.
Actually turn forward just a little bit,
but go to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 and 17.
2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 and 17.
In relationship to what equips the believer,
here's what it says in verse 16 and 17.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.
Hey, listen.
The Bible is your source book.
It's your resource book.
It's what you need.
It's the absolutely go-to document to help you with every aspect of life.
And verse 17, that the man of God, you can put woman in there as well,
may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Listen to me.
The Bible's got the answers.
And my job is to help you understand that,
to remind you of it, to encourage you,
to do everything within my power to encourage you to be a people
whose first thought is,
what does the Bible think?
Now, stop and realize that in our contemporary culture,
when we have a question,
what is the simplest place to go to get information on it?
Say it loud.
Google.
I mean, hey, how many of you have said to somebody,
Google it?
How many of you have done that?
Google it.
You know what?
Google cannot answer spiritual questions.
And here's what it says in that passage in 2 Timothy 3, verse 17.
It says that the man of God, you who know Christ,
may be completely equipped that you have everything you need
for handling the challenges of life.
It's in the Bible.
The pastor is called to do more than just lecture, however.
He is called to love the Word.
He is called to know the Word.
And he's called to model the Word.
And I rely upon that sequence of loving the Word
and knowing the Word on the basis of what it says
in Deuteronomy 6 when it encourages fathers
in their responsibility of being the minister
and shepherd of their home.
You know what it says?
Love the Lord.
That's the starting point.
And let these words that I say to you be in your heart
and then teach them.
I want you to recognize that a pastor is called
to love the Word.
He is called to model the Word.
And those things go together and make for a difference in ministry.
Listen to what Paul had to say to his son in the faith, Timothy,
who was serving as a pastor in a congregation there at Ephesus.
You're in 2 Timothy.
Just go back a little bit to 1 Timothy 4, verse 12.
Let no one despise you for your youth,
but set the believers an example in speech,
in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
You know what Paul's saying?
He's saying, Timothy, I want you to understand
that one of the essential elements in your ministry
is that you are an example of what you preach.
And that's true.
Pastoral ministry is different in some senses
from many other different kinds of professions.
You may be an excellent surgeon
and an absolute wretch in your moral life.
Do you understand that?
You may be a great carpenter,
and you may be an absolute failure
in your spiritual walk.
You may be the most wonderful mathematician
or scientist or lawyer,
and you win every case,
but the truth of the matter is
is your profession and your practice
may not necessarily be linked together
and require that what you say
and what you do match.
That is not the case in pastoral ministry.
I'll never forget early on in ministry
when Dr. David Moore said to me,
Tim, he said,
character is the only coin you have.
Very interesting statement,
and I thought about that a long time
because at that moment in my life,
I wasn't thinking about coins.
So I had to kind of squeeze the poetry out of it,
and what he was saying is this,
is that your character is at the heart of what you do.
And here is Paul making this statement.
He says,
let no man despise your youth,
but set the believers an example.
In other words,
you are a living illustration of what you preach.
1 Timothy 4, verse 16,
there follows on that same frame.
He says,
but if you're going to take care of your exampleship,
keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.
Persist in this,
for in doing so,
you will save both yourself and your hearers.
What's he saying?
Hey, listen.
At the heart of pastoral ministry is,
first of all,
you take care of your own walk before the Lord.
You take care of your own walk before the Lord.
Many, many years ago,
and I don't know exactly why,
but I made a commitment that I would not have devotions
in the same passage that I was going to study
in that week or the week to follow
or the week after that.
I have always had devotions in a portion of the Scripture
that has not been directly related
to what I plan to preach at the moment.
Now, having said that,
one of the things that I,
a number of years ago,
began doing is in preparation for a book
that I had settled in my heart
that I was going to read
or I was going to preach.
I would begin reading that book,
sometimes daily,
the book of Ephesians.
I read pretty much every day
for about five, six months.
But as I was reading it,
I was reading it to understand Ephesians
and its application to me.
I was not reading it for the sake of preaching,
and I did not make notes
for the sake of preaching.
Right now, I'm in the process.
I'm in my seventh month.
I'm almost finished with my seventh month
of reading through the book of John.
Does that tell you
where we're going eventually?
We're going to the book of John, okay?
And I got to tell you,
there are times when I am reading
the book of John,
and I think I can't wait.
But I do it like Ephesians.
Here's the deal.
If the Word of God
is not making a difference in my life,
it won't make much difference in yours.
And I have to preach
with an affection and a passion.
That comes from having time in the Word
and understanding its value.
So to understand what the word equip means,
let's put it this way.
The pastor teacher is called
to use the Word of God
to first shape his own life
and then teach it to fellow believers
so they can do their divine work.
Appropriate ministry with the Word
is first of all,
letting it affect you
and then secondly,
having it affect other people.
And that's important.
Now let's talk secondly
about another word
that appears in the passage.
And so go back,
if you would,
to the book of Ephesians.
We were there in the Timothy.
So let's go back
to Ephesians chapter 4
and look there.
If you would,
at verse 11,
it says,
or 12,
it says,
to equip who?
Who are we equipping?
Saints.
Okay.
Well, let's explain
how the Bible uses this word.
And so as I think about this,
let me introduce several saints to you.
I don't know that you actually realize
that they're here this morning,
but I'm absolutely certain
that we have saints
in our midst this morning, okay?
Isaac Malumba,
would you stand
just for a moment, please?
This young man
is Saint Isaac Malumba.
Sit down, please.
Mrs. Cassandra Bach,
would you stand, please?
I'm sorry to embarrass you, sister.
This is a saint
in our fellowship.
Have a seat.
I'm not going to ask
the next one to stand
because once you reach 90,
you're okay.
You don't have to stand.
Okay.
But my mother is 91.
She is a saint.
This is Saint Marlia.
We have Saint Isaac.
We have Saint Cassandra.
Isaac and Cassandra
came to know the Lord
this last year, right?
In this year.
And they are saints.
You know,
when we think about saints,
we have a tendency
to think about people that,
I mean, you know,
they do the heavy lifting
for us all spiritually, right?
The truth of the matter is,
let me explain this,
and I don't mean to embarrass
Isaac or Cassandra,
my mother,
if she'll tell me later,
don't do that to me again.
But here's the deal.
Let's explain what the word means.
The Bible uses the word saint
really to mean
one who's set apart,
one who is holy
by virtue of what Christ
has done for him.
And it points to the fact
that someone who has come
to faith in Christ
is a person who's been
set apart by grace.
It would seem
that one of the reasons
Paul and other writers
in the New Testament
chose to use the word saint
when they were talking
about believers
was to remind
those who were
believers,
Christians,
that they had this
wonderful relationship
by virtue of what Christ
had done for them.
And the truth of the matter
is,
is that we are all equally,
once we've come to know Christ,
we are all equally saints
before the Lord Jesus.
Jesus,
if we limit ourselves
to the logic of the Bible.
Now,
why would I say
if we limit ourselves
to the logic of the Bible?
What is the safety
of limiting yourself
to the logic of the Bible?
Does anybody have,
don't have to raise your hand
and say,
I know,
but what is the safety
of limiting ourselves
to the logic of the Bible?
That's the question.
Here's the answer.
The logic of the Bible
is absolutely reliable.
The logic of Tim Kenoyer,
or for that matter,
any one of our deacons,
or Pastor Saul,
is marked
and is affected
by the noetic effect
of the fall.
What's that noetic word mean?
It just means
that our knowledge
got messed up in the fall.
How many of you realize that?
How many of you,
while you were debating
doing a sin,
thought it was
a pretty smart idea?
Raise your hand.
Come on.
Every one of you.
Every one of you
have at one point or another
thought that the sin
you were thinking about committing,
whether it was getting snarky
with someone
who had been unkind to you,
right?
They had it coming.
Or honking your horn
at somebody
that wasn't moving fast enough.
They need to be divinely prodded.
You know,
there are all kinds of excuses
that we have.
When we're thinking about the sin,
we think it's pretty smart.
And then the Spirit of God
comes along
and taps us on the shoulder
and uses a little Bible verse
and says something such
as the fact that,
you know,
the wrath of man
does not work the right...
Oh, yeah.
Sorry.
My mind,
on its own,
does not do well
with reality
scripturally.
The Spirit of God
uses the Word of God
and keeps me in companionship
with godly people
and helps me
do a better job of it.
Now,
here we are.
We want to be a people
who are informed
by the Scriptures.
And so,
when we look at the Bible,
we see that the term saint
refers to everyone
who has come to genuine faith
in Christ.
And so,
what you are thinking
right now
where you're sitting
is this.
Here it is.
You don't need to say it out loud,
but I hope you're thinking
this thought.
Prove it to me.
Is that what you're thinking?
Pastor,
can you prove that?
Well,
yes,
I can.
Here we go.
We're going to look
at a couple different places
where in the Bible
it refers to people as saints.
And it's not talking about
people who have
kind of arrived,
but it's talking about
usans,
you and me.
Go to your Bible.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 2.
We're dealing with the reality
that in the Scriptures
every believer
who has come to faith
is addressed
by the title saint.
1 Corinthians 1,
verse 2.
To the church of God
that is in Corinth
to all those
sanctified in Christ,
Jesus called to be saints
together with all those
who in every place
call upon the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
both their Lord
and ours.
Let's go to 1 Corinthians
or 2 Corinthians 1,
verse 1.
And by the way,
what kind of church
was Corinth?
Of all the churches
in the New Testament,
it was the one
that was filled
with the nicest people,
the people who had
the least problem
with sin.
No, no, no, no, no.
That's not true.
Okay.
First, 2 Corinthians 1,
verse 2.
To the church of God
that is at Corinth
with all the saints
who are in the whole
of Achaia.
Now, I could just
rattle on,
have you go to
Ephesians 1,
to Philippians 1,
to Colossians 1,
and what you will
recognize is that
the church commonly
was referred to
by the title saint.
The saints.
So, here we are
with the saints
in Maranatha Baptist Church
and you're thinking
to yourself,
well, there are
some people here
who are not very saintly
and I'm sure
you're referencing yourself,
not other people.
I do want you
to understand
that when the Bible
refers to us
as saints,
it is not talking
about us
as having reached
a certain plateau
of spirituality
and having extra
lifting power
so we could be of help
to other people.
It's just talking
about the fact
that we are those
who've come to Christ.
Now, are there saints
in heaven?
The answer is yes,
but they're in heaven
by virtue of having
been saved
through the grace of God
and then death
taking them
to that place.
Saints are not people
who have a special section
in the church.
or have extra ability
to pray.
People come and say,
Pastor, would you pray
for me?
I want you to know
I'm happy to pray for you,
but I do want you
to know this.
My prayer doesn't count
any more in God's eyes
than your prayer does.
Why is that?
We are equally saved
by the grace of God
and we have the same
privilege of access
into His presence.
So I want you
to understand
that a saint
just refers to
an individual
who's a believer.
Probably one other argument
that we would undeniably
have to admit
helps us understand
that saints are just
people like us
is that Paul writes here
in chapter 4, verse 12
to equip the saints.
If saints have arrived
spiritually,
do you need to do
any further education
and equipping?
What's the answer?
You wouldn't have to
if they'd already been there
and done that.
Secondly,
I want you to understand
that saints are called
to do the work
of ministry
to mature
and manifest Christ.
The Bible makes it clear
that the primary duty
of the pastor teacher
is to equip
the saints.
But why?
Here's the key.
Because the saints
are to be equipped
so they are effective
in doing the work
of ministry.
ministry.
Those who have known me
for a long time
have heard me say
on many occasions
that my job
is to help you
do your job.
That's it.
My job is to help
you do your job.
To encourage you
to do your job.
To explain how
that your job
should be done,
etc.
And at the heart
of what the expectation
of Scripture is
is that those
who are called
to be pastor teachers
are actively engaged
in preparing,
encouraging,
education,
educating,
and leading people
towards doing the things
that they've been called
by God to do.
There is no indication
in Scripture
that God ever intended
for ministry
or more specifically
the responsibility
of ministry
to be done
by a select few.
The work of ministry
is to be done
by all the members
of the body of Christ.
And to this end,
each member
has been given
spiritual gifts
and it is towards
this end
that the pastor teacher
is actively engaged
in equipping,
encouraging,
strengthening them
so they'll be active
in doing the things
that they've been called
to do.
The members of his body
are to be at work
and we're looking
at the passage
in Ephesians 4,
verse 12.
It says here,
Ephesians 4,
to equip the saints
for the work of ministry
for building up
the body of Christ.
Now verse 13 then
gives a little more
explanation of what
it means to build up
the body
and I'm going to press
that together for you
and have you recognize.
Number one,
building up the body
means coming
to the unity of faith.
Coming to the unity
of faith.
Shepherding aims
at unity that comes
from understanding
and holding common
truths of the Scripture.
The divisions of the church
at Corinth
were the result
of people
that did not hold
to the same truths.
When you find people
that are of radically
different perspectives
on truth,
guess what happens?
Invariably,
some of you sitting out here
might be conservative
in your political theology
and you work with people
who are right next to you
who are liberal
in their perspective
and what happens
when you try
to have conversations?
Goes pretty well,
doesn't it?
You talk to them
about your fiscal frugality
and how you think
that, you know,
blah, blah, blah
and what happens?
It devolves
into a spitting match
at best.
Why is that?
Because there is
no unity of faith.
There's no core
that the two of you
hold to together.
And so Paul explains,
he says,
listen,
the responsibility
of the pastor-teacher
is to build up the body
and the way that happens
is bringing about unity
of faith
and when it says faith,
it's just not talking about,
well,
having some kind of abstract,
I got faith.
It's talking about the faith,
the truth,
the truth.
And so it's no accident
that on Sunday evenings
we are committed
to doctrinal teaching
of some of the essential truths
of the Scripture
and the reason we're doing that
is we want unity
in our fellowship
and strength
that comes about
from having that cohesive relationship
one with another
around common truth.
Secondly,
we find there in the passage
it says also
coming to the knowledge
of the Son of God.
The word for knowledge
that Paul uses here
is a word that refers
to a deep and accurate
understanding of something
and in essence
it means this,
having an intimate relationship
with Christ.
It's not enough
just to know the facts
about Jesus.
Now I'll say that carefully.
It is not enough
to just know the facts
about Jesus.
Why is that?
Well,
you want a Bible answer
don't you?
Say yes.
Yes.
You always want a Bible answer.
What does it say
in the book of James?
It says you believe
there is one God
you do well
the demons what?
The demons believe.
Has that done them any good
and what's the answer?
Knowing the facts
is not what this is talking about.
It is talking about
knowing the truth
but then having that truth
boil out into a personal
genuine relationship
that's marked by affection
and by an attachment.
Shepherds aim at heart
affection for Christ
and a desire to please Him.
Let me say that again slowly.
Shepherds aim at heart
affection for Christ
and a desire to please Him.
Oh, my prayer is that
God would deliver people
from the hollowness
of an intellectual comprehension
of Christ
that is absolutely
devoid of affection.
That's important.
Now, are there days
where our affections
are a little dampened
by circumstances?
Yes.
But, beloved,
listen to me carefully
and I want you to think
with me about this.
If there is in your life
a persistent
lack
of affection
for Christ,
there's something
wrong.
Why would I say that?
John chapter 21.
Don't go there
but remember Jesus,
one of the last things
that He said,
He pulled Peter aside.
Remember Peter was the guy
who really messed up
and denied him three times, right?
And so, Jesus pulls him aside
and He says,
Hey, Peter,
do you what?
Do you love me?
Yeah.
You know that I love you.
Well, then feed my sheep.
Do you love me?
You know all things.
Feed my sheep.
See, very interesting,
at the heart,
at the foundation,
at the base
of what Paul
was calling Peter to do
was his heart's affection
for Christ.
over in Revelation,
as the Lord Jesus
wrote to one of the churches,
He says this,
I have something against you
because you have lost
your first love.
And so,
shepherding aims
at heart affection
for Christ
and a desire
to please Him.
Finally,
shepherding aims
at growing mature
and Christ-like believers.
You look there
in verse 13,
it says,
the knowledge
of the Son of God
to mature manhood
to the measure
of the stature
of the fullness
of Christ.
Behind the work
of any pastor
who is faithful
is an unrelenting
dependence
upon three agents
to do their work
in the life
of a believer.
And let me just
rattle these off.
One is the power
of the Word of God.
Pastor Saul
referenced it this morning
when he referred
to the passage
in 2 Corinthians 3,
verse 18,
where it said this,
we, beholding
His glory,
are transformed
from glory to glory.
Do you know
what it's saying?
It's saying that
the more we know
about Jesus,
the more we become
like Him.
And that's at the heart
of pastoral ministry.
I want you to know
more about Jesus.
I want you to love Him more.
I can't make that happen,
but I can encourage you.
I can model it.
I can draw you
to the Word of God
and say, listen,
He who has saved you
is worthy
of your infinite affection,
and someday
when you're in heaven,
you are just going
to be beyond yourself
with delight
and satisfaction
seeing Him.
And here in this life,
you should be growing
in your interest
in the person of Christ.
Secondly,
the power of the Spirit of God.
Three agents
that help you
in this growth process.
One's the power
of the Word of God.
Second is the power
of the Spirit of God.
2 Corinthians 3,
verse 18,
again,
the very last part
of the verse,
says,
talking about the fact
that it's the Lord,
the Spirit of God
that does this work in you.
And one of the ways
that you engage
and involve
the Spirit of God
is by pleading with Him
to do it.
And so if you're sitting
here this morning
and the truth of the matter
is your heart
is cold towards Christ,
what I would ask you
to do is suck it up
and say,
hey, listen,
I'm a mess,
do something.
I think sometimes
we're afraid to do that.
I've been debating
why that is.
And I'm not fully convinced
that the reason
we're afraid to do it
is because we're afraid
of what He will do.
That's not it.
I think we're afraid
that we'll come off
the little throne
we have established
for ourselves.
At the heart
of our hesitancy
is self-idolatry.
Lord,
I don't want to pray
and ask you
to do whatever it takes.
By the way,
would He ever do anything
nasty and wicked
and harsh to you?
And what's the answer?
He can't do it
because He's God.
Every stroke
from His hand
is marked
by His love.
And I would ask you,
plead with Him,
man,
I want to know
who Jesus is.
I want to be changed
by that knowledge.
The third agent
that God uses
is the people of God.
The people of God.
Acts chapter 4,
verse 32.
The people of God.
Hey,
you want to be a floater?
Do you know what I mean
by a floater?
This morning,
after the morning service,
I'm going to talk
to Tim and Julia.
I am embarrassing you,
Tim,
ahead of time,
so where are you?
Raise your hand.
Wave at me.
Tim and Julia
are going to get married
sometime in the distant future.
It's actually around February,
am I right?
And one of the things
I'm going to say
to this lovely young couple
and Tim is on my bad side
because he moved away
to get a job.
I don't understand this
but I'm glad.
I love you anyway.
But one of the things
I'm going to say
to Tim and Julia
is that next to
the relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ,
marriage can be
the most wonderful experience
this side of glory.
but it takes work.
It takes work.
You have to pursue
relationship
with the other person.
You have to be willing
to humble yourself.
You have to be willing
to invest in that process
over and over
and over again.
And so my plea
with you this morning
would be this,
that as you think about
what a pastor is to do,
you understand
that my divine appointment,
it is not something
that I arbitrarily chose.
It is not a career path.
Tim Knoyer
and anybody
that ever occupies
this pulpit
better be able to say
I was called
by God
to serve
as a shepherd.
And my calling
is to equip you
to do the work
that Christ
has called you to.
Let's close in prayer.
Precious Father,
we are thankful
that you
in your glorious wisdom
have given to us
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in your wisdom
you have drawn us together
and you have fit us
in to being
the body of Christ.
And you intend
for the body
to work
for the glory
of Christ.
There are some of us
here this morning,
Lord,
who have allowed
the enemy
of our souls
to rob us
of the joy
and the significance
that comes
from being engaged
in that work.
And for those,
I would plead this morning
that you would bring them
to repentance,
repentance,
to restitution
and reconciliation
that they would know
the full sweetness
that comes
with actively
and being involved
in the bride
of Christ.
And I have no doubt
that there are some
here today,
Christ,
that do not know you
as their Savior.
And it would be my plea
that this morning,
even with the preaching
of the Word of God,
that their heart
would be burdened
and miserable
with the sin
of their soul
and they would understand
that there is nothing
they can do
to remedy that burden
except to cry out
in broken humility
and say,
I stand morally bankrupt
before a holy God
and I have no hope
of an eternal destiny
in heaven
apart from what Christ did
when He died on the cross
and I plead with you
to save me.
And we pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.