Elder Installation (1 Peter 5:1-4)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
All right so had a big weekend we had a training weekend this Friday which is on marriage but that is not the only thing that makes this weekend really special for us uh today is a little bit different uh we're taking a break from the book of Philippians uh and we're going to uh spend some time today uh acknowledging celebrating and actually ordaining Isaac Hill as a pastor and installing him as an elder here at this Church so yes absolutely uh Isaac has been in the Elder and training process.
For the last four years and it's been a joy to watch him really grow and develop over the last few years um when he came on staff in 2020 and then entered into the Elder entering process uh I knew Isaac the least out of the four Elders uh Raz knew him the most and was gung-ho and will tell anyone who will listen that he is the one that made sure that we had Isaac on staff and to give him credit that is true and he advocated.
For it and uh and we quickly got to see uh the gift that he's been to our Church and the capacities in which he's served and kit City facilities and a whole list of other things he also entered into the Elder and training process which is a process that we take uh slowly and him starting out a little bit younger we took it even a little bit more slowly and we got to watch over the last four years so many things happen we got to watch character really show up in a lot of different ways we got to.
See him work in a lot of different capacities we got to see him serve and really step into uh shepherding and pastoring and today gets to be a celebration of that as we officially install him as an elder here in this Church now today functions a little bit like a wedding uh where I'm going to be uh preaching to Isaac directly so some of this just like I have a couple in front of me who's getting married I'm I'm preaching really to them about marriage.
But I'm also talking to the congregation as a whole about marriage I'm going to be talking to you a little bit about what it means to Shepherd here in this Church and also to the rest of our Church really giving you a window into what it means to Pastor what it means to be an elder what it means to to to Shepherd the flock as we're going to see in this passage in First Peter today so if you have a Bible you can go there.
Now it's on page 590 in the blue Bibles we're going to be in 1 Peter chapter 5 veres 1 through 4 I will read it and then we'll walk through this verse by verse to get a picture of what God is doing in his Church verse one so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow Elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed shepher the flock of.
God that is among you exercising oversight not under compulsion but willingly as God would have you not for shameful gain but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock and when the chief Shepherd appears you will receive the unfading Crown of Glory let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you that we have this passage that is a picture of who you are to your people and what you expect of Elders and pastors God I pray that you'd help us.
See that so beautifully today that that would give us another picture of the Gospel that you would help us sit in awe of you as we get ready to install our dear brother as an elder in this Church so Lord we love you we pray that you would do this in Jesus name amen all right so that first verse says so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow Elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.
Now out the gate you see those words that word twice Elder Elder some of you may be less familiar with this phrasing you may think know like a presbyterian thing or a Mormon thing it's not one of them gets it more right than the other but it's not we have Elders in this Church and what I appreciate about this passage is that Peter is an apostle I mean you read through the gospels and see how near to Christ Peter was he's an apostle and he really could Flex his apostleship here.
But he doesn't he is also a local Church Elder and he speaks about himself as a fellow Elder now this word Elder shows up in the New Testament and what it is is it's an office it's a position of leadership in the Church and we see that word really interchangeably with another word in the New Testament called overseer so Elder comes from the Greek word presbyteros uh overseer comes from the Greek word episcopos which is where you get the word uh a bishop from.
But you see these two words and then right alongside it in passages you see the word for shepherding which is where we get uh the word pastor Pastor in Latin is shepherding and we see all three of these that really kind of describe who this person is and what they are doing and you see all three In this passage as well so he exhorts uh the the elders here which is teaching not Just One Elder but a plurality of Elders that it's a team of Elders at these churches that Peter is writing to and that's clear throughout the New Testament.
When you get to the book of Acts when uh when Paul is giving a speech to the Ephesian Elders he says in verse 1 it says in verse 17 now uh from Myas he sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church to come to him there was multiple Elders in the Ephesian Church then when he's instructing Titus who's a Church planner in crate he says this is why I left you in crate so that you might put what remained into order and appoint Elders in every town as I directed you that you.
See that there's there's a plurality there's multiple Elders that are overseeing these churches the Scriptures teach this that it's not just one that it's a team of Elders which I appreciate I appreciate that on on a very practical level the the team approach to to pastoral Ministry uh that exists in our own Church I in uh May and June I'm going to take a sabatical I'm going to take uh two months to really step away from Ministry which I'm excited about and the good news is is that the wheels are not going to fall off.
When I'm gone it's just it's it's going to keep going and if I get hit by a bus which hopefully not if I get hit by a bus it'd be sad there be a season of of grieving hopefully a lot of mourning and grieving the the the the the sting being of loss would be so felt but you'd move on because it's not built on me I love that there's a team approach to how we preach here on Sundays that sh and I both share the load in preaching I love the fact that this Church is not built around one personality.
But it's built upon Christ and the team that he has raised up to lead this Church I appreciate the safeguards that are within that as we hold each other and check and hold each other accountable so when Isaac gets installed today he's going to be a part of the team he's going to be a fellow Elder and not an associate Elder not a junior Elder we don't have one lead Elder here we don't have one lead Pastor here we do have a lead pastor and a lead Shepherd and that is Christ.
But he's going to be an equal Authority with us leading together so that's why we're an elder Le Church and that's why we take the process of of really vetting eldership very seriously uh Isaac has gone through this elder and training process uh for four years and he's got to get some training and equipping on what it means to be a pastor but one of the main reasons the primary reason that it took so long it takes so long for anyone to be installed as an elder in this Church is.
Because the number one qualification for an elder is character it's character that that's the most important part of what it means to be an elder what it means to be an overy what it means to be a pastor you see this in a few passages I'm just going to mention one in 1 Timothy 3 it says this saying is trustworthy if anyone aspires to the office of overseer again this is overseer Elder he desires a noble task therefore an elder must be above reproach the husband of one wife sober minded self-control respectable hospitable able to teach not a drunker not violent mag gentle not corome not a lover of money and I'm cutting off there.
For the sake of time but the list keeps going you see this also in the book of Titus and what do you see in the majority of those qualifications each one is character-based right able to teach us some competency some ability but the rest of that's character and there's a reason for that there's a reason why we took this slowly is because we don't want to see character in just a few months or even a year we want to see it in a sustained stretch.
When you go through the highs and lows of life we want to see Isaac respond to difficult situations and the character that would come out of him we want to see that because Character Matters the problem is the problem is is that some churches will weigh competency and your abilities over character so you can preach get them up in front you got a good voice let a rip and the problem with that is that you've you've overly weighted someone's abilities over their character and a lot of stories of churches that have just gone up in Flames is.
Because someone's uh uh talents were apparent and they were elevated before the character was actually tested and in the economy of God's churches he doesn't let that go unshift if the character isn't there it will show up and that's why it's important for us to evaluate character so all of that is built into this word Elder okay as so as as he's saying Elders that's the the the theology that's built into this understanding of this office and leadership in the Church.
So when he says so I exhort the elders among you all that's imported as a fellow Elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed verse two Shepherd the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight not under compulsion but willingly as God would have you not for shameful gain but eagerly not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock now in this passage there's one Central Command there's one imp erative it's Shepherd the flock that is among you and everything else is built upon that command.
So all those phrases that follow exercising oversight not under compulsion but willingly these are all participles these are all these are all phrases that help really picture what it means to Shepherd so first we got to understand this command Shepherd the flock and then we got to go step by step and I'm and really explaining what the shepherding looks like so let's first understand what he means by Shepherd in this command Shepherd the flock that is among you or the primary jobs of an elder is shepherding and that's a metaphor isn't literal I'm not going to bring much a sheep out here at the end of this this is a metaphor that they would have.
Understood more so than we would and I mean we I don't I don't I don't know any Shepherds I don't think many of you know any Shepherds I mean some of you might live in pan and you might know some sheep herds which I can make that joke because my family's from pan we go way back there but I chances are you don't know any Shepherds we're not familiar with this we're not keeping sheep so this isn't this is less familiar.
For us so it's helpful to actually understand where they're coming from when they said when he says Shepherd the flock that is among you because they would have known what that is that was a common trade at the time this was uh something that you would have known a Shepherd who had a flock of sheep whether that he oversaw himself or he overa oversaw on behalf of someone else and he loved his sheep that's what they're known for they it's their livelihood they they they love them they care.
For them they tend to them they they take care of them one of the tools that's that's most common in shepherding is a shepherd's crook would look something like this and I appreciate this uh and how they would use this and really what it means to Shepherd because if you have a sheep that would go astray the reason it's got a hook at the end is because that you would kind of gently pull them back into the fold because you didn't want them going astray.
If they went astray they could get into trouble they could get hurt they could get devoured by a wolf now this one doesn't have a club at the end but there were some shepher Crooks that had clubs at the end and the reason why is because you needed to absolutely take out a wolf right this is also a protective so that you could protect your sheep from any uh enemies that might come in so this was something they use in order to help Shepherd their sheep and this metaphor would have been Vivid as soon as they would have heard Shepherd the flock that is among you they would have pictured a Shepherd they would have.
Pictured that tool tool and they would have known what it meant for a Shepherd to lead his sheep into Green Pastures what it meant to guide his sheep towards uh good Waters they they would have known what this is for someone to care deeply for their sheep would have meant to protect them from uh War wolves I mean because I mean look throughout the Scriptures Jacob was a Shepherd Moses was a Shepherd David was a Shepherd it's just something that was.
So familiar to them now why I use the shepherding word as a metaphor because in the Old Testament shepherding is a metaphor for two things first God as a Shepherd to his people and then second leaders who are UND Shepherds of God leading the people that's why in Psalm 23 you get this imagery of God as a Shepherd to his people in Psalm 23 when it says the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he makes me lie down and Green Pastures he leads me beside Still Waters.
God cares deeply about his people like a Shepherd who tends to his sheep they're his and he'll lead them towards good pastures he'll lead them towards good Waters he'll protect them from Evil and this metaphor is developed throughout the Scriptures of God as a Shepherd to his people and then it's also applied to his unders sheeper the leaders of Israel David is referred to as a Shepherd in 2 Samuel 52 it says the Lord said to you you shall be Shepherd Of My People Israel and you shall be Prince over Israel not just a king.
But a Shepherd who would take care of his people in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 34 the leaders of Israel being called out for how bad they've been leading and in Ezekiel 34 it says the word of the Lord came to me son of man prophesy against the Shepherds of Israel this leaders the Shepherds of Israel prophesy and say to them even to the Shepherds thus says the Lord a Shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves should not Shepherds feed the sheep he says y'all been fattening yourselves you've been taking care of yourselves you haven't been taking care of the ones that I've entrusted you to verse four the weak you have not strength.
Strengthen the sick you have not healed the injured you have not bound up the Stray you have not brought back the lost you have not sought and with the and with force and harshness you have ruled them says you're not leading your people like you're supposed to you're not caring for them like a Shepherd who loves his sheep and the Shepherds the leaders are called out in the Book of Ezekiel now when you get into the New Testament this metaphor continues and in Mark 6 as.
Jesus is getting ready to feed the five th000 it says when he saw when he went ashore and saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and they began to teach them many things that when he saw the crowds he saw a bunch of sheep that had no one to lead them and he had compassion on them and he taught them and he's getting ready to to begin his Church where he's going to have new unders sheeper they're going to take care of his people he develops this in John 10 which is what we read earlier I am the.
Good Shepherd Jesus says the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the Sheep verse 15 it says just as the father knows me and I know the father I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold which that's us you guys that's the Gentiles it's The Outsiders I'm assuming most of you don't have non-jewish background I may not know that but we are the Sheep not of his fault I must bring them also and they will.
Listen to my voice so there will be one flock one Shepherd Jesus there says two things beautifully one he is the Good Shepherd he is God he is whom Psalm 23 is prophesying about he's the he's the Good Shepherd second he lays down his life for the sheep and we see that beautifully when he goes to the cross and he lays down his life which we're going to celebrate so wonderfully Good Friday and when he rises from the grave which we'll celebrate on Easter.
When Jesus completes his work for his sheep for those who are harassed and helpless for those who didn't have a Shepherd when he lays down his life for us which pause for a moment just see how wonderful that is I mean goodness I mean sometimes we start to believe lies like God doesn't care about me God doesn't love me if you cared about my situation he'd do this if he cared about me he would do this and it's like no God does care he sees you in C.
If you belong to Christ you are a sheep you belong to him he loves you he cares for you he absolutely does but he says that he goes to the cross and then at the very end of the book of John when he's talking to Peter and he's instructing him one last time he tells Peter feed my Lambs feed my Lambs feed my sheep and that has to Echo so so deeply in his soul that when he writes this letter to these churches and he says Shepherd the flock of.
God that is among you all of that history all of that understanding is brought into this Shepherd the flock that is among you now that's the that's the main command now he's going to give some qualifications for what this command is supposed to be like how you're supposed to Shepherd the flock so Isaac this is going to be very much directed at you brother first one exercising oversight this comes from the same Greek word for overseer that we see in 1 Timothy 3 Elders are Shepherds and overseers the word.
For overseeing just means to give attention to to look at to take care of to keep watch over so overseeing really is is organizational leadership and Care kind of combined into one a few years a go uh well I'm going to tell this story and give the caveat three of us have a very similar version of this story so as I'm telling this just know it's kind of Mell it together that somehow we got to the bottom of how this story came up there was some controversy this weekend trying to figure out how this all went about.
But none of that's really important I just don't want to say this so confident like I'm telling you exactly how it happen just to give some caveats all right so a couple of years ago we are uh in the building right over here and walking by this door and the door is open and we look into the basement which that has a basement down there and we see a shimmer and it's not gold you guys it's sewer water that the sewer system in Casey just backed up and just flooded our basement with like four Ines deep of sewer water just wonderful I mean just you know you come in on a morning all excited ready.
To tackle the day and then boom day just completely altered kind of for one of us because Isaac immediately jumps into action steps into the nasty sewer water begins to try to Source it walks out the door finds where the where the drain is clogged gets his hands in get all the stuff out in the sewer water Waters Reed we actually got a new basement out it it was pretty pretty dope but that's the kind of stuff Isaac has been doing here he's just he's been doing that kind of stuff.
For years now as he Serv saw facilities um if you've been here long enough you remember our bathroom problems as we had the construction problems it was like once every like few months it's like out the toilets are backing up it's like all right Isaac's morning just got derailed moves from kids moves over starts fixing that we y'all we have literally we as a Church has been we he's he has saved us thousands of dollars by not having our contractors because we've just Isaac jump on in there and I've appreciated about that.
For years his problem solving ability the way he tackles things the way he uh his work ethic and really the organizational leadership not just in the tasks like that but also like in our organization as a whole one of the things that you if you know Isaac you know he has wisdom Beyond his years and it's shown up we're not super old but we're all mid-30s Isaac is in his 20s and as he's coming alongside of us every now and then he just would speak and be like we just man that's helpful speaking into how we organize speaking into how we do things it's been helpful to.
See that in Isaac you get to use that the same giftings that you have and being able to tackle issues and Tackle problems and caring for people but the difference is that people are not like a plumbing crisis they're not like a flight of stairs I love what Eugene Peterson says about pastoral Ministry says my job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy but to help them see the grace operating in their lives and it's true people aren't problems to solve they require love and they require patience kindness insight wisdom Direction and we get to be vessels.
For that of God's grace working in their lives and the reality is is just as you were like gungho ready to jump into the sewer Waters and to figure out what was happening there there can be situations where you jump into the sewer Waters of sin and you're just in in a situation that is very difficult and it takes a different set of skills that you've been growing and developing over these last few years of just carefully caring for people and shepherding them through anything that they might face.
So overseeing Souls is part of shepherding which is also what Paul articulates in his speech to the Ephesian Elders when he says in verse 28 of Acts 20 be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers to Shepherd the flock of God which he purchased with his own blood I know that after my departure Savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock that that see how overseeing and shepherding are are part the same cloth and it's caring.
For people it's making sure wolves false teachers don't come in this is what you're called to do what in a few moments you're going to be installed as an elder as an overseer of souls in this Church which for the rest of our Church family if you're a member of this Church family this is something that you you should see in a few moments he's going to be installed as an elder which means that you're going to be submitting to his leadership as an elder and the book of Hebrews chapter 13 says oh obey your leaders and submit to them.
For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account let them do this with joy and not groaning for that would be of no advantage to you that we install him as an elder in a few months a leader in this Church you get to submit to him as a pastor here as he cares for your soul and that also means that Matt I'm not Matt Matt May Spencer Chad Raz who I saw in this room somewhere no all right there he is Raz back there four Elders here that we're also going to be submitting to Isaac.
Because again we we mutually submit to one another as well even as Elders so that's part of overseeing all right this next next aspect of shepherding he says not under compulsion but willingly as God would would have you not under compulsion but willingly as God would have you I appreciate how you've taken this process seriously these last few years as you've discerned the calling and really the aspiration uh uh to becoming an overseers as 1 Timothy 3 articulates you have to want this you have to desire this and and and and that's necessary.
Because you've been near to us these last four years and you've got to see how Jo ful it is to Shepherd God's people and how hard it is to Shepherd God's people how hard it is to see people that you love so deeply we love our Church I love this Church so much it is so painful when you Shepherd someone you love so deeply and you watch them reject Jesus and chase after sin it is it is it is hard when you are lovingly trying to help someone Point them to Christ and they lash out at you or they're harsh with you or they take shots at you it is hard.
When you're trying to navigate conflict between two people and and When sin is present people can be so hateful and so hurtful and to be in the middle of that and try to point them both to Christ when they both just hate each other is so difficult there's a reason why recent polling says that 38% of American pastors are ready to walk away they're ready to walk away from the ministry altogether and the stats on their physical health emotional health overall health is just poor it's hard you have to want to do this you have to really Aspire and say I want to do this I want to own this calling you do that all.
With a Target on your back because the enemy would love nothing more to take you out one of the easiest ways to disperse the flock is to District the shepherd and we've seen that practically if you've ever seen a Church where the pastor fell into moral failure or they LED in a domineering way you've seen what happens afterwards as people begin to question their faith all together so you have to want this it's a calling and if you are called into this by the power of the Holy Spirit as you oversee you have you grow thick skin and you keep a soft heart and you stay by the power of the Holy Spirit resilient through.
It all there are much easier callings that won't take the spiritual weight and stress that comes with all of it but you have to want it and that's what I've appreciated so much even the last year in walking with you and Discerning do you actually want this is God calling you to this and it's been clear these last six months this is what God wants you to do so we do it we own it not under compulsion and then Peter continues he says not.
For shameful game but eagerly so not for shameful game but eagerly now you know this there ain't a lot of money in this gig it's just not you you don't do this for the money you locked yourself into you Isaac you're gifted you could have gone and done construction you could go and on a construction business and make buus and money not here there going to be times where you're going have to scrape to get by where you're look at that budget and you.
See that grocery budget right now it's just that's a part of it that's what you are stepping into now here's the good news I know you well enough to know that really out of four of us I I I have been very encouraged by your contentment like Isaac owns Five t-shirts four of them four of them I think Ras gave to him someone someone this morning someone this morning complimented that he's the only Pastor wearing green and it's like like he meant to do that that's one of two shirts he has that are nice we've had to tell him hey bud you need to get tennis shoes that aren't like he come up on stage.
And he's got a tennis shoe that's like a toes popping out of it's like no like dude so I I this is not I'm I know you well enough at this point to know that this is probably not going to be an area where you're going to be tempted but there have been a lot of pastors who have been tempted by greed who who have seen other people's lives and coveted other things and have been and have just been frustrated have made bad decisions in their frustrations.
Because they worship other things other than God now I don't think that shameful gain for money is going to be the thing that tempts you but there may be a shameful gain for other things be it honor or approval or control or power but we are on guarded and watching the things in our souls that we might want shamefully the next description of good shepherding that he lays out in verse three is not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock.
So not domineering but being examples there's a great deal of trust that is given to us as pastors and we're telling our Church family in a moment to submit to you as a pastor and that trust it can be abused I mean you you can take people's trust and and use it for your own interest you can use it to steamroll someone to get what you want to make something happen that is something that can happen and listen in pastoral Ministry you can get short-term games you can grow a Church real quickly by just getting people to do what you want.
But it never works because that's not how God has designed pastors to lead we don't domineer other people we don't steamroll people we don't get them and force them to do what we want no the model of shepherding that we are called to in leadership is servant leadership that is what Christ did it is servant leadership it is the example of saying come follow me as I follow Christ just follow me as I follow Christ this is where we're going we're chasing after our chief Shepherd we're going after Christ follow me as you follow Christ Isaac the reason on a busy week.
Because you are a busy man and you ever see quite a few things the reason that you'll carve out of your busy schedule a day to go help your dad at bethl is not because your dad is going to be disappointed if you don't come it's not because he's gonna be mad or he's gonna he's going to show frustration or he's gonna he he's not the reason that you're willing to carve out a day to go help your dad at bethl is.
Because you love your dad and you know your dad loves you and you know your dad would run through a wall for you and you'd run through a wall for him that's shepherding it is loving people so well and running through a wall for them be it sin be it Brokenness be it the the condemnation of the enemy and saying follow me as I follow Christ follow me as I follow Christ we we're going after him I love you come that is what shepherding is.
God willing if you get to spend the next 10 20 30 40 50 years of doing just that faith f with your hand to the plow not looking back there will be a day when that will be rewarded and that's what we see in verse four and when the chief Shepherd appears you will receive the unfading Crown of Glory when the chief Shepherd appears when our chief Shepherd Christ appears you as an Under Shepherd who has Faithfully undertaken the task of shepherding God's people will receive the unfading Crown of Glory it is a blessing and a gift to be able to Shepherd God's people it is a blessing to be able to lead God's people.
It is a blessing to be able to to teach them to care for them to point them towards our chief Shepherd but when our chief Shepherd appears when Christ appears and comes back or if when we die and we see him face to face whenever that is that expectation of his coming and that expectation of seeing him all along the way we stay diligent we don't stop we stay after it we commit ourselves to this I love the phrasing what I read earlier in Hebrews uh chapter 13.
When it says obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your soul that word for keeping watch is the night watch it's the person who stays up through the night to make sure that if any enemies are coming to make sure they're caring for those who they're overseeing that's what we get to do God will for 10 20 30 40 50 years or the night watch and we labor we should be tired I'm tired after this week I'm that's.
Okay at the end of 30 or 40 or 50 years this should be a little bit tired because it's worth it because of the calling that God calls us to and if you do that and you do it Faithfully there's an unfading Crown of Glory and I don't know what that is it's a I don't I don't know I don't know what it is but if our God says it's unfading and it's a crown it must be good so brother we have this tiny portion of the greater flock of.
God flock of God that those are birds fold of God we have this tiny P portion that we get to oversee and we get to Shepherd and we get to love and we get to lead and if we do that Faithfully there is a reward that is coming the crown is there and if you are ready to own that we are ready to have you so I'm going to invite you to come up along with our elders all right you guys get a little bit you guys get a little bit closer all right this is G be on the screen as.
Well Isaac Do You Believe by God's grace in your life that you meet the qualifications laid out in Scripture for an elder and have not hidden sin in order to serve in this capacity Isaac do you commit yourself to God's word to study it meditate on it and cherish it striving to mold your life to its instruction and actively seeking to to train others to do the same Isaac do you commit yourself to keep a close watch on yourself and your sin being quick to repent.
When an erir Isaac do you commit to keep a close watch over M City Church sacrificially loving serving and leading those to whom God's Holy Spirit has seen fit to make you an overseer and Isaac have you committed your life to Jesus Above All Else believing only in the Gospel and not your good works efforts or success and Ministry for your salvation I all right so this is for our committed members Church family I'm going to ask you a question and you can respond by God's grace we do Church family do we commit under the authority of the word of.
God to submit ourselves to Isaac's Direction and seek to make his time serving here one of Joy by God God's grace we do Isaac by God's grace and through Jesus Christ we commission you to serve alongside us as an elder of mil City Church as God's Steward over his beloved Church sacrificially loving serving and leading those to whom he has assigned us for as long as God and His grace allows us so Matt we got uh a gift for you Isaac this is a little bit special uh this was given to your grandfather uh and recognition of his years of shepherding and we have personalized it.
For you as a reminder of the calling that you were stepping into so brother we are we're this is a joyful moment for us I'm going have Chad pray over you I mean for our whole Church too just recognizing us Jesus we love you you and we love your Church and we love the the portion of your Church that we get to call our Church family and we love Isaac and we're thankful for him and Isaac we commission you in the name of.
Jesus by his kingdom and by his appearing that you might join and shepherding our Church family that you might submit yourself to the will of God and Lord we pray that your Holy Spirit would Empower and bless and work through Isaac to love and to serve and to care for your Church that you might use him for your glory and for your good and for the good of your people that he might be spent for those who belong to you and that you might guard him.
Lord we entrust him to you that you would guard his heart and his steps that you would help him to lead his family and Lead this Church and that you would help him to serve and that he would wear himself out for your name and your kingdom and your glory and your people may you bless Isaac may you bless his household may you bless this Church Lord we are your people and we need your help so may you care well for us may we serve.
Well for your name and your glory and we hand Isaac and this Church to you in Jesus name amen amen that's.
Elder installation
Transcript
Well, good morning. Like I said, my name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Today is an exciting day in the life of our church. We are installing Spencer Carey as an elder. And so it's going to be a good morning for us.
We are taking a break from our time in Genesis to install Spencer. He's been doing pastor and training stuff with us for a couple of years. And a lot has gone into this, and we're excited to be able to do this this morning. I hope everybody made it safely through the great mist of 2018. I know that if you live closer to the coast or have family that way, that there has been some significant damage in that direction, although we didn't catch the brunt of it. So thank the Lord for that, for Columbia.
So a little bit about what we're going to do today. It's going to be kind of like a wedding, because in some ways Spencer is going to be committing himself to our church family. And us as a church family, we're going to commit ourselves to Spencer. So there'll be times where I'm talking to us as a church family. There'll be times where I'm just talking generally from what the Bible says. There'll be times where I'm specifically addressing Spencer.
And so in similar ways, when I get to do a wedding, the couple stands. And then there are times where I'm talking to everybody, just kind of what the Bible says. There are other times where I specifically address the couple. Except for today, I think that as we specifically address Spencer, he'll listen. The couple at a wedding usually doesn't. They're just kind of staring doughy-eyed at each other.
But I don't think Spencer's going to be doing that with you all right now. So hopefully he'll listen as we kind of walk through this. I got to meet Spencer in college. And it took us a while to kind of admit it to each other after he had been hanging out here. But we did not appreciate each other's company in college, which I think is a testament both to our judge of character in college and our general attitudes towards humans.
And so we've grown since then. We like each other now. And Spencer's been around for a while. He felt called to plant in Lexington. And so he moved from Sojourn from Louisville, Kentucky, where he was going to Sojourn. No, Sojourn was the church.
Sorry, Southern Seminary is what I'm trying to say. Sojourn was the church he was a part of. Moved from Southern Seminary to be here to plant in Lexington. Called us up because somebody said, Hey, well, there's some guys that are planting a church. You should get to know them. He said, Well, I already kind of know them.
But he had to have a sponsor church. So he thought, Well, maybe these morons will sponsor me and we can go ahead and plant our church. And so we met and it turns out we had a lot in common. We had a lot that we believed similarly about how to pursue the mission and to worship Jesus and to mobilize people and make disciples. And so Spencer started hanging around. Eventually he started feeling like he was actually called to be here.
And that was an exciting moment for our church. And now as he's been doing pastor and training, we are going to install him today. So I want to go ahead and tell you a few things. One that Spencer's already done for our church. One of the things that he did pretty early on was he and he treated it like it was a gospel issue that we have better coffee on Sundays. So he used to be a barista or a barista.
I don't know. He's a guy. I don't know how that works. And he he he kind of just said, We can't drink this. If we believe all the things that the Bible says about how God's good creation, we can't be drinking this on Sundays. And we're like, What?
It's like seven week old Maxwell House. I don't understand what the problem is. And so we've gotten better coffee. He he fought hard for liturgy, which means a set order to worship. It stresses him out any time that we kind of break from that. But he's he fought hard for that.
So if you like responsive readings, you can thank Spencer. If you're like me and they make you uncomfortable, you can thank Spencer. I remember when he would say he's like, Why don't you all do responsive readings? And the answer was basically, I don't like them. And he was like, Well, you know, the Bible, he like went. He pulled the Bible out on us.
And he was like, You know, the Bible says for us to read together, for us to devote ourselves to the reading of scriptures. And I was like, Yeah, but they make me uncomfortable. And so since we didn't have a good point and he did, we've started doing them. And they've actually been really good and helpful. And I do appreciate them now. Other things that we have in liturgy are when Spencer gets up here and says he's going to give us a benediction, which is a blessing for the road.
And we had to tell him, Stop saying that. Just do it. Just say the benediction. He also fought really hard for shorter sermons. And I know some of y'all have been hanging around for a little while and you're like, These are the short ones. Yes, these are the short ones.
These are the shorter sermons. He's done a lot with shepherding and member care. I will also say that we have already made some allowances for Spencer that we hadn't made for other pastors. Everybody who's a pastor so far, the way we did email addresses was your first initial and your last name. But Spencer's name is Spencer and his last name is Carrie.
And he was really up in arms about having scary at millcitycolumbia.com be his email handle. So we already changed that up for him. So here's what we're going to do today. We're going to look briefly. I thought it was an awesome email address. We're going to look briefly.
I was like, didn't your parents do that on purpose? We're going to look briefly at three different passages. The New Testament has a lot to say about pastors and about what the church is supposed to look like. The New Testament church. And we're going to look briefly at three different passages that just deal with the kind of the role of the office of pastor, of elder. And we're going to talk through that this morning.
And then kind of at the end of our time, we're going to call Spencer up here and we're going to go through a list of things that he's going to commit himself to. And then we're going to commit ourselves to him as a church and he will be installed in our church as an elder. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump in. God, we thank you for this time and we thank you for what it means for the life of our church. We pray that we'd honor you well as we study your word together this morning and as we install Spencer as a pastor of our church. Thank you.
And in Jesus name. Amen. Grab your Bibles, go to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter one. It's going to be on page 579. If you have a Bible that looks like this.
And we're going to pick up in verse five. So we're going to talk briefly about the character of a pastor, kind of what the Bible outlines. There's several passages that do this. We're going to look at Titus today. Before we do that, I want to answer kind of a big question for us. So he says in verse five, this is why I left you in Crete.
That's where Titus is so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. OK, so what happens is the New Testament, Paul and the other apostles travel around. They share the gospel. People believe the gospel. People become Christians and become disciples of Jesus. And then it would say that they would come back through and kind of appoint elders, make sure that all the local churches and all the churches in all these cities had some organization, had some leadership.
And so that's what's happening here. And so today we will install. We will appoint Spencer as an elder. Now, for some of us, that word, we're not really familiar with the word elder. We use that term interchangeably here at our church. So the Bible also uses it interchangeably.
The word elder overseer are different words in the Greek, but they're used interchangeably. And we also use the word pastor. And so those are all three different words in the New Testament that are used to describe this kind of same role, the same office, this same thing that people are supposed to do. And so we interchange them. Now, some people look at that and go, OK, doesn't elder mean older? And then you might look at us and say, you don't look older, to which I would respond.
Thank you. I moisturize. I appreciate that. No, I would respond. We aren't that old. We are on the young end of kind of pastoring.
We're on the far end of this. And here's the thing. The term does mean older. And it originally meant in the Old Testament, you're going to see it means all the older people, all the heads of families were called together. But as it comes into the New Testament, it is only ever used as an office.
Similar to our term senator. Same root word is senile. Same same root word. It means older. But now we just use it as an office.
And that's how the New Testament uses this. And the primary thrust of what the Bible calls for from an elder is not physical age, but spiritual maturity. And so that's why he lists off these qualifications. In these qualifications, there is a call for maturity, but never a specific age. So that there can be people who are young and spiritually mature, old and not spiritually mature.
And the hope is that we would grow as we are young pastors. We would grow to be more spiritually mature over time. As we age. So here's what he says. Verse six. If anyone is above reproach, means nobody can bring any kind of claim against them.
The husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer as God's steward, meaning that he's a stand in for God. The person who's overseeing a church, an elder, a pastor, is handling God's people, God's word. He's not in charge. He works for God. Must be above reproach.
He must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain. But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he might be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So let's talk briefly about the character outlined for a pastor. So these are character qualifications.
There's only one in here that is a skill, which is the ability to instruct, the ability to correct. The rest of them are character, character qualifications that you have to see over time that wouldn't show up on a resume. So here's what it says. It says if you're above reproach. This is actually why as we went to install Spencer, we would announce we're going to install him on the 23rd. If you have anything to bring against him, anything that he has done, any slight, we need to know about it so that we can approach it, that we can talk to him about it, that we can correct it.
And that we see that he seems eligible for this, but we want to make sure that he hasn't been wronging and harming people in other areas. It says the husband of one wife, which means a one-woman man. This has been an honor to see how Spencer pursues his wife there. He's very busy. He does a couple of days here serving. He teaches often here, which takes a lot of his time.
He works with our member care and shepherding. He's put a lot of work into that, and then he does real estate, which keeps him very busy. And so there's often days where he's here working. He goes and does some showings. He goes and does some pastoral care. He gets home late, and he has to be very intentional with his wife, Anna, and it has been beautiful to see how intentional they are to spend time together, to date one another, to enjoy one another.
But it says husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 1 Timothy 3, which also outlines character qualifications, says that manages his household well and his children are submissive. And so one of the things we see is that one of the first realms that you pastor is your home. And so we did not, when I first became a pastor here, who's considerably younger than I am now, didn't have any children. So now that qualification matters more because I have to keep my children submissive.
At some point, my son, he's three. He can't really be open to the charge of debauchery, although he did feel a little insubordinate last night before he went to bed. But we handled it. Boy, you're being insubordinate and churlish. Like, we walked through this with him. But what it means is that you manage your household well, that your children grow up.
And this is one of the things that we talk about on a regular basis as pastors is that as our children get older, there may be a season where we say, hey, guys, I no longer meet these qualifications. I have children who are rebelling, who are pursuing open, flagrant sin. They're not submissive. I'm not leading my household well. And I need to step back. We talk about that regularly.
This is the thing that we need to be prepared for. This is one of the reasons why not only do we believe it's biblical that we would have multiple pastors. Some people would look and say, you're going to have four pastors for this size church. And our answer is yes, because we believe that elders are supposed to be plural. That's why he says appoint elders in every town, that there should be more than one. And we believe that it's healthy.
It's helpful. It gives us room to shepherd our families well. It gives us the ability to shepherd each other, to be accountable. But there may be seasons where we have to walk through that. For an overseer, God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable.
He must have his home open to people. He must love good, be self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. So that those who are to lead the church are meant to be, they don't eat too much. They don't drink too much. They're not too aggressive. They're not too loud.
They're tempered. They control themselves. That they're disciplined. That they might set an example. Then he says he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also able to rebuke those who contradict it.
So there ought to be an exemplary character and a love for the scriptures and an ability to rightly teach and correct. We take this very seriously here. If there's two kind of caricatures of pastors, maybe many of you have grown up and you've known pastors who are really genuinely good people. They loved the Lord. They were humble. They were gracious.
They were caring. And that's one picture we have of pastor. The other one is that pastors are messed up. They're sneaky. They're greedy. They're power hungry.
I know that that's in me. When I meet somebody and they say they're a pastor, I'm like, okay, well, you might be weird. And I feel bad that I feel like that because I know I tell people I'm a pastor and I assume they think maybe the same thing. It's like, okay, weirdo. We'll see. But that's the thing.
And so we take it very seriously that we would uphold and display what God has intended. I want to turn. I'm going to talk a little bit more about this, but I want us to turn to the next place before I do. So we're going to look at the commitment of a pastor. So we're going to go to Hebrews 13.
So just a few pages over. And again, there's a lot of different passages, but I wanted to highlight a few things. So the Bible says that the pastor should have a godly character. And then it talks about how we are to commit both to the pastor and the pastor commits to us. And so I want to talk about, Spencer, what you're committing to today and what we as a church are committing to today. Because we are, as a church family, making a commitment when we install a new pastor.
And Spencer today will be making a commitment to us. So let's look. We're going to read a couple of verses and we're going to jump kind of a section and read another couple of verses. Because Paul introduces this idea. He talks about some specifics for this church. And then he kind of closes with this idea.
So we're going to verse 7. He says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. I didn't have this on there, but I want us to read verse 9 as well. It says, do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings.
Okay, I just want to read that because it's going to apply to something we're about to have to read in here on verse 17. So verse 17 says this, and this is to the church. The church was talking to us collectively as a church family. Obey your leaders and submit to them. For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning.
For that would be of no advantage to you. So if you're part of our church family, if you've committed to membership here. One of the things that happens when we install a new elder leader in our church family is that this applies. That we would obey and submit to our leaders. Now, as a pastor here, I wish that was worded differently. I wish it said like, consider it, but you still make the call.
Like, you know, think about it. They've probably been studying stuff, but don't overdo what they say. But that's not what it says. It says obey and submit to them because they're going to be held accountable. That's what the passage says. That's scary to me.
And this is another reason why we take eldership really slowly here. One of the phrases we use is we take it slower than we want to take it. I think Spencer could have been ordained a while back. The truth is if he can be ordained now, he could have been ordained earlier. That's usually how that works. Could have been installed earlier.
We actually had people, I had somebody in my group come to me and say, why isn't Spencer a pastor yet? And she was like, he's the best one we have and he's not even a pastor. And I was like, you said that right to my face. Like, I'm here. You're talking to me. And the answer is twofold.
One, character can only be seen over time. So he just said, remember their way of life. We have to watch way of life. We could tell Spencer could preach when he showed up. I remember the first time he preached when we were doing teacher development. I thought, yeah, we could listen to this guy.
You could listen to this guy week after week. That was helpful. That was good. That was encouraging. But there's certain things that don't show up on a resume that aren't going to show up as you get to talk to somebody.
And that's character. You have to see him in seasons of life. Are they consistently faithful? Do they love their spouse? How do they handle it when they don't have any money? How do they handle it when their child is going through a really difficult stage?
How do they handle it when they're sick? How do they handle it? Character only unfolds over time. So there's no way to do that quickly. Secondly, after we install him today, we as a church family have to obey and submit to him. And we want to make sure he's got some sense.
Because that would be really difficult to do. We want to see that. We take that very, that's a very weighty thing that we would say that we believe that we're going to, he's going to be my pastor after the day. I'm going to have to submit to his leadership. We wanted to watch and see, can we do that now? I've been submitting to some of his leadership.
I've been obeying some of the things that he lays out because he's got wisdom and he handles the Bible well. But we're co-signing that as a leadership team, as an elder team for the rest of our church family. And we want to take that really slowly. And the other thing that we have to see is that the, as Matthew 20 says, Jesus says, I didn't come to be served, but to serve, to give up my life as a ransom for many. What he says is that the leaders of you should be your slaves. The first among you should be last.
So what happens is Spencer's about to move into a position where he can lean into the fact that our church family is supposed to obey and submit to him. And he can do that as someone who is power hungry and loves authority. Or he can do that as someone who understands that his role is a servant. He's meant to die to himself on behalf of those that he serves because they belong to Jesus. One of the things we say often is if you can't take the trash out, you can't lead a church. You can't be an elder.
Or if you can't serve, you don't get to do anything else. Because it seems from a worldly perspective as if he's moving up in the ranks. But biblically, that's flipped upside down and he's moving down to be a slave to more people, to serve more people. So the Bible says, obey your leaders. Now, that does not mean check your brain at the door. We just read where it says, don't be led astray by diverse and strange teachings.
So he says, don't be led astray, obey and submit to your leaders. So what he's saying is biblical, healthy, godly leadership is what we follow. That we open the Bible. There's a reason why we set this out in the middle of everything. And we open the Bible up and we set it on here because this is what is leading us. This is what is teaching us.
God through his Holy Spirit, as he empowers his word, I could fall over dead. And what is important is still here. And so we follow the leadership that's outlined for us in scripture. But there are places where pastors have to make house rules. Because the Bible tells us certain things we're supposed to do and certain things we're not supposed to do. And then there's some areas where we got to make some calls.
Give you an example. It's kind of like parenting. When I was growing up, I had to be in bed at nine o'clock. All the way until I left my father's house. Eighteen years old. At a nine o'clock bedtime.
A little more lax on the weekends and during the summer. But not real lax. Just a little more. During school, nine o'clock, go to bed. You could get away with it a little more if you weren't annoying him. You could push it to like 9.15 or 9.30.
But if he like, if you bothered him, it was close. Bedtime. Now, as a house rule. At your house, you may not have had that rule. I was called to obey my parents. He said, go to bed at nine.
If I stayed up, if he told me to go to bed, and I said, no, I'm sinning. If I was up at ten in rebellion against my father, I'm sinning. Now, at your house, where you had no curfew, you weren't. Because it wasn't a house rule. You were supposed to obey your parents. They said, show up by three.
I remember when I first started dating my wife, Anna. And I said, what time do you need to be home? Because I was trying to, you know. She said, I don't have a curfew. And I was like, your parents hate you. Truth was, she had never done anything that had to be restricted.
She behaved herself. Phillip's voice, home at nine, in bed. There were restrictions at my house. And this messed me up. Because I was in college. And at 9.30, my body started to shut down.
I'd been going to bed at nine o'clock my entire life. People were like, you want to do stuff? And I'd be like, yeah, it sounds. My body's like, what are you doing? You're going to die. I'm like, you know what?
I'll catch you later. I've got to go to sleep. My roommate my freshman year hated me. And he moved out. And it was nice. I had my own room.
And I went to bed at nine. And he didn't make any noise. There are house rules. One of the house rules we have as a church family is our community groups. The Bible does not say you have to be in a group. People ask us this all the time.
What does the Bible say you have to do that? No, it doesn't. But the Bible does say that we're to love one another. We're to serve one another. We're to bear with one another. We're to forgive one another.
We're to be hospitable to one another. And we live in a culture where you are never forced to do any of those things. There's another church right down the road. So as soon as something gets difficult, you don't have to forgive. You can go over there. You can go over there and tell them how terrible everybody was here.
And you know what that church will say? We're so sorry. Because they want to put on a good impression of Christ to you. And they'll say, well, we love you. We'd never do that. And they're well-meaning.
But the truth is you should have stayed here and repented. Or you should have stayed at your last church and repented. We're called to do all these things. And we live in a culture where you don't have to. You can go home and watch, friends. You don't have to have any.
My brother, when they canceled the show The Office, he said, I feel like I've lost a lot of my friends. And I'm not going to see him all the time anymore. Then Netflix came out, and he's fine, you guys. So we say you need to be in a group. Because we're trying to apply what the Bible said. So we made a house rule to help us accomplish what we think we're supposed to do.
And so when the Bible says obey your leaders and submit to them, there are places where that shows up. And that means there are going to be times where, as a church family, we disagree. That's what submission is. It doesn't say agree with your leaders. It says obey, submit. And so we take our time to try to figure out, this person loves Jesus.
Does he love the word? Are we in agreement on how this plays out? Because the truth is, since there are house rules, Spencer might be installable elsewhere, but not here. Because we disagree on what the Bible is saying and how we ought to live that out. So we take our time.
But here's what it says. The two commitments that the church family is making and that we'll make later, we'll actually read and we'll kind of say, by God's grace, that we will. Is we're committing today to obey and submit to Spencer. And then it says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. So some of us maybe said, okay, well, I'll obey, I'll submit.
But man, am I going to make that awful. And the truth is, it's not what he says. It says, let them do it with joy. Spencer's supposed to be here. If he's supposed to be here, if he's supposed to serve, he's supposed to do this. Then we want him to do it with joy.
We want him to do it not begrudgingly. We want him to show up excited to be a part of this church family and to serve this church family and to slave for this church family. We want that to be a joy because it does us no good if he's bitter and unhappy, if he's frustrated. That is not how you want your pastors to be. So as a church family, we're designed, supposed to make things joyful.
Now, as a pastor, I want to give you a few tips on how to do this. One, if you are frustrated or hurt by something that one of your pastors has done, just go talk to them. It's one of the best ways to make bleeding a joy. Because someone sitting you down and saying, hey, you hurt my feelings. It's so much easier. It's so much biblical.
So what we're supposed to walk through. There are times where somebody sat me down and said, I think you need to repent. And when they got up, I was like, you're right, I do. I do need to repent. I handled that poorly. My thinking on that's been wrong.
And I get to grow and we get to move forward together in love. Being frustrated and complaining and whispering to other people doesn't help us grow. It doesn't model the gospel. It doesn't display anything good. So when you're frustrated, go talk to the pastor.
Whichever pastor it is. It's probably razz. Go talk to him. Sorry. I do remember I've had people sit down with me and after doing that, because they did it, they thought it was biblical, they knew they were supposed to, they sat down and afterwards said, that wasn't that bad. It's like, yeah, I just look angry.
I'm actually not a terrible person. Tell your friends. Encourage. When you see something that is encourageable, encourage. Fan the flame. When Spencer, and be specific.
When he does something that's helpful or encouraging or blessed you or you see Jesus at work in him, tell him. Because the truth is, often we as pastors run around, we get to work and serve. We've been called to this. We work and serve with everybody who's hurting. Everybody's weak. Everybody's frustrated.
Everybody's in the midst of sin. And we may spend a week, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, just doing that. And if you're doing well and you see Jesus at work in your life, you see Jesus at work in your group, just grab a pastor sometime and just say, hey, I just want to let you know how this is working and how this is going. Grab Spencer at some point and say that to him, because that helps make this a joy. Spencer. Verse 17.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. You are committing today to care for the souls of Mill City Church. This is one of the reasons why we do membership is that we want people to actually look and say, no, I commit to this. I believe in Jesus. I'm going to be here. I'm going to belong.
We don't know how it works. We know that as pastors, we're saying we're in charge of care for souls, eternal souls that will exist either in hell or in heaven with Christ and that one day we will stand before God and we will give an account. Not just for how we care for souls, but also the Bible tells us we have a stricter judgment for those who teach that we actually studied, that we actually tried, that we actually were as clear as we could on what the Bible says. But there's going to be a time, and I don't know if we get to go in together, I don't know if the four pastors of Mill City Church are going to stand shoulder to shoulder, I don't know if they're going to read off a list of names, I don't know how it's going to work, but we're going to stand before God and be accountable for souls.
Spencer, you're committing to that today, to have a moment in judgment that otherwise wouldn't exist, to have a moment in our judgment before God that wouldn't be there outside of accepting the call that you think he's placed on your life to do this. To stand before him and say, I wasn't just distracted, I wasn't just in it for gain, I wasn't just in it, but I was praying, and I was weeping, and I was trying, and I was studying, and I was pouring myself out. Because he knows. We can fake it in front of people, but he knows. That's what Peter says, one day the chief shepherd's going to show up, and we're going to be held accountable.
So that's what you're committing to in church family, that's what we're committing to. Turn to Acts chapter 20, it's one of my favorite passages in the Bible, it's where Paul calls together the Ephesians elders, so it's going to be back to the left. This is kind of some of the stories from the early church, after Christ had died on the cross, after he had risen from the grave, and the church had been commissioned and sent out into the world. So we're going to talk about the charge, kind of the commission or the task of a pastor. And yes, they were all three C's, because once you do two C's, you have to do a third one or you get in trouble.
So the charge, what we're called to do. So we're just going to read this passage, and we're going to make some observations about what this is supposed to look like. So verse 26, Paul's called together the elders of a church, the pastors of a church, he's going to call them elders, he's going to call them overseers. We said that's interchangeable. Verse 26. Therefore, I testify to you this day, that I am innocent of the blood of all.
For I did not shrink from declaring you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to 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. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
So look back at the first thing that Paul says. He says, I'm innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. And so as we stand accountable for souls, what he's saying is that we, Paul says, I'm innocent because I read, studied, knew my Bible and proclaimed my Bible to everybody. I didn't shrink from even saying things that were unpopular or disliked. I proclaimed what was true. One of the most frustrating things, Spencer, is that we cannot help people repent.
We can't make them see it. We just get to say it. We just get to plead with people. We get to sit them down and say, this is what the Bible says. And this is where you're headed. And this is where destruction lies ahead for you.
And they don't see it. They don't believe it. Some of the stuff we tell people sounds crazy about marriage, about sexuality. Paul says he didn't shrink from it. He proclaimed it. And then he can walk away without having the blood of others hanging over his head.
So the first charge I would say for a pastor is that we would know our Bibles, love our Bibles, and proclaim from our Bibles. We would know it. We'd memorize it. We'd believe it. We'd trust it. In Paul's letters to Timothy, he says, I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom, which about as many things as Paul could think of, all the things you could charge someone by, he pulls them together and he says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
Then he says, until I come, this is in another passage, I devote yourself to the public readings of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. This is one of the ones that Spencer cited on us that said we had to publicly read scripture. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. We as pastors are supposed to grow in being Bible people. We're supposed to grow in it.
Progress should be seen. From what I understand, this is already true for Spencer. One of his first sermons he got to preach, he talked about the cross and repeated the phrase, gaze upon the carnage so many times that it made people very uncomfortable, but not in a good, here's the gospel way uncomfortable, just in a, you probably should stop saying that way uncomfortable. I'm sure there are more, but that's the one I wanted to talk about. But that this should be a thing that growth is seen, that we grow as men who love and trust our Bibles and proclaim our Bibles.
Because what else are we going to proclaim from? We do not have sufficient wisdom, but the Bible makes the simple wise. And there's our hope. Verse 28. So we would be Bible people.
Secondly, he says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to 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. So Spencer, you have to commit today to watch your own soul, to pay careful attention to your own sin, to your own proclivities, to your own desire for evil. And then pay careful attention for God's people, that you would love them, that you would care about them, know them, pray for them. They belong to Jesus. He purchased them with his blood. Then he says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
Therefore, be alert, remembering for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. So that today you commit yourself to a group of people that you might love, that you might proclaim the word of God to them, that you might weep for them. I remember when I was first doing some internships with Midtown Fellowship, the pastors there said that they felt like pastoring a lot of times was standing next to somebody on top of a roof saying, don't jump. Please don't jump. I can tell you how far it is down there. I can tell you what happens when you land.
I can tell you why jumping is a terrible idea. Please don't jump. And then watching them jump and then immediately saying, okay, I'll meet you at the bottom. That's what Paul says. I didn't cease to admonish with tears to correct, to say, don't do this. Please see your sin.
Please turn. Please love Jesus. Spencer, you're a sinner and you're not sufficient. For the weight of caring and caring for the souls of those who belong to Jesus. In order to kind of highlight how big of a sinner you are, we got your wife to do a video where she outlines some things. No, that would have been fun though.
You are not sufficient for the weight. And that's why Paul ends, as he's talking to them, he says this to them. We're going to end with it. I now commend you to God. So Paul's telling him he's not going to see him again.
And he says, I'm handing you over to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. That those who lead the church are sanctified the same way that everybody else is. They're saved the same way that everybody else is. That we trust that Jesus, through his grace, has accomplished for us what we could never accomplish. That we are sinners who need a savior and ought to be the first to proclaim them. So Spencer, as you take on the weight of shepherding among our church family and among this people for as long as God gives you the grace to do so, we commend you to God and to his grace that you might walk in it and that you might one day stand sanctified along the rest of our church family, trusting that Jesus has redeemed us from our sin and set us free and given us hope, which he is our hope, our only hope, that anything would be good.
That you will not save yourself through pastoring well, that you will not save yourself through people responding well to what you teach, that you will not save yourself through your family being proud of you, that you will not save yourself through how well you lead a group or how often it multiplies, that you will not save yourself by leading people to Christ, that you will be saved the same way that everybody else is saved through the blood of Jesus on your behalf as a sinner who had no other hope. At this time, I'd like to ask our other two pastors, Matt and Raz, to walk up and Spencer to come up as well. So we're going to read a few things that Spencer will respond to, and then we're going to read one that we as a church family will respond to, and I'll tell you when that's coming. Spencer, do you believe by God's grace in your life that you meet the qualifications laid out in Scripture for an elder and have not hidden sin in order to serve in this capacity?
Spencer, do you commit yourself to God's Word, to study it, meditate on it, cherish it, striving to mold your life to its instruction while actively seeking to train others to do the same? Spencer, do you commit yourself to keep a close watch on yourself and your sin, being quick to repent in an error? Spencer, do you commit to keep a close watch over Mill City Church, sacrificially loving and serving and leading those to whom God's Holy Spirit has seen fit to make you an overseer? And Spencer, have you committed your life to Jesus above all else, believing only in the gospel, not your good works or efforts or success in ministry for your salvation?
Okay, church family, this is ours, so if you are a member of Mill City Church, we're going to commit to the things we talked about earlier. So we're going to respond with, by God's grace we do. Church family, do we commit, under the authority of the Word of God, to submitting ourselves to Spencer's direction and seeking to make his time serving here one of joy? By God's grace we do. Spencer, by the grace through Jesus Christ that we have, we commission you to serve alongside of us as an elder of Mill City Church, as one of God's stewards over his beloved people, sacrificially loving, serving and leading those to whom he has assigned to us for as long as God, in his grace, allow us.
Please come stand here, we're going to lay hands on you, we're going to pray. God, we thank you for this moment, for what it means. We thank you for this man. We pray that you would bless him, that your Holy Spirit would be at work in him to do beyond his ability in loving and forgiving and repenting, that you'd help him to be quick to see his sin, that you'd help him to be quick to offer grace, that you would work through him to enable your Holy Spirit and his giftings to serve your church for as long as you see fit, that you might receive glory. In your name, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and as we collectively gather as a church who belong to you, we appoint Spencer Carey as an elder in our church family to lead, to serve, to sacrifice, and to love.
And we pray that we collectively would respond well to him, that we collectively would serve well together to see more people come to know you in this city. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
That's good. Amen. invite you to in a moment as we stand and sing for you to come down the aisle, for you to take some bread, dip it, and partake in communion as we celebrate that Jesus has covered us, that his blood has redeemed us. If you have a gluten allergy, the metal tins are for you over here. Let's pray and then we'll sing and take communion.
God, we thank you for your grace on us as a church. We pray that you would multiply the efforts of our church in loving, serving, sacrificing, forgiving, and caring for one another and for this city, that you might be given great glory. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.