Biblical Leadership

SERMON: 2015-08-30--h1315--biblical-leadership SOURCE DURATION: 00:46:33.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: Candidate [14] concludes the sermon with a benediction ('amen amen'). Candidate [15] is marked as [BLANK_AUDIO], indicating a transition to non-sermon material (silence or music). Therefore, [14] is the last segment of the sermon. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well, I've been involved in the active pastoral ministry for well over 40 years now. In fact, Lord willing, come November, it will be 43 years. I wasn't asking for that. But as you might be able to imagine, during those 40 plus years, I've learned a thing or two. And I've learned a thing or two about people, and I've learned a thing or two about church life. And one of the things that I've learned about church life is that generally speaking, even God's people are fairly resistant to correction. Have you ever noticed that when you and I become members of the church, we promise to submit to the authority of the church. In fact, it's worded this way. We promise to share faithfully in the life of the church, honoring and submitting to its authority. It's one of four questions that are part of the profession or the reaffirmation of faith service when we have it here. And anybody that has joined the church has made that kind of commitment, not always sure that everybody understands what they're committing themselves to. Because what it really means is that you're giving the church community authority to speak into your life, particularly if in your life you drift away from the foundations of the faith. And so if you fall into sin or live with character flaws that are hurtful and harmful to the people around you, then the church's responsibility to step into your life, to invite you back to repentance and to invite you back to faith. That is what it is to be part of community because our sin never affects just us. It affects the people all around us. It harms the reputation of the church, not only, but it harms the reputation of God in the world. And so that kind of mutual correction is a given in the life of the church. But we live in a day and an age where that is particularly unpopular. I don't know if you have ever tried straightening somebody out. Maybe your spouse, good luck on that one. Maybe a friend or some-- you will have found, as I have and as most church leaders will have found in today's society, that it's easier said than done. Yes, there are some who will bend to that, who will appreciate correction, and whose lives will change. But more often than not, certainly initially, people's backs go up. They are resistant. They become defensive. They might even slander you to the next 10 friends they meet. And if the pressure keeps up, they're likely to turn their backs on you and on your friendship and likely to the church and all church communities. Isn't that true? Isn't that the nature of society that we live in? So the question is, why is that? And even more importantly, what can we do about it? Because from God's perspective, it is critically important that we be a discipled people and that we would allow the Lord, through his leadership, to call us to account so that our lives can increasingly reflect the plan and the purposes of God. So as I said, let me talk about that a little bit. And let me start off this way. Let me ask you the question. If somebody were to ask you the question, what does it mean to become a Christian? What would you say? Well, the chances are, if you understand the gospel even a little bit, then the chances are that you will say, well, you know, echo the words of the Apostle Paul in Acts 16.31 to the Philippian jailer, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household." Keep that picture up for just a moment. And that would be absolutely true because the heart of the gospel is that we're alienated from God, we're sinners, we need to repent of our sin, we need to come to faith in Jesus, we need to be reconciled to God. The promise of scripture is if we do that, then our sins will be forgiven, we'll be made right with God, and one day we will spend eternity with God. That's the good news of the gospel. That's what the word gospel means. But to simply limit the gospel to the forgiveness of sins and the hope of one day going to heaven is to miss out on the bigger picture. Because the bigger picture, of course, is that by nature, we're not only alienated from God, we're in rebellion against God, but we're under Satan's authority. He has power over us. Paul writes it this way in Ephesians 2 verses 1 and 2, "You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit that is now at work in those who were disobedient." The Bible teaches that because of Adam and his sin and our sin, we are born in subjection to Satan. We may think we're free, but we follow the spirit of the power of the air. It's in the air. It influences our thinking, it controls our behavior, it makes us who we are. And to become a Christian is not just having our sins forgiven, it is to actually be transferred out of this kingdom into the kingdom of God, out of Satan's domain into God's domain. Let me put it this way, Colossians 1, 13 and 14, "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin." So here is what scripture is telling us. When we turn to Jesus, we move away from Satan's control to God's control and because Jesus Christ has bought me with his blood, I now belong to him. He is not only my savior, he is also my Lord. That is to say, when I become a Christian, and we can let go of that slide now, when I become a Christian, I am submitted to the authority of Jesus Christ. Now I may have to grow into that, I may have to learn how to do that, but to be a Christian is to say there was a day when I served Satan, now I no longer want to serve him, I want to serve Jesus, he has the authority to tell me what to do and by his word and by his spirit, he will direct me so that God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven in me and through me. That's the radicality of the gospel. And we may never get there fully in this age, but to be a Christian is to have said yes to Jesus and to his authority. You see how different that is from just saying, "Well, I believe in Jesus so that one day I can go to heaven." No, no, it is believing in Jesus, is submitting to his authority and letting him be the Lord of my life. That's why the Bible talks about the Lord Jesus Christ. He owns me lock, stock and barrel. He has authority in my life. Now here's what we need to understand because this authority that Jesus has in my life not only applies to my life directly, it also applies to my life indirectly. That is to say, God not only rules me directly by his word and spirit, God's direct authority as you see here, he also rules me through delegated authority. That is people that he puts in my life through whom God makes his will known. And we don't have a lot of time to talk about this in great detail, but it's safe to say I think that there are at least four significant areas where that authority functions in your life and in my life. Let's put that slide up and I'll walk you through it real quick. The four areas are the areas of family, the areas of government, the areas of church and the areas of business. So to walk through that in a little more detail, if this is God in the family, father and mother have authority over their children. The Bible is very clear about that. The Bible is also very clear that the husband exercises leadership over the wife, less popular in today's culture and we can think of all kinds of issues about that. We're not going to talk about that now because we'd be here for a long time. Government, we have God raising up leaders, kings and prime ministers and governing bodies. You have local leaders and then you have citizens. In the church, same kind of thing, God raises up church leaders. We've talked about elders and deacons this morning. You have other church leaders, you have pastors or you have pastoral staff and anybody who leads a ministry is in a leadership position and under that then you have people who are in submission or to be in submission to church leadership. Something in business, you have the boss and then you have employees or workers who are under that particular structure. So God's way of structuring the universe is that he not only rules us directly by his word and spirit, but he also places leadership in our lives and leadership has a dual function in each of those four areas, leadership has a dual function and one is to stop us from doing what is wrong and the second is to equip us to do what is right. We're going to move to the next slide here and that is a scripture passage, our text if you will, Hebrews 13, 17. Notice how these two themes are interwoven in the words of our text. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority, they keep watch over you as men who must give an account, obey them so that their work will be a joy not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you. There's one side of the covenant equation, our side in the places where we are under authority we are to submit ourselves to that authority. Notice there's a difference between obedience and submission, we don't have a lot of time to talk about it, submission is an attitude, an attitude of recognizing yes you are the boss, you have authority over me. This is doing what they want you to do, you may not always be able to do that. The apostles in the book of Acts when they were told not to preach the gospel said what? We must obey God rather than men. But generally speaking in Christ we are to have an attitude of submission and obedience when we can. So I said one side of the equation, the other side of the equation is then, where are we here? The other side of the equation is obey your leaders, submit to their authority, now look at the other side, they keep watch over you as men who must give an account, obey them so that their work will be a joy not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you. So the other side of the equation is that people who are in a leadership position are responsible for using their gifts, their abilities and their resources to make life safe for you. The reason authority has such bad press in the world today is because authority is almost always seen as somebody using their power to take advantage of you, I don't want you to take advantage of me and so I'm going to fight you and resist you. That's why biblical leadership is so different from worldly leadership. In worldly leadership Jesus says the Gentiles lord it over you, they use you, they take advantage of you, they pluck you dry and throw you in the garbage pile and stomp on you. But in the kingdom leadership is a function of shepherding, it is a function of providing your needs so that you can live in safety and security. Listen to how Peter puts it, 1 Peter chapter 5, 2 and 3, this is directed to overseers in the church he says be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care serving as overseers not lording it over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock. And of course the greatest example is the Lord Jesus who lay down his life for his sheep. That's what leadership is, if you're a parent, if you're a boss, if you're a spiritual leader, if you're in a position of authority in government or in society, God's call is to follow the example of Christ by the life of Christ so that people can flourish. You are to use your strength, you are to use your wealth, you are to use your resources not to pluck the flock so to speak or to rob the people as so many people do around the world but to enable them to flourish and to thrive before the face of God. That's the way God has structured the world to run and that's how he wants us to live. Now you know as well as I do that that doesn't come naturally to the human heart. In fact everything inside us resists submitting to authority. We not only have trouble submitting to God's authority although we make a lot of excuses so we can sound like we're submitting to God's authority but really there are places that we just hold back but when it comes to submitting to people's authority that's where the rubber really hits the road because we leave it to ourselves do we not to decide well you're worthy for me to listen to or you're not worthy for me and so we have this pretense of submission and of godliness but whether that's real or not very quickly comes to the surface when somebody pokes me isn't that true when somebody tells me what to do when somebody you know exerts authority over my life then I discover what really lives inside me. Just very quickly there are three reasons for that number one by nature we're simply rebellious let's face it all you say I'm not rebellious let's talk to your spouse and find out if your rebellious are gone. We're conceived and born in sin Psalm 51 5 David puts it this way he says surely I was sinful at birth I was sinful from the time my mother conceived me. We don't like being told what to do especially if it's not couched in quite the kind of language that we should like to hear I'll never forget first church a pastor church was on a fairly busy street in town very close to the road and this is back in the 70s and you can imagine after the service is over all the men are standing outside the door smoking up a storm and I never thought much about that because that was part of the culture in those days and you know if you smoke you might smell like you're going to hell but it doesn't mean that you're going there so to speak sorry. One day I was visiting the neighbor across the street this was a retired gentleman lived right across from our house and kitty corner from the church and he would always sit in his easy chair by the window and he knew more about the church than I did because he watched everybody come and go and one day he made the observation that you know it really wasn't very considered or godly for all these people standing around smoking so yeah there's a thought if it's causing an offense to the gospel maybe we need to look at it so I went to council we talked about it and put an announcement in the bulletin that probably wasn't worded as pastorly as I would word it today but it simply said effective immediately there is to be no more smoking on church property. Well you would think we were asking them to sacrifice their firstborn you know or cut off their finger because the pushback was immediate and as I said maybe we probably could have worded that better but fact of the matter is no matter how nicely you word it most people don't like being told what to do and they sure don't like being told that they're wrong we're rebellious and even the most genteel among us will find those areas of rebellion when push comes to shove we might hide it really well but I'll tell you the Lord will find it and when he finds it you will discover things in your life that you never thought existed. More than that we are not only rebellious but one of the reasons for that rebellion is that we tend not to trust authority figures. Authority I said earlier has bad press because we don't really feel necessarily authority is out to do what's good we're afraid that they will use their power for selfish purposes and this is true for two reasons in particular number one it's true because many of us have been taken advantage of by authority figures people have made us promises people have used us for their own purposes and so we've gotten hurt in that process we've learned to guard our hearts and nobody is going to tell me what to do but there's a second reason and that is that by nature we are all sons and daughters of Adam and Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you know what that means that means that fundamentally we've made a choice even before we're born we've made a choice that we trust our thoughts our feelings our ideas better than somebody else's and if somebody in a position of authority comes along and what they want us to do doesn't feel right doesn't make sense then we will reject that authority and we will go by our feelings not recognizing that maybe just maybe my feelings are wrong or maybe just maybe my feelings are broken let me illustrate here's a 16 year old girl and she has fallen in love with what can only be described as the devil's nephew everything that you don't want in a prospective son in law is what he represents so what do you do well you're going to try to talk to your daughter and the more you talk to your daughter what happens the more you're pushing her away and the more she pushes you away and the more deeply she falls in love with this dude who you know is a close relative of the devil himself because you've lived long enough to know what this is this is not going to end well trust me why is she so persistent because what you're saying doesn't line up with what she is feeling this guy has gotten into a place in her heart that meets a particular need and it feels good and it feels right and all the talk in the world is not going to change her mind and I'll tell you one reason why discipleship even in the church is so incredibly difficult is that the more broken you are the more blind spots you've got the more resistant you are to correction the surer you are that you are on the right path even though people that have lived longer and are much wiser than you know much better see that's why God tells us to be subject to authority because authority knows the end from the beginning your kid wants to eat candies when he goes to bed why because it is sweet you've lived longer you can see the dental bills piling up in five ten years from now and so you say no and he says I hate you because if you loved me you would give me what I want see how frustrating it is from God's perspective and I might add how frustrating it can be from church leadership perspective when everybody thinks they you know it's like in the days of judges everybody does what is right in his own eyes and they're you know I don't want to put a percentage on it but there are elements of truth to that in all our lives wouldn't you agree or am I the only one that's talking about myself here now this is the way it happens so we're rebellious we tend to not trust authority figures and then of course we have culture to contend with because popular culture discourages submission to authority or to put it more positively it celebrates individuality not only but individualism and it celebrates the right to do what I want to do take a look at popular media movies comic strips great sources of wisdom I read them regularly I learn a lot about human nature from the comics sitcoms television shows in popular culture who is always the hero is it the authority figure is it father knows best is it the institution no in one case after the other in popular culture authority figures are almost always derided the kids always smarter than the father the institution is always corrupt and your hero in movies and in popular culture is the individual who refuses to bow to the pressures of culture and the person who rides it out because they are courageous enough to be their their own selves and and to go against the stream isn't that true you look for that in movies and you will see that it's always you know the one cop over against all the corrupt cops it's the one crusader against the corrupt corporations in the industry and there's enough truth in that that there's an element that registers with people but I'm saying in popular culture authority is viewed negatively and there are people who are actively busy trying to get rid of every structure of authority they want life to be on a plane like this now why do you suppose that is well human nature doesn't like it we don't trust the authority but there's a third reason and that is the fact that we are engaged in spiritual warfare the devil knows that being under God's authority and under godly authority provides a measure of protection and safety that if he can strip that away from us we're easy picking here's a picture that really illustrates I think how Satan attacks the nature of God's authority because if he can get kids away from the parental authority or he can get all of us to go our own way as opposed to trusting significant people that God has put in our lives then we are easy picking understand that please if he can nobody lives long enough I always say to know what the results of disobedience and rebellion is going to be and so the devil comes along and here's the tree and I've often used this example but here's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis chapter 3 God says you look at that tree and eat from it and it's going to kill you right temptation to every sin this is going to kill this is like really bad like it's really going to do you in and it's going to really mess up the world so Adam and Eve what do they do Eve particularly to start with she looks at the tree and what does she see delight to the eyes good for food and to be desired to make one wise and so what does she do she eats that's the nature of temptation the devil will never come along and say come follow me and I'll kill you you'd be an idiot to follow him no he'll come along and he will tell you this is what you need God may tell you this is not good God may tell you adultery is a bad thing I mean really Ashley Madison you've heard the news stories boy do they ever have it coming temptation says this is a good thing you can get away with it life is short have an affair that's their ads and I remember looking at some of their ads and saying to myself and who's going to deal with the guilt and who's going to solve the relational issues that this presents come on come on come on come on so Satan has a vested interest in getting us not only to distrust God but to distrust the significant authority figures that God places in our lives and what God wants us to do is he wants us to return to a biblical understanding of how the universe was made to work so how do we solve this dilemma well I think it's pretty easy I mean it's not easy to work out but biblically speaking it's not that complicated we need to live out what in Christ we already are 2nd Corinthians 517 you know it well if anyone is in Christ he's a new creation the old is gone the new has come past tense you know what that means that means that if you have bent the knee before Jesus if you get tired of living in the world on your own and you've come to recognize that the only way out is through Jesus and you've put your faith in Jesus your sins are forgiven you have been translated into God's kingdom you have fundamentally committed yourself to God's way of living including his authority structure not only that but because the spirit of Jesus lives in you if you will but feed the spirit of Jesus or at least not get in his way then he will work in you to flush out your rebellion he will call on you to learn how to deal with a rebellious places in your heart and he will cause you to value biblical authority as opposed to hating it which all of us do by nature the principle of rebellion is the principle of the world and as Samuel said to Saul rebellion is as bad as witchcraft and an arrogance as bad as idolatry so practically speaking what does that mean well practically speaking it means this number one make sure you are submitted to God's authority in other words make sure that somewhere along the line you have come to the cross you have repented of your rebellion and you have at least in principle submitted to God's authority and to the authority structures in your life so ask yourself the question this morning in my journey of the Christian life has there ever been a time when I have truly bent the knee and where I have really said Jesus I want you not only to be my savior I want you to be my Lord and usually that involves a very particular challenge as to what we are holding on to and what it is that we need to give up on and some of you know this story for me the difference between accepting Jesus as savior and accepting Jesus as Lord was a very distinct experience I understood what it was to be savior of my life I didn't understand what it was to be Lord and then when the Lord began to tug at me in that it had to do with some possessions that I owned it was quite insignificant but I remember being in college lying on my bed looking at that particular object on the shelf and it wasn't worth piddly beans but it meant a lot to me at that particular point and I remember thinking if Jesus wants me to give that up will I give it up or not and you know those kinds of questions are out of proportion to this specific thing because the issue there is not that thing or that relationship or this particular hat no the issue there is who is the boss in your life and I'll tell you Jesus wants to be the boss and he isn't going to sit very long in the passenger seat of your life and let you do the driving wherever you want to drive so if this is an issue the Holy Spirit will flush it out and he will do that repeatedly and the question each time will be Lord are you really the boss of my life or am I the boss of my life and so I would ask you to look at your own heart and ask yourself the question have I ever said Jesus I want you to be the boss of my life I'm tired of driving this car myself you can drive it for me and if you find that difficult as I'll guarantee you you will if it's really close to your heart then the thing to do is to ask God to reveal His glory and His mercy Romans 12 one puts it so well I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual worship if you look at the Old Testament when do the saints of God build altars when do they bow in worship it is whenever God has shown up and He has shown the grandeur of His majesty so ask Him about that say Lord show yourself open my eyes show me who you are and what you've done for me in Christ Romans 12 comes 11 chapters into the book because Paul has just been talking about the grand picture of God's redemption in Christ Jesus it starts with dealing with God's authority in your life doesn't stop there gets even more difficult identify the authority figures in your life and ask yourself how am I prepared to submit to appropriate biblical authority in each of these instances in other words in your family life if you're a child and we have a lot of kids here this morning what does honoring your father and your mother look like what does the Lord require of you if you're a wife and a mother what does submitting to your husband looks like it's easy to talk about spirituality it's much harder to live it gets just as difficult in terms of national politics as a citizen of the country what does it look like to submit to leaders or to national leaders what does respecting those who are over me look like how readily we all stoop to negativity it's okay to criticize and we don't have to in a democratic society support everything that is out there by no means but again that principle continues the same thing in the church what does it mean to submit to church leaders what does it mean to submit to one another the same thing in business what does it mean to submit to my boss what does it mean to be a good worker what does it mean to exercise my responsibility this is where the rubber hits the road scripture puts it this way submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men whether to the king is the supreme authority or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right obey your leaders and submit to their authority tremendously challenging it wouldn't be so difficult if we knew they were perfect but we all know they're in want and that I think is why the Heidelberg catechism and Lord's Day 39 puts it this way what is God's will for you in the fifth commandment what is the fifth commandment honor your father and your mother that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God lives you gives you and that you may live long Paul says it's the first commandment with a promise well I love the way the catechism answers it what is God's will for you in the fifth commandment that I honor love and be loyal to my father and mother and all those in authority over me that I submit myself with proper obedience to all the good teaching and discipline and also that I be patient I'd like that one that I'd be patient with their feeling failings for through them God chooses to rule us. First question to ask am I submitted to God's authority am I prepared to identify authority figures in my life and will I ask God to work in my heart so that I learn to obey in the places where I can legitimately obey and where I can submit and respect in the places that the Lord is calling me to submit to aren't you glad you came to church this morning I mean really all right we're almost done because there's still another side to this equation of course and that is to exercise your own authority responsibly not only are all of us under authority many of us also have the privilege of being in authority back to this for just a quick moment fathers and mothers have authority over their children leaders have authority over their citizens in terms of the government of the land in the church church leaders have authority over church members we've talked about that in business the boss has authority over workers and it's one thing to emphasize what those of us who are under authority need to do but the other side of the equation biblically is that those of us who are in authority are going to be held accountable before God listen again obey your leaders submit to their authority they keep watch over you as what men or women who must give an account and so if you're in a position of leadership and you're exercising authority on behalf of God God is holding you accountable and when you step out of line or the complaints of the people under you rise up before God as they do historically God takes note of every one of those and he keeps track and he's going to hold you accountable and the antidote to bad authority and the antidote to abuse of authority is never to get rid of authority which is what revolutions always want to do no it's to make sure that you have godly and mature people in positions of authority and to create structures where they can be held accountable because the only one who is not accountable to anybody is he God himself even Satan is subject to God all of us no matter how high we rise up in power or authority in any of these four areas we're all accountable well one more just really quickly and that is this we need to pray for those who are leaders verse 18 just beyond where we left off the writer to Hebrew says pray for us we're sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way Paul writing to Timothy one Timothy two one two and three I urge them that requests prayers intercession and thanksgivings be made for everyone for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness this is good and pleases God our savior let me conclude with this it is not an easy time to be a leader in this generation the notion of leadership and authority is hated almost universally and leaders burn out because who is sufficient for the task society as a rule is so fragmented that who in the world can keep it all together and we are so committed to individual rights and individual freedoms and what I want that we have so many conflicting agendas in the world that instead of being in orchestra we become a cacophony and the antidote to that the antidote to that is for God to raise up good and godly leaders and I trust that's what we have installed and ordained today but also for you and for me to submit to that leadership and to pray for them at every level of society I have a theory that says people get the kind of leadership that they deserve and if you want good leadership then make their life and their work and their ministry a joy because everybody benefits when leadership is good and godly provides that umbrella of protection so that we can flourish in the kingdom of God amen amen [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:46:27.170; remove through 00:46:33.000] [ [CUT]BLANK_AUDIO] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:46:33.000; resume after this marked segment]