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Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church for the evening service. It is about that time, so we'll go ahead and get started. If you want to find a seat, grab your hymnal. Turn to the first hymn this evening, it's going to be number 43. We're marching to Zion. Hymn number 43. We're marching to Zion, 43, 4-3. We've had fun of the Lord, and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord, join in a song with sweet accord. And thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Most refused to sing, who never knew our God. But children of the heavenly King, the children of the heavenly King, may speak their joys abroad, may speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred speaks before we reach the heavenly field, before we reach the heavenly field, or walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. And let our songs abound, and every tear redrawing. We're marching through, we men will drown. We're marching through, we men will drown. To fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Amen. Let's open with a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we just thank you for this day, and I thank you for all the souls that were saved this afternoon. I just pray that you would be with them, strengthen and encourage them to get in a good church, to get baptized, and to just get zealous for you, Lord. I just want to thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for Evangelist Fur and Pastor Shelley. And I just pray that you would have everything done today decently and in order still for this evening's service, that you would incline your ear to us as we sing out praises to you, Lord. We love you very much. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, for the next hymn this evening, if you would, turn to 263. Hymn number 263, Verily, Verily. We've got some fan favorites this evening, all right? So you can definitely sing it out. 263, Verily, Verily. Let's sing. Oh, what a savior that he died for me From condemnation he hath made me free He that believeth on the Son said He hath everlasting mind Verily, Verily, I say unto you Verily, Verily, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true Hath everlasting mind All my iniquities on him were laid All my indebtedness by him was paid All who believeth on him the Lord hath said Hath everlasting mind Verily, Verily, I say unto you Verily, Verily, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true Hath everlasting mind So poor and needy I can trust my Lord Though weak and sinful I believe his word Oh, glad message every child of God Hath everlasting mind Verily, Verily, I say unto you Verily, Verily, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true Hath everlasting mind Though all unworthy at heart will not doubt For him that cometh he will not cast out He that believeth, oh, the good news shall Hath everlasting mind Verily, Verily, I say unto you Verily, Verily, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true Hath everlasting mind Amen Here this evening again we have our bulletins If you didn't get one or you need another one just slip your hand real quick We have the congratulations to the Gilliam family on the birth of Eloise Lee Gilliam That's what we need is another Ellie Congratulations to them, that's exciting We look forward to meeting Miss Ellie I don't know if they call her that, Eloise On the inside we have our service and soul winning times, our stats We have 12 this afternoon, 12 for the soul winning Praise the Lord on that, that's really great Then we have our expecting ladies, continue to pray for both of them We also have, we have a lot of leftovers from our lunch So if you want, please feel free to make a plate after the service We've got a lot of meat and everything like that So stick around Also we have the baby shower this coming up Saturday, January 22 At the church is a Saturday, 5pm for Miss Emily Fur It's going to have catered chicken wings but you can still bring your favorite pasta dish We have the ladies fellowship Saturday, February 12 And that will be here at the church as well That's pretty much all I have for announcements So we'll go ahead and go to our third song this evening Let's just go to 319 Just a closer walk with thee, 319 Brother, Salvador said you have to sing this with an accent or something like that Like a southern draw Alright, 319, just a closer walk with thee This one is relatively new to me So if I mess it up, do not follow me Follow your heart Or whatever, if it's correct I guess, I don't really know what to follow Be led by the correct spirit here 319, just a closer walk with thee Let's sing I am weak but thou art strong Jesus keep me from all wrong I'll be satisfied as long As I walk, let me walk close to thee Just a closer walk with thee Grant that Jesus is my plea Hey, we walk close to thee Let it be, dear Lord, let it be Through this world of toil and snares If I falter, who cares? Who with me my burden shares? Not but thee, dear Lord, I'm glad be he Just a closer walk with thee Grant that Jesus is my plea Hey, we walk close to thee Let it be, dear Lord, let it be When my feeble life is o'er Time for me will be no more Guide me gently, safely o'er To thy kingdom's shore, to thy shore Just a closer walk with thee Grant that Jesus is my plea Hey, we walk close to thee Let it be, dear Lord, let it be Amen, good singing this evening While the offering plates are being passed around Let's turn a few of the Numbers, chapter 27 Numbers 27, brother Paul will read that chapter for us Good evening, Numbers chapter 27 Numbers chapter number 27, the Bible reads Then came the daughters of Zelophead The son of Heber, the son of Gilead The son of Micah, the son of Manasseh The families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph And these are the names of his daughters Bala, Noah, Hacra, Milcah, and Terza And they stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest And before the princes and all the congregation By the door of the tabernacle of the congregation Saying, our father died in the wilderness And he was not in the company of them That gathered themselves together against the Lord He served in the company of Korah But died in his own sin and had no sons Why should the name of our father be done away From among his family because he hath no sons Given to us therefore a possession among the brethren Of our father and Moses brought their cause before the Lord And the Lord spake unto Moses saying The daughters of Zelophead speak right Thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren And thou shalt cause the inheritance of their fathers to pass them to them And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel saying If the man die and have no son Then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter And if he have no daughter Then ye shall give his inheritance of his brethren And if he have no brethren Then ye shall give his inheritance of his father's brethren And if his father have no brethren Then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsmen That is next to him of his family And he shall possess it And it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment As the Lord commanded Moses And the Lord said unto Moses Give thee up unto this mount of Abarim And see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel And when thou hast seen it Thou also shall be gathered unto thy people As Aaron thy brother was gathered For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin In the strife of the congregation To sanctify me at the water before their eyes That is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin And Moses spake unto the Lord saying Let the Lord, the God of the Spirit of all flesh Set a man over the congregation which may go out before them And which may go in before them And which may lead them out And which may bring them in That the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd And the Lord said unto Moses Take thee Joshua the son of Nun A man of whom is the Spirit And lay thine hand upon him And set him before Eleazar the priest And before all the congregation And give him a charge in their sight And thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him That all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest Who shall ask counsel for him If after the judgment of Yirim before the Lord At his word shall they go out And at his word they shall come in Both he and all the children of Israel with him Even all the congregation And Moses did as the Lord commanded him And he took Joshua And set him before Eleazar the priest And before all the congregation And he laid hands And he laid his hands upon him And gave him a charge As the Lord commanded By the hand of Moses Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you so much for this day And we thank you for the souls that were saved Lord, we just ask you At this time that you fill the pastor With your spirit, Lord And just give him the words to speak That his congregation might testify To your glory, Lord we ask that his congregation Just open their hearts and their ears To your word We love you and we give you thanks In Jesus' precious name, Amen I want to focus on this latter portion of Numbers 27 Where it talks about Joshua being appointed Over the congregation And the title of my sermon this evening is Follow a Man Follow a Man And I think sometimes that phrase or that idea Is sometimes criticized By people that would claim That a church is a cult Or you're just following a man Or you're just being led By a certain individual But following a man is actually a very biblical Concept and it's actually Something that's really important in order to have Success in the Christian life Is following a man And so I want to kind of walk through a little bit Of this passage and then I'm going to kind of give you A few points to think about But the Bible says in verse number 12 And the Lord said unto Moses I have set up into this Mount Avarim And see the land which I have given Under the children of Israel Now seen it Thou also shall be gathered unto thy people As Aaron my brother was gathered For you rebelled against my commandment In the desert of Zinn In the strife of the congregation to sanctify me With water before their eyes That is the water of Meribah and Kadesh And deliver this to Zinn Moses spake the Lord saying Let the Lord, the God of all spirits Set a man Over the congregation Now here's the thing Moses at this point in time is the man He is the man of God, he's the guy that's over The children of Israel He's basically the ambassador to God For the people He also basically makes He basically Is the go between He's kind of the mediator For the children of Israel through God And he symbolizes a lot of things Now Jesus is the mediator Between God and men And there's only one mediator That's Jesus Christ Yet we understand that God Still appoints men on this earth As leaders As basic people that we're supposed to follow And without leadership You're going to have A church, a congregation Or the children of God Essentially without It's not a good position to be in It's a position that's definitely lacking And so it's always important to have Leadership And that leadership may look a little different Depending on the situation, the circumstances A leader may have different roles Or titles But ultimately you need leadership And without leadership it's going to be impossible To follow Because you have to have something to follow And I've even said this and I still believe it That a bad leader Is still better than no leader And often times the worst thing you can have Is just complete anarchy Chaos, having no Semblance of order It's better to have a bad leader often Times than having no leader You can even look at this in America today Some people would love to just abolish the Government, but I'll tell you this Our lives are better right now having a bad Government than having no government We don't really want to go back to the wild wild west We don't really want to have just complete Anarchy and just criminals Are able to do whatever they want There's no cops to call, there's no government There's no judges That we're the sheriff of the town That's going to be a lot worse for us Than even having a bad semblance Of a good thing And so leadership is a really important job It's a really important role And God takes it very seriously But we also need to take it seriously That we need to realize that we need to follow The leadership that God has given us Whether it's the greatest leadership you've ever Had or it's the worst leadership You still need to essentially follow the Leadership to the best of your ability And it's important, Moses realizes This, so he wants God to set A man over the congregation, he wants there To be a leader, he doesn't want to just Die and then they're just like, now what do we do? He wants there to be some kind of Structure, it says in verse 17 What is this man going to do? Which may go out before them, and which may Go in before them, and which may Lead them out, and which may bring them in That the congregation of the Lord be not A sheep which have no Shepherd, okay? And really when there's a group of people That don't have a clear leader The Bible gives the analogy Of a flock of sheep And essentially having no shepherd Whatsoever, and a shepherd Oftentimes in the Bible is synonymous With like a pastor or a bishop But it can also just Represent a leader in a sense That they just have no leadership, they have no one Looking out for them, guiding them Or helping them, and this is a bad Scenario, we want sheep to have A shepherd, that's why You know when steadfast was basically Having someone not be their shepherd Anymore, was stepping down from this role It was really important to have Someone step in, albeit Even if it was the worst shepherd, it's Better to have a shepherd, you know it's better oftentimes To have something in place And have someone doing something Providing a position of leadership Even if it's not ideal Okay, and often Scenarios are not going to always be ideal Is it ideal that we have one man, Moses Leading millions of people Out in the wilderness? It actually was not Very good, because he was Wearing away, his father-in-law Is like, you need to start setting up other people And appointing other people You know, is it ideal that the apostle Paul Is having to basically start all those churches In the New Testament by himself They don't have any other elders They don't have any other apostles going on No, these things aren't necessarily ideal, but you work with what you got And you want to strive towards And work towards the goal of having You know, a shepherd, leadership Men over the congregation That are going to basically be these Good examples And you have to understand that that person is a God-given shepherd When you have a person that's in a position of leadership Over a congregation That is a God-given shepherd Whether or not that person's the pastor or not Doesn't really matter It's still a God-gift And as sheep We are supposed to hearken under the shepherds That God has given us It's not really our job to decide Well, you know, I think there could be a better shepherd Out there, so I'm not going to really You know, adhere to the shepherd that I have No, you just adhere to whatever shepherd you have Okay And it's very important that Joshua Is going to come into this role To fulfill this so that The sheep are not just wandering about Doing whatever they want It also says in verse number 19 Skip, it says, and set him before Eliezer the priest And before all the congregation and give them a charge In their sight So when Joshua was appointed, it was very clear It was very public It says in verse 20, and thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him That all the congregation of the children of Israel May be obedient So again, the person was set before the congregation Moses laying hands on him He's appointing him And he's trying to put some of his honor On to that other individual To then lead the charge And really, this should be the appropriate way To hand off a congregation Or, you know, to To appoint people should be a public thing It should be done in front of the congregation And the goal is that the congregation Would be what? Obedient But obedient to who? To Joshua To the man In general, the Lord Because obviously we're always supposed to be obedient to the Lord But the Lord is appointing a man And they're supposed to be obedient to that particular man That's been their leader And that man is Joshua And so it's important that we Follow the God-given shepherds That God has given us Go to Ephesians chapter number 4 I'll prove this again quickly That the positions that God has given us As far as men In certain roles But it says in Ephesians chapter 4 Look at verse number 10 He that descended is the same Also that ascended up far above All heavens That he might find or fill all things And he gave some apostles and some prophets And some evangelists and some pastors and teachers For the perfecting of the saints For the work of the ministry For the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come into the unity of faith And the knowledge of the Son of God Unto a perfect man in the measure of the stature Of Christ that we henceforth be no more children Tossed to and fro And carried about with every wind of doctrine By the slight of men And cunning craftiness whereby they lie In wait to deceive But speaking the truth and love may grow up Into him in all things Which is the head, even Christ From whom the whole body Fitly joined together And compacted by that which every joint Supplieth according to the effectual Working in the measure of every part To make an increase of the body Into the edifying of itself in love Now the Bible describes the church as a body And it basically says that Christ is the head You know, he's the leader, he's the ruler And we're all different body parts That make up this body of Christ And we understand that While Christ is the head Christ is the leader of our church If someone were to ask who's in charge of your church It's right here This is who's in charge of our church It's Jesus Christ which is the word of God But practically speaking God then appoints men To fulfill roles of leadership And to be under shepherds As it were, to his flock And you say where do you get this term under shepherd Well the Bible calls Jesus the chief shepherd Well if he's the chief shepherd That sounds like there's less chief shepherds Okay, and really Any position of leadership that any man Finds himself in He's always going to be under the umbrella of Christ which is the bishop The ultimate bishop, the chief shepherd You know, and basically the main leader And they're supposed to follow Him But then below that we're still supposed to follow The men and the leaders that God gave us Jesus ascended into heaven That's what verse 10 told us And you know what, he didn't want to leave us A sheep having no shepherd So he gave some, what? Apostles and prophets and evangelists And pastors and teachers Essentially saying that It's not right to just leave sheep with nothing We've got to give them something Okay, and arguably Some of these positions Are probably better than others, right I mean if we were going to say let's leave A church with someone What would probably be the absolute best Wouldn't it probably be like apostle Paul I mean how about the apostles, right But here's the thing, if we don't have apostles Then maybe a prophet, right Then maybe, and this is just my personal opinion But I'm probably saying maybe a pastor Right, then maybe evangelists And then maybe even if you don't have that Maybe just at least a teacher, okay At least maybe you just got someone in the church Whether they are qualified or not They can still teach the Bible They can get up, they can provide some leadership They can provide some kind of Edifying for the church And so we just put that person in that role And we just help them grow And then as the church evolves and grows And goes and matures We can put in new people in those positions But ultimately we see the clear example here That we're supposed to be following What? The teachers and the pastors And the evangelists and the apostles And the prophets that God gave us Whoever God gives us, we need to follow Those men Go if you would to Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews chapter number 13 And we have to realize that these are gifts These are God-given Shepherds that God has given us Okay, and if God gives us A shepherd It's our job duty to obey that shepherd Okay And the Bible even clearly teaches this In Hebrews chapter 13 Look at verse number 17 The Bible says Obey them that have the rule over you And submit yourselves For they watch for your souls As they that must give account That they may do it with joy and not with grief For that is unprofitable for you So I believe the Bible clearly teaches Any man that's been put In a position of leadership or position of authority Over God's sheep Will have to give an account For that leadership It's not like, well this is just for pastors It doesn't say that It says obey them that have the rule over you I mean this is just anybody That has the rule over God's people They need to realize that they will have to stand Before Jesus Christ And they will have to take Basically account for their actions Some people are thinking like Yeah I'm gonna have to stand before Jesus Christ And I'm gonna have to account for every penny Okay All the things that happen Yeah I have to stand there and I have to be like Yep that's what I did And that's what I didn't do And whatever There's nothing more terrifying than that If you truly understood that this is a reality I mean if you have faith in the word of God If you really believe in the Bible You understand the judgment seat of Christ We're not talking about a hypothetical here We're not talking about something that may happen We're talking about an absolute certainty That you will stand before Jesus And have to give an account You know there's all these parables in the Gospels Where Jesus is talking about reckoning You know he gives these talents under men And then they have to come and tell him what they did with those talents He didn't really like the guy that buried it He wasn't very happy with that guy Was he And here's the thing Jesus isn't gonna be happy with those that were given positions of authority And leadership And we're not doing well with it But what is our admonition You know what is the admonition just generally To the church and as a sheep We're supposed to have obeyed those men That God gave us Whoever it was that was put in that position of leadership Or rule over us at any point in time We want to have a good testimony And say well you know what I obeyed them You know what when they said jump I did it you know when they said do this I was there I was obedient And I am gonna give you know A good account And then it basically allows your ruler To also get a good report You know cause he doesn't want to stand there and be like Look Lord I told them what to do and they never listened They never obeyed They never did it you know And that would be kind of a shame right To sit here and be like I don't know I don't know what did I do wrong you know I would rather it would be fun To stand before the Lord And basically be like yeah that's my guy That's my guy and that's my guy He came to church every once in a while You know like I tried But you know it would be nice to just sit here And be like that's my guy and that's my guy And that's my guy right And it would be nice to also be in a thriving Church or in a congregation and be like That was my ruler you know that was my leader And really it's a mutual relationship Where they both have success When the sheep obey the shepherd It's gonna be hard For you to have a good testimony If you don't obey And it's gonna be hard to give a good testimony If you don't rule You have to have both working in unison They work together for the common good Of you both giving a good testimony to the Lord I don't want to go and have a bad testimony No matter what side of that equation I'm on And look I'm gonna be on that side of the equation Period On both There's gonna be times where I have to give an account For how I did as a sheep to my shepherd And then how I did with sheep While I was shepherding them And you know what all of us are gonna have to give an account And Jesus is clearly telling us The word of God is clearly telling us that we're supposed to obey them That have the rule over you It does not say well if you agree If you like it If you want to It just says obey And really the only time you would ever rebel against Any authority in your life Is if the Bible is clearly commanding you To do otherwise But let me tell you something that's still obedience It's just your obedience is ultimately to the word of God But there's nothing wrong with following a man It's literally commanding you to follow a man To obey the rulers over you Go if you would back to number 27 For just a quick second And I want to show you another verse here Or I want to read another verse again But just to remind you What's the point of putting Joshua in charge? Obviously so sheep don't have a shepherd But what was the verse that really just kind of sticks out To tell us what's going on Well look back at verse 20 again And thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him That all the congregation of the children of Israel Notice this May be obedient So again What is really important with having a ruler Is that the children of Israel would be obedient And it's really important That the rulers teach people How to obey God's commandments So that they're obedient So they're obedient children of God And that they don't have wrath upon them From the Lord I often say this, being a pastor Which really would go to any position of ministry But the goal of any minister Should be to help others serve Christ better And what could be better than Helping people be more obedient To the Lord More righteous, more pleasing in his sight And that should be a lot of the goal of preaching A lot of the goal of preaching should be To try and encourage Exhort, reproving and rebuking people Not just to get up and say, oh man I really gave them that Rather thinking like I'm looking at you and thinking God's mad at you about this And I want you to fix this So that God's not mad at you Not just so I can scorn someone Or just so I can get someone Filed up or preach them out the door Or something like that The goal in the heart of a minister should be That of trying to motivate people To be obedient to God And a flock is successful When it follows that shepherd What's the goal of the shepherd? The goal of the shepherd is to feed the flock Go to Ezekiel 34 For a second, Ezekiel 34 Think about John 21 When Peter is confronted with the Lord What is the Lord admonishing him? Feed my lambs Feed my sheep The goal is to Take care of the sheep Guide them Psalm 23, the famous passage about Jesus being our shepherd What is he doing? He's leading us to still waters In the green pastures He's protecting us from the evils And while obviously The Lord is our shepherd We should also realize that the under-shepherds Have a similar role In what? That they're supposed to feed the flock They're supposed to give them drink They're supposed to protect them They're supposed to guard them They're supposed to also use the rod To help them not go out of the way If they're kind of straying off That's the whole point of the rod The rod isn't just to see Oh man, did you see me beat that sheep to death? Did you see me? I tripped that sheep the other day The sheep was just running and I just tripped him With my rod or whatever That's not the point of the rod The point of the rod is the sheep's running into a layer He's running into a trap Which says like Wolf diner And it's like, no, no, no, don't go there And you're trying to beat him away from the wolf diner And you're trying to get him out from there That's the whole point of the rod Not to hurt anything, not to cause any damage But to actually protect them And so it's important though That when you do get hit with the rod A little bit That you don't think like Who needs this? He doesn't know what I need I need a wolf burger I'm going to go into wolf diner And have a wolf burger And I don't care what's going on in there We need to be obedient to those that are looking after us And believing that they truly care About our souls As those that have to give an account I mean if you have to think about it Like this person has to give an account of me They're probably going to try and do me A good job But obviously there are bad shepherds in the Bible And I'll bring up a few passages here Ezekiel 34, look at verse 1 And the word of the Lord came unto me Saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel Prophesy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God and the shepherds Woe be to the shepherds of Israel That do feed themselves Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Eat the fat and he clothe you with the wool Kill them that are fed But you feed not the flock The disease have ye not strengthened Neither have ye healed that which was sick Neither have ye bound up that which was broken Neither have ye brought again that which was driven away Neither have ye sought that which was lost But with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them And they were scattered Because there was no shepherd And they became meat to all the beasts of the field When they were scattered My sheep wandered through all the mountains And upon every high hill Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth And none did search or seek after them Now, this is a picture Of great apostasy Heresy Essentially all the preachers are just fake They're frauds They only care about themselves There's no real genuine sincere men of God Real shepherds And we see just disaster We see the sheep are just being scattered Essentially meaning that they don't know where to go They don't have anyone leading them And because they're scattered When sheep are scattered it's more easily That they become a victim of a wolf Because when you have a great huge pack Of any kind of animal They kind of run together And they kind of stay together It's very difficult for the predator to come And to attack them Because they could be trampled by the flock And there's strength in numbers And even like a gazelle Even just a dainty seeming animal Lions don't want to attack The herd Because if they come to the herd The whole herd will just pounce on top of them And just walk over that lion and kill it Or a wolf or whatever They have to try and get one that's away from the flock Or damaged or hurting Or anything like that Because they can't really take on the whole flock by itself But if for some reason The whole flock were scattered Where they're all just kind of by themselves Well then the prey They're all prey Then the wolf or the lion can just come and just pick them off Whenever, at ease, however they feel And that's the same with God's people When God's people aren't constantly being Congregated and gathered together Edifying one another And admonishing one another It's easier for predators to come and pick them off And to destroy them And destroy their lives And to get them to where they're not really serving the Lord And so it's important to have these shepherds That are there to constantly keep people Congregated, keep them together Keep them in a pack Keep them in a healthy state You know, diligent to know the state of thy flocks And to basically ward off All the evil threats And all the predators We have a scenario painted here Where no one's doing that Or the ones that are doing it They don't really care You know, basically the wolf's coming and giving him money And he's just like, go have whatever you want You know, go take of the flock that you would like And this is where I believe that some people will get the idea Of, well then I'm just gonna not have a shepherd then Well I'm just not gonna have I'm not gonna go hang out with the rest of the flock I'm gonna be a lone sheep Okay And they're basically gonna throw the bath out The baby out with the bathwater In the sense that Because they perceive Them not having the greatest shepherd Or having a bad shepherd They're gonna give up on the flock But this would be a bad philosophy When you apply it practically You know, some people would say, well because there's bad pastors out there I'm gonna give up on church I'm gonna quit church Or because, you know, you have to restart church Because there's just so many weird things going on They're like, that's too hard, that's too difficult They want to just kind of give up on it You know what, you need to stick with church Because those that give up on church Those that give up on the shepherds They're never gonna serve God God's model is not A manless system It's not a lawless system It's not an anarchy system No, it's a system set up With those that have been given Like the pastors, the evangelists, the teachers You know, these type of men That have been appointed to come in And to lead the flock And you're gonna have success When the sheep are obedient unto the shepherd Okay Where if you get all the sheep to be rebellious Even if you get a good shepherd in there It's not gonna be successful Because the sheep have to obey and listen to That particular shepherd And some people say, well what do we do If the shepherd's not good Right Do we need to overthrow the shepherd Do we need to constantly watch Do we need to have a sheep dog We need to have a watchdog on the shepherd And some people have this idea That they have to basically be a shepherd and a sheep At the same time But here's the reality You can't control that You just need to be a really good sheep Because if there's a really bad shepherd situation The Bible teaches that God will take care of it Let's keep reading, verse 7 Therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord As I live, say to the Lord God Behold, I am against the shepherds And I will require my flock at their hand And cause them to cease From feeding the flock Neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore For I will deliver my flock from their mouth That they may not be meat for them For I will deliver my flock from their mouth That they may not be meat for them For I will deliver my flock from their mouth For I will deliver my flock from their mouth For I will deliver my flock from their mouth For I will deliver my flock from their mouth For I will deliver my flock from their mouth That they may not be meat for them It says in verse 11 For thus saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I Will both search my sheep And seek them out So here's the thing If you're being abused by a particular shepherd God will come and rescue you from that shepherd And he'll get you a new shepherd He'll give you pastors after his own heart So the goal for you as a sheep Is not to see which shepherd You know, you have to Replace the shepherd yourself or something Or make a shepherd No, you just need to be a good sheep And then trust that the Lord will give you The right shepherd That the Lord will take and remove the shepherds Out of your life That he doesn't want to be there anymore And put in a new shepherd That actually cares about you And is going to lead you in the right direction So that's why it's important that we follow The shepherds that we have Now if the shepherd's jumping off the cliff Okay, I'm not saying that, you know, this analogy Is applying to every possible hypothetical You can dream up Because if we're going to apply it to practical day-to-day There's a lot of churches you can go to And there's a lot of shepherds And you say, well, what do I do, Pastor Shelley? What am I supposed to be? You're supposed to be the best sheep At the church that's the best shepherd in your area Whatever's the best shepherd in your area You go to that church And don't just say, well, I'm just not going to go to church Because I don't think any of the shepherds here are good You know, that's a bad attitude No, you need to go to at least a church Now, whether or not that's the greatest shepherd in the world You know, at least he's a shepherd Then you need to just go there Because God's not just going to let a whole bunch of his people Go and submit to a shepherd And just let that shepherd just abuse that flock forever No, God will take care of that situation Is what the Bible clearly says And he'll give them a shepherd that's after their own heart If they're seeking the Lord If you seek the Lord, I believe you will find a good shepherd You know, it's hard to convince me That there's all these great sheep out there That just don't have a shepherd It's really that they're just a bad sheep But they want to tell everybody how good a sheep they are, you know The really good sheep end up finding a really good shepherd I don't know how that works out But it just always seems to work out that way But I'm telling you, you need to stick with that shepherd And obey that shepherd And follow that man And you can have success Go to Joshua chapter 1 Go to Joshua chapter 1 Joshua chapter number 1 Now Moses has died And we're going to finally get into the promised land And in Joshua chapter number 1 We kind of see this transitionary period It says in verse 6 Be strong and of a good courage For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance of the land Which I swear unto their fathers to give them Only be thou strong and very courageous That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law Which Moses my servant commanded thee Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left That thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest This book of the law shall not depart of thy mouth But thou shalt meditate therein day and night That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous And then thou shalt have good success So according to the Bible you have success by following God's commandments And Joshua the leader is instructed to meditate in the Bible And meditate in the word of God And follow the commandments And be strong and be courageous And that's how they're going to have success But there's another aspect to this success That's not solely dependent upon Joshua It's also dependent upon how the people respond to Joshua Look at verse 16 And they answered Joshua talking about the people saying All that thou commandest us we will do And whithersoever thou sendest us we will go According as we hearken unto Moses in all things That's kind of a joke So will we hearken unto thee Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses Whosoever be that doth rebel against thy commandment And will not hearken unto thy words In all that thou commandest him He shall be put to death Only be strong and of good courage Now, again, if we think about this This is extreme They literally just said If Joshua gives a commandment to someone And they don't do it We're killing him I bet you would obey Like, you know, can you imagine us making a pact like that They would really cause a cold at that point, right? If Pastor Shelley says something and you don't do it It's death, you know It's like people would show up to Sunday Night Church, you know But I'm just saying, like This is a real extreme situation But we laugh at that, but think about it Where in the Bible do you see as much success as the book of Joshua? I mean, do we see this kind of success in the wilderness? Do we see this kind of success in Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, you know Do we see it in those books? No Why? Because they weren't that obedient to Moses, were they? Could they have had the exact same success as the book of Joshua with Moses? Absolutely Was there anything wrong with Moses? No What was the problem? Them Their heart, they were stubborn, they were stiff necked, they were rebellious I mean, they sent the spies in the land What if they all came back with a good report like Joshua and Caleb did? Then they would have gone right into the promised land and taken it all over And they would have probably taken it over in about the same amount of time And look, do you really think that Caleb became a better warrior at age 85 than he was at age 40? Because later in the book of Joshua, he explains that the day that he went in to the land of Israel, he was 40 Okay When they come back and finally get to do it, he's 85 And he's like, but I'm still ready, you know And he's like, my natural force is not abated, you know And he's still got his strength and he's still, you know, one But at the end of the day, is he really stronger at 85? No, he would have been just as capable at age 40 and more so, probably But at the end of the day, why did they have the success? Because they followed their leader They finally said, alright, we're going to follow Joshua We're going to do what he says And let me tell you something, a church is going to have success when it follows its leader Whoever that is If you want to have success in the church, you say, I want my church to grow I want my church to be successful, I want my church to thrive You're the key to success, how obedient will you be? To the person that's put in charge And you know, again, it's not saying like, we'll obey Joshua when we like what he says It just says, hey, whatever he says, done deal And really, that's the best way to treat leadership is just to do exactly what they say Go to Judges chapter number 3 Let me show you another example of success here Judges chapter number 3 So point one is this Following a man is biblical because God's given us shepherds And number two, the reason why you should follow a man is so that you have success They're not going to be successful if they don't follow Joshua The success comes with following Joshua When they didn't follow Moses, they wandered the wilderness and died When they follow Joshua, they inherit the promise land, right? And look, are we going to really say that Joshua is so much better than Moses? No, I mean, I would say they're equivalent, you know Now, obviously from a symbolistic perspective, Joshua is better That's just because Moses pictures the law and Joshua pictures Jesus And obviously Jesus triumphs over the law, okay And we get some of that symbolism But just from a humanly practical situation, you know, Moses and Joshua They're like the same guy, plug and play, right? Men that love the Lord, very zealous In fact, Moses was considered the meekest man on all the earth And Joshua was alive at that time So it's still saying that Moses was meeker than Joshua Yet, why did they not enter? Because the people were rebellious Yet the people have all died that were rebellious They replaced the new generation and that new generation can now have success And sometimes we're going to see in this world today Generations that have no success in the Christian life Because they're a rebellious generation And it may have not even been the shepherd's fault It was their fault But you know what? When we have a new generation rise up We're going to have success only if we're obedient to the men that have been put in our lives Judges chapter 3, look at verse 26 The Bible says, And Ehud escaped while they tarried and passed beyond the queries And escaped unto Syriath And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim And the children of Israel went down with them from the mount and he before them And he said unto them, Follow after me For the Lord hath delivered your enemies the Moabites in your hand And they went down after him and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab And suffered not a man to pass over And they slew of Moab at that time, about ten thousand men, all lusty And all men of valor, and there escaped not a man So we see Ehud coming to them, he blows a trumpet And then what does he tell everybody to do? Follow me Follow after me Meaning what? Follow a man How did they have success? And look, they were really rebellious When you read the book of Judges, you find out the children of Israel are very rebellious But then they have a leader rise up a man And that man starts judging the children of Israel, telling them what to do And when they obey that man and they do what he says They have success, they have peace They have all the things that you would want, all the blessings coming from God Because they're following a man God does not expect us to just follow some arbitrary idea of serving God He makes it real practical He puts a person in charge He puts a man in charge And then we're supposed to follow the man What if they all said, well who's Ehud? Why do we have to listen to Ehud? No, no, no, he blew the trumpet, let's go Let's follow the man of God here Let's follow Ehud And look, is Ehud the greatest man to ever live? Probably not, but you know what? The Lord's on his side And he blew the trumpet Even though he's left-handed, we can still follow him And so they follow Ehud And they have a great victory because they followed the man Now, go if you would in your Bible to Matthew 4 And I want to dwell on my last point for just a minute here Because I've kind of gone through the second point pretty quickly But point one, God gave us shepherds Point two, you have success by following a man But point three is this, why follow a man? Well, if God gave me the gift of the man, then it makes sense to follow it Why would he give me the person to follow? Why would he give me a position of leadership, a man in leadership, if I'm not supposed to follow him? Number two, he makes it clear that we have success by following him Just like Joshua, just like Ehud, and I can show you a lot of examples But here's the third point And this is where it ties it all together Is that following a man is the way that you follow Christ You follow Christ by following the men that he gave you Like the pastors and the evangelists and the prophets and the teachers So if I want to follow Christ at the time of Joshua, how do I do that? I follow Joshua If I want to follow Christ at the time of Moses, how do I do that? I follow Moses If I want to follow Christ at the time of the judges when Ehud's alive, how do I do it? I follow Ehud, right? So in the New Testament, if I want to follow Christ, how do I follow Christ? I follow a local pastor or evangelist or teacher Or whatever the man of God is that's been given me in my life And that's how I show my love and appreciation for Christ You know, Jesus is in heaven Nobody can serve him on this earth in a physical sense Because he's not here That's why he gave us other people And if you really believe, well I would follow Christ But you won't follow a man on this earth, you wouldn't follow Christ Following Christ is emulated through following a man here And let me just give you a little surprise, I don't know if you know this But even if you say, well I would have followed Christ, did you know that Christ was a man? I mean in order to follow Jesus, you had to follow a man A man showed up and he was telling people to do what? Follow him, right? Matthew chapter 4, look at verse number 18 And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea For they were fishers, and he saved them of them Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men Now I like this response And they straightway left their nets and followed him Hey, you know why I know why Christ picked these guys? Because as soon as he tells them something to do, they just do it And arguably, of all the commandments he gives the disciples Isn't this probably the hardest? Maybe there's something harder, but I'm just saying like this might have been the hardest Right? A guy just walks by and says follow me And they literally leave their entire life like that Everything they know, their job, just their family potentially I mean the Bible describes them leaving their father in the boat That's pretty extreme, I mean they're just like, see ya Just to follow a what? A man Now it wasn't just a man, it was the man Christ Jesus It was the Lord, it was God in the flesh But at the same time, he's also a man isn't he? And they just left to follow the man Jesus Christ Look at chapter 9 verse 9 This is a big thought in the Bible of following, right? The Bible constantly mentions following and when we realize we want to follow Christ But what does that look like practically? It looks like following a man Matthew chapter 9, look at verse 9 It says in Jesus' past forth from thence he saw a man named Matthew Sitting at receipt of custom and he saith unto him Follow me, and he arose and followed him So notice again, Jesus is saying follow me and he follows him Go to chapter 16 and look at verse 24 When we think about a follower of Jesus Christ What is the example of the followers of Jesus Christ? It's people who left their entire life to follow Jesus Some people just say at the door, I'm a follower of Jesus And it's like, what did you give up? What have you done to follow Jesus? It seems like you're following marijuana It seems like you're following alcohol I don't see you following Jesus It's like, what church do you go to? I don't know, the one on the corner You're following Jesus, huh? You're a follower of Jesus And you don't even know what church you go to, right? This is an unrealistic proposition, okay? The followers of Jesus left everything for Jesus, okay? They're going to know what church they go to, right? They're going to know what the Bible says They're going to own a Bible, right? I mean, can you imagine? I'm a follower of Jesus Well, I don't use Bibles, man You know, it's a relationship It's like, how do you talk to each other? You know, I touch the screen, you know, when Benny hands there It's like, that doesn't make you a follower of Jesus Christ Matthew chapter 16, look at verse 24 Then said Jesus and his disciples, if any man will come after me Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Again, we talked about disciples a little bit this morning But what is the disciples? One who's going to follow Jesus Christ Go to Mark chapter number 15, Mark chapter 15 Now, here's another thing that's interesting in the Bible Is that anyone, at any point in time, can follow Jesus It's not limited to the disciples It's not limited to men It's everyone, okay? Look at Mark chapter 15 and look at verse number 40 There were also women looking on afar off Among whom was Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James, the less, and of Joses And Siloam, who also when he was in Galilee Followed him and ministered unto him And many other women which came up with him on Jerusalem You have to realize that a lot of women were followers of Jesus Christ It wasn't just men And you know what? Praise the Lord for women like this Because not only did they follow Jesus Not only were they followers and disciples They didn't even have Jesus walk straight up to them and say follow me They just chose to follow him anyways They just said, you know what? I'm going to be a follower of Jesus Christ And you know what? What a great example here Of women that really were sold out for the Lord Jesus Christ And you think about it, Mary Magdalene and some of these other women Were the literal first people to even see the resurrected Jesus Christ Isn't that a pretty big privilege? I mean, that's what made someone an apostle Something that made someone an apostle is having seen the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ These women got to see Jesus before the apostles did Right? Before Peter, before John I mean, how much does Jesus love John? And the first person that he shows himself unto Is Mary Not only that, he sits down And he sits with Mary and Martha And he enjoys a conversation with Mary and he cares for the women You know, it's easy to think that the Bible is just a man's book only But here's the thing, God loves women just as much And you know what? Women can be followers of Jesus just as much As men can be followers of Jesus While their roles may look different And the woman may not get as much recognition She can be just as much a follower of Jesus Christ As a man And in some cases, more so Go, if you would, in your Bible to John, chapter number 12 Go to John, chapter number 12 Not only men and women, but even children Children can be followers of Jesus Christ And love the Lord Jesus Christ We see men in the Bible serving Jesus from birth I mean, think about Samuel Think about John the Baptist Think about Samson These are children who were dedicated to the Lord Before conception and even in the womb To just serve the Lord and to be a servant of God their entire lives And you know, would to God that we'd have parents That would dedicate their children to serving God Rather than being the next LeBron James I mean, it's so noteworthy to say like Man, we've been training this kid every day To be the next LeBron James To be the next Tiger Woods Everybody's like, oh, that's so cool That's so awesome He's, you know, gonna be great Whereas if someone got up and said like I've been just training my child to love the Lord And to be a soul winner People would be like, that's weird You know, people wouldn't get it People would think that that's not as cool That's not as great I remember some of my family even mocking this in a sense Because I was telling them that I wasn't gonna use birth control Or really just murder control But I told them I wasn't gonna use this And they freaked out And they're just like, how are you gonna afford college And I'm like, I can't It's like, I can't afford, you know What is it, like 250 grand probably I mean, you go to a really good school Or a couple, you know, tens of thousands of dollars Times, you know, it starts adding up quick, right It's like, I can't afford college And it's like, I said this I don't care if my kids ever go to college And it was like, literally like I killed the sacred cow right there It was just like And I just said I just hope my kids are saved and love the Lord And I said, I'm not saying that they can't go to college I'm not saying that, you know, if they don't If they really want to do something like that But I said, most college degrees are a scam anyways You know I mean, most people are going to college Just to basically waste time And to see how sinful they can be And they're real good at it But you know what, I don't encourage people To go to college for no reason If you don't have a very, really important reason To go to college Like, I'm gonna be a doctor, lawyer, accountant Or whatever, like I would avoid it But you know what I wouldn't avoid Is serving God Is being a Christian Is being a soul winner Is doing that which is godly And being devoted And here's the thing Train up a child in the way you should go And when he's old he will not depart from it But here's the thing, you train a child to be worldly You probably won't depart from them either That's why it's important to Teach them these things while they're young and impressionable Because eventually They'll become teenagers And they believe they're smarter than everyone I mean, once you hit the teenage years You've already got life figured out And you think you're smarter than everybody And your course of action is usually already decided In a lot of cases And it's kind of frustrating Because parents They try to start raising their kids When they turn 13 Rather than raising them when they were 3 Realizing that when you start trying to raise them at 13 Doesn't work the same They don't really care anymore And so it's important to try And instill all these great values in your children While they have a chance Now I'm not I will teach my children until I die Okay, so if my kids are 60 and I'm 80 I'm still gonna have verbal spankings or whatever, you know And I've seen great-grandparents like that And they still teach their children And you know what? You can always learn from your parents But it's easier When they're real young Because they believe everything you say You know And it's funny Because sometimes you kind of trick your kids, right? Because they believe everything that you say You'll try to kind of tease them But you don't want to take that for granted And realizing that they're so impressionable And you can teach them so much And they are your little followers Whether you like it or not And just as important as a child to follow their parents In the ways of the Lord It is for us To follow the men that God has given us In our lives as well The way that we show our service to God Is by serving the men That he's given us to follow Look at John chapter 12 And look at verse 26 If any man serve me Let him follow me Right? If you want to serve Jesus Then you have to follow Jesus Okay? But here's the thing How do you follow Jesus? It's by following the men And the women that God has given you in your life The rulers of your life You children, you want to serve God? Serve your mom and dad Wives, you want to serve Christ? Serve your husband Wives, you want to serve Christ? Serve your husband Men, you want to serve God? Serve your boss Serve the men in the church That are the leaders and the rulers of your church That's how you literally serve Jesus Is by serving the men and the women in your life That God has given you Go to Numbers chapter 14 Why did God pick Joshua? I'll tell you exactly why Because he was following Jesus Christ But you know when he was following Jesus Christ? When he was following Moses Look at Numbers chapter 14 and look at verse 24 Numbers chapter 14 look at verse 24 But my servant Caleb Because he had another spirit with him And hath followed me fully Him will I bring into the land where into he went And his seed shall possess it Now here's the thing Caleb and Joshua were sent They were sent into the land as spies under Moses' direction And when they returned they were the only two faithful witnesses And notice who they were really following Not just Moses, they were following the Lord They were following Jesus Christ He says, hey they were following me He took it personal when they were following Moses Go to chapter 32, Numbers 32 And see it was not just Caleb, it was also Joshua That the Bible recognizes You know why God put Joshua in charge? Because he followed the leadership Because he followed the Lord Numbers chapter 32 look at verse 11 Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt from 20 years old and upward shall see the land which I swear unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob because they have not wholly followed me Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite And Joshua the son of Nun For they have wholly followed the Lord And when you go to Numbers chapter 11 you go to a lot of these places When the people rebelled, when the people complained You know it's Joshua and Caleb are also renting their clothes When they don't want to enter the promised land And trying to tell them we need to follow Moses And look, Moses, he's leading them through the Red Sea How can he not then go into the promised land? Right? But it's interesting how human nature always plays its part No matter how much you've been delivered from in your past No matter how much good the leader's done for you in the past It's easy to want to just take it for granted Get, you know, complacent Dissatisfied, discontented And basically start rebelling And start going against the leadership You know what? You have success when you just stay with the program Stay with the leadership You continue to follow the man that God has given you Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 4 1 Corinthians chapter number 4 You say, well, I don't know if I'm really supposed to follow a man I mean, I follow Jesus, Pastor Shelley Well, again, I'll show you here clearly in the Bible That you follow Jesus by following a man And the instructions in the Bible are to follow men Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 4 verse 14 I write not these things to shame you But as my beloved sons I warn you For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ Yet it be not many fathers For in Christ Jesus I have gotten you through the gospel Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me So the Apostle Paul is saying, hey, even though you've got a lot of guys that want to teach you the Bible Don't follow little guys Follow me Why? Because he's the God appointed person that you're supposed to follow And there'll be a lot of people that want to bring you under their wing And try to get you to follow them And to draw away disciples after themselves They'll rise speaking perverse things But at the end of the day, who are you really supposed to follow? You're supposed to follow the God-given leadership Not the self-ordained YouTube prophet Not Robert Breaker Or you go and find a church where the pastor's not even qualified That's not the guy to follow either The guy that's been divorced four times He's not your shepherd You want to find the God appointed man Wherever he be and follow him And the Apostle Paul's trying to warn them Look, there's a lot of people that would love for you to follow them You could subscribe to ten thousand YouTube channels But he says, you know what? Subscribe to me Follow me Right? And he's not just saying follow Christ But ultimately, obviously, if you follow Paul, you're going to be what? Following Christ, right? That's the implication, and he clearly says it Look at chapter 11, verse 1 Just flip the page, chapter 11, verse 1 Be followers of me Even as I also am of Christ Now here's the thing Obviously, there's going to be men in the world That are going to be the top of the food chain Right? Moses is the top of the food chain Humanly speaking, there's no one that's going to basically tell Moses what to do He's getting his instructions directly from the Lord Right? Joshua, top of the food chain, right? So you're going to have, at times, positions Or, I believe, a New Testament local bishop Is the top of the food chain Paul, in his day, is the top of the food chain Right? He's an apostle But even the apostle Paul, he's still not so prideful That he can't take instruction from Peter and John Because when he often goes back to Jerusalem And he's talking with the other apostles He's kind of giving them the lead And he's allowing them to basically instruct him And give him duties And basically help him make the right decisions But even if you are at the top of the food chain You can still follow men It's not like the apostle Paul isn't following the leadership of Peter and John And everything like that But everybody below is, for sure, going to have to follow a man You're going to have to follow that leadership that you have in your life And we all have different realms of our lives Where we're going to have to follow different positions of leadership Now, it says in this chapter, look at verse 3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ And the head of the woman is the man And the head of Christ is God Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonored his head So, according to the Bible, there's a leadership structure Where there's Christ, then there's the man And then there's the woman And this is kind of in the picture of marriage But within marriage, you have, as a wife, a God-given man That is supposed to be your head, that's supposed to be your leader And you're supposed to follow that man And that man is supposed to follow Jesus Christ, okay? So, in a marriage, the husband is the top of the food chain There is no one that is supposed to usurp the authority of the husband in a family In the family setting, in the family realm, the husband is the top of the food chain So he's supposed to follow Christ You know what, the wife is then supposed to follow the husband She's not the top of the food chain, she's supposed to follow a man Just like the Bible is clearly instructing And when we're in a position of church, you know, there's gonna be a Basically a food chain, as it were A hierarchical structure where men are gonna submit to other men And they're gonna obey those that have the rule over them And it'll eventually come to a head And we realize that that ultimate head is Christ But the way to serve Christ is by getting plugged into that chain We need to submit to the chain and submit to that type of leadership Because that's ultimately how you follow Christ A wife does not follow Christ by rebelling against her husband A man does not follow Christ by rejecting the church No, you accept the God-ordained structures and hierarchy that God has given us That's how we end up following Children do not follow God by disrespecting their parents Even Jesus Christ himself in the temple Twelve years old, asking questions Yet, you know what, his parents told him to come with them And he submitted himself unto them Why? Because he was not gonna be successful in following God's commandments By being rebellious to his parents No, he honored his father and his mother And once he was grown, then he started his ministry Then he was essentially out from that authority structure To where he's now the head of the home He's now the man And he's gonna go out and fulfill the works that the father has given him But we wanna make sure that while we're under that authority structure That we're following the men that God has given us That's how we follow Christ Go to Philippians chapter 3, the last place I'm gonna have you turn Well, I'm sorry, there was one other place Titus 3 and Philippians 3, those are the two places I want you to turn Philippians chapter 3 and Titus chapter number 3 Now, I'll give you a couple practical tips When it comes to following someone And I've said a few of these already But when following someone It's not your job to worry how good of a leader they are So, you know, it's not my job to criticize the leadership And here's the thing Anytime you have a problem with leadership If appropriate, you can come to them meekly and suggest things Say, hey, you did this, you said this I just wanted to say it's possible that maybe you could have done this better Or here's a possible solution in the future Or even before that, sometimes it's best to say this Hey, I noticed something that I thought might be improved upon in this area Would you want me to give you any feedback? And if they say no, then you're just like, okay But if they do want the feedback, then you come, you know, politely, respectfully You say, here's what I thought you could improve on And you say, Pastor Shelley, I think you said something in your sermon that could be improved upon Do you want feedback? No You know, if you're the guy in the front row taking notes, no Maybe someone else, right? It's like, how many times have you read the Bible? Zero? Okay, nah, I'm not good, I'm good, alright But you know, I say, okay, you know, what is it? It's like, well, here's this verse, here's this thing he said Maybe you could change this or whatever And the person could take that, you know, well, hopefully Obviously, even in a position of leadership, you can still be corrected But at the end of the day, you know, it's not really appropriate Be like, hey, you made a mistake here, let me tell you all about it And the same would apply in a marriage You know, you have a problem with your husband's decision making or a thing your husband did You know, you don't just go ahead and blow your mouth off and tell him all the wrong things that he did And criticize everything he's done Rather, you should come to him meekly And you should say, hey, honey You know, I was thinking about the car we bought And I had some ideas It's like, we already bought it, so I'm not interested Then you just leave it alone It's like, oh, okay, what ideas do you have? You know? And then it's like, you know, they start, don't buy the fix or repair daily You know, let's get like a Toyota or something I did some research on this, would you like this article? You know, it's not that your wife can't have a great idea It's not that your wife can't be smarter than you in a particular area But she should come humbly and respectfully And not try to usurp the authority, but be a follower You know, the follower is not trying to lead The follower is truly a follower They want the leader to lead And they're allowing and enabling them to lead Here's another idea If you have a problem with someone in leadership You can always pray about it But then you need to let it go If I think that my leadership is doing something that I don't agree with Or I think is wrong What I can do is I can just pray to Lord and say, Lord, I think that they're doing this wrong They're not seeing things right Will you just open their heart? Will you open their, you know, mind? Will you soften their heart? Will you help them to fix this area? And I tell Jesus in the morning And I pray real fervently And then I just fervently serve them the rest of the day I don't let it affect how I serve them I don't let it affect how I talk to them I don't let it affect how I treat them Rather, I just tell Jesus And here's the thing Who's going to be better at fixing a problem? You or Jesus anyways? You know, I would rather have Jesus try to correct the leadership of my life than me Because I'm not going to be as effective at doing it And I could even be wrong Sometimes we might think that we're right and we're not And it's better to tell Jesus than to tell the person and then get corrected And be like, let me explain why that was a dumb idea Let me explain why that's not legitimate criticism You know, it'd be better to just have kept your mouth shut And to just continue being a follower A good follower is only going to offer criticism when it's welcomed And they're not going to allow it to affect how they treat that particular individual Same would apply in a marriage Same would apply with children It's not for children to tell their parents what to do Children just obey, right? If the children some reason had a better idea than their parents They could present that humbly and meekly You know, at the end of the day, it's for children to just obey Because how often does a child actually know better than his parents? It's almost never going to understand everything that a parent can think of All the different scenarios And the same exists in any scenario Whether it be a husband or a wife Whether it be a boss and an employee Whether it be a pastor in a church Oftentimes, people don't know all the circumstances And they can play armchair quarterback all day long But at the end of the day, you just need to let leaders lead And you need to follow Not worry about being a leader A really good follower follows They don't try to lead And when given instruction Here's what the Bible clearly says Titus chapter number, I'm sorry, 2 Look at verse 9 Look at verse 9 Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters And to please them well in all things Not answering again Man, just underline that Not answering again Man, you want to be a really good follower When you get an instruction You just say, yes sir You just do it Now obviously you might ask a clarifying question if you don't understand But not answering again What does this imply? Well, I don't know about that Well, I don't want to do that Why do we have to do that? You know This is just the teenager mood Everything's just like I have to clean my room And I have to do the dishes And why do they make me do that? And why do I have to do my homework first? And why do I have to take care of the dog? It's just like teenagers have this perpetual mood of just answering again Mumbling, grumbling, complaining Being upset about every single decision Every single thing Oh, why do we have to do that? Why did you get that? Why are we going here? And you know what, it's really frustrating When you're around someone that just complains about every decision Every decision is just like Why? It's just like it's the most infuriating thing ever What's good is when you give someone instruction They say, yes sir We have to go to those apartments again Oh, the pot smokers again You know I have to be Cameron's partner again Oh, you know It's like, you know, if they say be with Cameron You're just like, yes sir Not answering again You know, and it's really easy to want to be like I don't know You know But maybe there's a reason Maybe they're like, Cameron really needs someone To teach him how to go He needs a ride He needs someone real positive That's a good example of a follower Not answering again Imagine Jesus Christ telling you something like Oh Right? What if I did that after a reverse that I read? Right? It's just like, husbands love your wives Oh, man That one's hard You know Honor your father and mother That would be so blasphemous and disrespectful When we read the commandments of God We're just supposed to be like, yes sir Yes sir And the leadership that we have in our lives We're just supposed to say, yes sir Not answering again Not, what about this? Why do we do this? Just shut up The best follower is a silent follower Just does it Yes sir You know, if you don't have anything That's just a clarifying question You just don't ask any questions And I'll tell you That's how you really enjoy You know, when people start answering again Or asking again Bad things happen It made me think of Zacharias When the angel's like telling him what's gonna happen With John the Baptist And he's just like, you're gonna be dumb for not believing me It was just like, oh man Your children disobey And you're just like, strike with dumbness And they're just like Parents might abuse that power But I'm just saying That's how we should behave We get the instruction Even if we don't understand it Don't pull a Zacharias Just silence yourself Don't have the Lord silence you Don't make the Lord be like Hey, you need to have a better attitude Shape up If you want to be a good church If you want to go to a great church It's one that's not full of people complaining And bellyaching and moaning Why did God get so mad at the children of Israel Because they were complainers and murmurs about everything Where's all the fish It's like you get the Prime rib And they're like, where's the A1 And if you want A1 Just get out No, I'm just kidding But seriously Where's the beans Nobody wants that flatulence In here People just murmur And complain And it makes it really disheartening And I'm just telling you In ministry it's so easy For people to rub you the wrong way Because you'll throw a baby shower And I've never thrown a baby shower You'll throw a baby shower And you'll decorate And they'll be like, where's the cupcakes Where's the special napkins This isn't my color Whatever it is You've just got a free baby shower And all you can do is complain about it You get a free meal And all you can do is complain about it You take people over to a slow winning marathon And they're like, where's the juice for my kids It's at the store Go buy yourself some You just have people complain And bellyache It just really rubs you the wrong way You're going to have a lot of success When you just keep your mouth shut And you just follow the leadership And even the leadership Leads you into bottled water And not your favorite juice You just drink the bottled water It's not going to kill you Moses made them drink water With gold and silver dust in it Slitter water I don't know what you go It's like, what is this And they still were okay Look, you want to follow Christ Then follow a man You follow your father You follow your husband You follow your pastor You follow your evangelist You follow your deacon You follow your teacher You follow your soul-winning leader You follow whatever man is in your life You follow him And you follow him like he's Jesus Christ That's how you're going to have success What sets a church apart from all the other churches? Is a church where they say You know what? That church follows their leader And you know what? It could take A lesser quality leader And do more when the people follow him Than having the greatest leader in the world With a flock that won't That just bellyaches at everything You know A lot of people would say Our church would be better if it was for the pastor Well maybe the church would be better if it wasn't for you Maybe you just follow a little bit more He could lead you And you could actually go to places Philippians chapter 3 verse 17 Paul just constantly tells them this over and over Follow me And he's not even ashamed You know, Paul's not a prideful person But he makes it clear like Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid But he makes it clear like Don't follow them, follow me And he's not saying it because he thinks he's so much better He just realizes there's a bunch of Fakes and frauds and phonies out there And when God appoints people In positions of leadership, you follow him It's just case closed You don't wonder like, well I wonder if this guy Is a good guy to follow or whatever Well was he publicly set before the congregation Had hands laid on him And announced that this is your guy Or did it not? Did he just say I decided I'm ordained, come ordain me Like that's different Don't follow that guy That guy's just walking out Wherever he wants to go And you know what, you'll see the fruit of it Show me the guy That's self ordained That just, oh man He has all these great Followers and these great disciples And all these great sermons And he's reaching people with the gospel No no no no Great leaders are great followers And they just wait To be put in the right position You know Joshua's a great follower of Moses That's why he's put in the position that he is And you know a great follower of Moses He's really a great follower of the Lord Because the greatest followers of the Lord Are the greatest followers of man And you say Well I don't follow any man Well it sounds like you suck at following Jesus Because I guarantee The people that follow men And let men lead them Are the greatest servants of Jesus Christ In this world No matter where they find themselves Let's close in prayer Thank you Heavenly Father for this church Thank you for giving us an opportunity to follow you By following the men that you've given us In our lives Our fathers The husbands of this world The pastors, the teachers, the evangelists The apostles and prophets That we can ultimately follow the example of your son The man Christ Jesus And I pray that we would never get this puffed up Arrogant attitude That we're better than everybody else That we don't need to follow anybody else's example That we know better than everyone else But rather the people that you put in our lives That we would just submit ourselves That we'd have a humble and meek attitude That we'd learn to bite our tongues Not to answer again But just to be obedient servants And that we could be Pleasing in your sight In Jesus' name we pray, Amen 397 little is much when God is in it Now I know you know this one So if I don't hear you singing it You're going to either have gotten the Zechariah treatment Or, I don't know, your call 397 little is much when God is in it Let me get there myself 397 In Jesus' name we sing Let's sing In the harvest field now ripen There's a work for all to do Hark the voice of God is calling To the harvest calling you Little is much when God is in it Lame or not for wealth or fame There's a crown and you can win it If you'll go in Jesus' name Does the place your call to labor Seem so small and little known It is great if God is in it And he'll not forget his own Little is much when God is in it Little is much when God is in it Lame or not for wealth or fame There's a crown and you can win it If you'll go in Jesus' name Are you paid Aside from service Body more From toil and care You can still be in the battle In the sacred place of prayer Little is much when God is in it Lame or not for wealth or fame There's a crown and you can win it If you'll go in Jesus' name When the conflict here is ended And our race on earth is run He will say to all the faithful Welcome home my child well done Little is much when God is in it Lame or not for wealth or fame There's a crown and you can win it If you'll go in Jesus' name