Thank you, Wallace. And thank you for the privilege of being with you. And it's been great. The hospitality of the Tinsleys has been wonderful. If you look up hospitable in the dictionary, their pictures are there. But yes, Wallace is right, he was two years ahead of me at Westminster Seminary. But Wallace was one of very few students who was chosen to tutor other students in Hebrew. Imagine that. And so, I wanted to say this about Wallace. He's not as smart as you think. He's smarter. But what I've appreciated about him is not merely his intellectual gifts, but the wisdom God has given him to pastor a church like this for so many decades, it's so rare, and for him to honorably retire. in just a few months. What a wonderful blessing to you, and what a wonderful blessing that you have identified Pastor Hall as his successor. I just went through transition at my church, and it was pretty smooth, but it's not going to be nearly as smooth as what you've experienced. and what you will experience. And yesterday we had the opportunity to speak to, to share together with several of your leaders and leaders in the Presbyterian about shepherding. And as Wallace said, that's quite an important subject to me. And so today I thought that we would look at a text that talks about the important dynamic between leaders and followers, especially in the church. And as we turn to the book of Hebrews this morning, the writers made the convincing case for the superiority of Jesus Christ, has he not? The superiority of his sacrifice. The superiority of his priesthood. And as we come to the final chapter of the book of Hebrews, we are coming to some statements that the writer makes that he wants to be sure to emphasize before he finishes his letters. His letter, rather. So this is God's word, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Lord, please bless our time together in your word, in the preaching and in the hearing, In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So as we look at this verse, we're going to look at what sheep should do, what shepherds should do, and how sheep can help their shepherds. First of all, what sheep should do. One of the books that I have in my library on church health and growth has a chapter entitled Followership. The author wrote, it's the followership teaching which has been most neglected in our churches. And perhaps that's true. As we begin, we want to make note, as we have throughout the course of this service, that Jesus is our shepherd. He knows the sheep. He gave his life for the sheep. He rose from the dead for you. And the sheep are those who have heard his voice and responded to the gospel. I know my sheep, he said, and my sheep know me. What does the ongoing care of the flock look like? Of course he is still the good shepherd, but he has called and chosen human shepherds to care for the flock under shepherds. These are the elders of the church. Paul told Titus in chapter 1 verse 5 to appoint elders in every town. A plurality of elders leading every church. In Acts 14.23, we read Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church. And we know that scripture also identifies those who are gifted and called to bear the primary responsibility of preaching and teaching. So identified in Ephesians 4.11 and 1 Timothy 5.17, we recognize these as teaching elders, your pastors. So we have teaching elders and ruling elders. And I should recognize the fact that the Lord also gives us the office of the deacon. Deacons are called by the Lord to serve the flock as well, but they're in a supportive role, as they're primarily responsible for the physical needs of the congregation. New Testament is very clear that it's the elders who bear the responsibility for the overall care of the flock. But this is increasingly difficult as we think about the culture's view of authority. Have you noticed that? There's a little place up in the mountains of north central Pennsylvania that my family goes to every year. I've gone there for 75 years, so I went there as an infant. But there's no, never been, and I don't know, I can say never will be, but there's no internet, no Wi-Fi, and so it's blessedly peaceful. So the children take out their devices and find nothing, which is kinda nice. But on a clear evening, On the back porch, which has a glorious view, you can take your transistor radio or whatever radio you have and you can pull in 50,000 watt stations from around the country. And one evening I was sitting there and pulled in WBZ from Boston and the interviewer was interviewing George Carlin. And he asked George Carlin the question, do you still believe in that 1960s adage, challenge authority? He said, no, now I believe that it is destroy authority. And I believe that's what we've seen. But when we read the Bible, it's clear that God has ordained authority in the world for the sake of order in the world. We have the civil government We're called to submit to, if you look at Romans 13, we're called to submit to the parents and the home. And in the church, we're called to respect the authority of the elders in the church. And this authority is delegated by the Lord and is accountable to Him. And it's to be exercised according to His word, and the authority that's delegated is always for the well-being of those called to respect that authority. And so I believe that's the leaders that we're talking about, the leaders who are mentioned here in Hebrews 13, 17. And our writer puts it plainly. So what are sheep to do? Obey your leaders, it says, and submit to them. The word translated obey means to be persuaded or to have confidence in your leaders. Rick Phillips makes the comment that the word obey has specific reference to receiving the teaching given by spiritual leaders. So when your pastor was installed, some of you were here for that, I'm not sure how many of you were, but you're gonna get to hear this question again when Dave is installed as your senior minister. You make, you respond to this question, do you promise to receive the word of truth from his mouth with meekness and love and to submit to him in the due exercise of discipline? So you made a commitment when your pastor was installed to to listen, take it seriously, to believe it. Jonathan Edwards wrote, A faithful minister, that is, in a Christian manner, united to Christian people as their pastor, has his heart united to them in the most ardent and tender affection. And they, on the other hand, have their hearts united to him, esteeming him very highly in love for his work's sake, and receiving him with honor and reverence and willingly subjecting themselves to him and committing themselves to his care as being under Christ their head and guide. When such a minister and such a people are thus united, it is attended with great joy. And I believe you've experienced that here. And so, we're called to recognize that when the teaching elder teaches, that we are recognizing the delivery of nothing less than God's truth to us. We're also told that the sheep are to submit. to the leaders. Now this is an unusual word. It's the only time this word is used in the Greek New Testament. And it means to yield or to give way to. Another way to say, another way to put these two things together is to say, the sheep are called to respect the authoritative leadership that the Lord has placed over you for your well-being. Leon Morris wrote, the church cannot be expected to do its work effectively. If their followers are not loyally supporting the leaders, it's a matter of fact that we're often slow to realize to this day that effective leadership in the church of Christ demands effective following. If we're continually critical of them that are set over us, small wonder if they're unable to perform the miracles that we demand of them. If we bear in mind the work's sake, we may not, excuse me, we may be more inclined to esteem them very highly in the Lord. So what the sheep should do? Respect the leadership that God has called. Respect the leadership that you have called and elected to serve. Second, what leaders should do? Well, they serve the flock. They serve the flock. And undoubtedly while the weight of this text falls on the responsibility of followers, we need to remember what elders do and thus why they should be respected, why they have such a heavy load. In 1 Peter 5, Peter talks about the fact that their function is to shepherd the flock. And there are many functions that we don't have time to go into in detail, but according to this text, they are those who lead. They lead. And I would tell you that being a leader right now in the church of Jesus Christ is very hard. It's very hard, it's been very hard, especially over the last year. At our church at St. Stephen, over a period of time that we normally would have had 14 session meetings, we had 44. And I know that your session at some point during the pandemic was meeting every week. Maybe you didn't know that. Being a leader is very, very difficult, and I hope you will pray for them. But they're told in 1 Peter 5 that they're to lead by example, be examples to the flock. And an example that I shared yesterday with a group was of an Israeli tour guide who was taking his passengers through Israel. Israeli tour guides are very smart. If you've ever been to Israel, you know how smart they are. You know, history, geography, the Bible, they know everything. And so they're going into this desert region and the guide says, well now we're about to see some shepherds. We're going to see some Bedouin shepherds. And you'll always notice that they are leading from the front. They're always leading from the front. And so they're driving down the road and they come across this man who is driving the sheep from the back. And they say, Mr. Israeli tour guide, please take a look. So he stopped the bus, he got out, and he talked to the man, and he got back on the bus, and with a sheepish grin, he said, that wasn't their shepherd, that was their butcher. So elders know that they are not to be overbearing in their leadership. their lead to be loving leaders and be examples. In this very chapter in verse 7 it says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. And the writer of Hebrews 13, 17 goes on to say, they watch over you. They watch over you. And I believe that a favorite apostolic metaphor for the eldership is that of the shepherd. And here we have a great shepherding picture. There are a couple of words in the New Testament that have this idea of watching over. One of them is a word, the Greek word is episkopos, and it's a compound word and it has at its root The Greek word skapos, which means to see, to view, then it has a prefix, epi, episkopos, which means to watch over, so it means to watch over. This is the word Paul uses in Acts 20, 28 when he says to the Ephesian elders, be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. That's not the word that the writer uses here. It's the same imagery, but it's with the idea of passing sleepless nights, of watching over leaders that stand guard, keep watch over your souls. And it's such a concentrated watchfulness that sleep is lost. It communicates an intensity of concern for the sheep. It's very, very important to realize that, yes, you have a doctor who looks over your physical condition, Yes, you may have a financial advisor who oversees your finances, but in the church, God has given you overseers, spiritual overseers to help watch over your spiritual health. Now, how serious is this? This is a very serious matter. They watch over your souls as those who have to give an account. This is a text that terrifies. My friends, one church leader wrote, these aren't mere words, they are thunderbolts. So the word translated, give an account, is used many times in the New Testament to refer to the ultimate final authority. For example, in Matthew chapter 12, verse 6, Jesus says, and I say to you that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. So there's that idea of stewardship and accountability of the elders over the flock. And accounting for what? the souls who have placed themselves under their care, the members of the church. When Paul addresses the Ephesian elders, he also reminds them that these are those which he purchased with his own blood. But an accounting to whom? The accounting to whom isn't to none other than God Himself. And you know, I don't know what this is going to look like on that day. But all I know is that it communicates to us as elders, teaching and ruling, the seriousness of our responsibility. This is the reason that genuine elders lose sleep over their flocks. Counting sheep doesn't put them to sleep, but concern for the sheep keeps them awake. By the way, does anybody count sheep anymore to go to sleep? That's just too old, that's too old. So we need to understand the seriousness of this responsibility. And I believe that when we understand the seriousness of the responsibility of what shepherds do, we come to the third point which helps us to see how shepherds can help, excuse me, how sheep can help your shepherds. The writer says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning. Well, after The Shepherd Leader was published, When I wrote the book, I went to see some folks in our community who had lots of sheep. I learned a lot about shepherding people from learning about shepherding sheep. And when the book was published, I decided to take a couple of copies down to give to them as a thank you. And I went into their farm, and I looked around, and there weren't any sheep anymore. I said, Bob, why aren't there any sheep? He said, we don't have any sheep. We only have goats. I said, well, why don't you have sheep anymore? He said, well, they're too hard to take care of. So that should teach you something, huh? So there are ways that sheep can help their shepherds. It's important that leaders are able to lead in such a way that they're doing it with joy and not with groaning. The ideal is that there's a mutual respect between shepherds and the sheep. Caring for the flock is a joyful labor to the shepherds. One writer said it's a serious thing for people in church congregations to rob their leaders of the joy God intends. Failure to properly submit brings grief rather than joy, and consequently brings grief and displeasure to God, who sends them to minister over us. Grief, the word means, an inner unexpected groaning. Because lack of submission is an expression of selfishness and self-will, unruly congregations are not likely to be aware of or care about the sorrow they cause their leaders. So, in your hearts and in your minds, I hope you'll determine that the work of your leaders, your elders will be delight and not a drain, a pleasure, not a pain. I have four applications for you as church members as to how you can encourage your leaders. First of all, follow the good shepherd. Follow the good shepherd. And basically what I'm unpacking here are the commitments you made when you joined the church. Question three. of the membership commitments is this, do you resolve and promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as a follower of Christ? Nothing brings your leaders more joy than to see you walking with your Savior, growing in His Word, following His path, submitting to His glorious Lordship. So the first thing is to follow the Good Shepherd, The second one is to keep the peace, keep the peace. Membership affirmation number five, do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace. Talks about studying the peace, making a study of it, being intensively careful to make sure that we can say that our congregation is characterized by peace. Paul wrote to the Romans, as much as is possible with you, be at peace with all men. I often heard it said that every church member carries two buckets with them. A bucket of water and a bucket of gasoline. And so when there's a problem, when there's a spark, you have a choice to make. Are you gonna throw the water on it? Or are you going to throw the gasoline on it? The church should be a no-groan zone. James 5.9, we read, do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. And it goes back to those very fundamental principles. You know, if someone offends you, what do you do? You don't go tell everybody else. You go to that person, right? Some of these fundamental principles of peace are crucial. Even if you have a problem with a leader, Don't go behind their backs to other members and complain. Go right to them. From what I've seen of your leaders already, I believe they're very transparent and welcoming to you." It says, talk about the purity and the peace. Submitting to the government and discipline of the church. One of the functions of the shepherd is to go after sheep when they stray. A couple of months ago, I was heading out with my wife on a drive. I'm not sure where we were going, but I had the music playing from my phone through my sound system in the car. And we're about a mile and a half from home, and I suddenly hear a bump, and my music goes off. And I reminded myself, oh no. When I got in the car, I put the phone on the roof of my car. And so what had happened, it had stayed on the roof of my car long enough to go around a corner and off it slid and off went my music. And so we turned around and by God's grace found my phone still working in the side of the road. but also my keys were up there too. But fortunately the keys didn't slide off the car, they kind of slid in that little window well back behind the window, rear window in the trunk. And there was no way, there was no way I was not gonna go looking for that lost phone. Think how much more valuable you are as a sheep. And Jesus tells the elders of the church, if there's one sheep straying, that the Good Shepherd goes to find that sheep. So keeping the peace is very, very important. How can you help your leaders lead with joy and not with grief? Follow the Good Shepherd, keep the peace, and thirdly, do your part. The fourth membership affirmation is, do you promise to support the church in its worship and work to the best of your ability? Now, supporting the worship of the church has been a little bit more challenging in the times in which we live. This same writer in chapter 10 says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. And so it's so great to see the church returning here at Philbert. I know that there are people who are still not comfortable returning. But I also know that it's been possible for some people to become a little too comfortable at home. Now when we, in our church, when the shutdown occurred, we began to record our service on Saturdays so the congregation could view it on Sunday mornings. That's the way we began. And I have to admit, you know, it was pretty nice as a pastor on Sunday morning not to have to get up so early. I had two services in our church, first one starting at 8.15. Didn't have to put a suit on, didn't have to put a tie on, put those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls in the oven, sit there with the family and watch. You know, you can get used to that. But the blessing is when the people gather. Do not neglect. gathering together, as is the habit of some. And so I would say to you who may be viewing this online that maybe some of you need to be here but haven't come back yet. I know that some are still reluctant because of physical reasons, but nonetheless, if you're able, it's important to gather together with the people of God. So doing your part is supporting the worship of the church and supporting the work of the church. I don't think I need to belabor the evidence here, 1 Peter 4.10, each one has received a special gift employed in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. One church leader wrote, the chief contribution of church members to the growth of the church can be summed up in one word, ministry. So if you found your place, what part of the body of Christ are you? You know, Paul uses that analogy, the hands and the feet and the eyes and the ears. Well, I am a mouth. I'm a mouth. So what good is a mouth, though, without hands and feet and ears and eyes? Another analogy would be that of a musical group. I play the tuba. I played with the Westminster Brass for many years, and people look at me and they say, oh, you're a teacher and a professor and a tuba player? I say, yeah, it takes a lot of hot air to do all three. But one of the things about being a tuba player, so young people, if you were thinking about playing the tuba, remember this, you never get to sit in the front row. Never get to sit in the front row. Who's in the front row? Oh, you got the piccolos and you got the clarinets, they're sitting in the front row. Tuba's in the back row. Tuba's in the back row. And the tuba, oh, such a rare occasion when the tuba gets to play the melody line. Tubas don't get to play the melody line. But yet, the tuba's very important. We're talking about the Filbert strings, you know? We're talking about the Filbert strings, about the bass player. How important it is to lay down that nice, strong bass. Well, that's the case with all music. As a tuba player, I take pride in that. And so, it's an analogy that I think fits here as we think about the ministry of the church. You know, doing your part, you might not be in the front row. In fact, you might not be visible much at all. You might never get the melody line, so to speak, but every role that you play in the church, is part of that responsibility, is a part of the blessing to the others. I came across this poem some time ago. There are two kinds of people on the earth today, just two kinds of people, no more I say. The two kinds of people on earth, I mean, are the people who lift and the people who lean. So are you a leaner or are you a lifter? I know there are times when we all need to lean, Lifting is the rule rather than the exception. And so the fourth thing, we've got to follow the good shepherd, keep the peace, do your part, and fourthly, remember to pray. Remember to pray for them. Look at verse 18. Pray for us, he writes, who we're sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. Don't forget to pray for your leaders as well. And so if your leaders are not able to lead with joy, then we're told that would be of no advantage to you. It would be no advantage to you. What we have in the body of Christ are people who are called to different areas of responsibility. And we're gonna be called upon by Jesus Christ one day to give an account Verse 20, this will be your benediction today too. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom he glory forever and ever. So may you as sheep understand your role and may you as leaders embrace your role. I have to close with this. I want to say this because, you know, a couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to preach this sermon in a church. And I find that it's, I think my motive is right, that I want to encourage members and leaders to serve together. But after the sermon, a member of the church came storming up to me. His face was beet red, and he was angry. I said, hello. The first words out of his mouth were these, did the elders ask you to preach that sermon? I said, no. Well, he said, that's, then he stormed off. He didn't like it, but my conclusion was it's exactly the sermon that he needed to hear. But the glorious fellowship that you have here at Filbert Presbyterian, enhanced by your wonderful leadership, by a loving community, you will continue to glorify God. Let me pray for us.