Jeremiah chapter number 3. Find your place. Let's all stand for the reading of God's Word. Jeremiah chapter number 3. Look at verse number 15 with me. The Bible says, and this is God speaking here, And he says, and I will give you pastors. Amen. And I will give you pastors according to my heart. You know, we can understand the concept that we voted, but God's the one that put him in. And he says here in the book of Jeremiah, I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. There's one thing that we need. It's those two things in our life. And we need a man that'll bring it to us. And I believe we got that man. And that's what we're going to be preaching on tonight. Let's pray. Father, we love you tonight. We thank you for your goodness and your mercy. And Lord, now we come to a very important time, and that's the preaching of your word. So Lord, I pray that you would empty me of myself and fill me with the Spirit of God that I might just be able to convey, Lord, that which you have showed me. Lord, I pray that you would, God, work in us and change us to be more like thy Son. We love you and we thank you for your blessing. In Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated. What an opportunity we have. What an opportunity. You know, I hope that all of us really, and I wanted the teens to be in here tonight just because I think that we all need to hear some of the things that I'm gonna be talking about because it affects all of us. It affects every one of us. And I hope that we all realize just exactly what we just went through. I hope we all realize just how special the situation really was. I mean, we're looking at, in a lifetime, a 100% vote. I hope you just don't look at that and just kind of say, wow, great. Because it truly is something special. Getting three people to agree on any one thing. You know, that's why Jesus said where two or three are gathered together. Because He knows how hard it is to get any of us to agree on anything. But it's something that happens once in a lifetime. And you were a part of that. It's special. It's special. But the fact of the matter is that it doesn't stop at the vote. It doesn't stop at the vote. We can look back and say, oh, praise the Lord. Great. But it just doesn't stop there. It's time to move forward. It's time to move forward. And I think that we can all agree that Pastor Johnston is the will of God for Tabernacle Baptist Church. I mean, it's the proof's in the pudding, shall we say. And, you know, I want to stay there. What about you? I want to stay right there in the will of God. Can I just say that we stand on the threshold of something great? I mean, it boggles my mind to think that all of us are in agreement of this one man. And it's something that we just don't need to just get over real soon. But yet we need to look forward. We need to look forward to the future. So as he comes, and as I have this last opportunity, shall we say, and I'm sure he'll let these guys preach and stuff like that, but I really think this is probably the last time I'll ever preach from behind here. And I want to just talk to you tonight, and I wanted everybody to be in here for the simple fact of, and I've entitled the message, Honoring Pastor. The word honor means to value. It means to esteem highly. One of the words is precious. I wonder how many congregations look at their pastor and say, he's precious. I hope we'll be one of those. I hope we will be. You see, He's more than a man filling a position. I hope we don't look at the pastor like just a man that's filling a position. He's much more than that. He is a God-appointed man leading a people. And we need to treat Him like that. As he comes, there's just some things that I want to talk about tonight, and it's certainly not all inclusive. There's many things in which we can do, but I think these are some of the pretty important ones that we need to take into consideration whenever we think about him coming. And number one, I think we definitely need to support him. Let's turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5. First Timothy, chapter number five. First Timothy, chapter number five. Look at verse number 17. 1 Timothy 5.17 says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, double value, double being highly esteemed. He's different than the five guys that's been up here for the past year. Okay? Understand that. He's different. And he deserves to be treated differently. worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." Which we know that's what he does. That's what he does. So I think that, first of all, we definitely need to support him, and we need to support him in ministry. We need to support him in ministry. Everybody understand that God leads him, and then he leads us. That's how this thing works. That's how God desires it to work. So God leads him, and then he leads us. It's not the other way around. A lot of churches have these things. They look at the pastor as they're on equal ground with him. Now, don't get me wrong. He's a man. Don't get me wrong. But he's not on equal ground. I think he deserves to be highly esteemed, be honored. And whenever he wants to go in a certain direction, I think we need to follow him. I mean, I think he's a man who's going to take good counsel in different things like that. But listen, God's going to lead him, not you and me. God's going to lead him in the way that Tabernacle Baptist Church should need to go. Let's turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter number 5. Luke chapter number 5. You see, we need to back the pastor from young up through the old. They're the seasoned saints. We need to back Him, how God leads Him. Okay? You know, very simply, He may want to change some things. He may want to start some things. And we need to be ready, but we need to back Him. Look at Luke chapter number 5. Let's look at this account and let's try to apply something in here. Luke 5, verse 1. The Bible says, and it came to pass, that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. They were done for the night. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down he taught the people out of the ship okay now when he had left speaking whenever he whenever he was done speaking to the people verse number four he said unto Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught so here They've been fishing all night, and we understand that by the next couple of verses. And Jesus gets in the boat, and he's just teaching there for a little bit, and then he tells them to go launch out in the deep, and let's cast the nets again. Notice what he says, and Simon answered him, said unto him, Master, come on, man, really? One more thing? Haven't we done enough? I mean, we've told all night and have taken nothing. We've been doing this thing for a long time. We've tried that. It didn't work. Is that what we're going to do whenever a pastor wants to start a ministry? We've been there before. We've done that. I don't think we should have that meeting. I've worked all day. We gotta be very careful. You know, if he wants to change something in the church, I like it just the way it is. The Bible says that he went on to say, nevertheless, and I can, can you just see Peter? Probably like a lot of Baptists. I guess so. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. He probably looked over at one of the other boys. Yeah, we'll see if this works. I wonder if the congregation does that. Gets into cliques. I wonder if we're around the supper table Sunday afternoon and we'll see if this works. See what pastor's starting. It'll die out. They would have never caught anything if they wouldn't have done what he said. The Bible goes on to say, and when they had done this, verse number 6, they enclosed a great multitude of fishers. Now what did Jesus call them to? He said, I'll make you what? Fishers of men. We want to do something for God, right? We prayed for a year about somebody that would lead us. Are we going to let Him do it? We're going to follow Him. We're going to be willing to do the next ministry that He feels God's given Him a vision for. You know, and whenever He wants to do it, let's be excited about it. Let's get excited about what he wants to do as God leads him. Hey, God's leading. God wants us to do this. He gets excited about it. And we're like the fire department. We throw water on it. God begins to work in him a fire and he wants to do something and he needs somebody to do it. And he can't find nobody because nobody wants to do anything anymore. You know what that does to His fire? It throws water on it. Quench not the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians, I believe it is. 5, 17, somewhere around in there. Don't quote me right now. But that's what that word means. Quench. It means putting the fire out. Let's get excited about what he wants to do. If we're gonna support him, that's what support is. Support's not saying, go ahead. Go ahead, buddy. You got this, pastor. I'll be praying for you. Isn't that the greatest cop out in the world? Go ahead, pastor. I'll be praying for you. I pray that God will bless it. I'm just giving you my heart tonight. These are things that we need to do to honor the pastor. Not in lip service. We need to honor him. We need to get behind him. We need to support him. We don't need to say, what's he doing now? Why can't he leave well enough alone? We did that before and it didn't work. We don't need to do it now. You understand what I'm saying? We need to support him. We need to support Him, okay? If we want to keep that unity that we had at the vote, then we've got to support God's man. We've got to support Him. We all believe He's supposed to be here. Now, don't we all believe that He's supposed to lead us? I hope so. I hope we do. Not only do we need to support Him in ministry, but we also need to support Him financially. We need to support him financially. Look at Luke chapter number 8. Over a couple pages, Luke chapter number 8, verse number 1, the Bible says, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him. And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chusa..." That's a weird name. "...Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others..." Watch this now. "...which ministered unto him of their substance." They ministered of their substance what they had. They took care of him. So from this time in the New Testament, from the time of Christ, and we see it throughout the Acts, where the missionaries would take up monies, and then we see it through the New Testament epistles. Turn to Philippians. In case you don't believe me, turn to Philippians. Philippians was a great little church, wasn't it? They were a great little church because they gave. Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4 verse number 15. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only. What a testimony. What a great testimony. Verse number 16. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessity. Even while he's at another church, there's Philippians helping him out. He has bills too. Just like you. Just like me. He's got bills. He's got a family. The difference is he's supported by us. I understand that he's supported by God. Okay? I understand. And God can meet his need. But he's our pastor. So you know who the burden of financially supporting him falls upon? That would be me and you. It's very important that we give. There's so much freedom in giving. Let me tell you something. I didn't have victory in my life until I started giving to the church. Because when you don't give, you're bound by the not giving. You've handcuffed God. He says, give and I'll open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. That's what the Bible says. But the problem is we've handcuffed God a lot because we don't give to God. God follows His word. So we need to support Him. And we need to support him in ministry. We need to support him financially. We need to support him in prayer. We need to support him in attendance. Yeah. Hey, you've had it pretty good the past year. I mean, now that we got a pastor, we're going to be here. Oh, it's got quiet. Nobody like that. Hey, you know what happens whenever we don't show up? Makes him feel bad. Makes him think, what'd I say? Makes him think they don't really care. Yeah, it does. You know, you can say, well, he's going to preach to whoever's there. Boy, wouldn't it be so much better if you were there supporting him. We voted him in. Now let's support him with attendance. Let's get here. Let's say, I'm behind you, pastor. I'm here with you. Let's don't make him wonder about our allegiance. We always want to think about the aspect of His allegiance. And I know how we can think. I know that the thoughts have run through our mind, wondering how long He's going to stay. Hey, get thee behind me, Satan, whatever. But let me tell you something. He may wonder about your allegiance. He ain't ever here. We just need God's help. We want to support Him. We need to be here. You know, we hear it all the time, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. How about let's just do what's right? Follow the Lord. The Lord wants us to be here. The Lord wants us to be here. Our pastor wants us to be here. Let's be here. Let's just be here. Let's be faithful. So, we need to support Him. We need to support Him. All those things in which I said, we need to support Him. Number two. Number two, let's don't turn our back on Him. Let's don't turn our back on Him. Turn with me to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter number 4. This is Paul's last letter. Okay? It's Paul's last letter. 2 Timothy chapter number 4. Let's look at verse number 9. He says, Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Notice what he says in verse number 10. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Christians to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Demas forsook him. Left him. See you later. Let's don't forsake our pasture. Let's don't forsake him. Let's don't turn on him. Turn over to verse number 14. Verse number 14. People are going to not like what he says sometimes. You know, the Word of God cuts. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces to dividing asunder of soul and spirit, your will and God's will, and sometimes that hurts. Notice what he says in verse number 16, at my first answer, no man stood with me. I hope Tabernacles doesn't fall in that category. But all men forsook me." This is the Apostle Paul here. This is the Apostle Paul. He said, all men forsook me. I pray God that I might be laid to their charge. What a man. Didn't get mad at him. We need to support him. Don't get upset whenever he steps on your toes. Don't get upset if he says something that cuts you. You know, the fire is meant to burn, but it also refines. Helps us be better. And He will preach. Don't criticize. Don't listen to criticism. These are things that are going to help us with our pasture. Don't criticize. Don't listen to criticism. Listen to what James says. James 3, verses 5 and 6 says this, Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members. that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell." Boy, that little thing can get us in some trouble. It has no filter at times, and it hurts. Listen, you may not agree with everything that he says, but if he's preaching Bible, then we don't have a leg to stand on. And if it cuts you, then maybe you should need to see why it's cutting you and get it right so that it won't. That's the whole purpose. That's the whole purpose. We shouldn't openly criticize. If you've got something against him, go to him. If there's a problem with something that he preached, go to him. But hey, don't criticize around the kids and the teens, the grown-ups and the older ones. Hey, that pretty much covers everybody, right? You know, we want to wonder why our teenagers don't want anything to do with church whenever we don't have anything to do with church. And we criticize and complain Hey, all I'm saying is that if we're gonna honor our pastor, we can't be doing that stuff. Can't be doing that stuff. We need to realize what he does. I'll tell you what, there's five men in this church that know a little bit of what he's gonna be doing. I understand he's in full-time ministry and we're not, but he'll do a lot whenever he's here. See, I don't think you understand none of us do because we never have been the burden of leading the church. I'm not talking about the sermons. I'm not talking about the study. I'm not talking about the prayer. What I'm talking about is the burden of the church. That goes back to attending and different things like that help him with that burden. It helps him with that burden of the church. It's one less thing he has to worry about, has to be concerned with, has to fill his mind. He needs to be thinking of other things. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, back a couple of books. 1 Thessalonians, chapter number 5. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 12. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 12. And we beseech you, brethren... Beseech is a pretty big word there. Beg. Earnestly trying to get you to understand this. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. Verse number 13. and to esteem them, value them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Pastoring is difficult. Pastoring a church has got to be difficult. I mean, you're dealing with people. And we all know that people aren't easy. to deal with. I don't care who you are. It's difficult. We want to talk about the aspect of pastors leaving churches and giving up the ministry and leaving. I wonder if a lot of that is not due to bad congregations. It's why they leave. All I'm saying is that we need to support him. We don't need to turn our back on him. This is his first time. Mistakes will be made. I mean, look, we need to face that. Mistakes will be made. You ever done something one time and just got it right? No problems? I haven't. Especially something as big as pastoring a church. I haven't. I can't even change a wheel without messing it up. That's why I have Travis. Listen, we need to have patience. Okay? We need to support Him. We need to have patience. He with us and us with Him. I mean, these are two things coming together. He doesn't really know us and we don't really know Him. There needs to be a lot of patience with that. Turn with Romans. Romans chapter number 15. It's taking a little bit longer now. Romans chapter number 15. We got started late, so it's not my fault. Blame Shane. Romans chapter number 15, starting in verse number five. Romans 15, verse number five, the Bible says, now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." We need to be patient. We need to be patient. God is patient with you. God is patient with you. Long-suffering. Our RU definition of long-suffering is an enduring temperament that expresses itself in patience with the shortcomings of others. I'm sure he'll have some shortcomings. We all do. Let's be patient with him. And lastly, in this aspect of turning on him, listen, don't compare him to others. Don't compare him to Pastor Adams. Don't compare him to Dan Caldwell. Don't compare him to the other men that's pastored this church, Sam Gobble, all the other ones, this Klein, whoever it is. Don't you dare compare him to any of those. He's going to preach differently. He's going to lead differently. And the last thing in the world we need to do is compare him to him. Paul said in the book of Philippians chapter number three, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are before. I press toward the mark. And my friend, that's where we need to go. Leave all the rest of it behind. So here we are, number three, and I'm in a hurry. No, I'm not. This is my last time. It's going to be a long one. I gotta break a record here. I think Jason has the record. I need to break it. Number three, in honoring your pastor, do what you do for God and not Him. Let's turn to the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter number three. Colossians chapter number three. Verse number 23. Colossians 3.23 says this, And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For ye serve the Lord Christ. You don't serve pastor. Now we are, in a sense, we're moving in the same direction, but it's all about Jesus. He's the one in which we follow. You see, as He comes, the inclination is going to be to step back. And can I just say, if there's ever a time in Tabernacle Baptist Church, we don't need to step back, we need to step up. We need to move forward. We need to keep going as unto the Lord. We would do so much better if we would have that mindset. It ain't about pleasing Him. It's about pleasing the Lord. But what the amazing thing is with Christ and Christianity is that as we please Him, we please others. If we're all right with the Lord and wanting to do God's will. Kids, you want to please your parents? Are your parents serving the Lord? Just serve God. If you'll serve God, you'll please your parents. Let's keep advancing. Pastors should never be the main reason in which we do anything. For God. It's for God. It's for God. So, we need to support Him. We don't need to turn our back on Him. We need to do what we do for God. And lastly, and probably the most important, and this will cover everything else, we need to love Him and His family. Turn with me to I Corinthians. We all know this scripture, I Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13, starting in verse number 4, the Bible says charity, that's God's love, that's not your love, that's God's love through you. Our RU definition of charity or love is an enduring temperament, no I'm sorry, no it's not. is the willing, sacrificial giving of oneself to the benefit of others without thought of return. The willing, sacrificial giving of yourself to benefit somebody else without any thought of return. The world in which we live in has so turned love upside down that nobody knows what it is. Love is loving, doing something for somebody, and not doing it rather you get anything back. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God commended His love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus died. He loved us even if we never would have accepted Him. But we need to love Him and His family. Notice verse number 4. Charity suffers long in His kind. Charity envieth not, charity bondeth not itself, is not puffed up. It doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, not easily provoked. It thinketh no evil. It rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. It beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. But whether they be prophecies, they shall fall. Whether there be tongues, they shall be ceased. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is done in part will be done away with. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known. Verse number 13, and now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. Can I just say that we're just not getting a pasture? We're getting an entire family. We're getting a whole family. They're all leaving everything that they know and coming here. And we need to love them. Kirsten is leaving everything that she knows for you, to serve you. Ladies, she needs you. She's gonna need you. She's gonna need you to love on her, and she's gonna need you to love on her. Something else is that we don't need to put unrealistic expectations on them. We don't need to put it on Pastor. You ladies don't need to put it on Kirsten, you know. And then we don't need to put it on their children either. Well, a pastor's child shouldn't act like that. Any child's gonna act like that. I don't think she should have done that. Well, you're not her. All I'm saying is, is that we need to love them and not judge them. Just love them. Allow God to love them through you. This family that we're getting is a gift. It's a Tabernacle Baptist Church. They're a gift. We're not paying for them. They're a gift to us. Let's do what we can to treat them as such, as a gift. Let's love them. Let's pray for them. And let's thank God for them every day. And then treat them like we thank God for them. Appreciate them. Don't take them for granted. Tonight, I'm going to end a little bit different. I'm going to end just a little bit different tonight. And what I want to do, and I promise you I'm not trying to make a spectacle with anything. What I've said up here tonight has been from my heart, because I think He deserves this before He gets here. He deserves to hear it before we get here, before they get here. And what I want to do tonight is I want us to just gather around the altar. And I want us to pray for them, But I'm gonna tell you, we need to pray just as much for us that we'll love them, that we'll support them, that we won't turn on them, that we'll do what we do for God and we'll love on them like we're supposed to. That God can continue what he started in the vote. So here's what I'd like to do. We're all that can, and I understand that there's some that can't. I just want us to gather around this altar, and I'm gonna ask Travis, as he can get up here somewhere, and we're not gonna have to, we're just gonna have him, we're gonna pray together, and you just lead us.