Good afternoon to everybody. It's good to be with you. I do think in 2006, Dennis had a little bit more hair, but I could be wrong on that recollection. Less belly, myself included. Things have changed. I'm honored to be here. I love teaching. The Word of God, I consider it a great honor. One of the things when I come to the Duluth Bible Conference is when I teach, I kind of get bummed out because I don't get to listen to somebody else. I have had to live with myself the last 42 years, and it's not pleasant all the time. If I had my preference, I'd listen to somebody else, but I'm glad you're here. Go ahead and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. And I wanted to just have a couple of introductory comments as I get started here. You know, one of the hardest things for me as a Bible teacher is if someone leaves it open-ended as to what I can teach. If I'm filling in for somebody, it's a lot easier if they say, well, hey, I left off in verse 13. You pick up in verse 14 and just go as far as you can. When we talked about doing highlights, as I started looking at chapter 13, I was like, well, what am I going to teach on? How do I decide what to teach on? And so as I started looking, and by the way, you'll see every blank that you have in your notes is going to be the highlighted yellow word. So as I started kind of getting prepped, I started looking through Hebrews 13. I broke my Logos software out. One of the things I started to notice is that there were a lot of commands. It just looked like there were a lot of inheritances, so I did that search. 13 alone. So there's 25 verses, there's 13 imperatives. Then I started to look, how many are in the book? Well, 36 are in the book. So we've got 13 imperatives. That kind of fits with the New Testament style of indicative and then imperative. And so I thought that was kind of interesting. The other thing I started to see is that there was a lot of reminders. You'll see this word, you know, remember this. Some other phrases, don't forget. Some of these things, and so you start to see some of the teaching here are stuff that the believers have already been taught, that they're being reminded of, which, as we all know, good teachers do that. We've gotta repeat things, because if the people we teach or anything like us, it's gonna take them eight, nine, 10, 11 times to get it. Just when we get tired of saying it, say it another 10 times, because then somebody might actually get it. And so you see a lot of repetition of thoughts. And the other thing I kind of noticed about this chapter, because what I really wanted to do was take maybe a verse and then go through maybe five or six verses, eight verses in a row, and I couldn't really find a train of thought that went that long. It was just really odd. So in that way, it kind of reminded me of the Proverbs. You know, you get into the Proverbs sometimes, you've got all these little bursts of thoughts, and then you've got some verses that relate to one another, and you kind of, you can build off of that. So that was just kind of interesting to me as well. So as I decided what to teach on, there was one phrase that really jumped out to me. It was used three times, and it's this phrase, rule over you. And you'll see that in verse seven, you'll see that in verse 17, and you'll see that in verse 24. It's the Greek word, hegeomai. And all it means is to lead or to go before, to go first, or to lead the way. And one of the things that you'll you'll find interesting in the New Testament is this word is only used as a participle. It's just kind of a unique. It's not not used in a straight up verbal form. It's used in a participle form, which indicates that it was their their work, not an office that we're talking about. describing what they do, how they do, not just getting an office. And we know those types of people who sit in church, don't participate, but then they're really successful businessmen. And then you sit in an elder board meeting and say, hey, let's nominate that guy for an elder. And they haven't already been doing the work of an elder. But once they get the office, now they've got the title and they start slapping down their business card, so to speak, and trying to get involved in ministry. So this is describing people who are leaders in the church, not in office, not a title, but actually doing the work. We see this repetition of thought, and so it seemed to form an important theme here in this chapter. And so what I wanted to focus on today or highlight in this chapter is really two things. How do you respond to biblical authority, number one? And then the flip side is how can you be the right kind of biblical authority? It just kind of reminds me. As I was looking at the book of Proverbs with my kids, you know, as you study different characteristics of what you're looking for in a spouse, there's always that dual application, right? So if I'm talking to my daughter and I say, hey, this is the type of man you're looking for, well, then I can bring my son in the room a minute later and say, this is the type of man you want to be. And for my son, this is the type of woman you're looking for. And I can bring my daughter in the room later and say, this is the type of woman you want to be. There's that dual application. So I think we're going to pick that up here in Hebrews 13. And so let's read verse 7. And let's go through verse 9. Reads this, remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. And so in verse seven, we see this word, remember, and it's, in general, there's nothing really special about the word, we know what it means, but it has this idea of exercising your memory, being mindful of, to bear in mind, the thing that we learn about it from the Greek, it's a present tense command, so it's an imperative. And the idea of Communicate is that they were to do this immediately. And not only were they to do this immediately, but this was to be a constant state of mind. This was to be a mindset of sorts. And so you kind of ask yourself, okay, well how do I remember those who roll over me? What does that look like? Is it just like, oh yeah, I remember that dude. I mean, it's like, is that what we're talking about? Oh, yeah, I remember that guy. I saw him the other day. I remember who he is. I think it's a little bit more than that. I think what it practically looks like is that you're keeping them in your mind. It's a continuing mindset. You're keeping them in your mind maybe via prayer. Maybe you think of your leader and you just say, you know, Lord, I don't know what they're doing today, but undertake for them, you know, encourage them, strengthen them. Maybe you keep them in mind via what they've taught you. You know, I remember he said this, and that's an encouragement to me today. Maybe you keep them in mind via opportunities to one another then. Maybe there's an opportunity to one another Maybe you're just thankful to God for them. Maybe you're thankful you take something that they have taught you and you pass it on to others. I mean, there's lots of different ways to remember those who rule over you. And I think part of it is being sensitive to their schedule sometimes. And those of you that are pastors and full-time missionaries, you know what I mean by that. It's that I was in my church back in Texas, It was just the craziest time of season because we had a county fair. It was ten days long. We were right at the end of that fair and so I had been out late hours every night and it just so happened, you know how sometimes you make the teaching schedule for your church and then you don't plan far enough ahead or you weren't aware of events. So next thing I know I've got a county fair and I'm teaching Sunday school. and preaching the sermon, and I've got a full load. And so I show up to church, and I'm just getting there, that morning was like, I was doing really good, because I barely dragged out of bed. I mean, I was ready for my messages, but I was tired. I was haggard. And so I show up to church. I teach Sunday school. The deacon that normally showed up to make coffee didn't show up on time, so I made the coffee. I had to flip the sound system on. And so then I get up to teach Sunday school, and I'm like, oh man, I just need a breather. Well, as I'm walking back to get a cup of coffee, One of the ladies in the church says, you know, Pastor Clark, can I talk to you a second? I said, sure. And she said, I just wanted to let you know the toilet paper is out in the ladies' restroom. You're on a roll. I said, thank you so much for letting me know that. I will be sure I get over to the grocery store this week and pick some of that up. But you know, this is one of those situations where the sensitivity, keeping them in mind, being aware of what's going on. That's something that we can do for our leaders. And so that's one area, but we're gonna see more specifically as we go in the passage, there's some definite areas that the writer of the Hebrews points out to bear in mind as it relates to our church leaders. And so the first thing we wanna look at is this concept of biblical authority. Really just kind of drawing that out of that first phrase, remember those who rule over you. It's a synonym for church leaders, but it also, I believe, is referencing the authority structure in the Church of God. In other words, there implies that there's some that are leading and there's some that are following. There's leaders and there's followers. There's people who are established in positions of authority. And so the idea is to remember that structure. There's something important about acknowledging that there's an authority structure. And many people in our day, they view authority with disdain. They despise it almost. And yet we know from the scriptures that God places those things in for our good. and for our benefit, and so this is one of those structures. So just recognizing it, and I think in a practical way, it's just saying, you know what, if they're leading this way, then I'm going that way. And you know, for many church members, that would be such a step up in their thinking if they could just think that, because what ends up happening is the leaders are going this way, and you know what, I'm gonna go this way. And that's the general mindset, and I think that's, contagious, especially in America. I don't think it's only an American thing. It's a sin thing. But America, the entrepreneurial spirit, the rebellion against authority, and so everyone thinks, you know, if you do it a different way than I do, well, that's okay. I mean, you can be wrong if you want to. If you're not going to do it my way. But that's kind of the mindset that many people hold. So the idea is just remember that these men who are in place rule over you. And so you may have the greatest idea on methodology. You may have the greatest idea on ministry. You may have the greatest idea on timing, on how you should roll it out. But if the leaders are leading a different way, I think the point here is you jump on their tracks. You don't create your own tracks. Build your own train. You get on board with them. It's kind of the idea. As long as it's not doctrinal error. That's the case. But many times, it's a methodology difference. And I'll tell you, that causes more frustrated, irritated, and disgruntled Christians than probably anything else in the church, is this idea that you and I would disagree with the church leadership, and that's want to do our own thing. And yet here, in verse 7, just remember this. Just bear in mind, keep in mind those who rule over you. The second thing we want to remember, according to verse 7, is we want to remember those who have spoken the word of God to you. And this is an interesting word in the Greek. And by implication, before we talk about the word, they're told to remember those that not only have taught them the word of God, but also what they have been taught. That's by implication. Remember those who've spoken the word of God to you, but you don't remember what they've said. Right. And so that's implied that we're paying attention to what they're teaching us. But not only remember them, but remember what you've been taught. In fact, we learn from the book of Hebrews. We can use multiple examples. But if you just go back to chapter two, verse one, there's safety in taking heed to the things that you've heard. There's safety in taking heed and responding to the word of God. Two one says, therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. We're going to see that when we buy into false doctrine, we don't take heed to sound doctrine. We don't control the following away. We don't we don't control being carried away into further error. That just happens as we stop taking heed to the word of God. One of the things that's interesting about this word is it's the Greek word have spoken, it's laleo, and it means to talk at random or to talk a lot. And that's why I've got the chatterbox picture up there to give us that image of what this is talking about. You know, it's not, it doesn't use the Greek word didosko, which means to teach. It doesn't use the Greek word keruso, which means to preach. This is talking about the Word of God. And so one of the things that's interesting is I don't think that this is specifically referring to our public teaching ministry. I think this is referring to the ministry of talking about the Word of God on a more personal level with people. And one of the things that we need to do as leaders is to be chatterboxes about the Word of God. You know, it's always ironic, but I don't know if you've ever felt this way as a pastor, where you felt like your least effective teaching time is Sunday morning sermon. And I remember, I was teaching through Romans 6. I'm sorry, it still cracks me up to this day. So I'm teaching through Romans 6. We're getting to the punchline, right? Like Romans 6, 11 through 14, right? Here's where it's at. We've been reviewing positional truth. We've we've heard about how we died to sin with Christ We've been raised to newness of life this this command in Romans 6 11, and I made a big deal about it I said everyone that wants to obey commands Here's a command for you to obey reckon yourself dead to sin and alive unto God and so made a big deal about this passage and So I remember going to the back of the church, and one of the ladies in my church came up to me, and she said, I need to talk to you about your sermon. And I knew a little bit about her situation. I said, praise the Lord. This is going to be a breakthrough for her. Like, this is going to be great. And she started to accost me about something I said about anxiety and how there's medical issues. And so we started talking about that. And I said, well, let me ask you a question. What do you do when you're anxious? How do you respond? How do you deal with that? How do you take that to the Lord? And she says, well, I quote scripture. I said, that's great. And I said, what scripture do you quote? And she said, well, I can't think of any right off the top of my head. And I said, what about Romans 6, 11? And she said, what's that say? So I heard a good sermon on it. I can send you the audio. But this is more than just our public preaching ministry. This is those opportunities that we have in personal conversations where we get to influence and invest the Word of God into people's thinking. This is what he's talking about. This is something that they were to remember. Remember this investment into their life. In fact, this type of speaking of the Word of God is typically more direct. and it's more personal. It's more specific because now I'm talking one-on-one with the person I know, I know exactly the issues that they're going through, and now I can help, by God's grace, apply truth to their situation, which is called wisdom and help in that area for them to begin to apply the word of God. So those are very important conversations and it's opportunities for us as leaders to invest and to make a dent In people's thinking and it's just about again the being a chatterbox and we all know that this can be very difficult Because many times the the word of God is corrected by nature. And so that makes a little bit more difficult to want to step out Possibly, you know with our neck on the line getting it chopped off by some people, but we gotta understand it's good for people it's painfully good for them and I remember Sometimes I'll coach some of my kids' sports teams and, you know, the one thing that most of us have in common is we all hate correction, right, if we're being honest. Like, nobody just goes, oh, I love it, bring it on. Even people that tell me, I love it, bring it on, when I bring it on, they don't like it. You know, have you ever noticed that? They don't respond very well. But I've always told the kids that I've coached in sports over the years, the second I stop correcting you, you should be worried. Because then I don't care about you anymore. I've given up on you. There's no hope for you. So just try to encourage them. Hey, what I'm correcting you is because I care about you. And that's that's the same in pastoral ministry. We see a third thing that he mentions here to remember, and he uses it, the phrase whose faith follow. Whose faith follow. And the word follow means to mimic, to follow as an example. That's what the word there means. And this word is also a present middle passive imperative, and it just indicates that the command is something to be immediately implemented, something that we need to put in the practice right away, and something that you do because I believe it's a middle voice, it's a command, so it's something that you are doing the action with, but since it's a middle voice, it's something that if you do, you'll be affected by your own action. In other words, you'll benefit from it. If you will mimic the faith of your leaders, you'll benefit from it. Now, notice that it doesn't say imitate them in this passage. It says mimic their faith, imitate their faith. And that's an interesting thing. And so what it becomes is it becomes a reminder to you and I to walk by faith, just like your leaders do. And then it also tells us that if you personally do that, you'll begin to benefit from it as well. So we're not mimicking people. And that's one of the things I love about this conference. And I love to go to the breakout sessions because what's great about Bible teachers, especially those who are comfortable in their position in Christ, you can be yourself. You don't have to be your mentor, right? You don't have to be your dad if your dad was a pastor. You don't have to be your heroes. I mean, I have many heroes, but I don't sound like most of them. And God has wired me differently and gifted me differently and given me the background that I have. And it's nice to just settle into who you are. I don't have to be an exact representation of my mentors, but I can mimic their faith. I've been around men in my life who who have shown me what it means to walk by faith. I've lived through experiences with them where they've had to walk by faith in something. I remember one of my mentors, I was on a trip with him, he was teaching, there was something going on in his family that was very emotionally bothersome to him. And I learned more in those two days with him, watching him navigate the trials of life that I had on any trip before when we just taught the Word of God together. Just watching him trust the Lord, watching him pour his heart out to the Lord, watching him depend on the Lord, watching him not even wanting to go to the teaching sessions and yet depending on the Lord to get through those days. You learn more just by mimicking and seeing your leaders walk by faith. You know, one of the things that we all know is you don't get skinny by parking in the parking lot of a CrossFit gym, right? I wish. Wouldn't that be nice? I mean, CrossFit, they take that stuff serious. If we could just benefit by watching them, that'd be awesome. But, you know, you get in shape by working out. You and I have to begin to move past just observing and admiring other people's face. For many years, and I still do, I love reading biographies. They're just enriching to hear how Christian men and women have responded to the Lord in trials in their life. But at some point I realized I can't just live on their quotes. I can't live on their stories. I have to live by faith in the Son of God, what Galatians 2.20 says. It's not I but Christ. I'm not living on a quote from somebody else. Now, it greatly enriches me, but at some point, I have a Monday afternoon. I've got a Tuesday morning. I've got a Wednesday night. I've got things going on in my life. I needed to depend on the same Lord that they depended on. Because he saw them through, he can see me through. And so, this is that reminder. Remember those, your leaders whose faith follow. You know, by implication, and this is, I think, important for us as leaders, by implication, this is seen. In other words, the people that follow you need to see this from you. They need to see this from us. And so for leaders, this is something that we need to probably do a better job of communicating. The temptation as a pastor is to not to act like you've got everything together, but to be real guarded about some of these things that are going on in your life. And I say, you know, let some of that out. Let people see what's going on in terms of struggle and understanding what's going on and let them see how you trust the Lord. What does that look like? How do you do it? And these are the kind of things that if they're to mimic your faith, they've got to be able to see it in some way, you know. And one of the things that you see, and I think a great example of this is Philemon. And so Philemon is just one book to the left, so just jump over there real quick. You know, Philemon hosted the Church of Colossae in his house, and you go to Philemon, verse six, chapter one, verse six, and he says this, and this is in the middle of Paul's prayer for him. But he says, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. And then he says, for we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by your brother. Now, in verse six there, when you see the sharing of your faith, that naturally, if you haven't looked at the language and kind of the, The grammar there, it looks like a verb or at least a participle and you think, okay, evangelism is what he's talking about. It's interesting, it's a noun. It's the Greek word koinonia, it's fellowship, it's sharing, it's participation. And so think through it that way. How do you participate? How do they participate in his faith? Well, I think it's exactly what we're talking about here in Hebrews 13. They see it. You're sharing it with them. How does that look? How does that work out? How does that play out when you get anxious? What does it mean to trust the Lord? What does it mean to cast your cares upon him? How does that look in your life? And so Paul is praying there that the sharing, the communication, the participation of your faith may become effective. And that word effective is energase, and it was used of medical, like things of medicinal value. You see, there's going to be great benefit to people as we learn to share what it means to walk by faith, as they mimic our faith. They've got to hear that. Our kids have got to hear that. If you've got grandkids, they need to hear that. They need to be reminded of what this looks like, because otherwise it becomes another catchy Christian phrase, we've got to walk by faith, not by sight. And they'll put it on their wallpaper, they'll put it up in their room, but they won't know what it means. And we want to give that practical aspect. And so one of the things that the writer here, the Hebrews, is reminding them, remember the faith of your leaders and copy that. Mimic that. Grow in the way that they handle these things. And so we see a fourth thing in verse seven that they would remember. They were to consider the outcome of their conduct. And so the idea, I think, communicated is here, mimic their faith while attentively considering the external results from this wall. You know, when people walk by faith and dependence upon the Lord, there are going to be times that you can see visible external conduct. And you're going to see that it comes from the source where it's supposed to come from, not a legalistic source. You're not impressed because, you know, this guy is just cranking out the Christian life and digging in and getting up a little bit earlier. Well, I send a day and I got up at 530. So I'm going to get up at 510 tomorrow. And I used to have a guy that would tell me the key to the Christian life was the fact that he got up at five o'clock. He took a shower in such a way that he could shave and and soap up in the shower in four minutes and be in his office at 506 with a cup of coffee on his desk. And I said, man, the Christian life ain't for me, because I'm not I'm not doing he went with that, but he was really pushing the envelope there. That's not what we're talking. We're not talking about cranking out the Christian life. We're talking about observing someone that walks by faith, and we see that conduct coming out of that walk. So the idea is to pay close attention to the end result of their walk of faith. And as it's been said many times, good orthodoxy should lead to consistent orthopraxy, as we're actually depending upon the resources that we find in God's Word. And so spiritual growth, we're encouraged here. to be committed to the spiritual growth process, walking moment by moment by faith, because there's an end result benefit. And, you know, it's been said before, and I think I probably stole this from Pastor Roxer, but when you look at the whole concept of abiding, you know, most Christians, myself included, we tend to look the wrong way. We tend to look out toward the branch where the fruit is. That's kind of where we're always observing, where the word abide is the exact opposite direction. It's where you're connected to the root. And so it's occupation with Jesus Christ. It's enjoyment of Jesus Christ. This fruit external stuff that comes off, that's not even where our focus is supposed to be. And yet many of us, we could be hired by fruit alone. I mean, we are fruit inspectors, not only of ourself, But of other people and so we're told to abide in Christ and there's going to be an outcome Potential outcome as we walk by faith does want to produce good works in and through us and he wants to bear fruit And it throws but it's not because we're out there inspecting the fruit. It's because we're enjoying the Savior That's that's the emphasis. That's the focus and so You know, we jump into verse 8, man, fun verse, right? One of our favorite verses, I mean, about our Savior. It's pretty cool. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The question is, like, how does this fit the context, right? Because he kind of jumps to leaders in verse 7, and then he goes back to, you know, being carried away by strange doctrines in verse 9. So how does this fit the context? One commentator said this, he says, it appears to me that in relation to the previous verse, it is saying that human leaders are necessary, their faith is to be emulated, but Jesus, the Messiah, remains forever the same in his plans, his purposes, and his ministries. And so I would say it this way, just as you remembered your leaders, remember your unchangeable Lord. And you know, I think that's a great follow-up to this verse about remembering your leaders. Because if you've been around the church long enough, or if you've been around Christianity long enough, you know what happens to leaders sometimes? They fail, don't they? And see, if your hope isn't a leader, you have the potential to be discouraged. And I think what this verse is saying, OK, remember your leaders, but put your hope in the unchangeable Lord. That's where you're not going to be discouraged. You know, one of the things they joke about when you get married is the more you find out about your spouse, it gets ugly. And I know that's true for my wife with me. I mean, there's a lot of moles and warts I kind of kept hidden from her, not intentionally. I was just trying to put my best foot forward. One of the great things about marriage is when you learn to accept those things and love each other anyways, that's pretty cool, pretty cool situation. But I can stand up here with confidence and just tell you that the more we find out about There's no warts, there's no moles, there's no secret skeleton that we're gonna find out. And I'm like, ooh, I didn't know that about him. Nothing like that is going to happen. And so this verse kind of encourages us there that even in the midst of incredible change, potential failure, even amongst our leaders, that Jesus is unchangeable. You know, you remember these readers contextually, they're getting ready to go through a very difficult ordeal, this persecution that's coming on to the city, the persecution that was going on in Christianity in general. The Apostle Paul was probably dead by the time that they received this letter, unless he authored it, I guess. which I know is up for debate, but there was a lot of persecution of Christians. We're gonna see in Second Timothy that people were just flaking out on the Apostle Paul right and left at this time, keeping a low profile because it's pretty dangerous to be a Christian. So there's some things going on that they needed to remember that although things could change, that Jesus Christ doesn't change. His mission for the church, his truth, all of those things, there's consistency with him. And so there is going to be consistency in both life conduct and doctrine when one is walking by faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But the good news is that Jesus is both in his character and his truth, and he's constant and he's dependable. And hence why we can trust him. And so what we're gonna find is that verse eight becomes kind of a transition to verse nine. And so based on Jesus's unchangeable character and truth, we go to verse nine. And verse nine is gonna say this, do not be carried about. with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. And so he's gonna use this phrase, do not be carried about. It just means to be, to carry, to bear around. What's interesting about the word is it's in the passive voice, which means that it gives you the feeling that you're not to let something else. carry you about or drive you around here and there. It's not that you're carrying yourself around, it's you're being carried around. And so in this case, what are we not to let carry us around? Well, we're not to allow various and strange doctrines to do this. And so we see from this passage, in fact, you go down later in verse 9, and specifically he's talking about this idea of abstinence from certain foods, which is definitely a Judaistic concept and error, and knowing the readers of the book of Hebrews, the audience, it's definitely an issue for them. They're wanting to go back to the sacrificial system and probably buying into some of those dietary restrictions, but, you know, some of the various and strange doctrines that impact us today, I mean, they vary. I mean, they pop up in lots of different ways, but I think one of the ways that we see it in our churches is really through that temptation toward legalism. these self-reliant strategies to live the Christian life. That book that just got written that has all the golden keys and the secrets that I've been missing from the Word of God, and yet we're constantly on the lookout for something better than Jesus Christ and what he's provided. And I don't know why, but it's like if you give a Christian something else besides Jesus Christ, they will take it every single time. And it's like we have to be constantly reminded that the message of the book of Colossians, that Jesus Christ is enough. Jesus Christ is sufficient, not only for your justification, he's sufficient for your sanctification. And you know, that's how many of us get bought into false doctrines. We're looking for something more in that area of sanctification, partly because we don't know and maybe we're not taught what Christ did for us to free us from the power of sin by taking you and I into his death, and his burial and his resurrection with him so that we might be free to serve him in newness of life, that we can count on that work by faith, benefit from that work, and then present our members to him for his good pleasure and use. And so we're always bought into that next thing, well, if I just get up at 510 and memorize one more verse, And I'm going to experience victory in my Christian life. And see, many of us stay on that treadmill most of our life, not realizing what we did realize when we were unsafe, that there's a finished work that's been done on your behalf. You simply have to respond to it by faith. And it's the same message for the Christian life. There's a finished work that's been accomplished. You simply have to be able to respond to it by faith and be able to benefit from it. And so some of the doctrines we buy into are just all of these self-reliant strategies. You know, what it means is when we're carried about and led around this way, it means that nobody It's not like you, you know, it's not the old, the way they used to bring the old Roman emperor into town and you like to be carried around. That's not what we're talking about at all. This is against your will. You're getting taken somewhere. And yet it happens because we've we've exposed ourself to false doctrine. And so this is one of those things that he's saying, you've got an unchangeable savior. You've got Jesus Christ, who who is an anchor for the soul. We find that in Hebrews six, 19. So why get pushed around like a ship with no anchor? Why get just carried about with all of these false doctrines when you've got Jesus Christ? And I like this quote from John Darby says, nothing is plainer proof that the heart is not practically in possession of that which gives rest in Christ, that it does not realize what Christ is, than the restless search after something new, diverse and strange doctrines. To grow in the knowledge of Christ is our life and our privilege. The search after novelties which are foreign to him is a proof of not being satisfied with him. And, you know, one of the things that I think we have to be convinced of in our Christian life is God is satisfied with Jesus Christ. God is completely satisfied with Jesus Christ. There is no plan B in God's plan. Jesus Christ was his plan. And he's completely satisfied because Jesus did everything that God wanted him to do. And so the question remains for us, God satisfied or are we satisfied? That is a daily moment by moment question. Is Jesus Christ enough for you? You know, I know what the Bible says. In fact, all of us know what the Bible says. He is. He is more than enough for you and for me. And so the question becomes, can we start relying upon that truth? Can we start resting in the person of Christ? And that's really the encouragement, because if being carried about by false doctrine's bad, what's good? What's good? Well, first time tells us what's good. being established by grace, that's good. That's a very good thing. That's the understatement of the year, right? Being established by grace is a good thing. And so he says, it is good to be established by grace. In fact, This word for gives us further explanation and reason why we should not be carried about with false doctrine. See, God wants to establish us in his grace. And so in contrast to false doctrine, which in this passage includes these dietary restrictions, in complete contrast to that, it's good to be established by grace. This word established means to make firm or reliable so as to warrant security and to inspire confidence. to make firm and reliable. And that's what grace and understanding of grace does for us. The other thing we want to note is that it's in the passive voice. And so since it's in the passive voice, it means that you don't establish yourself. What a relief. The older I get, the less confident I am in myself. And I don't know if you, the more you learn about yourself. You know, when I was 18, I could do anything. I was literally 10 foot tall and bulletproof. And you turn 41, you start ripping Achilles tendons. You know, what happens? But, you know, I'm so glad it doesn't depend on me. The longer I live with me, the longer I see examples of why I shouldn't depend on myself. And hopefully that's something that we're all growing in. I think that's one revelation that God wants to give us. And the other one is He wants to reveal an all-sufficient Christ that can do for you and I what we can't do for ourselves. And that's even on a daily basis. Let's go to Titus, let's go to Titus chapter two, very familiar passage. Titus chapter two in verse 11. It says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. teaching us. It's the grace of God that's teaching us. It's the grace of God that's establishing us. What is God's grace teaching us? That denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. And what we're going to see is that eating food or not eating food doesn't establish I'm going to give you an example. I'm going to give you an example. in your Christian life what you cannot do for yourself. And that's why Galatians 2 20 says it's not I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live. I live by faith in the son of God. God wants to live his son's life in and through us. That is that is grace. You don't deserve that. I don't deserve that. And that is grace. But grace can establish you. Grace can can can make you firm as you begin to rely upon the Lord in your daily life. Have you ever been anxious about somebody and someone just said, hey, quit worrying about that? How's that work out? Oh, I'm struggling with this in. OK, just stop doing it. Oh, great idea. Wish I would have thought of that, you know? No, I mean, it doesn't work that way. At times you come into a realization. We come into a realization of what this is teaching. You can't do you can't do it. You can't live the Christian life. on your own, you're not designed to live a Christian life on your own. And so it's that that encouragement there that grace is a good thing to establish us. I want to notice, too, what the verse says in verse nine. Notice it says it's good that the heart be established by grace. Notice that. See, legalism is going to focus always on the externals. Grace is going to focus on the internals. Legalism is always going to attempt to occupy you with you. It's like an old receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, Tyrell Owens, who used to just just admit he would say, I love me some me. And, you know, many times the Christian life becomes we love us some us. I mean, we we just do. The occupation is with us. And see, legalism is always going to externally focus on what you must do. See, grace is always going to occupy you with the personal work of Jesus Christ and what's already been done. See, grace wants you to rest in the work of another. Legalism's always going to put you to work on a treadmill, cranking it out, and it's going to be just a little bit more. Bob shared a story about a professional baseball player who was a Hall of Famer, and he ended up with a lifetime 300 average, which is great. Those of you that know baseball, it's like, wow, that's incredible. And as he was talking to his dad, who never accepted anything he did in life, he said, I batted 300. What else could I do for you? And he says, you could have done a little bit more, you know, and see, that's what legalism is. It's going to suck the the ever living daylights out of you. It's going to suck juice out of the driest plant possible until there's not a drop left. And yet God wants to establish us in grace where we can just bask and rest and enjoy the finished work. of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's the point of grace. It wants to get our minds and our hearts off of ourselves and onto the finished work of Christ. This heart that's made firm or reliable by grace will consistently respond to the Lord during trials, temptations, and life circumstances. In fact, this person that's established by grace is going to be convinced That the key to living the Christian life is living in dependence upon the Lord and tapping into His resources, not trying to crank out our own resources. We come to that point where we realize we don't have it, but He does. And one of the things that we find from 2 Peter 3, 18, We play a part in this. Now, we don't grow ourselves, we don't establish ourselves, but we must choose to actively walk by faith. When you look at 2 Peter 3.18, the word grow is a present active imperative. It means you must make an active choice to walk by faith to basically benefit from the growth process that God wants to grow you in. That's our part. It's been well said here. It's it's active faith, but passive production So our part is to actively trust the Lord when that thought of anxiety Comes into your mind recognize what source that's coming from the Lord doesn't want you to be anxious The Lord wants to keep you in perfect. Peace And so we recognize that that thought's coming from the sin nature. We reckon ourself dead to sin and alive unto God, and we would begin to present our mind to the Lord for His good pleasure in you. So we begin to say, Lord, I want to trust you in this. I don't want to be anxious. Yeah, this event at my house is going to cost me $500, and I've only got $400 in my savings account. But you know what, Lord? You're in control. I can trust you. And I want to do that, Lord. I want to just rest in you. I want to see you provide in this situation. We begin to practically walk by faith. Now, we're done with verse nine. Let's jump down to verse 17. And let's read verse 17. By the way, this is one of those sections of Scripture, I don't know about you, but I always feel a little uncomfortable preaching on spiritual authority to my own church, because I feel like I'm gonna benefit in some way, and I feel like they think I'm trying to benefit from it in some way. But you know, I think one of the things that we can be convinced and encouraged is verse 17, that this is a teaching they need to hear, and it's for their own good. So if we can buy into that, then we can teach it. We can teach it with passion. And maybe we'll benefit from it. That'd be kind of cool as well. But it is good for them. It is good for them, as we'll see in verse 17. He says, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy, not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. So we see a couple of commands here. This first one is to obey those who rule over you. The word translated obey, those of you familiar with the Greek language will recognize this word, patho, means to persuade or to move or affect. It's translated multiple ways in the New Testament, but some of the ways it's translated is to trust, to be persuaded. or to obey, okay? So you'll see kind of those three main translations of the word, and so it just kind of begs us to ask the question, how do we take it in this passage? How would we understand the thrust of the word as it's used here? And so I think it's best to understand this word that's used here for the readers to trust their leaders with the mind to obey them, to recognize that spiritual authority that God has put in place, trust them, with the mind to obey them. And I think it carries with it the idea of trusting that God is leading your leaders. We're trusting that God is leading our leaders. It's similar to wives who are submitting to their husbands. They're trusting that God is leading their husbands. And so they're trusting God via trusting their husbands is kind of the idea. And so one of the things that the exhortation is here is to trust the leaders. with the intent to obey them. Part of the reason this is so difficult and part of the reason that we automatically begin to say, well, what about the exceptions? When do I comes to our mind. Part of the reason is, if we really analyzed our hearts, is because we think we're right most of the time. Now, we would never say that out loud. We would never, I mean, we'd be embarrassed if we said it in our sleep and someone heard us, right? But we actually think that, practically. And so we come to a place where our leaders are going this way and we're like, why are they going that way? Why are they doing that? My idea is so much better than them. And so it sets up this internal conflict, this frustration, this lack of respect for leadership, instead of recognizing, which is something we all know, that we don't know. And we all agree with that. I mean, at least conceptually, that we don't know everything. We might not be seeing the situation the right way. And so at that moment, by faith, we say, you know what, Lord? This is the established authority. He's going this way. I'm trusting you. I'm going to trust him. And I'm moving out with him. And that's kind of the idea, I think, communicated behind this word. Now, here's what's really interesting, because it fits with this verse even more. It's in the middle voice. It's a middle voice imperative. And the idea that's being communicated is that the action they take, trusting, obeying their leaders, will benefit them as well. They'll actually benefit from having an attitude of faith, of trusting the leaders with the mind to obey them that God has placed in place for them. They'll actually benefit from that personally. That's what the middle voice. And we're gonna see doing the opposite is detrimental to the readers. It actually harms them. And we'll see that here at the end of the verse. Second command is the word submit, or be submissive, I think the New King James says. Better said, probably, submit to them. It too is a command here. Now what's interesting about this word is you start looking at it a little bit more. The word translated submit is only used here in the New Testament. It's not the same word used for wives to submit to their husbands. It's a different word here. And this word actually means to submit, surrender, yield. And I like this last phrase. Cease to fight. Quit fighting. And that's kind of the idea that I think maybe he's building on here is submit to them. Quit fighting with them. Quit being a pain in the... I mean, in modern parlance, I don't know if we would say it that way, but the idea is to yield, to quit making this a sport. And I often wonder if some people just, I mean, it's like entertainment value to them to make my life difficult sometimes, or to challenge me. And I joked with Pastor Rocher last year, and I don't think I shared it with the group, I have a guy in my church right now, if I go anywhere past 40 minutes, he sits in the back row and shakes his keys at me. He enjoys it. He loves to get a response out of me. He loves to get a rise out of me. I think some people, like that's sport. It's right up there with deer hunting or fishing or something. I don't know. It's just like enjoy it. The other thing that we see that the rider usually sees is it's a present tense command. So it could imply a couple things. It could imply that this was an action already in progress that needed to stop immediately, or it's just something that they needed to implement immediately. Because it's active voice, it also indicates that this was an action that they needed to proactively engage themselves in, and possibly were not at this moment in time. And if you've ever had somebody in your church like that, it's just always ready for a fight. Always picking at something. They just enjoy watching you respond or putting you in a difficult situation. And so we don't want to be those kind of people. for our leaders. We don't want to be those kind of people that are that way. It's not fun. It's not sport. In fact, what we're going to see is that you're actually doing damage to the church of Jesus Christ by having that attitude. It's not fun and games. We're not playing a game here. This is very, very serious. And so we need to see, and one of the reasons that he gives these two commands, notice, let's go back to verse 17. You'll notice the word for, again, further explaining why does he tell them to obey those that rule over you? Why does he tell them to be submissive or to submit to them or to cease fighting? And notice that next phrase, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. This word, watch out for your souls, has an idea of not sleeping. I like that image. It's a present tense verb meaning literally without sleep, and it was used to describe the total abstinence from sleep in order to watch and to be attentive to something. The leaders are to attentively watch the reader's souls. And so this is the utmost and total care, not only of the right motions. But I think he uses the word souls for a reason. I think he's also the right heart attitudes as one is able to determine. That's really hard as a leader to determine. It's hard as a dad to determine sometimes what the attitudes of my kids. I see the motions. Sometimes just getting emotions is like a step up for some of my kids, right? Get that right. But it's like you want to get to that hard attitude. And so it's just interesting that leaders are described as those who watch out for your souls. They don't, they lose sleep over you. And there's no secret as to why Paul put the constant care of the churches into the same category as, you know, being stoned. flavor, because it takes care, it takes emotional energy, it can zap you sometimes. And so why would you want to fight that person and have sport with that person and cause them more grief, as we'll see described in the account? we see that leaders must give an account. And so the word used here means to do something necessary, fulfillment of an obligation or expectation. And so the question becomes, and who sets this expectation for leaders? Like sleeplessness and care and concern for the flock and care and concern for people that quite frankly sometimes don't want to talk to you. Don't want to even engage with you. Don't. They've criticized it, everybody else in the church, and yet we're still called to to care and the shepherd and the challenge. And I believe that this care and attentiveness by the leaders is an expectation set by the Lord. I believe it's it'll be evaluated, the BMC of Christ. And, you know, I've got first Corinthians four due to time. It's just, you know, it's the passage about being a steward. not only God's message but God's people in terms of leading them. And so if that is not a grace operation for leaders, I don't know what is. I realized early on in my parenting that if I was going to get through this thing, it would have to be by the grace of God, that I was not equipped. Even if I had the manual that came for dads, like anybody ever seen that? I haven't seen it yet. I just knew I wasn't ready. I could feel it. I could feel the hopelessness sometimes. And even as my kids get older, navigating new waters with them with attitudes and thinking and choices, you're just like, I'm not equipped for this. Well, then put that on top of those of you that pastor churches. I mean, how many times have you just been in your office, been in your bedroom, put your hand in your head and said, Lord, I don't know. what to do here. I don't, I don't know. And if you've ever said that you're in good company, cause that's what Jehoshaphat said back in, uh, was it second Chronicles 20 Lord, our enemies are coming. I don't know what to do, but you know what, Lord, my eyes are on you. I'm just going to trust you. I don't know what to do, but I know you know what to do. And so that's that mindset. So leaders are going to have to give an account. And what we see is that when people oppose leaders or when people cause heartache for leaders, they're actually working against God's best for them individually. They're cutting off their nose to spite their face, or is that how they're saying those? Yeah, I think that's right. Anyways, they're hurting themselves. Maybe they're taking sport in it, or they think that they're really trying to help the church by correcting the leader, because he doesn't have the right methodology, and he doesn't have the right timing, and so I'm really helping the church. I really care about the church more than this guy. and all of these kind of things, but they don't understand they're actually working against themselves, and they're actually working against the Church of Jesus Christ, and they're going to not benefit from that. In fact, you could say it this way, stop fighting those who rule over you, yield to their leadership, Fighting, opposing someone takes energy and loss of energy leads to loss of efficiency and distraction from one's main purpose and goal. And that's exactly what we do when we set ourselves up as the corrector of all wrongs and we're going to challenge the leader on every minor, minute thing, it becomes a major distraction. It would be easy to say that not only are you distracting the local church, but you're opposing Jesus Christ and His mission for that local church on earth. You're getting in the way of that. And that's pretty serious stuff. I remember I used to teach high school math. Boy, that was an interesting experience for a couple of years. I remember I would have these kids, I got stuck. I don't know how I did this. I was a first-year teacher, straight out of college, 23. I show up, I'm teaching Algebra I, which is all freshmen, and they give me 34 freshmen in the very last period of the day. And I just said, wow, who do I have to thank for this operation? And it went about as well as you could imagine it would go. It was really a challenge. I mean, I'm surprised I even taught any math that year at all because of the classroom management situation. And it began to be frustrating to me because I did have a certain segment in the class that wanted to learn. And so I just took a whole new approach. If someone started disrupting me, if they fell asleep in class and were causing I had a kid that would fall asleep every day and so he would, finally one day I would tell him to wake up and then he would go back to sleep. And then everyone's watching whether or not he's going to go back. It just became this cycle. So finally I just said, hey Will, get up and go out in the hallway. You can lay down out there and you can get you a great nap. And he's like, oh, no, I won't do it anymore. I was like, no, no, you don't have a choice anymore. Go out in the hallway, lay down flat. And what's really ironic about it is like, you know, you really have a leg up on the high school kids because you're just smarter than them. You're just a little bit smarter than them, a little bit ahead. And so it's a little bit of reverse psychology. And so when Will goes out there now, guess what he's doing out there? He's peeping through the hole and he's taking notes. And it worked. And it worked like a charm. But he became this this distraction from the class. And so we just when we remove distractions, then people could learn. And so you see that, too, in the local churches. So he goes on to say this in verse 17. Let them do so with joy, not with grief. for that would be unprofitable to you. And so let them do what with joy and grateful? Watch out for your souls. Let them do what they're designed to do, what they're in place to do, which is to watch out, keep a pen up, watching your souls. And so the writer mentions two descriptions here. The first one's with joy, with rejoicing or gladness. And that becomes a question, how can you let them watch over your souls with joy? Well, from this passage, we learn of two ways. We saw the two commands, obey your leaders. Trust them with the mind to obey them, and then submit to your leaders. Those are two ways, but what else can we learn from the scriptures? Well, 1 Thess 4.1, respond to correction well. Begin to respond to correction well. If your pastor is taking time to correct you, praise God for that man. Praise God for him. Elders taking the time to correct you, praise God for them. They care. They care. They care about your spiritual growth. They want what's best for you. Secondly, walk in the truth. No greater joy, John says, pursue a personal relationship with the Lord and not just to look good to your leaders, but a genuine pursuit of the Lord. Teach and train others to do the same. Pass on what you've learned. He goes on to say, don't do it with grief. Let them do it without grief. The word grief means not grieving. It comes from a word meaning narrow or contracted, as when one is squeezed or pressed by circumstances. It was used of extenuating circumstances, which causes someone to groan or sigh. In fact, I bet every pastor in the room right now can think of one person that if I mentioned their name to you, you'd be like, ah. That's what we're talking about here. Without grief, not with grief. And so what does this look like? Well, it's the exact opposite of the previous list. Don't obey or submit to your leaders. Don't respond to correction. Well, in fact, get real defensive. Don't walk in truth. And if you do, just do it when the leaders are watching. Be a phony. Don't care about others walking in truth or what you might add to their lives. It's all about you. It's not about anybody else. There's a story behind this picture, but we're out of time. We'll have to keep going. Let me finish the text. Because he says it would be unprofitable for you. There's another reason why these commands and exhortations should be heeded. And the reason is there's a direct negative impact on the life of the one who causes grief it unprofitable means you'll yield no gain. It's unprofitable by implication. It means exceedingly harmful or dangerous. You might see it this way. It's not going to get you anywhere in the spiritual life. It won't get you. It's going to put you behind. It's going to knock you out of fellowship with the Lord. It's going to cause harm to the local church. So it's unprofitable. There's no reason to even do it. It's better to walk by faith and to trust the leading of the leaders, not follow the leading of one of God's appointed authorities in your life is potentially hazardous to your spiritual health. So for no other reason to follow these commands than pure selfishness, then understand that behaving this way harms you. If that's the motivation, okay, well maybe we can grow in our motivation later, but at least let that impact the way that we respond to our leaders. And what we find from this type of attitude, it's gonna do damage below the surface level, and it's gonna impact your fellowship with the Lord. And finally, to oppose and attempt to fight back against the leadership overuse, in essence, to oppose and disrupt the work of God in your local assembly. So we wanna, again, we wanna be the type of people that respond well to spiritual authority. We wanna be the right type of spiritual leaders that people can respond to. And so, I think one of the concluding remarks I wanted to make is, you know, God gives instruction. We've got to remind ourselves of this, we've got to remind our kids and anybody, our friends, people in our churches, not to take away our fun. Not to take away our joy, not to be a killjoy, but he actually knows what provides true joy, true pleasure, true purpose, true fulfillment in life, especially as it relates to not only your personal life, but the ministry in the local church and your part in the local church. And so let's close there with a word of prayer. Lord, I do thank you. For your word, we all stand in unison as we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us by dying for our sins and rising again, accomplishing something for us that we could not accomplish for ourselves. Lord, we love your church. We love your local church. We believe you're building your local church. We want to see your church grow spiritually. We want to see other people hearing the gospel and responding by faith to your son and joining the local church. And so, Lord, we need your wisdom, not only to be the right kind of leaders, but we need you to give wisdom to those who are not in church authority or leadership. Give them wisdom to know how to respond and how to support and how to encourage and how to grow and be equipped for the work of ministry that you've called them to do. So we ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen.