Father, when your word goes forward, you have told us from your word that you can make dry bones live. This morning, many of us are here, some who have never humbled themselves to repent and place their faith in Christ. Oh, that you would cause these dry bones to live. Others are here this morning, Father, and we feel very dry. Sin, the world, temptation, the responsibilities and struggles that are around us. These things have brought us here this morning and we are barren in our soul. Our spirit is languished. We need the watering of your word. Oh, that you would make our dry bones live. You would water our soul, you would nourish our faith, you would strengthen us that we may walk with you. The power of the preaching of your word, you have ordained the preaching of your word to change hearts, to make dead men live, to cause the hopeless to find hope. We confess, Father, that with all of the technology and all of the ingenuity, with all of the schemes of this world, we can place men on the moon, but we can't get men out of prison. It is because it is only your word and your spirit that can accomplish repentance and faith. And so this morning, Father, I pray that you will go forward Calls your spirit to go forward at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Jessup. May our brother, Alex Longacre, preach with clarity and boldness. Calls your word to move and to accomplish much in the midst of this congregation. Build them up, comfort them. Calls repentance and faith where there's need. Father, this morning we pray the same for us, that you will grant your grace. Help us, Father, as we now bow our hearts to and submit to the authority of your word. I ask that you will grant your spirit that as you, as our shepherd, come and walk in the midst of us this morning by your spirit, that you will grant opportunity for your word to nourish our souls, to water us, to encourage us, to rebuke us, bring us to faith, that we may see our sin, that we may look to you, that you may grant there in that place an opportunity for us to rejoice, to praise your name, to sing hallelujah, for your name is indeed great. It's in Christ's precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Keep your Bibles open there to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 1 through 5. Several weeks ago we were looking specifically at verses 1 and 2, and so we'll be continuing and actually focusing our time on the end of verse 2 through the rest of that paragraph going to verse 5. So keep your Bibles open there and you'll be referencing that point often. The Democratic West, over the last 100 years, has grown to hate authority. I'm not sure if we are unique in that, but we have definitely seen the repercussions of this even over the last handful of years. We have not only grown to hate authority, but we have also found that it is impossible to live in a society when we reject authority. So we live in this relationship now where we all, I think many of us, are around and we even are in a culture where the culture hates authority and yet realizes that it can't live without it. Everything from the BLM rioting and looting of major cities in America, the defunding of the police, these things have declared that authority is to be pushed against, to be rejected, to be eradicated. But it doesn't have to be that corporate, that political side of that. It can be something as simple as sitting in a shop or maybe a coffee shop and two parents or maybe a parent trying to placate or reason with their three-year-old child as if they have the authority and the parents do not. We have a misunderstanding of the value and the importance of authority in our lives and our culture is indoctrinating us to reject authority of every kind, to be suspicious of it and to consider whether we can live without it or in what ways can we boundary the authority. And these authorities are authorities that the Lord himself has given to us. The autonomous individual has declared an unmitigated right that we have the ability to determine what is right and what is wrong for ourselves. Now, if I declared to us as a culture, or even us this morning, that we have come to the place where we are insistent to do what is right in our own eyes. We would push back. No, that's not what we're wanting. No, that's not what we're desiring. And we would insist on that. We would disagree that we are seeking to do what's right in our own eyes. And when we insist to disagree, that settles the matter. Because really, what is true And what is right and what is correct is what I determined to be so. And so you prove my point then that we ultimately find ourselves as being the ultimate authority. Now, not just here in this room, not just in our congregation, but in the world in general. But also I want us to understand that in this room, we ourselves have have been indoctrinated, have been discipled, have been catechized by the world. We, too, are just as suspicious of authority. And we, too, want to push back against any authority that would declare to us what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false. Now, we may be more spiritual about the matter. We may call ourselves biblical and insist that unless you can show it to me in the Bible, unless you can prove it in the Bible and point to verses and chapters and show me exactly what's in the Bible, then I'm not going to waste my time in listening to you because ultimately what is true is what I see in my Bible. Do you understand that even that, even that is a declaration of ultimately not the Bible being the final source of authority, but your understanding of the Bible. And so in that way, I fear that so many of us, we've rejected what the church has given to us throughout the centuries. That's one of the reasons why we read our catechism together on Lord's Day to see how the saints of old have handed down these truths that are from the scriptures. and have given them to us and how they've been tried and tested throughout the years? No, no, no. Let's push against that. And whatever is true to me when I sit in my bedroom and read my Bible by myself alone, that ultimately is what seems to be the final source of authority for so many of us. Could it be then that we are making God into our own image? the image of a God who is far more understanding, a God who is far more willing to let us do the things that we need to do because we have very difficult life that we need to live, very important decisions that we need to make, a God who is practically more helpful to us or maybe even shaped by what we think is most important instead of about what God's word says is most important. Now, this importance of authority and leadership is right here in the pages of our Bible this morning. In 1 Peter 5, we see that the Lord has placed in His church shepherds, or elders, and that these elders are called to shepherd the flock that is among them. Do you see that there? This flock that is the Lord's, verse 2. And in this context, the reason Peter is doing this is because these Christians that we've been looking at in 1 Peter for the last several months are Christians who are scattered and exiled. Why? Because of their faith. Because they're believing in Christ, they've been cast out of their society, they've been pushed out of their culture, their city, and now they are having to live outside of the parameters of their comfort zone. And they are asking the question, how can we persevere? In this book, 1 Peter, and especially as we look this morning at our section here in 1 Peter, Peter is trying to help this congregation in these last words. Notice we're right here at the end of 1 Peter. He's saying, at the end here, I want to give you three major areas where I want you to really focus so that you can persevere faithfully in this very difficult time. You see here in chapter 4, verse 12, look with me. Chapter 4, verse 12, he addresses them with affection. He says, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial. Here he is telling them in order for them to persevere faithfully, they're going to need to know their times that they live in. And these times are not easy, comfortable, cushy times. These are difficult times. There's fiery trials. Don't be surprised at this when they come upon you. This is verse 12, chapter 4. to test you as though something strange were happening to you. You need to know the times that we live in so that we can persevere and know that if it's hard, that doesn't mean you're being unfaithful. It means you're being faithful and we're to endure during these hard times. He gives us some explanation of this through the rest of chapter four. So we're to know our times, verses 12 through 19 of chapter 4. And then thirdly, at the end of this book, he's saying in order for us to persevere faithfully, we need to know your flock. You need to know your flock. This is chapter 5, verses 1 through 5, which is what we're going to be finishing off this morning, the second section. You need to know your flock. There needs to be elders there and everybody is not to be the authority, each individual. But instead, as the congregation comes together, there's to be these elders, these shepherds that are guiding and directing and encouraging the congregation towards faithfulness so that they might be able to persevere. And then finally, and we'll notice this over the rest of the month of November, in verses six of chapter five through the end of the chapter, Peter here says, we need to know our enemy. We need to know our enemy. Verse 8, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. You need to know your enemy. You need to know your times. Shepherds need to know their flock. And we need to know our enemy. And then he closes there. Notice at the very end of verse 11, he says, Amen. He's closing us out and then he gives some final greetings there into the rest of the chapter. This morning, we're going to be looking specifically at this middle section where Peter is saying, in order for our congregation to persevere faithfully, the shepherds need to know their flock. We need to be faithful to accomplish to do what God's called us to do, to shepherd the flock of God that is among us, exercising oversight as we ought. And this is really the brunt of the message this morning. As we look together this second section, Peter here is talking about shepherds also called pastors or elders in these various congregations that were scattered all over the place now because of the persecution that was taking place in this region. And he's saying because they were in the midst of such turmoil and such bewilderment because of the circumstances of their faith. Peter is saying that these shepherds are to be the ballasts. They're to be the ones who help these precious saints, these dear saints, be able to continue faithfully as the going gets hard and maybe even harder to be faithful in the culture that they're in. And if you remember, a few weeks ago, we looked at this and we said that there were actually five questions that verses 1 through 5 asks and answers. First, I'm going to give you the single word for each point of these five points. Because this is the word that I want the children to grasp, because if you're writing down your outline, children, for you and your parents to talk about at lunch, maybe today, here are the five words that I want you to get. And then I'm going to ask the question after each one of these. And this is the question that each one of these passages, each one of these verses answers. The first word is point number one, the call. That's in verse 1. Point number 2, verse 2, is the work. Now, we looked at those a couple of weeks ago. Point number 3, and this is where we will start today. Point number 3 is the way, the way. Point number 4 is the reward. And that's verse 4. And then point number five, the response. And I'll say those again. The response. That's verse five. So verse one, the call. Verse two, the work. Verse three, the way. Verse four, the reward. Verse five, the response. Now adults, look with me if you will. Notice these five points. The call asks the question, who is exhorting? Who is exhorting the elders? Who is exhorting the elders? And this is Peter, a fellow elder, a witness of the sufferings of Christ. You see that there? Point number two, the work. What are the elders to do? Well, here simply it is clearly in verse two, it says there to shepherd the flock that is among them, exercising oversight. Point number three, the way. Here's the question that we're going to be dealing with this morning. How are the elders to shepherd? How are the elders to shepherd? Now, this begins actually in the middle of verse two, but then it goes through verse three. This is the way. And then point number four, the reward. The question is this. Why are the elders to shepherd? Why are the elders to shepherd? And then point number five, the response asks the question, how is the flock to respond? How is the flock to respond? So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Verse two, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. We see here very clearly that what's taking place is that Peter is saying for us that we're to shepherd this flock, the flock of God that is among us. He's using this metaphor and then he continues by clarifying this metaphor or helping us understand it better. And he's saying, what I mean when I use this metaphor that the elders or shepherds are to be shepherding the flock is that they're to be exercising oversight. Do you see that there in verse 2? Now watch with me as we look at this. Notice that after that, after he declares that they're to shepherd a flock, that's the metaphor. How are they to do it? Clarifying, exercising oversight. Now what he's going to do as we look at our passage together in verses two and three, this is point number three. How are the elders to shepherd? Right. This is where we're at this morning. He gives us three dangers. Three dangers of misuse of exercising oversight in the congregation. Peter explains these three dangers when one exercises oversight, especially during the time of suffering and persecution. He's saying when the pressure is on, you as elders are going to be apt to misuse this exercise of oversight. And so he gives three dangers that are here before us. And I want us to notice these three dangers as we look at verse 2 and verse 3. Follow along with me. Exercising oversight. Do you see that command there, that call there? There's one danger here. It says not under compulsion, but willingly. That's the first danger. As God would have you. The second danger is this. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. That's the second danger. The third danger is this, verse 3, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. Do you see those three? And so, if you will, these three dangers are this. One, apathy. Two, greed. Three, domineering. But notice, he not only gives us the three dangers, but he also gives us the three remedies. He says, what's the remedy of apathy? To be willing to shepherd the flock. What's the remedy of the danger of greed? To be eager, he says. And what is the remedy of being domineering? Instead, be an example. And so this is what he's doing. Now, I want us to notice before we jump into this full fledged to see here that these things are not something that are at first evidence or transparent in a man. Sometimes we can think that maybe I can read these over and then go have coffee with someone. And over that period of that short talk, then I can discern what these are. That's not true. As we work through these, we're going to see that these really come forward when the elder or the man is in the trenches. When he's being pressed by the world and the things around him, this is when these things will become more pronounced and more clear. Now, why do I say this? I say this for two reasons. One, I want us as a congregation, the reason Peter is actually mentioning this here, right? The reason this book was written and the reason the focus on these elders and what they should be and what they should not be is here is because these congregations were not only supposed to be persevering now, but what happens when all of the elders or shepherds either die or get martyred, get killed. What do we do? Well, we have to raise up more shepherds, more elders. And what are the qualifications for that? Peter's giving us some explanation of this here. And so my point here is this, is that as we consider in our congregation future shepherds and discerning that in our congregation, I want us to think through these things so that we can be careful not to fall into these dangers or see these misunderstandings of being an elder in those that we are looking at to become elders. I ask you to pray for us who currently are elders, because these dangers can easily slip into our lives. They can easily become pitfalls in our own lives. And so pray that the Lord will keep these from us as the elders that you currently have. These three dangers, pray that the Lord will cause us to avoid them. And these three remedies, ask that the Lord will accomplish these in our life. So let's look at this first danger, not under compulsion, but willingly. This danger of apathy. Now, this could be called something else. Apathy is a fancy word. Here's another word that can describe what's being described here. And it's prominent in our day today. It's not just apathy. It can also be called laziness. Laziness. In other words, in verse two, it says shepherd the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight. In what way are we not to exercise oversight? Not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. We all are aware of how someone may express by mere words to love another person and that that person's actions are a actual clearer declaration of just the opposite of what they are saying. For example, one may say that they love another person. They may even say it often or even with much fervency. But if that person says that they love that other person and yet they rarely, if never, desire to actually want to spend any time with that person, then their actions then declare that they actually do not love that person no matter what they might say. Our text speaks of this very danger. Those who call themselves shepherds, those who say that they're shepherding God's people, and yet their heart is far away from the actual work that God has called them to do. They only care not for the sheep, but for themselves. And when they do have to do the work of the ministry, they're constrained or made to do it out of obligation. The shepherd in this case has no real concern for the sheep, for the work, or for the souls of those who is under their charge. Now, let me be clear. Having done this for many years, I can say that this can easily become the case because the work is so demanding and often so depleting of our resources. The pastor can easily begin to start showing up, showing up for church on Sunday morning and preaching the sermon, showing up for prayer meeting on Sunday night and do the prayer meeting, show up for the pastor visits and do the pastor visits and say the right things, do the funerals, do the weddings, do the things that need to be done and just go through and clock off the actual things that happen. How can this happen? This happens because so often we're the ones that are trying to stir and encourage you toward faith. There's been more than one time where I'm praying and thinking and wondering, am I the only one that wants to move forward in faith? I talk to a brother or sister, member of this church. I encourage them toward faith. I encourage them to walk in specific ways. I encourage them to turn away from certain things and to pursue other things. OK, I'll get to it if I get around to it. If everything else is fine and all the moons line up and all the universes, then I'll be I'll be glad to think about whether I do that or not. It's easy for the pastor to simply say, you know what? I'm just going to go through the motions. I'm going to do what I'm required to do. I'm going to only be available when I'm understood to be available and I'm going to do what needs to be done. Brothers and sisters, this is not, as our passage says here, it says at the end of verse two here, it says, as God would have you. This is not how God would have a pastor to shepherd a congregation. The pastor can easily just start showing up. But not, this is important as well, but not actually appropriately praying through and asking the Lord to stoke the fire of God's word and his spirit to accomplish much. I hope you understand that I spend a good amount of time reading commentaries and books and my Bible and comparing verses and writing a sermon and trying to make it make sense and give it clarity. But none of that matters unless I've spent an adequate amount of time as well pleading for God to do something in your heart today. I can show up and preach a sermon that will inform you. But at the end of the day, if you leave here only as informed individuals, we have lost. If God hasn't showed up and caused repentance and faith to quicken our hearts. You see how easy it is for pastors to simply be going through the motions and yet not seeing the real value is that we need to we need you and I, we need to be stoked and encouraged and stirred toward faithfulness. Some, I fear, even here this morning have sat here so long. that you are hardly ever stirred by the things of the Lord, hardly ever enamored by Christ and his great work. It can be easy for pastors to grow weary, even in drudgery and dread. I've got to come and do this again. I've got to come and lay this all out again for all this passivity. It's easy for the pastor to begin mimicking the things that he sees and really the ones that are so apathetic are the ones that so easily can discourage us as pastors. The sorrows of your hearts and souls, the sins that you go through. So many of those we as elders and shepherds we carry, sometimes better than others, but there's rarely a time that I don't often think about and consider. I go through a situation or circumstance and I think about one of you and I may be driving down the road and see something or even in the morning as I consider something and I think, oh, I need to pray for that particular individual or that family. Your sorrows and sins weigh on us as well. And we seek to carry those with you, not that we can do anything as Christ can, but we seek to walk with you through those. But then even those people that we seek to be most faithful to carry the sorrows and sins and temptations and struggles with, that very person will become very skeptical of God's word, spirit, the church. You know what we need to do? We need to just leave. You know, it's just too hard to be around the church and people that are always badgering me about being faithful. And it's hard to do that. So I think what's best for us and our family is just to walk away and just circle our wagons and do whatever we need to do. And you guys do whatever you need to do. And as a pastor, we grieve. Because that kind of apathy is what we're trying to encourage you away from. And it can so easily be a part of our hearts is my point this morning. My point this morning is that when we're around those kinds of things so often our hearts can become apathetic as well. Pray that the Lord will make us as your pastors fervent on fire for the Lord, that he will stir our hearts. Pray that the Lord Jesus will give us a love for you, this congregation. Not just because you're lovely, but because Christ is lovely. Pray for the Lord to give us a joy as we serve and minister you and those that are around you. That we might draw our strength and even our hope, not from ourselves, nor from the approval that we may receive from you. but instead that we may draw our strength and our hope from the Lord and communion with Him. Pray that the Lord will give me and give our elders regular time to be with Him, to commune with Him. And in so doing then we can come and stir and encourage and foster faith in you, brothers and sisters. We are just as weak as you are. We're just as prone to be weary and overwhelmed by the task and the difficulties of our life. And yet, if we begin to simply go through the motions, to preach the sermons, to pray the prayers, to stand and sit and show up when we need to, instead of drawing close to the Lord, who is our supply regularly, there is eternal consequences when we are doing this. If you are deciding to live your life on your own, by yourself, in your bedroom, you and Jesus, that's all you need. That's what that is. But when the pastor goes down that road, now there's a body of believers, God's people, the church, his bride, that's not flourishing because of that. I call you, please, to pray for us that we may have the right motives. that we may not simply go through the motions, that we may not just simply do the things out of constraint or obligation, but instead willingly and with joy and hope within us so that we can stir those things in you. Charles Bridges, an England pastor of 1800s, wrote a book that he's most well known for called The Christian Ministry. And in that, it's a book that I read early on in Starting Sovereign Grace, In that book of Charles Bridges called The Christian Ministry, he said this concerning the willingness of the pastor to do the work. Listen to what he says. We have given ourselves to the work and we desire to be in it as if there was nothing worth living for besides. It shall form our whole pleasure and delight. That sounds pretty extreme, doesn't it? But what if our lives are on the line? What if you're losing your job because of your faith? What if you are facing cancer or death or your loved ones are going through difficulties or your baby is not sure how he's going to do in the next couple of months? We don't need some dry, apathetic faith. We need people that are going to come to God's word and plead on behalf of God to do and accomplish great things in us. We need to delight in his word. We need to delight in his church. We need to delight in his spirit working among his people. This delight is uniquely needed when we as pastors are called to labor long hours physically, often up late at night and early in the morning, but also spiritually and emotionally as we often spend ourselves suffering as you do with sorrow and struggle, often coming at us not just one at a time. It's nice if all the sorrows and struggles in my life would line up and just kind of hit me one at a time. But they come all in bunches, don't they? Just like they do in your life. May our Lord give us a delight for the work that we may set our hands to the work with strength that the Lord supplies with confidence that he gives to us through our time in prayer, through our time in the word, through our time in his promises leaning upon the gospel and what it has given to us. This will cause our congregation to flourish. As we all are stirred up and encouraged in our particular callings by the way we see the shepherds fulfilling their callings willfully and joyfully under not under compulsion, but instead, as it says here, how the Lord would have us to fill this calling. And that is as God would have us. That's the first danger. And the solution is to do this work willingly with a delight. The second danger then, as we see here in our passage, is not for shameful gain, but eagerly. This is the end of verse two. This danger is a danger of greed. And we have plenty of it in our world today. Sadly, not only among those that are in the world, not only those that are in the pews, but also those who call themselves pastors. One may assume that the health, wealth and prosperity gospel with its godless charlatans pursuing more of this world instead of seeking the kingdom of God to come is something that may be common only to our day. That it must be unique to our day because we're so lavish with so many things around us. But we know that there has always been scoundrels, thieves, wolves that are among the flock. that have sought to, according to John 10, steal, kill and destroy. As far back as the Old Testament, even Ezekiel speaks of the shepherds who found it as their responsibility not simply to feed the sheep as they're called to, but instead to fleece the sheep, to take from them instead of to give to them and to serve them. It says in Ezekiel 34 verses 1 through 5, The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, he says. Ezekiel is prophesying against the shepherds of his day. Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God. Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves. Should not shepherds feed the sheep? Isn't that what our responsibility is? But there are so many out there that are more concerned about feeding themselves. You eat the fat. You clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fat ones. But you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, he says. The sick you have not healed. The injured you have not bound up. The strayed you have not brought back. The lost you have not sought. And with force and harshness you have ruled over them. So they are scattered. Why? Because there was no shepherd among them. Even as far back as Ezekiel, then we see that this is the propensity. There is the desire by the one that's leading to pursue something other than what Christ has called us to. And that is the souls of the saints. Now, let me help us understand how easy this can be. This can be misunderstood. By using an example, I think that may help all of us. There are parents that live for their children. Right. And everything in their lives is about their children. Now, there's there's good to that because, you know, children are what the Lord has given to us. But to live for them is not faithful. We're not to live just for our children. Now, there's other parents. Some may even be here this morning that live not for their children. I'm not going to live for my children. I'm going to live for something other than my children. I see these people living for their children and do everything for their children and I'm not going to live for my children. I'm going to live for something else. And you understand that that too is not faithful. Right? The point is for all of us to live for Christ. To live for Christ, if we place our affection on our children, a good gift from God, or even maybe a job or a wife or some other thing, all of those things are good things, too. But but none of those are what we're supposed to be living for. It's hard then for us to jump from one thing into another thing and say, we're going to know it's easy to think of all those other things. But ultimately, we're supposed to be living for Christ as a pastor. As a pastor, it can be easy for the pastor to get distracted and to go into all these other things that we're supposed to be doing. It is about your soul finding its way to its maker. It's about you walking with Jesus. It's not about how many things you show up to, how many events you're at, how many relationships you have, how much Bible study you do, how many Bible verses you know. It's about your soul being drawn close to the Savior. That's what it's about. It's easy then for us to get distracted and go into all kinds of other directions. It says here in Peter's day, Peter is calling these people who are losing a lot of things in the world. And he's saying here, Peter, what Peter's doing is he's saying, how are you going to tell these people that are losing all these things that are in the world that they need to live for Jesus? When you're living for the things in the world, you're living for gain of the world. Our faith must be in Christ. Our desire must be to pursue him and to be willing to suffer because of him. This is why Peter, earlier in 1 Peter 1, verses 4 and 5, he speaks of not something that we can live for in this world, but instead he speaks of an inheritance that is, verse 4, imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. And he's saying this is what we're to live for. And that is the inheritance that is waiting for us, that's not going to perish, that's not going to defile, that's not fading, that is kept not on this earth, But in heaven, it says that God's power is guarding this through faith for salvation ready to be revealed to you at the last time, 1 Peter 1.5. So how can we today as shepherds encourage you toward faithfulness when that faithfulness often may in fact cause us to say no to the things that the world says is okay. And honestly, a lot of times, and this is, I wrote a lot here trying to figure out how to say this concisely, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna do it well, so I'm gonna try to say this clearly. The issue's not that you have a yard sale and get rid of everything in your garage. That's not gonna make you more spiritual, because it, I mean, wouldn't that be nice? I mean, that would be great, wouldn't it? All you have to have is a yard sale. No, the problem, brothers and sisters, are your hearts, right? That's a deeper problem there. A yard sale is not going to fix that. You can get rid of all your stuff. Remember the hermits that went out and lived in a cave? They said, I'm gonna get close to God. I'm gonna go live in a cave. I'm gonna sell everything I have. And when they got out there, they realized, wow, when I get in this cave, I brought that wicked heart with me. When we as elders and pastors are seeking to point you to Christ. There are times when faithfulness means you have to say no to things that are good and wonderful things that are part of this life and even maybe not even bad things in and of themselves. But because pursuing those things will cause you to misplace the callings and vocations that God has given to you, then you have to say no to those things because you need to fulfill the calling that the Lord has given to you faithfully. And it's important for us to be careful then because even this complexity here means that it requires elders and shepherds and even our congregation to come around one another and to be able to encourage each other so that we're not we're not legalist to say we've got to close our windows and shut our doors and pretend like the world's not out there. That's not the point. But nor can we just fly it open and say whatever the world is pursuing, I can pursue too and Jesus. That's not true either. Right. So my point is this. That when the shepherds are calling you to faithfulness, often it will require us to say no to good things that the world, in many ways, are saying are essential or important things for us to have. But success in your job is not a biblical criteria. A savings account that keeps you comfortable is not a biblical criteria. Living in a nice part of town or in a particular area of the world that you find nice and extravagant and wonderful. If there's not a godly church there, then faithful is not to move there, no matter how nice the place may be. Do you see how faithfulness has to be the criteria for our living? And we as elders are called to encourage you toward faithfulness. Now. I have. I've sat down with. planters, church planters early on, pastors throughout the years, and we sit down and we begin talking about the things of the Lord, and they want to talk about their hay farm in Palatka, or what their particular baseball team is doing, or what their this is doing, or what this other hobby is doing, or what this other thing is doing. Now, those things are not bad in and of themselves. But if they're keeping that pastor for being faithful to the calling that God has given to them, then they need to get rid of it. There's been times even in this congregation where I've encouraged men to quit their job, and I don't do that lightly. I tremble at that. But if their job is going to not allow them to faithfully disciple their children and not be faithful to their church, then their job is not worth it. Your job is not worth, your soul is more important. You see that as elders, we can't call you to do that if we're not doing that ourselves. It says that there's an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us, and we're called to encourage you to pursue that. It's important that when the various fiery trials come into our lives, You will be called to turn away from the earthly empty promises that often are alluring you. And we're going to call you as your pastors to the inheritance that the Lord has promised you that is sure and steady. How can we do this if our hearts are captivated by the world and the things of the world? We can't. Pray then. Pray then, brothers and sisters. That we as your pastors will hold loosely and lightly to the things of the world. That we'll be willing to be faithful to call you and our own families and our own hearts to abandon the perishing, defiled, fading things of this world. That we might pursue Christ and that we might see him as our better treasure than anything this world can give to us. and that we might be able to stir you in the same way. Jesus himself on the Sermon on the Mount said, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. Listen to this last line. I hope it lands on you by the power of God's spirit faithfully. I hope this last verse, verse 21 of chapter six of Matthew lands on you. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We're to call men and women to treasure Christ and to and to run from, to flee those other things that are seeking to captivate our hearts. The third danger then, the third danger is in verse three. Do you see this here? Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. Not domineering, but being examples. The third danger then is all too common in our day. And that is the danger of domineering or harsh authoritarianism. Now, it's important for us to know, and I feel like I needed to say this at the front end, domineering is going to be the accusation that's thrown at any pastor that seeks to lead faithfully. This is why domineering, rightly defined, is lording it over or asserting oneself on another in an arrogant way outside of the realm that he's been called. Now, as a pastor, I want to make sure that I'm careful. I'm not your medical doctor. I'm not the one that can fix your car. I'm not the one that can do all these other things. But my concern is your soul, and that does touch on a lot of other things. It is not then it is not simply is not domineering is not simply calling you to do something that you do not prefer or even insist not to do. And yet I'm calling you to do it. And when I'm insisting that you follow after Christ in this way, you accuse the elder or the pastor that they're being domineering or authoritarian. Not at all. If I'm calling you to do something faithful to God's word now, I need to do that with kindness and graciousness. But there's always going to be pressure. There's always going to be an encouragement. We are by nature lazy. We're by nature not wanting to move forward in faithfulness. We want to stay right where we are. If one of the elders is calling you to be faithful or even to consider how you should think about your actions and your own thinking concerning a particular issue in the world, the values that you may have, whether they're scriptural or are they rooted in Christ and who Christ has called you to be, consider that a blessing. And when we are insistent that you are to follow after God's word and pursue him, this is not being domineering. Now, having said all of that, This is a real problem. There are a lot of men who pursue the ministry in the pastorate because they want to boss people around. They want to abuse the sheep. They want to use them and fleece them. And that is that is unfaithful and ungodly. And it needs to be checked. It is important, as you can see here in our text, that we are not to be haughty or abusive. We are to be encouraging you toward Christ and bringing you along in the faith. Now, as a congregation, we have a wonderful polity or the way we're structured as a congregation, where a congregation is the one that can come and say, we need to talk to you, pastor. We need to understand where you're coming from, what's going on here. There are times when your heart may be tender and even repentant. And you need to be brought along. We need to understand that. There are people that are saying, I don't know where I am. I don't know what's going on. I want to be faithful. I just don't know how that looks. And it's going to be hard. Will you walk with me? We as shepherds want to do that. We want to walk with you in that place, even if it's hard, even if you're saying, be slow with me. It's going to take some time, but help me along. Now, that's a particular way that we're to be shepherding and encouraging these sheep. But there are also other times when They are or the sheep are stubborn and determined to do what they want to do instead of what God has called them to do. They do not want to go home and stand toe to toe with their wife and say, I need to lead this family. It's hard. Some men won't do it. And when we call them to that and they refuse to do that and they say, nope, that's not going to happen. If I do that, everything else is going to go sideways. We need to be very careful to understand what we're dealing with and who we're dealing with. So I want you to understand that as we're dealing with people, as we're shepherding our congregation, we want to be faithful, not to be domineering, but to be constantly pushing and encouraging and fostering and bringing men and women, boys and girls, along. Paul said in the letter to Thessalonica, to the church there in First Thessalonians 5.14. We urge you, brothers, admonish the idol. You see what he's doing there? Admonish the idol. Encourage the fainthearted. Help the weak. Do you see how there's three different divisions there and there's three different ways that people are to be taken care of? Admonishing the idol, encouraging the fainthearted, helping the weak. And then at the end, he says, and be patient with them all. That's what we seek to do. And that's what we're desiring to do. Hold us to that. Pray that we do that. Call us out. Encourage us in this particular regard. However, in every case, we're called to not only encourage you toward faithfulness and even insist on it, but also, as our passage says here, to live it out in our own lives. We're to be examples to you and to the flock. You see that there in a passage? It says being examples to the flock. This this idea here to the flock, the flock means that we're to be examples before you. We're not simply to be examples before our own family and before the world outside of us. But no, you need to see how we're living in our lives regularly. And we're to be setting an example for that. Now, again, this text speaks of the flock as the congregation that we're ministering to. And so, therefore, we're to be setting examples to you as a congregation as we're living among you. Now, the example needs to be lived out in your midst. There are well-known pastors, teachers and preachers that are on the Internet. that are so many times desired over the pastors that you have here, me and the other shepherds that are here in our congregation. It's easy to go after those guys. It's easy to pursue them. You know why? Because they're not in front of you. One reason is that they will never, and they likely will never, sit down across from a table from you and say, you need to be more faithful in this area. You need to move forward in this area. Wouldn't it be nice to have a pastor that never spoke to you, never was around you, never knew your name, that would never actually get into your life and call you to repentance and faith? There are a lot of people that like those pastors because of that. There's another reason why these pastors that are online are preferred a lot of times to the pastors that you're around. And that is that I'm going to say dumb things. Don't say amen there. All morning I heard no amen and somebody's going to say that. I say dumb things. I even say harsh things. I think I've sinned against pretty much everybody in this room, and you love me anyway. That pastor that you listen to online, you're never going to see him sin against somebody, likely. You're not going to see him goof up or mess up. You're not going to see him try to love somebody and just fumble the ball. You're not going to see him do and say things. In other words, you have this idealized understanding of this pastor. You kind of put him up on a pedestal and you're listening to his sermons. He stands up in the pulpit and you just hear him do great things and say great things and teach great stuff. I'm thankful for those guys. My point is this, is that God's called us to be your pastors. These guys who are in your midst, that are just like you. And yet, for some reason, God in his wisdom has said that we are to lead you and to point you to Christ. And we're given to that call. And this is a sober reality for us. We're called to love and serve you well. And according to Hebrews 13, 7, it says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Listen to the last part of verse 7 of Hebrews chapter 13. It says, consider not their day to day life, but it says, consider the outcome of their way of life. In other words, look at their whole life and say, is that something that is mimicking the things of the Lord? And then it says this, consider the outcome of the way of their life and imitate their faith. When I'm faithful, I want you to mimic that in me. Look away when I'm doing the dumb stuff, but mimic the faith. I want you to see Christ in my desire to pursue Christ and mimic that. We're not called to be shepherds so we can boss people around. Instead, we're to exemplify the Christ of the scriptures before you and call you to do the same. That was point three. in our points here, the first point of our sermon today. Does that make any sense at all? So our question in verses 2 and 3 was, how are the elders to shepherd? And I gave you three dangers with three remedies. That's the way. Now I want us to turn and look at verse 4 and ask the question, why are the elders to shepherd? Why are the elders to shepherd? And this is the reward. Notice with me, if you will, in verse four, look with me at your Bible. And it says, And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. The unfading crown of glory. What will motivate these elders to keep doing what they're doing, keep and keep their post and continue in their calling even in the midst of suffering and hardship. What would cause pastors and elders to be faithful even when it gets hard, even when their congregation is critical, even when the world is hostile? What would call pastors to be pastors? Why do men pursue the pastoral ministry? Well, in our day and age, there's many reasons. Many of them are not healthy or faithful reasons. to pursue the office of pastor or elder. Some pursue the ministry because of status. As I mentioned before, they like to stand in front of people. They like to lead a church. They like to stand up and preach on a regular basis. That desire for status, there are many who love to preach, and that's all they do. They get up, they do their sermon, and then they go into their office, never to interact with the congregation again. That's one who prefers a status of preaching or standing in front of people and not desiring to actually be a shepherd in the midst of the people. There's another reason why men pursue the pastoral ministry. It's because there are many, many, many of us that know this, but there are others that are hardwired this way. They are at heart people pleasers. At first, their mom had a dream that they would be a preacher one day. They can't disappoint their mom, so they become a preacher. There's a lot of mama-called preachers out there. There are those, as well, who become a pastor because they want to please people. Have you ever been in a church where the pastor, all he wanted to do was please people? It's a train wreck, because you'll never please everybody. And that pastor is an anxious, crazy person, trying to make sure everybody's happy. And it just goes very bad very quickly. Thirdly, the reason some men are called into pastoral ministry is because of freedom. Freedom, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is that there are those who really like the idea of not having an earthly boss or schedule, but instead being able to determine their own schedule and to be able to do the things they really want to do throughout the week, whether that's a golf game or their hobby or their different other things, and then call themselves a pastor because they stand up and preach on Sunday morning. These are prominent in our culture today. They're not prominent, by the way, for the pastors over in Afghanistan right now. They're not prominent. Those aren't prominent over there. They're not prominent in the hard countries where to be a pastor means you might have to give your life and be separated from your children or your family itself is in danger. These things aren't prominent during that day. What would cause a person to place his family in danger and to live for Christ no matter what the cost and to shepherd a body of people in this way? This is the reason when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. This is why the reason the shepherd must constantly keep before his eyes as he labors among the sheep is this promised future reward of Christ's return. This is the only thing that will sustain you in the darkest times. There was one night that I was leaving a home where a marriage was getting ready to fall apart. I get a phone call on the way home from someone who called me and said, I have a friend that's beside me that has basically drank themselves into oblivion, and I'm trying to figure out whether I take him to the hospital or take him to jail. And then before I got home, I was addressing another issue by my phone and then walking to my house and Ashley had had a horrible day and I had to handle little ones. And I was thinking, I'm not fit for this. Hard, hard times. Things come at us in different directions. Now, that's not unique just to the pastor. All of us have had days kind of like that, right? My point is this. What do we cling to when everything's coming unglued? We cling to the fact that there is a chief shepherd in heaven and he has promised that he will one day appear and that when he does, we will receive an unfading crown of glory. This wonderful reward, the struggles and the sorrows of weary saints fainting in the battle while we're attempting to build them up will wear us out. We're constantly encouraging these brothers and sisters to be faithful, and they seem to continue to go in the wrong direction toward unfaithfulness because it seems so natural and obvious to them. Pleading for the Lord to not let them go, to not let this brother or sister go, but instead Give them faith to bear up another day in the battle, because it's hard and I'm not sure if they're going to make it again another day. Some, some have fallen away and forsaken the glorious hope of Christ. That is like a knife. It's hard when you've shepherded and loved men and women, boys and girls, and they say, you know what? I'm going to I'm going to walk away. I'm going to abandon the faith. I'm going to no longer pursue Christ. Those who stumble and fall. to watch after them and encourage them, to pray for them, to seek sustaining grace. Your prayers are more fervent for them than theirs are for themselves. Others, others have made it. They've received their promised reward. They've gone on to heaven. And even that, though it's a rejoicing time, You and I know that when that brother or sister has received his or her reward and has gone to heaven, our hearts still feel something of a loss because they're not with us to encourage us in our faith like they used to. This is why we must fix our eyes with absolute unwavering hope on this glorious day, this promise before us in verse four. It is our only place that will make sense of all the sorrow in our lives, all the struggle in our lives. Any earnest devotion for Christ will only make sense if we fix our eyes on this day that the Lord has given to us when the chief shepherd appears. Oh, what a day that'll be. Pray for that day. Pray, brothers and sisters, that we might keep our hope fixed on that day when the chief shepherd appears. For on that day, faith will fall away. And you will rejoice with joy because you will possess the great reward that you were promised here on earth. And you will rejoice because you will see with your eyes just how secure you have always been. Because your final reward was not dependent on some earthly shepherds, me or the other elders here at this church, but instead your dependence, your security was dependent upon the chief shepherd. Your safe arrival to your heavenly homeland, your better country, was because of your chief shepherd's perfect, strong, and wise path. Though it may seem bewildering to you now in this life, it will become the very song that you sing on that day when you see him in glory. And with Christ as our chief shepherd, it brings us, as your elders and pastors, great comfort knowing that your arrival to your heavenly reward before our Savior isn't dependent upon our cunning, our strength, our strategy, our counseling, our preaching, but instead, as undershepherds, we constantly call out to our God in the name of Jesus that he, as your chief shepherd, will bring you all the way home. And that is our trust. And this gives us courage. that we might speak truth in love, even when you don't care to hear it. For we are not to shepherd according to your understanding of what you think is best or most caring or even most helpful for you and your family. But instead, we're called to point you to Christ, call you to faith in him, to repent of your sin and to fly to Christ, your savior, who is your soul's desire and only satisfaction. Now, this morning, I want to make very clear that this promise call that Christ will one day appear is not just for those who are believers this morning, but for everyone sitting in this building. There will be a day when Christ, our chief shepherd, will appear, and that will be of great rejoicing for God's people and great horror for those who have not repented and placed their faith in Christ. Our confession declares this truth very plainly. It says in our confession, chapter 32, it says this, God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given by the Father, in which day not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ. to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in body, whether good or evil." Our confession continues and talks about why this is so important for us to understand. I'm reading now in our confession. The end of God's appointing this day is for the manifestation of the glory of His mercy. in the eternal salvation of the elect, and of his justice in the eternal damnation of the reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient. For then, that is on this day, shall the righteous go into everlasting life and receive that fullness of joy and glory with everlasting rewards in the presence of our Lord. But the wicked on that day who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be cast aside into everlasting torment and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Do you believe that? There are those here this morning that would prefer not to believe it. I want to be clear this morning that if you are here this morning and you prefer not to believe that, it doesn't make it go away. It doesn't make it untrue because you are not the authority God's word is. And this is what God's word says that will happen to the godly and to the wicked. The stakes are eternal. Souls will be saved or perish. Souls in this building will enter either everlasting life or cast aside into everlasting torments and punishment from the presence of the Lord. My call to you this morning is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our chief shepherd. Turn away from your demand to live according to your own authority and for your own sake and receive by faith the gift of eternal life in Christ. Those who are in Christ this morning have a promise that the prophet Isaiah gave to us. Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 4, as Andre read for us this morning, says, Behold your God. Behold your God. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young. Our Lord will bring us along, brothers and sisters. Turn to him. As elders, we are called to keep the reward before us, before our eyes, and to keep that reward before your eyes at all times. The sacrifice and the suffering will often be overwhelming. And this is what we're to look to. That way where the Lord is constantly reminding us that this world is not our home and that we're to live for him and his kingdom. This is how he does it. Through suffering and sorrow, we turn away from the things of this world. They become strangely dim, as the hymn says, and we begin looking to his righteousness and his glory. That way that we go. will cause trembling to abandon, to leave us and we will see him for who he is. We are not then to leave our post. This world presses hard on this congregation and we as your elders are to stand even in the midst of hardship and struggle. The crown that is promised is an unfading crown of glory. So it is precious and valuable, more precious than comfort when we want to only do what we want to do. It is more precious than treasures when we want to live for gain. It is more precious than status when we want to live for what people think about us. This unfading crown of glory is more precious than any of those things. It is, as Peter says earlier in 1 Peter 1, unfading, undefiled, imperishable, saved in heaven for us. So what is this? It seems here, this unfading crown of glory, it seems that this is uniquely being told to the pastors, to the elders, doesn't it? I think there is a reward. There is a reward, scripture says. There's a reward for all of us as his believers, but there's a unique reward for those who are shepherds. And I want you to notice this passage that I've come to often. As Paul is talking to the church in Thessalonica, he is speaking of them very affectionately. And he's talking about the fact that he hasn't seen them in a while, but he's heard of their faith. Listen to what Paul says in Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 17 through 20 as he speaks of this congregation and its relation to this unfading crown of glory. Listen to what Paul says. But since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time, in person not in heart, We endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. You see, this pastor isn't wanting just to shepherd them from a computer screen. He's actually wanting to be in their lives. It goes on, it says, because we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. Listen to this last verse, verse 20. For what is, Paul asks, for what is our hope, our joy or our crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Do you hear what he's asking? He says, what is it that is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting before the Lord at his coming? What is it going to be that that hope and joy? He says, this is what he says. Is it is it not you? For you are our glory and our joy. Isn't that strange? That seems strange, except for the fact I want you to know this. The greatest joy of my heart and our heart as pastors is to see you flourish in faith. Because we know you're not just tangibly and temporarily okay when you're flourishing in your faith, that you will abide, that you will abide, and that you will find your way to your home if you're flourishing in your faith. What is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting before the Lord that is coming? You are our glory and our joy. Finally, I want to look at verse five. And all I want to look at in verse five, because the time is running out on us, is the very first stanza there. It says, likewise, in verse five, the question is, how is the flock to respond? Likewise, You who are younger, be subject to your elders. Do you see that? That's where I'm gonna stop. Because the rest of that verse says, the next sentence says, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility. And then verse six says, humble yourselves. Do you see how all of that is another theme of humility? We're gonna talk about humility next week. But I only wanna deal with that verse five, the very beginning of the verse, so it'll be short. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to your elders. The point here is this. It seems odd that this short little explanation here gets brought forward in verse 5. The point here is this. They've tried to figure out exactly what it means for those who are younger in verse 5. They've had all kinds of explanations. But the best, I think, is this. They are simply those who are younger in the congregation. Those who are younger in way of age in the congregation are going to be the ones that are most likely in their youth to push against the authority of the elders and want to do what they want to do. Has that been true in every society throughout the history of humanity? That's exactly right. And it seems they say, well, is it just the younger ones he's picking on? No, I think what he's basically saying is this, is that the younger should be willing and able to be faithful to submit to the elders. And that if you're not willing to submit to the elders yourself, no matter what age you are, then you're acting younger. You're acting pretty immature in that regard. You don't see the value and the importance of that. This really is an issue of the fifth commandment that God has given to us. Out of the 10 commandments, the fifth commandment is honor your father and mother. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't just mean that you are nice to your mom and dad. Historically, this understanding of the fifth commandment has said this. This is the answer to our catechism question 117. It says this. What does God require in the fifth commandment? That I show all honor, love, faithfulness to my father and mother. And then it goes on. and to all those in authority over me. Submit myself with due obedience to their good instruction and discipline, and also have patience with their weaknesses and shortcomings, since it is God's will to govern us by their hand." Let me close with a Puritan, as I did a few weeks ago. The same Puritan, actually. I want to close with John Bunyan. John Bunyan was an incredible man. He was an English Baptist Puritan, but just as incredible as John Bunyan was his wives. He had two, maybe three, but specifically, I want to bring forward his wife, Elizabeth. Ten years after he was married, when Bunyan was 30, his wife died in 1658, leaving him with four children. Bunyan here, as I'm bringing forward, is really a description of a model of a shepherd that we are to mimic and to model. He had four children in those 10 years. One of them, his oldest daughter, Mary, was born blind. A year later, after his wife died, after those 10 years, a year later he married Elizabeth, a remarkable woman. The year after their marriage, they'd only been married just a little over a year, Bunyan was arrested and put in prison for preaching the gospel. She was pregnant with the firstborn of theirs and she miscarried in the crisis of him being put in prison and the hardship that came after that because he was the primary provider for his family. And then she cared for the children as a stepmother for 12 years. She did that 12 years while he was in prison and bore Bunyan two more children later after he got out of prison after that 12 years. She deserves at least a little bit of understanding here that I want us to see. In August of 1961, she goes to the authorities and asks them to release him from prison because they're starving as a family. They refuse her, and so she ends up going to London to petition for him. And she's standing before the court in London on behalf of her husband, which is unheard of. This is amazing. In fact, there's one time there's a story where She took a petition to free her husband, and she would ball them up and throw them into the carriages of lawyers as they drove by in the streets of London. And they became infuriated, the lawyers did, and threw her off the street, told her she couldn't be on the street anymore because she was so adamant about trying to get her husband free. But she was standing before the court on behalf of her husband and her family, and she is met with a pretty stiff question. As she's standing there before these judges, this is the question. Would you make him stop preaching? Elizabeth says, my Lord, he dares not leave off preaching as long as he can speak. The judges say, well, why are we here talking then? In other words, they're saying, if that's not willing to be left, then we can turn away and you can go somewhere else. Elizabeth continues, there is need. There is need for this, my Lord. For I have four small children that cannot help themselves, of which one is blind. And we have nothing to live on but the charity of good people. Matthew Hall, which is one of the judges, with pity asked her if she really had four children because she was so young. Elizabeth answers, my lord, I am but a mother-in-law to them, having not been married to him yet a full year. Indeed, I was with child when my husband was first apprehended. But being young and unaccustomed to such things, I, being swayed at the news, fell into labor, and so continued in labor for eight days, and then delivered my baby, and my child is now dead. Hale, which is Matthew Hale, was moved, but the other judges were hardened and spoke against him. He is a mere tinker, they tell her. Elizabeth says, yes. Because he's a tinker and a poor man, therefore he's despised and cannot have justice. That girl's got spit, doesn't she? I mean, she's a tough, tough girl. One, Mr. Chester, which is another one of the judges, is enraged and says that Bunyan will preach and do as he wishes. Elizabeth says he preaches nothing but the word of God. Mr. Twisden, enraged, says he runs up and down and does harm to all people. Elizabeth says, No, my lord, it is not so. God hath owned him and has done much good through him. The angry man continues, His doctrine is a doctrine of devil. Elizabeth then ends this way, My lord, when the righteous judge shall appear. It will be known that his doctrine is not the doctrine of the devil. The testimony says that Elizabeth leaves that courtroom in tears. She goes and visits Bunyan, where she is crying, and he tries to console her. He says, the Lord's gonna take care of our family, the Lord's gonna, and she says, I'm not crying for our family. I'm crying because these men, unless they repent, will see judgment. May the Lord give us shepherds. and wives to go alongside of them that will be so fervently captivated by the gospel that their hearts will live in such a way. Let us pray.