I ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews, the 13th chapter. Hebrews, chapter 13. We're going to start in verse 7 and we're going to look at verses 17 through 19. Hebrews, chapter 13, verses 7 and then also 17 through 19. There's nothing more important in your life than pleasing God. That's the most important thing. And that's what we've been talking about here in chapter 13 of the book of Hebrews. That God's desire is that as believers, that we would please Him in everything we do. In fact, we found this even back in chapter 11. Remember, it says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. You see, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter how much you do. It doesn't matter how great the things you might be doing in your life might be for other people even. If you're not doing it out of faith, it's not pleasing to God. And the goal of the Christian life is that we might be found pleasing in His sight in every single thing that we do. In Hebrews chapter 13, it talks about pleasing God by the lives that we live. And then also we heard last week about pleasing God by the worship that we give. In fact, the worship that we give isn't simply when we come together and we sing praises, but it's the way we live our lives. It's the good deeds that we do for one another. It's the reaching out to people who don't know Christ. That's what pleases God. And the question is, are we willing to be pleasing to God in every area of our lives? And especially as we look at these verses, verses 17, 18 and 19, are we willing to be pleasing to God in terms of our obedience? Let's look at verses 17, 18, and 19 in particular. Listen to what it says, There's nothing that destroys a church faster than when you don't respond properly to the leadership that God has given you. And that's why the writer of Hebrews says these Christians are going through a difficult time and some struggling. Anytime there's struggling and strife in a congregation, there's going to be difficulties and people are going to begin to question the leadership of the congregation. And that's why the writer of Hebrews here, as he finishes out this letter, says, one thing I want you to remember, obey those that rule over you and submit to them because they watch care over your souls and they're going to give an account. And they need to do so with joy and not with grief, for to do so would be unprofitable for you. I want you to notice what he's saying here. You might start and think back, well, you know, I don't like what's going on in a certain church. I don't like the way things are being handled. I don't like what the leaders are doing in my church. We have a responsibility to pray for them. You have a responsibility to obey them. You have a responsibility to remember them and to esteem them highly as those who are putting their lives on the line for Christ. They're sacrificing their time and their energies. And as we look at these passages, you'll see that you need to honor them because Christ has placed them in that position. And you need to honor them because they are representing Christ in the body of Christ. But I can guarantee you, I can tell you church after church and situation after situation, where whenever people begin to cut down the leadership and talk badly about the leadership. You know what happens to the whole body? It destroys the fellowship. It destroys the unity. And it destroys the way people think about the church. It destroys the way people even outside the church think about the church. And nothing will destroy a church faster than responding wrongly to leadership. And that's why he says, obey those who rule over you. The question we want you to think about this morning is, are you pleasing God by your obedience? Are you pleasing God by the way that you respond to the leaders that He's placed in your lives? Not just the spiritual leaders, but what about those other leaders, leaders in your homes, in your families? Are you responding properly? You see, God has a divinely ordained authority pattern that he follows, that husbands are the authority over their wives and parents are the authority over their children. And the elders are to be those who are an authority over the congregation. And you see, in any of those areas, if you're a child and you're outside the authority of your parents, you know what? You're not pleasing God by your obedience. You might say, well, but I don't like what my parents do. Well, I don't like what my parents tell me. Well, the question isn't whether you're obeying your parents, but are you obeying God by obeying your parents? And the same is true in every authority structure that God has placed in our lives. And the same is especially true in the church situation, because the church is the family of God. It's the household of God. And the elders are called to be those who lead the church. And the question is, am I pleasing God by my obedience? Or am I displeasing God by grumbling and complaining and by being unwilling to do the things that God has called these men who are leading to lead us to do? Am I pleasing God by my obedience? Now, there are three things that I want us to see. We're going to actually step back to verse 7 also. Let me read verse 7 to you also. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their lives. In fact, three times in this chapter, it mentions those who rule over you. And he's speaking there about the leadership within the congregation. There are three things that I want you to see this morning that we need to do if we're going to obey God and please Him by our obedience in terms of leadership. First of all, in verse 7 it says, remember those who rule over you. And you need to remember your leaders. And the word remember is the idea of responding properly and respecting them properly. Are you remembering them in such a way that you're treating them with the kind of respect that God desires you respect them with? The second thing we find in verse 17, Obey those who rule over you. In other words, there's a responsibility about the leadership that the leaders have. How are you responding to that leadership? He says, obey those who rule over you and submit to them. And the third thing is found in verse 18, pray for us. You've got a responsibility also to pray for those that are in leadership. Now, let's take a look at each of these. First of all, remember those who rule over you. In verse 7 again, remember those who rule over you, who've spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. I want you to see three things from this passage here. First of all, I want you to notice the responsibility that they have. The responsibility they have is to rule over you. Now, that term sounds a lot stronger than probably what it really is, but it means that they have a responsibility to lead the church. And when they take that responsibility, you have to remember that God has placed them in that leadership role. And notice he says, rule over you is in verse 7. Also in verse 17, he describes these people as people who rule over you. And then also down in verse... One more time. In other words, this is a term which is frequently used in the New Testament to describe one of the responsibilities of elders, and that is to rule over you. Take a look with me in 1 Timothy, chapter 5. In 1 Timothy, chapter 5, Paul gives some instructions regarding the way we are to respond to elders. We're going to start in verse 15 and read through verse 19. I want you to notice how it starts off. It says, Because, again, elders have a responsibility to rule over those in the congregation. Let the elders who rule well, there's that phrase again, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in doctrine. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox when treading out its grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest may fear." Now, we're going to come back and look at some of those things, but I just wanted you to see, particularly in this passage, that that phrase for elders and ruling go hand in hand together. In fact, you will see in the New Testament that there are three words that are used interchangeably for elders. There's the word elder, which is the word overseer or ruler. That's the word that's often used. Second, there's a bishop, which is the word elder. I'm sorry, the word elder means overseer. The word bishop also means overseer. And the word pastor means shepherd. Those three terms are found interchangeably. Elders, bishops, and pastors. And if you'll go through the New Testament, you'll find that those three terms are used to describe the same person and the same function in the local church. I think if you did the discussion group sheets this week, you'll see that in the New Testament, the word elders is always in the plural when referring to churches. Even new churches that only had handfuls of believers in, Paul sent Timothy back to establish elders in every congregation. In other words, there's nothing in the New Testament about a one person pastorate. There's nothing in the New Testament about one elder leading a congregation. It's always a group of men that God has called out the leadership to lead. And we often have this tendency to say, well, there's one pastor and there's a group of elders. There's not. In the New Testament, elders are pastors and pastors are elders, and there's no difference between them. You see, the only difference oftentimes may be that one of them is paid and the others are not. But you see, the responsibility is the same. They watch care over your souls. They have a responsibility for leading the congregation. And it's not just one person doing that. It's a group of men that God has called out to do that. So these are the people that he's referring to when he talks about those who rule over the congregation. Now, come back to chapter 13, and I want you to see what this does not mean first, and then talk about what it does mean. First of all, what it does not mean is it does not mean that they are in charge of every aspect of believers' lives. It may sound ridiculous to you, but I've actually had a friend who was involved in the Church of Christ Boston, which is a unique, kind of a cultish type of Church of Christ. But when he was there, Dave would often come and talk to me and he'd say, you know, I have to go talk to the elders in the church to decide whether or not I can change jobs. And I said, well, why do you have to do that? And he says, we can't do anything unless we get approval from the elders because they watch over our souls. I said, well, that's ridiculous. And he had wondered whether he could move in with another roommate to live with another guy. And they had to get the approval of the elders to do that. And there are some situations where some congregations think that what it means to be an elder is that you're in charge of every aspect of their lives. It's not. It's spiritual watch care. It's not every detail of a person's life that we're responsible for. but it's a spiritual watch care. Another thing that it does not mean, when it says they rule over you, it doesn't mean that they are to be lording it over you as someone who is the authoritarian in your life. Elders rule by love and by humility. Once you keep your finger there in Hebrews and turn over to 1 Peter 5, in 1 Peter 5, Peter talks about the elders in verses 1-4. And listen to what he says about the kind of men that lead and about the responsibility they have. And in particular, he says they are not to lord it over you. Look at what he says in chapter 5, verse 1. The elders who are among you, I exhort as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also as a partaker of the glory that will be revealed, that shepherd the flock of God which is among you. serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not as lords over those entrusted to you, but as examples to the flock. When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away." Now, I want you to see a number of things that I'll mention to you again later in the message here, but I want you to notice what it says here. First of all, the main responsibility of elders is to shepherd the flock. That's the responsibility that's given to them. And they do it not because they're forced to do it, but they do it because God's put the desire in their heart to do it. It's interesting that one of the first qualifications for an elder in 1 Timothy chapter 3 is this, that if anyone desires the office of a bishop, let him be blameless. If anyone desires the office. You see, it may be somebody's totally qualified to be an elder, but if God hasn't put that desire in their heart, then they should not be an elder. Because we shouldn't be forcing people to become elders who don't have a willing heart to shepherd the flock of God. And so what we need are people who have a willingness to be shepherds for the flock of God. Also, not for dishonest gain. They shouldn't be doing it for to gain any financial advantage, either in their business or perhaps even as a paid staff member. But they should be willing to do it for absolutely nothing because they're doing it to serve the Lord, not to see what they can get out of it financially. And then in verse three, you see not to be lords over those entrusted them, but to be examples for the flock. The way that pastors and elders and shepherds lead is not by the authority of their position, but by the example of their lives. And we're going to talk some more about the importance of the example of their lives when we get to verse 18 and verse 19. But you see, God has placed them in that position, not because they know everything and not because they'll get everything right, but because God has done a work in their lives and he desires the example of their lives to be a testimony to those in the congregation. Spiritual maturity is what it takes to be an elder. That's what it takes. Not to be perfect, not to know everything, and certainly not to be an authority in the congregation. And look at how they lead. They lead by being examples, not by lording it over the flock. And we also notice when the chief shepherd appears, they're going to receive a crown of glory that will not fade away. Why do they put up with everything? Why do they keep on serving as elders? It's not an easy job. We'll talk about that too in a minute. Why do we do it? Because we know that the Lord has promised He will honor those that will honor Him. And that's why an elder keeps on serving, even though it's a difficult task to serve. Now, what does it mean for them to serve as elders? Verse 17 of Hebrews chapter 13, it says, Obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch, care for your souls. In other words, the main responsibility for elders is that they take care of you spiritually. They're to shepherd the flock. They're to care about what's going on in your lives spiritually. And this means a number of things. First of all, it means that the elders are responsible for the doctrinal integrity of the church. In Acts, the 20th chapter, when Paul is talking to the elders of the church of Ephesus, he warns them. And he says, watch out because there will come into the flock ravenous wolves that will try to steal sheep away from the flock and will try to steal people away from the flock. And watch out for divisive doctrines. You see, it's the responsibility of the elders to make sure that the church is doctrinally sound. And that's why one of the qualifications for an elder is that they be apt to teach, that they have the ability to handle the Word of God, that they have the ability to know what is biblical and what is cultural. And they're able to say, this is what the Word of God says about certain things and about certain issues. So their first responsibility is to labor in the doctrine. If you take a look at chapter 13, verse 7, notice it says, remember those who rule over you. Look at the two things they did, who spoke the word of God to you. That's the first thing they do. And then the second thing, whose faith follow. In other words, they provided an example for you. The two things the elders do is that they speak the word of God to you and that they provide an example for you to follow. You see, those are the responsibilities of an elder, not to lord it over you, not to be authoritarians or dictators, but to, by a humble example, to show you the kind of life that Christ wants us to live and to keep you on track with the Word of God. The responsibility for elders is spiritual watch care, to know what's going on in the lives of people spiritually and to care about what's happening in their lives spiritually. Notice he also says, not just simply to follow, he points out their responsibility, but he also points out their example. It's really important that an elder live what he's teaching. Never perfectly, but an elder must live out a life that is an example for the body of Christ. The main thing that an elder does is not just teach, but he provides a model of an example. Keep your finger in Hebrews 13 and turn back to 1 Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 2, verses 1-12, listen to what Paul says about his ministry. Certainly Paul taught sound doctrine, and certainly Paul was concerned that people knew the Word of God. But over and over again, Paul keeps pointing out the example that he had for the churches that he established. Look at what he says in verse 1. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But even after we had suffered, and before we were spitefully treated in Philippi, as you know, we were bold in God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanliness, nor was it in deceit. But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness. God is our witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you as a nursing mother cherishes their own children. So affectionately longing for you, we were so well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our lives, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and our toil, For laboring night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preach to you the gospel of God. And you are witnesses in God also how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved among you who believe. As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. What is the responsibility of elders? It's to be an example for the flock. It's to be honest in their lifestyle. It's to lay their lives down for the sake of the flock. And it's to exhort the flock, to comfort the flock, to care for the flock. You see, an elder or a pastor, the main responsibility is to watch care for the souls of the people in the congregation. And that's why it's interesting that the qualification for elders, both in 1 Timothy 3 and also in Titus chapter 1, the qualification is that, first of all, that they be found blameless. That doesn't mean that they don't have any faults in their life, but it means that their integrity is such that these are men that you can trust because you've seen not only what they teach, but you've seen what they live. And so the qualifications include the lifestyle. In fact, if you go through 1 Timothy chapter 3 and you look at Titus chapter 1 and the qualifications for an elder, you will find that in both of those situations, every single thing they speak about them has to do with lifestyle, has to do with the kind of person they are, has to do with character. Because the emphasis on an elder is the kind of person they are. They're a model, an example that the congregation is being called to follow, that model and that example. One of the best ways to destroy good teaching, is by bad living. And a lot of times we often think that a person ought to be an elder because they're a good teacher. It'd be better to have somebody who's not a good teacher, that is a good model of lifestyle, than somebody who is a good teacher who doesn't live what they're teaching. You see, a lot of good teaching is destroyed by bad living. And that's why it says here in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 7, Remember those who rule over you, who spoke the word of God to you. There's a responsibility with the word of God. But follow their faith. In other words, look at the example of their lives and follow the example in their lives. The elders are primarily to be examples and models as they shepherd the flock. But I want you, the third thing that he says there is considering their outcome. What does that mean? Some commentators have said what it means is that they gave their life for Christ. That they laid their life down and they died for Christ. That's very possible. It's not really clear what he means by considering their outcome. Does he mean what happened in the end? Or does it mean what they got in their reward in eternity? You see, many of the things we've talked about here in Hebrews is about the reward that God gives. And one of the things that we saw in 1 Peter chapter 5 is those who shepherd the flock properly are going to receive a crown of glory which will not fade away. In other words, there's something that God grants in eternity that is not for every single believer, but he gives it to those who are willing to shepherd the flock with the proper motivations and doing it in the proper way. You see, what is the outcome of their faith? See what God is going to do. God's going to bless them. They may have had struggles here. They may have even lost their lives because it's most likely in the first century that the early leaders were losing their lives in the church. And so he's saying, look at the outcome. Not that they died. But look at what they got. They gained a great reward in the very end. Let's take a look. Why should you remember your elders? Why should you remember those who rule over you? First of all, you should remember them by obeying them. Look at what it says in verse 17. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive to them, for they watch care over your souls and they must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. Why should you obey your leaders? Why should you follow your leaders? Why should you submit to your leaders? Well, first of all, because they're going to give an account for every single thing that they do. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but the Scripture is very plain about it. James, the third chapter, verse one, says, Let not many of you become teachers, because you incur a stricter judgment. Jesus said, To whom much is given, much is required. And you see, when God calls a person out to spiritual leadership, that increased responsibility means increased accountability. And there's going to be a stricter judgment for those that are in spiritual leadership than for those who are not in spiritual leadership. Now, I don't say that to say stay out of spiritual leadership. I say that to say, listen, it's a serious matter when a person says, yes, I'm willing to become an elder in a congregation. Because what they are doing is they're undergoing the stricter accountability that God places on them. And they're going to have to give an account not only for their own lives spiritually, but they're going to have to give an account for the lives of the people that they shepherded. And there's an increased accountability that comes with increased responsibility. And so we should obey them and follow them because God has called them to a greater accountability. He's going to hold them accountable. And some people will sit back and say, yeah, but you know, you don't understand. They're not leading the way they should. Well, God is going to deal with them. And the judgment that God will place on their lives will be greater than the same judgment God would place on your life for doing the same thing. And you see what you need to do, and we're going to talk about this, too. You need to pray for them because they incur a stricter judgment because of the responsibility that they bear. I don't think we think of it that way usually. We think, well, they've got this position where they're honored more in the congregation, but to be honored more is to have a greater responsibility and a greater accountability. And we need to honor those that are elders because God's going to deal with everything they do in their lives in a stricter way than he will with what's in your life. Second reason we need to obey our leaders and submit to them is not only because they will give an account, but we also want to do it because we want them to be able to do work that God's called them to do with joy and not with grief. I can't tell you how heartbreaking ministry can be, and anybody who's been an elder would tell you that. One of the things we started doing at Cornerstone, I think was a good thing, and we're doing it here too, is before we invite someone to be an elder, before we put them before the congregation, one of the things that we do is we ask them to meet with us on a regular basis. Because one of the things we found at Cornerstone, when we first started having people come to be elders, we found, I can think of one case in particular, a guy who's a dear friend. Man, you talk about somebody qualified to be an elder. This guy was qualified to be an elder. He came on to be an elder. Everybody was in favor of him being an elder. And after a few months of it, he said, guys, I just can't do this. He said, you know, before I was an elder, I loved the church and I thought everybody in the church was doing well. But now as an elder, I know what's going on in everybody's lives and I can't believe the things that our people are doing. And I'm struggling with my own faith to be able to stand in there when I see what people are actually doing and the things that you guys go through. I never knew it and I can't do it. And so one of the things we started doing there at Cornerstone is we started saying when we find a guy qualified, we ask him to meet with us for a number of months and before we present them to the congregation. And we've been doing that with one of the men in our congregation that hopefully next week we'll be presenting to you as an elder in this congregation. And there are a couple other men that we're considering inviting to come and be with us on that basis. But when I say that simply to say this, being an elder is not easy, it's hard. And it's a whole lot easier simply to be a member of the congregation and not really know what's going on all the time. And there are times when even you know what's going on, but you can't say anything because it's people's lives that are on the line. And if you speak about what's going on, you're waiting to see what's being resolved before you will speak openly about those matters to the whole congregation. And as an elder, it's difficult. It's not easy. And you need to obey and submit to your elders because the work that they do is a very, very difficult work. In fact, I would say to you that there's not any job that's more difficult than being an elder. Being an elder can be difficult, it can be discouraging, it can be downright depressing at times, especially when you're going through a real difficult situation, that you're trying to protect the whole body from this situation, and it can just weigh on your heart with so much weight. I remember reading in Spurgeon's autobiography how almost every Monday he would go through severe depression just because he would see the things that he was teaching, and then he would know the things that people were doing in their lives, and it just broke his heart. And he had a great deal of depression to deal with as a result of that. It's not unusual that when you're in spiritual responsibility and you're trying to care for the souls of the others, you just become overwhelmed and you just think, how in the world can we care for the people the way God wants us to? And you recognize, on the other hand, too, you're going to be accountable for it. And it's heartbreaking. And notice what he says in verse 17. He says, let them do it with joy and not with grief. And it's amazing the amount of grief that elders go through because members of the body of Christ don't obey and don't submit. I think the writer of Hebrews has in mind Old Testament examples, and there are a number of them, especially the Old Testament examples that he's mentioned in chapter 3 and chapter 4. Remember when Moses was in the wilderness on at least two occasions, at Rephidim and also at Kadesh Barnea? Remember what the Israelites said after Moses had led them out of Egypt and brought them in toward the Promised Land? Over and over again, the people of Israel kept saying, what did you do? You only brought us out here in the desert to die and to kill us. You know, and they complained and they grumbled about everything. And there were times when Moses just said, you know, this is just heartbreaking. He just couldn't stand what they were doing. And there were times when his leadership was questioned. There were times when Aaron's leadership was questioned. And the people of Israel were a very difficult group of people to deal with. You see, when you serve as an elder, it's difficult. And we want to obey and submit to our leaders for no other reason, just so that they can do the job God's called them to do with joy and not with grief. It's very difficult. It's very hard. I can tell you some of the difficulties sometimes. I won't give you specific examples, but it can be one of the most heartbreaking things to see. Sometimes I can think of a situation where there's a person, a young guy that I led to Christ, discipled this guy, was with him through many difficulties in his life. And then when something he disagreed with something in the church to find that person spread all kinds of rumors about you. And it's heartbreaking when those kind of things happen. And I can tell you that's not an isolated example. I've been in ministry for 32 years and I can give you countless examples of people that we as elders have cared for and laid our lives down for and reached out to only to have horrible things said about us and heartbreaking things because people are unwilling to be obedient and to please God by their obedience. It's just an amazing thing. And if you serve as an elder, those of you that have served as elders can probably think of examples, probably examples that come to your own mind about heartbreaking situations. And we need to, it's a difficult job as it is. Don't make it more difficult for the elders. They care for your souls. They care for the body of Christ. And when you are not responding to their leadership properly, it breaks their hearts because they're doing it out of an act of love. They don't have to serve in that capacity. They do it because they care about you and they do it because they're honoring Christ. And so you need to honor your leaders and obey your leaders and submit to your leaders because it's not an easy job. And if you don't do that, they'll have to do it with grief rather than doing it with joy. On the other hand, after 32 years of being in ministry, I can tell you there's far more joy than there is grief in ministry. And I can tell you example after example of how I've had great joy of seeing what God has done in people's lives through the simple things that we've done in ministry, even sometimes with church discipline. I know of a person right now that I've heard from about three or four months ago, again, where it was the guy that we had to confront about beating his wife. And we were able to step into the situation. And at first it was a very difficult situation, a heartbreaking situation. But as we worked with him through that situation, we're able to save a marriage and save. And today has been tremendous change in his life. But those are not easy things to do. And nobody else in the congregation knew that we were doing that with this man. But we had to do it. And we did it with a struggle and with grief. But it resulted in great joy. Just the week before I left for Mexico, I got a call from a young man that led the Christ in Connecticut. His name is Mike Pastina. And I have this, I have this every now and then people will call. And I always have this habit after I've talked to him for a little bit, I always ask him one question. I said, are you still walking in the Lord? Well, Mike calls every now and then, and he called this time, and he called up and he said, Jim, I didn't want to bother you and take too much time, but I just want to know, are you still walking in the Lord? He just cracked me up. It's just like, you know, I've said that to him so many times. And I said, well, yeah, I am. How about you? And he said, yeah, man, I still am. And he told me what he was doing in his church and things like that. He's now living in Vermont. And it's just a great joy. And that's why John tells us in third John, verse four, he says, I have no greater joy than to know that my children are walking in the truth. You see, there is grief and there's difficulty in being an elder, but there's no greater joy than when you see the outcome of someone else's life. When you see that the time, the effort, the prayers, everything that you've done in spiritual leadership results in somebody's life being changed, you say, wow, it's worth it. Because if you just looked at the part of the grief, you'd say, well, why would anybody be an elder? But there's great joy in seeing how God changes and transforms people's lives. But you need to make the job of the elders, the job of the leaders of the congregation, you need to make their job a joyful job by obeying them and submitting to them. Why should you obey them? Because if you don't, it's going to be harder on them. It's already difficult enough, but it's going to be much harder on them. And they need to be able to do their job with joy and not to do it with grief. There's another reason why you need to obey and submit to your leaders, and that's because you're going to be held accountable. We've talked a lot about the accountability of leaders, but if you notice in here, he says in verse 17 at the end, he says, let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. In other words, if you don't obey your leaders, if you don't submit to your leaders, if you cause them grief, God's going to deal with you too. And He's going to judge your life and He's going to deal with your life. But even apart from the judgment of God, it's unprofitable for you. Because once you begin to do things which tear down the leadership of the congregation, it hurts the whole congregation. Instead of building up the leadership, instead of praying for the leadership, instead of speaking positively about the leadership, when you do those things that are negative toward the leadership, it ultimately ends up hurting you too. It's unprofitable for you. And so he says, you need to make sure that you do it in such a way that God is pleased. I remember a song by Randy Stonehill that goes like this. It says, we are all like foolish puppets who, desiring to be free, now lie helplessly crippled after cutting our own strings. You see, that's the way we are toward leadership. A lot of times we think I don't want to be under any leadership. I don't want to listen to what they say. I want to do what I want to do. And I think my way is better than their way. And so we try to cut our strings. And what do we do? It's not profitable for us because any time we step outside of God's ordained pattern for leadership, God does not bless our lives. In fact, God judges our lives. And again, that's true whether it's in a husband wife relationship, whether it's in a parent child relationship or whether it's in the elders and the church relationship. But we often think, I want to be free from this. But when we do it, we end up hurting ourselves and it's unprofitable for us. So we need to remember our leaders. We need to recognize the kind of work they do, the responsibilities that they have. And we need to see the example of their lives and the outcome is going to be a great reward. We need to obey our leaders because they're going to be held accountable. They may be doing something that's wrong in the eyes of God, but you know what? God's going to deal with them far more strictly than he'll deal with you. if you're not in leadership. And we need to obey them because their job's not easy. Don't make it any harder for them. It's difficult to serve as an elder. And we need to obey them because God's going to hold you accountable for what you do in your response to leadership. The third thing that we need to do, not only remember them and obey them, but we need to pray for them. Look at verse 18 and verse 19. Pray for us. For we are confident that we have a good conscience in all things, desiring to live honorably. But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now, the writer of Hebrews appears to be in prison. And he appears to be calling to this congregation to say, pray for me so that I can come back and be a part of your fellowship once again. But notice he starts off in verse 18, not by asking for prayers for himself, but for all those that are in leadership. Again, I hope you see the pluralness of leadership. It's not just this one writer who is asking them to pray for him, but he's saying, pray for all these people in leadership. Pray for us, for we are confident that we have a good conscience in all things desiring to live honorably. Why should we pray for our leaders? We should pray for our leaders, first of all, because it's necessary. It's needed. They can't make it without your prayers. You know, if there's one area that Satan attacks more than any other area, it's the ministry. You guys have seen it. You've seen it in your own community here. I can give you countless examples of times when a pastor has failed morally, and it has destroyed a congregation, and it has hurt a congregation, and people's lives have been destroyed. Not because there was any direct connection, but just because of the moral failure of that one person. You see, you need to pray for your leaders because Satan attacks them more than he attacks anybody else. Because he knows that if he can upset the leadership of a congregation, he can upset the whole congregation. You need to pray for them because they need it. You need to pray for them because their work is spiritual work. And they're very tempted to become involved in the work of ministry and forget that they need to be dependent upon God. I love some of the things that Brad was saying about being dependent upon God last week. We have got to remember that we don't do these things in our own strength. And as elders, you can get so caught up in the work of ministry that you forget, wait a minute, we can't do this unless God does something. That's one of the reasons why one thing that we do every week is we have a prayer time together and we pray for the needs in the congregation. And we recognize, I hope we recognize, that we can't do anything apart from what God does in us. But you need to recognize that too. And you need to be praying for your leadership because they need it. We can't do it in our own strength, and we need people praying for us. The second reason why is because they deserve it. That may sound kind of strange to say they deserve your prayers, but they do. They deserve your prayers not because they're the best leaders you'll ever have, not because they make right decisions, not because everything's right in their own lives, but they deserve your prayers for them because they desire to honor God with their lives. Look at what it says in verse 18, pray for us for we are confident we have a good conscience in all things desiring to live honorably. What is the desire of the elders? The desire of the elders is that God would be pleased. I can't tell you how many times in the various churches I've served, I've only been in like four churches, but in those churches I've served, I can't tell you how many times when we had to make decisions that seemed like everybody in the church disagreed with. And yet we had to make those decisions. We desired to please God. more than we desired to please the congregation. And our hearts for the congregation, we cared about them spiritually, but we wanted to find out, God, what do you want us to do? And there were times when we would make decisions and it seemed like everybody was mad at us about those decisions. It's difficult. It's hard. But you need to pray for them because they deserve your prayers. They're trying to honor God by the things they do. And their one desire is that they would have a clear conscience in everything they do, that they don't look back and they say, well, you know, what we did, we really did out of wrong motivations. But they can look back and say, you know, we may have made a big mistake on the decision we made, but we did it out of a clear conscience. We were doing what we thought was right at the moment. I can remember the first time in Connecticut when we were learning about elders. And I remember talking with the elders about a decision that we had made. And I said, guys, you know, we've all prayed about it. We all agree it wasn't the right decision. What are we going to do? I remember one of the other guys said, well, the one thing we can't do is let them know we made a wrong decision. We just keep right on going and they'll never know. I said, well, the truth is, we all know that we made a wrong decision. We need to go to congregation and be honest. And he said, well, if you do that, we will lose face and no one will trust us again. I said, no, the opposite is true. Unless we're honest with the congregation, we're able to say to the congregation, listen, we didn't make the right decision and we need to change and go another direction from what we told you we thought was right. They won't trust you if they find out that you made a wrong decision and you weren't willing to be honest about it. And I've had that come up in a couple other situations too, where the honesty and integrity of the elders is shown by their willingness to be honest about even their own failures before the congregation. You see, it's not that you have perfect elders. It's not that they make perfect decisions. In fact, I can guarantee you, you don't have perfect elders and I can guarantee you we don't make perfect decisions. But I can guarantee you that the elders we have in this congregation desire to live honorably and they desire to have a clean conscience before God. And we will make mistakes, but I hope we'll be honest with you about those mistakes. And I hope we'll be willing to say to you, you know, we want to please God more than we want to please you. If everybody's mad at us, we're sorry, but we've got to do what God has directed us as a leadership team to do. You see, being an elder is not easy. It's a whole lot easier to have a congregational rule and let everybody in the church vote and let the majority rule. But that's not the way God's designed the church. He's designed it to be elders who are seeking the face of God and who are trying to determine as best they can what God wants the congregation to do, and then going that direction. And if they find out they're wrong, being willing to change that direction so that God is pleased with what they do. You see, this whole chapter is about pleasing God. And the reason elders become elders is because before they were elders, They develop the lifestyle of saying, God, I want you to be pleased with what I'm doing. And they desire to have a clear conscience in everything they did. That's how you get to have a blameless character, by having a clear conscience. And being concerned, not what other people think about you, but always being concerned, what does God think about me? You see, you don't have a clear conscience by thinking about what everybody else thinks about you. Because you can have a pretty cloudy conscience when you're more concerned about what everybody else thinks. But when you're directed by, I want to be clear in my conscience before God, then you know your life really gets changed and you become blameless in your character. And that's what is qualifying for an elder. They didn't become that kind of person after they became an elder, they were that kind of person. Had a clear conscience and they desired to honor God more than they desired to honor man. The third thing that we find is a reason why we should pray for them. They need it. That should be enough. They deserve it. But also, it pleases God. In chapter 13, verse 16, I think the writer of Hebrews is talking about pleasing God all through this chapter. But in verse 16, he says, And don't forget to do good and share for what such sacrifices God has pleased. And then right away, he steps in to obey your leaders, those who watch over you and submit to them. Obey them, those who rule over you and submit to them. In other words, God is pleased when you do this too, when you respond properly to those that God has placed in leadership over you. And when you start not responding properly to leadership that God has placed over you, it's going to affect all other areas of your life too. And God is pleased when we honor the leaders He's placed in our lives. The writer of Hebrews is saying, God's not pleased when you come to the altar. God's pleased when you obey. God's not pleased when you go through your various rituals in the Jewish faith, but God's pleased when you have a heart of humble submission to everything that God says you should do. God's not pleased when you offer animal sacrifices, but God is pleased when you rest in the blood of Jesus Christ and you say, Jesus, what you've done is enough for me. And Jesus, you have chosen to lead your church by calling out a few men to serve as representatives for you and to seek your face and to lead the church. And God's pleased when you follow those that God has chosen to lead the church. You see, God's pleased not when you obey the law, but God's pleased when you obey those that he's placed in leadership over you. Is God pleased with your life? What do you do when an elder isn't doing what he's supposed to do? We read it earlier in 1 Timothy chapter 5. Receive an accusation against an elder on the basis of two or three witnesses. I can't tell you how many times people will say things about those in leadership. And you know what? When you get back to finding out what the truth really is, I can't tell you how many times people have come and said, you know, I heard such and such from so and so, and I believe it was true. But after I checked it out with a few other people, I found out it wasn't true. But for a long period of time, I remember the first church I pastored in North Carolina, I can remember going through and wondering, what was wrong? Why was everybody upset with me about something? And we had business meetings every three months. And at that business meeting, people were getting up. This was the Baptist Church, it was congregational rule. And people were getting up and asking why I was wasting all the church's money. And I was saying, what do you mean? What am I doing? And finally, in the discussion there in this business meeting, with a lot of anger, these people were very upset. One of the persons finally said, well, you've been buying cases of Bibles and passing them out in the community. And I said, well, if I was doing that, what would be wrong with it? That was my first response, which was probably not the best first response, but that's what I said. But I said, I have never done that. And they said, well, the treasurer said you've been doing that. And he was sitting there and I said, what is that? And he said, well, you have. And I said, what do you mean? And then the finance committee got together and asked the treasurer to show the receipts for it. And what it was is I had purchased one New Testament and given it to a new Christian. And that became a caseload of Bibles, which still I think would have been fine to do. You know, that was a good thing to do is pass out Bible in the community. But, you know, afterwards, people kept coming up and saying, I wish we had checked this out sooner because they'd spent three, four months of just being upset with me over one New Testament. I think back then it was like five or six dollars for that. You know, it's just a ridiculous thing. But I can tell you countless examples through the time that I've been in ministry where that happens, not just to pastors, but to elders. We're serving out of a right heart and a right conscience. And somebody who gets upset about something goes and spreads some rumor and there's no truth in it. What should you do when an elder is in question? Well, the first thing I think you should do is pray for them. They are weak, they will fail, and you do need to pray for them. Second thing you need to do is you need to go talk to them. Again, don't wait three or four months and listen to somebody's rumor, and especially don't go and repeat somebody's rumor to somebody else. Go to that person and talk to them directly about it. You can clear up an awful lot of stuff if you'll go to one of the elders and talk to them. And if that isn't sufficient, go to the group of the elders and sit down and talk with them about it. If that isn't sufficient, then the matter is to be brought before the congregation on the basis of two or three witnesses. Not on the basis of one person who's upset about something, but on the basis of two or three witnesses. But you see, the leadership that God has given is important for the church. And nothing will destroy a church faster than when leadership is not honored and respected and followed the way God has designed it to be. It's not an easy job. I can tell you that everybody who's been an elder has thought, boy, this is the last year I'm ever going to do this. And it's only as God works through your heart and say, no, I want to honor God. That those guys who are elders keep on doing it because they say, I love the church and I love the Lord. And even though this is hard, I'm going to keep on doing it. And you see, you need to respect your leaders. You need to remember them, appreciate them. They're willing to lay their lives on the side. It takes extra time and extra effort and much struggle and much grief to shepherd the flock of God. It's not an easy job. You need to remember them. You need to obey them. You need to pray for them. What if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ? What should you be doing? Well, turn over to the Gospel of John. Look in chapter six in the Gospel of John, because a group of Jews asked Jesus pretty much that same question. What must I do? In John, chapter five, verses 28 and 29. says this, then they said to him, what must we do that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. Some people you might be asking this morning, well, you know, I'd like to be a Christian. I'd like to be a part of the body of Christ. How can I do that? Well, there's only one way you can. You must believe on him that he has sent. When you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, what he does is he washes away all of your sins and he gives you new life and he puts you into the body of Christ. But you can't be a part of the church of God, you can't be a part of the body of Christ, unless Christ is in you. And you see, what must you do? Just one thing. You must believe on Him that God is sent, and that's Jesus Christ. If you haven't done that, we invite you this morning, even before you leave here, come and talk to me, come and talk to one of the other elders, talk to a friend that you came with, but ask them, how can I know Christ? How can I have eternal life? How can I be saved? And all you need to do is believe on Him that He is sent. Let's pray together.