Chuck Swindoll :: Boars in God's Vineyard

[Music] thank you hi well I look forward to this for a long time yeah well good Greg said I could go to about midnight so I'm encouraged no [Applause] yeah it's it's always a little difficult to know what to talk on when you're standing in front of people who are doing what you do and yet you don't know these individuals and all of you have stories you could tell in your own ministry is moving ahead by God's grace and so what can I say that you don't already know or haven't already experienced so I thought I would get in your corner this evening and talk about something that is rarely addressed in a conference like this already rented by the chief so Greg approved of it and I'd like to talk to you about bores in God's vineyard there you go in a minute you'll get the whole picture every calling has its own occupational hazards and a ministry is no exception this particular work to which God has called us is not is not an easy one and there are some people who are not in our corners and who seem to feel that it is their calling to make our lives pretty miserable and I have a feeling that there's very few of you who can't already identify with where I'm going here truth be told some of you are living with some very difficult situations and it quite likely is related not so much to finances or to the need for property or to the building or some civil situation you're dealing with at the city or town where you minister but it's with some some people some people ministry must be led by people who are both tender and tough tender and tough that's not either-or that's that's that's both and we need to be devoted but we also must be determined we need to be compassionate but we also at the same time must be disciplined we need to care about the flock that God has called us to serve at the same time we must be discerning ever aware that there are wolves in sheep's clothing knowing that not everyone who seems to come across as a good friend is that the enemy is at work in the Church of Jesus Christ and there was nothing he would like more than to shut them down one after another and that may be happening in your ministry even at this time short briscoe my friend over the years made a good statement when he said a balanced faithful pastor must have three qualifications must have the mind of a scholar the heart of a child and the hide of a rhinoceros you're probably pretty good in the first two but the third one is gonna be tough for you because you're sensitive at heart and you wouldn't be worth your salt if you didn't have a lot of sensitivity a lot of mercy a lot of love a lot of understanding but that also can make us vulnerable vulnerable let me go a little further being a faithful Shepherd is not a pursuit to become well-liked or cultivating a following or working on ways to become popular it's not the ministry is not done best by flattery flocks don't need to be flattered they need to be they need to be fed they certainly need to be loved but they also at times need to see you stand firm and with those who would disrupt the ministry you even must be stern and that won't come easily for you especially you who are younger yellow older you get kind of ornery and that sort of helps you got less to prove mildred the church gossip and self-appointed monitor of the church morals kept sticking her nose in other people's business several members did not approve of Mildred's extracurricular activities but they feared her enough to maintain their distance and their silence she made a mistake however when she accused George a brand-new member of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon she emphatically told George and several others that everyone's seeing it there would know what he was doing George a man a few words stared at her for a moment just turned and walked away didn't explain anything didn't defend himself or deny he just said nothing but later that evening George quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house and walked Holloman left it there all night you gotta love George I I'll read that my fault why didn't I think about that when I was dealing with Mildred some time ago Gary Larson is guy that used to be a cartoonist and and and he he was the guy that drew farside remember that he's now retired I've got a question why does a cartoonist ever have to retire I mean one little piece a day doesn't that seem like overwork to anybody but what am i one of my favorites is the picture of the deer standing in the in a clearing in the forest he's got a great big bullseye on his shoulder right on his side and his buddy looks at him and he says that's a bummer of a birthmark Ralph every minister I know has a target right in the middle of her chest and we make a we make a big target for for the world at large and I don't say this to make anybody paranoid but the fact is there are some who would love to bring us down and so tonight for a while I want to sort of stay in a section of Scripture with you over in Romans chapter 16 and it's one of those sections that sort of jumps out at you when you weren't expecting it Romans 16 is one of those chapters that lists a whole bunch of names some of which are hard to pronounce and most of those people you don't know anything else about they seem to be Paul's prayer list and longtime friends of folks some of them in Rome some of them no longer in Rome but they knew people in Rome so when he writes his letter to the Roman believers he mentions them and so you work your way through that whole list I've just finished Romans not long ago and I I suddenly got to verse 17 I thought what would an interesting postscript to put on the end of a letter by the way when you read your Bibles leave yourself room to be surprised go after the text like a dog with a bone as you work over it and gnaw on it and think about it and meditate through it and and ponder the words and we'll say more about that in the morning but when you get to sections like this pause I often say to people pause and let the Wonder in when you come to a section like this let yourself be a little surprised he's just said verse 16 to greet one another with a holy kiss it's one of those commands we don't keep these days all the Churches of Christ greet you so this is a warm ending to a wonderful listing of names and then he throws us an inside curve when he gets to these next several verses now I urge you brothers and sisters now I urge you when you read that you yeah your ears ought to perk up like a Doberman I urge you Paul doesn't just toss words out and then and and and just trying to fill up space so he can complete the manuscript he under the inspiration of the Spirit of God he has an urgent word for the readers not just in Rome because as we read in Romans 15:4 whatever was written in earlier times was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort from the Scriptures might have hope so this is for us as well I urge you brothers and sisters in a 21st century wherever you are ministering I urge you my fellow friends and ministry keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them jails will Sanders in an outstanding book named a spiritual leadership rights no one need aspire to leadership in the work of God who was not prepared to pay a price greater than his contemporaries and colleagues are willing to pay true leadership always exacts a heavy toll and the more effective the leadership the higher the price to be paid some of you are paying a tough price and I respect you for it I thank you for being people of courage and convictions I I regret that you're having to deal with people that are in the category of verses 17 and 18 we'll get 18 in a minute but you're dealing right now with people who are causing dissensions and hindrances please make note that this is a deliberate act these are acts that are deliberately being carried out they are causing these things now you understand why I titled my talk as I did it goes back to the medieval years at the height of the Reformation when Martin Luther was exposing the corruptions of the medieval church as he was standing alone on the Scriptures and publicly preaching against the wrongs of the Pope and his practices Pope Leo the tenth issued a critical decree called a papal bull against that maverick monk writes James Montgomery Boyce where he complained that a wild boar is ravishing ravishing God's vineyard referring to Luther as the boar in reality Boyce adds the opposite was true the real boars in God's vineyard were those who were considered the courageous and strong hearted reformers he was one standing strong and all alone like an Old Testament prophet recalling a wayward church back to its apostolic roots when I came across that in Boyce's work on Romans which by the way has really worth the price it's a four-volume work that you'll find a great deal of help in he really does spend time in the text and and you'll appreciate his insights as I have for years what we are facing as men and women of the ministry is the fact that there are those who do in fact cause dissensions and hindrances trouble in ministry is nothing new there were always in the first century those Pharisees with their legalism and there were heretics with their false teaching and there were defectors who became cynical and bitter there have always been deceivers with their cunning and duplicitous actions fighters who took on various apostles and fellow Christians among them listened to a list saul who by his own admission when he was lost was ravaging the church do a little word study on that in acts 8 3 and acts 9 1 and 2 it's it's very revealing ravaging the church there were wolves who would come in Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 they will be from among your own number be on guard be aware be alert the boars are growing in the vineyard there were legalists who spied out the liberty Paul writes of that in Genesis in Galatians chapter 2 Paul's implacable enemy was Alexander the coppersmith we wish we knew more of him but you read of him in the letters to Timothy and and and and he warns Timothy Paul knew his days were numbered but he knew Alexander would live on and he'll hurt your ministry so Paul warned this younger minister of the gospel to be on the alert watch out for Alexander he's a bore in the vineyard and he'll make your life miserable john devoted john even at the late age that he was after being relieved from the exile on the island of Patmos comes back to Ephesus and and and writes that letter you remember in third John he writes of Diotrephes who loves to have the preeminence I call him the church boss he loved to be the church boss and he be warned against him by the way speaking of Diotrephes the great Baptist scholar 80 Robertson who taught for years at Southern Seminary up in Louisville has written a six-volume set titled the word pictures in the New Testament you need that set for yourself word pictures in the New Testament it's wonderful even if you may not be proficient in Greek you will appreciate all of the Greek terms are transliterated so you could read it for yourself you can work your way through the New Testament and that's a great guide for you in the sixth volume as he's writing on this section in third John 80 Robertson addresses the stubborn and self-serving ambition of Diotrephes in doing so he tells this story and I quote from Robertson here some 40 years ago I wrote an article on Diotrephes for a denominational paper the editor told me that 25 deacons stopped taking the paper to show their resentment against being personally attacked in the paper amazing isn't it just telling him about Diotrephes the Deacons thought he is somehow taking us on how dare he do that well trouble was brewing in Rome we don't know as much as we wish we knew about these dissenters are those causing dissensions but they were there and Paul urgently warns them about them I think it's noteworthy men and women that the people who caused dissension and hindrances are not simply to be tolerated and overlooked and ignored they're to be confronted they're to be dealt with let's analyze the term and then we'll go a little further with what we do about those kind of people the original term translated dissensions they cause dissension is the term for one who causes divisive nests and polarization the Greek term is found only here and in the list of the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5 isn't that noteworthy only here and in Galatians 5 on the deeds of the flesh the activity of the person causing dissension does not come from the Holy Spirit it's an act of carnality it comes from the flesh that individual brings strife disturbs the peace and sews discord among the brothers and sisters in the family of God they introduced trouble they questioned Authority they lacked respect for the leaders they are not submissive in spirit they cast doubts Cinthia night my wife and I haven't have a way of expressing that what they do they stir the pot don't answer out loud but you got some pot stirrers in your congregation they just like stir in the pot they just like bringing up stuff that needs to be left alone or making up stuff that isn't juicy enough as they hear about him so they add to them they release faulty information and that's that's dangerous it's a heartbreak to you the second word is hindrances they cause dissensions and hindrances the greek term is scandal ah ska n da la obviously our word scandal from that they put hindrances in others way making it hard for them to trust godly leadership they scandalized the flock they are agents of disunity in that they blocked the free flowing work of a spirit they delight in sounding believable they're often in leadership but desiring to undermine and dilute effectiveness of a ministry they cause hindrances they are often not all that overt sometime can be very subtle William Barclay writes a man who speaks well and acts ill the kind of man who behind a facade of pious words is a bad influence who leads others astray not by direct attack but by subtlety who pretends to serve Christ but in reality is destroying the faith listening to such an individual in the church will demoralize you especially knowing that there's an ulterior motive and you often don't know what that motive is in fact you will observe at the end of verse 17 they cause the dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned so their work is against the teaching of the scriptures your faithful dissemination of the truth is undermined by the presence of these who cause dissensions and hindrances now what why would I take our time on a subject like this especially when we come together and we're all excited about ministry and we're looking forward to to new ideas and fresh ways to to do what we do because this is reality and I'm here today as a 74 year old pastor to tell you that it doesn't get easier if you're hoping about the time you turn 60 that you'll kind of be on him the easy flow of things don't get your hopes up it doesn't work like that the last two years of my life have been the most difficult years in ministry I've ever experienced this isn't a church that I founded by the grace of God this isn't a church that's growing and making an impact in a community but there have been bores in the vineyard and they were individuals I never would have thought would have been bores I never would have expected that that's the way the enemy works of course everything within us because we're only human when it finally lands on us and when we see it and admit it it's going on everything within us wants to double up our fists and just smack them I mean just or at least cut their lips off you know do something it just would that's some of my better thoughts I'm keeping my real brutal ones from you but the fact is and this is hard to say I need people like that they cut me down to size the psalmist writes it was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees psalm 119 71 it was good that I was afflicted it was good that I spent those sleepless nights it was good for me that I I didn't have a hundred percent approval of everybody it worked to my benefit I'm a wiser man today than I was two and a half three years ago I've learned a lot in the heartbreaking experiences of these two years three years ago my hair was black kind of takes its toll on you I love the words of aw Tozer it's doubtful God can use anyone greatly until he has heard him deeply on my son's desk and he's our director of Technology there at the church and handles all of our sound and lighting I love Chuck deeply here's a little sign on his desk that sits right there I'll see it when I walked through his studio to go into the hallway he says I've learned I cannot trust any man who has not known pain deeply Paine does something to you first of all it makes you wiser and second it humbles you and third it it Peaks your discernment you become aware of your own limitations you see our tendency is to fight back but the Council of the old country farmer comes to mind on occasion never getting a spitting match with a skunk even if you win you come out smelling bad late in life Thomas a Kempis wrote it's good that we at times endure opposition and that we are evilly and untruly judged when our actions and intentions are in fact good often such experience promotes humility and protects us from vain glory for then we seek God's witness in the heart some of you are just gifted enough to be very dangerous I say to the guys at Dallas seminary when I'm allowed to be there and preach in the chapel and I say to the young guys and the gals I say it's you who were very gifted that I'm most concerned about cuz you can stand and deliver a knockout message and it doesn't take that much study and that's tragic you can kind of hit it from the hip and you're you're good on top of that some of you are handsome nothing wrong with it just isn't fair Hanson and your and your confident and and and you pretty well convince them but that's what the text is saying but you're dangerous so God brings along a bore in the vineyard and he takes you on and he knows how to street fight you don't it's a hell on earth and then you learned what prayer is all about then you learn what it means to be still and learned that he is God by the way michael w smith made a great comment in one of his concerts not long ago i love this statement I'm gonna say it for the rest of my life and after a while I won't even give michael w smith credit for it but tonight my conscience won't let me do that so he said God is still God and I'm still not I love that God is still God and I'm still not psalm 115 3 says our God is in the heavens he does whatever he pleases God could stop every single boar and every single vineyard but he doesn't someday I'd like to know why right now I can't know why so they're on the loose some of you are becoming Boers some of you are becoming cynical for whatever reason the flesh is taking over and the spirit is being quenched and grieved and you're operating your life in the flesh and because I don't know virtually any of you I'm able to say that one of you and I warned you guard against a perfunctory spirit in ministry the longer you're in it you will find you can do a number of things a little easier and a little quicker and before long there's sort of that business as usual attitude start doing a wedding for the money you get out of it so my answer to that is stop accepting honorarium for a wedding or for a funeral why on earth would anybody take anybody's money for helping to lay to rest one of their loved ones you don't need it that badly unless of course you're in it for the money and by the way if you are your flock we'll find that out so guard against greed I warn you God's called you to serve Him and to be his representative and to have the kind of integrity it takes to confront a boar like this by the way they know you often better than you know yourself well what is it that causes someone to become like this I'm so grateful that the text doesn't stop with verse 17 it goes on to 18 and it says for such men by the way see the little connective for it's a term you could render because it's one of those explanatory connectives when you're reading through the Bible and a verse begins with four almost without exception it's explaining what was just said so let's do that let me just as if I were sitting with you in my study this is the way I would do this well right now I urge your brothers brethren keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances and I would do a word study on dissensions and I would do a word study on hindrances which I've done and they are doing this contrary to the teaching which you learned and that reminds me of Timothy the things that he learned from Paul and I would go back there and read some of those things that these people are ignoring or working against and he says turn away from them no tolerate him turn away from them don't run with them for because here's the reason let me explain such manner slaves not of our Lord Christ okay this is where it gets really interesting keep looking at your Bible the words we just read they are slaves of what the text says of their own appetites see it such men are slaves leave out the negative for a moment they are slaves of their own appetites literally the text says they are slaves of their own belly John RW Stott says this is a graphic metaphor of self-indulgence there are people who are self possessed they're serving themselves they have an agenda they are willing slaves of their own ego would say today they want their own way may I just add a little warning for no extra charge don't ever put someone in leadership that you have the slightest reservation about one of the most serious mistakes you can make as a pastor serving a church is to say yes that's that's okay you know nobody's perfect or I have my weaknesses as well if you have reservations the last place you want that individual is in leadership there's a reason God's given you a reservation regarding that person these people are slaves of their own ego they want their own way they don't want the way of the Lord Christ we go back now to the negative in the sentence such men are slaves not of our Lord Christ we want people in our ministry leading our ministry with us who are slaves of the Lord Christ they dream of the Lord Christ they they sit at his feet they serve the Lord Christ they are in love with the Lord Christ they listen to the Lord Christ they want to model the life of the Lord Christ these people are not in that category these individuals are not there please observe further by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting so I take it exactly from what it says that by flattery they carry out deceptive work now happily the people I'm referring to are in the minority if you have a church full of people like this you need another church but you don't you have a few hopefully a very few but depending on their role in the church and it will explain why your life has become as miserable as it is now they are deceivers of others again look closely at that verse by smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting they dessous they seduce the mind of the simple people of the unlearned of the brand new believers trusting people people who aren't suspicious of them unsuspecting sheep who are open to their deception and the result is they promote disunity by the way just as prejudice is a learned trait suspicion is as well and distrust and doubt that's why we refer to little children as being innocent until they're taken advantage of and then they learn quickly and they become aware they learned that not everyone could be trusted that you can't get in the car of any passing stranger we train our children not to do that we're trying to keep our children from being unsuspecting you are a wise Minister if you look past the words of others past the flattery past the gifts they want to give you never doubt it the target of deceivers is always the uninformed and the undiscerning you are to be a protector of those people that's one of your callings let me give you son of a 3-fold guideline to follow that has helped me when I want to discern truth from error number one the first question I want to know answered is is this in agreement with the Scriptures before I throw in my lot I want to be discerning enough to know that this agrees with the Scriptures the Bible is our guide thank the Lord we have it and because of that we want to be sure or that what is being decided here what is being said here what is being carried out here is an agreement with the Scriptures always go there first as will learn in the morning we pass our messages through three gates is it accurate is it clear is it practical first is accuracy second does this glorify my Lord Jesus Christ is this an agreement with the scriptures second does this glorify my Lord Jesus Christ and third will this deepen my walk will this promote personal holiness and godliness now how how are we to handle individuals like this what are we supposed to do two very helpful pieces of advice emerge from the text oh it just occurs to me it's a good time for just a little sidebar and hold your place here and go to Titus chapter 3 will you I'm so glad I thought of that Titus 3 I'll never forget that the the time in my life when I when I really needed this verse these verses 10 and 11 reject a factious man after a first and second warning knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning being self condemned not intriguing that's one of those aha verses for you pause and and once again let the wonder in you study it you you want to be sure that you're understanding it I was serving a church in another state and another time in my life and I had an extremely difficult person who was the who was in leadership let me just leave it innocuous like that he was serving in leadership and he had been a very high-profile individual in my coming to the church there's an old saying be careful of the one who meets you at the plane and often the one who is most involved in your being called at the church is the one who turns on you because in your coming you take his place and he's envious of that and there's a dozen other reasons anyway this individual was in that category and I noticed the longer I was there the the greater the sense of pressure and what I would attempt to work it out I was blocked he didn't want to work it out he didn't want to even acknowledge it and denied that there was any conflict and I began to feel increasingly more alone I had no advocate to had no one I could turn to because the other board members seemed like everything's fine and dandy and but I couldn't I couldn't get through to him so a couple of things occurred that intensified the pressure and one day he showed up at my study was a cold winter day we were in a small church I didn't even have a receptionist and so he just kind of walked in and he said I want to show you something that you don't know and I'll never forget this he opened his coat and he said I carry a gun and he pulled it out of the holster and he popped the the butt of the gun against his hand and out popped out fell six shelves said I keep it loaded I just thought you ought to know that hmm I want to say well thank you and he put them all in and put one in the chamber it's a true story I mean I can't make him up this good business and then he said don't you ever cross me and walked out that folks is called a threat I don't know that I've ever been more scared in my life and I've done a hitch in the Marine Corps but I I had never had that kind of direct threat and he was in leadership at our little church and everybody loved him that's a factious man I want to show you something from this passage that you will find I think you will find that I bring that up because it interesting isn't the way the Lord works I was teaching Titus at the time and had not yet gotten to chapter 3 so when I get to chapter 3 verse 10 I'm thinking I mean I gave Cynthia call and I said listen to this and she said where did you find that I said well God's Word is where I found it and then she and I together made a study of this because she was the only one who knew the whole story a factious man is referring to one who has a strong and self chosen set of opinions and viewpoints this individual uses them to stir up divisions they would include anyone who is divisive and disruptive who takes delight in causing dissension and threatening reject a factious man do we ignore them do we tolerate no it says reject them but you don't just instantly reject how do you reject them look closely after a first and second warning there must be discipline so there are two very deliberate carefully worked out times of confronting and I say to my own shame I never did that with that man and my great struggle in leaving that church was I knew that my successor would have to face that man and I learned after being there that my predecessor had faced this man these people thank God there aren't many of them but these people have a way of manipulating pastors it's treacherous if this has never happened to you I praise God and my hope is that it never will but if it does you will have been warned for all I know it was for your sake that God laid this on my mind it is not the kind of opening message at a conference like this believe it or not I don't talk about this all that much and you could you would know that from hearing if you ever listened on the radio this is not the kind of thing we spend much time on but I thought something like this needs to be said in a meeting like this now back to the text knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning extra fo e K s TR e pho extra full means to turn inside out stay with me it means to twist factious person is twisted they are psychologically twisted by his continuing in the same sinful practice he knows what he is doing you see being self condemned he is sinning listen to the JB Phillips paraphrase this is incredible if a man is still argumentative after the second warning you should reject him you could be sure that he has a moral twist and he knows it that man did William Hendrickson and his fine commentary on Timothy and Titus says this the word rendered distorted is very descriptive he's using distorted in place of of a perverted such a person is not living and seeing straight he's twisted he's mentally and morally turned twisted he is even worse than the man who colloquially is sometimes called a screwball he is actually living in sin what makes his sin very bad is the fact that he knows he is sinning if his conscience has not already spoken plainly he has at least been warned and that not once but twice hence he sins being self condemned there must be a second warning if this remedy fails rights Hendrickson he must be expelled even this extreme measure has as one of its purposes the reclamation of the sinner after all the main objective of discipline is always restoration a great question I could ask you with no one answering when is the last time you carried out biblically a discipline of a wayward member truth be told most of you would have to say never why because it's hard it's really hard and you don't want to come across as a Pharisee because you know some things you've done have been wrong but you're not twisted and when you're confronted you're you're humbled by the confrontation you're not stubborn and resisting it this mayonnaise okay well this isn't enough to drive anybody out of ministry I don't know what is I'm telling you there's got to be a pony in here somewhere let's go back to this Romans 16 first of all there's got to be observation there's got to be observation we're back in Romans 16 keep your eye on those back to verse 17 see it wake up open your eyes pastors open your eyes elders open your eyes pastors pastors wives look closely pay attention watch out for your husband warn him God's given you a sense that we men don't have and men listen to these ladies and all the ladies said see there let me tell you something and I don't have a perfect wife far from it far from it she learned it from me by the way we have a reasonably good marriage but I tell you what I mean it's frightening how rarely she's wrong it's incredible she'd spot a phony when I'm getting ready to make him an elder are you nuts pay attention to the ladies God has given you they're really bright people nobody's more in your corner nobody wants you to succeed more than they do listen to them observation be aware the Greek suggests a continual and constant action don't ever let them out of your sight stay alert be ready no they are there keep it up watch just like you do a little kid when you're making a study of your child you're learning how they're put together my dad used to call it they're put together you got to find out what they're put together his son everybody has a put together after the observation and the warning please notice there has to be a separation hopefully there's a restoration but if that restoration doesn't come there has to be a confrontation and then separation well we started with borz in the vineyard I'm gonna stop with dragons I don't know if you have read Marshall Shelley's book well-intentioned dragons ministering to problem people in the church I sure hope that's still in print I wore out my first copy and had to buy another one several years ago listen to some things Marshall writes just sit and listen dragons of course are fictional beasts monstrous reptiles with lion's claws a Serpent's tail bat wings and scaly skin they exist only in the imagination but there are dragons of a different sort decidedly real in most cases though not always they do not intend to be sinister in fact they're often quite friendly but their charm belies their power to destroy within the church there are often sincere even well-meaning Saints but they leave ulcers strained relationships and hard feelings in their wake they don't consider themselves difficult people they don't sit up nights thinking of ways to be nasty often their pillars of the community talented strong personalities deservingly respected but for some reason they undermine the ministry of the church they're not naturally rebellious or pathological their loyal church members convinced they're serving God but they wind up doing more harm than good they can drive pastors crazy or out of the church some dragons are openly critical they are the ones who accuse you of being pick one too spiritual not spiritual enough too dominant too laid-back too narrow too loose too structured too disorganized or ulterior in your motives these criticisms are painful because they're largely unanswerable how can you defend yourself and maintain a spirit of peace how can you possibly prove the purity of your motives dragons make it hard to disagree without being disagreeable relationships are both the professional and personal priority for pastors getting along with people is an essential element of any ministry and when relationships are vandalized by critical dry in that a good word when relationships are vandalized by critical dragons many pastors feel like failures I've known that feeling a thousand times politicians are satisfied with 51 percent of the constituency pastors however feel the pain when one vocal member becomes an opponent isn't that the truth just before I left Frisco my my executive assistant made a comment to me about one of our members just just in passing you know where I'm going with it and I'm on my way out the door thinking then I go back and I say you're kidding no that looks like they're gonna leave the church really you know in on the surface I could well you win some you lose some oh the flight to Riverside I'm thinking why on earth are they leaving how can I get them to stay what why because one this satisfied customer to use Howie Stevenson's working one individual that I really had on my team's now walking out and believe it or not this this old guy still has a big heart and when the first things I want to do when I get back is to visit with him I can't go with 51% because he isn't a dragon he's a piece of work but he's not a dragon I probably shouldn't have said that but I do and you know what when you get to a certain age you just don't care anymore either say sightings of these dragons are all too common as one veteran pastor says anyone who's been in ministry more than an hour and a half knows the wrath of a dragon or as Henry ironsight described it wherever there's light there's bugs listen to this last quote research by leadership Journal of professional quarterly for church leaders indicates 80% of the pastors who read the public who read the publication need help with difficult people in their congregation 80% let me in on a great note if I could do anything on this earth I'd be doing just what I'm doing I'll tell you it is the greatest thing on earth it is the greatest greatest thing on earth it is wonderful it is rewarding it is it is the most satisfying challenging gratifying of all Oh callings what a great word that is calling I mentioned our son earlier and I'm gonna brag on him for a moment cuz he's not here and if he were he'd stand up and say please dad come on he has no idea I'm telling you this the other day one of our members said to me are you aware that and it names the organization in our city are you aware that they're after your son are you aware of what they're offering him to come with them happens to be a sports arena in our area and we have the Dallas Stars there and we have a minor league club that feeds into the Rangers and God knows they need help so that they said they need somebody to run the whole sound and lighting that whole arena I mean it's a magnificent brand-new top-notch high-tech deal that would just you know just make a guy like Chuck just lather up and I said no I didn't know that I said do you know the person that's talking to him I was thinking I'm slicing his tires or something but and she said no I don't but I do know the figure they're off ringing and she told me I said could they use an old pastor maybe [Laughter] no I didn't I didn't see I can't even turn the lights on in my house they don't want me there anyway so I'm thinking oh my gosh I bet Chuck's really tempted man he's gonna go over there make a pile of dough and you know I just miss him like crazy I couldn't stand the thought of not having him there sorry Greg I just suddenly thought about that anyway so next chance I get I say to Chuck hey have lunch he said sure where you want to go and I said well let's go over here and we'll have a hamburger and I just want to talk to you about something he said what's wrong why would a sudden say that you know can I just go to lunch and I said he's wrong I wasn't talking about something okay so all the way over there I'm real quiet he says what's up I said nothing's up I just want to talk about something so we get to the place we start our meal and I said hey Donna mentioned a situation that opened up to you boy I'm really proud of you I thought that'd be a good way to get into it you know really proud of and I am if they could get him he'd be the tops and any kind of shoved it off and I said hey come on were you tempted he said dad that's a job this is a calling how about that this is a [Applause] let me tell you he learned that from his mama we got a calling don't you dare let some dragon drive you off don't you dare let some strong-hearted twisted individual convince you you're a failure now if God leads you somewhere else and you got to go be sure it's God not somebody that packs a gun you got you've got great years in front of you and they're they're your best years and I will tell you this while it gets harder it gets more rewarding because as you get a little older you you get a dimension that you didn't have earlier and and it's it's wonderful I'm so honored to be here and to speak to all of you and the privilege of knowing you would listen as I speak he's just overwhelming to me I thank you [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] praise God from whom all blessings [Music] thank you Father for calling us into your work thank you for the inestimable privilege of using your name and speaking it openly and boldly before a world that's lost its way may these women and men serve you faithfully and courageously and loyally the rest of their days as they fulfill their calling I ask in the name of Jesus and everybody said [Applause] you

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 105,333

Rating: 4.7971473 out of 5

Keywords: preach, the, word, chuck, swindoll, greg, laurie, harvest, boars, god, vineyard

Id: Gyo4RwyjjRg

Length: 68min 42sec (4122 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 25 2009