"How to honor and support your spiritual leader" (pastor Gary D. Bailey)

we are having this month passed their appreciation month and so I first really want to thank all of you for all the various gifts that you really showered upon myself from our wife this past month we really really appreciate it I've been so touched that you think about us and you know the amount of service that is provided in the type of labor that it requires so I want to thank each and every one of you for sharing this month and and I really did enjoy this morning's presentations brother Walter I hope I can get that video although I must say there was a gross misrepresentation of my sermon series but I understand that it's all in good fun so thank you so very much it was really really good stuff thank you for the gifts I like I said I do have my towel now Pastor Gary Bailey so everybody knows exactly where it belongs the who it belongs to so Corbin family thank you so very much I really really appreciate that so I will try not to sweat it up too bad but but anyway and so so we've been in we've been talking about prayer so today we're going to end it with talking about how to honor and support your spiritual leader obviously I have some direct insight into this because I happen to be one of those whose Shepherd and pastor a church but having said that I want you to understand something that this message is not about me even though although it includes me I want you to understand this message is not about me I'm not preaching this message today because I have some freshen some pressing issue with foundation church that I must get off my chest because quite frankly I love my church I love the people that I serve and they treat me well I'm sharing this message today and I'm speaking to the church I'm speaking to the body of Christ I'm sharing this message today because first of all I love the church and I love the men that lead them and the women that labor to see the gods people are cared for appropriately so this message is about all those who are spiritual leaders in the house of God senior pastors elders who are responsible to feed and care for the flock of God that's who I'm talking to today and I want to talk to you about that because being a pastor has some very very unique challenges and so I'm just going to to give you some information I want to kind of give you an insight look at the challenges a pastor faced now I want you to understand this I'm sharing this information with you not to guilt you in any way but I simply want to advise you on how we can make their jobs easier and so what I came across was some statistics from pastoral care and corporated comm and they are a ministry that support pastors with research education and immediate assistance and I want to share with you some statistics but you may not be aware of to kind of give you some insight into what pastors are going through across the world 72 percent of pastors and this is a report 72 percent of pastors report working between 55 to 75 hours per week 84 percent of pastors feel they are on call 24/7 80 percent believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families many pastors children do not attend church now because of what the church has done to their parents 65 percent of pastors feel their family lives in a glass house and fear that they are not good enough to meet expectations 78% of pastors report having their vacation or personal time interrupted with ministry duties or expectations 35 percent of pastors report the demands of the church denies them to denies them from spending time adequate time with their families 90 percent of those paths report the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be like before they entered ministry 45 percent of passes spend 10 to 15 hours a week on sermon preparation 57 percent of pastors believed they do not receive a livable wage 57 percent of passes are unable to pay their bills 52 percent of passes feel overworked and cannot meet their church's unrealistic expectations 54% of pastors find the role of a pastor overwhelming over 50 percent of passes state that the biggest challenge is to recruit volunteers and encourage their members who change or to live and walk closer with God 57 percent of passes feel fulfilled but yet discouraged stressed and fatigued 71 percent of churches have no plan for your pastor to receive a periodic sabbatical 1 out of 1 out of every 10 pastors listen to this church 1 out of every 10 pastors will actually retire as a pastor that means a lot of them leave their ministry over 1,500 pastor's left the ministry every month just last year now as I said a moment ago I didn't say those things to guilty I said them to give you a realistic picture of what is really happening when you think about and we talked about this this month we think about trying to advance the kingdom of God with the gospel of Jesus Christ obviously there are many obstacles that come with there many challenges because Satan is not going to relinquish that territory easily and so one of the things we understand is that pastors are on the front lines and it doesn't matter really if the church or big or small it's the same battles - every pastor faith trust me I know what I'm talking about and so the weight and the burden of ministry will not go away for a spiritual leader I'm not here to walk this morning to say that under no illusions that that's going to happen because the weight and the burden of ministry is what all pastors have to carry they will continue to carry that but what I hope to do is to help the flock to understand how that the flock and we as the people of God can make the life of a pastor a little bit easier and more enduring and so I want to do a couple of things here I'm going to kind of give you a little bit of information about the call of a pastor and then I wanted to give you some information on how we can actually make the make their their lives as pastor easier make it easier for them to do their job as I just cited to you all these statistics these are real statistics you can look them up you can just go on Bonner comm you can search any any website any reputable company that does statistics you will see this common pattern that all pastors face and so I want to I want to kind of tackle that today and my hope is that having shared this with you that you will really know how you can honor and support your leader and so let me just kind of cover a couple of things about the pastor or the elders are calling calling first they are called to lead by example Abigail read the scripture this morning first Peter chapter 5 verses 1 through 4 the Bible calls and Peter was speaking to the church and he's talking to the elders he says he separate the flock Shepherd means to lead them to care for them that means to nurture them and to protect them that particular passage talks about how that they are overseers overseers of the body means that pastors are responsible for overseeing the entire body of Christ that God has assigned to them and Peter says that they're to do it not by compulsion in other words pastors and leaders are not to to pastor with an attitude of oh I have to do this oh this is you know I feel like I have to do it but the idea behind a calling of a pastor is to do it eagerly and to do it joyfully with enthusiasm with a willing spirit the scripture says that means that leaders are to lead and pastors and I'm talking to pastors out there ought to lead with a willing heart pastors are called to be eager to serve God's people it's not a drag it's an honor to serve the people of God there to do it joyfully with enthusiasm and not for dishonest gain in other words any good and reputable pastor is not in this business to try to gain money no pastor that is called of God does it for the money are y'all hearing what I'm saying this morning y'all ready man y'all human I'm saying no pastor does it for the money they do it because they are called by God and they love God's people they are to lead by examples in other words they are to be examples to the flock what we want to see in the flux and the flux in terms of their behavior how they relate and care for one another pastors are to be that passes are to exhibit there to to show how that people are to relate to one another how we ought to deal with one another secondly they are called to watch and protect the flock I said a little bit about this Acts chapter 20 verse 28 through 31 it says therefore take heed to yourself this is Paul talking to some elders he says take heed to yourselves and to the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to Shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood this is Jesus Christ this church listen look listen what the Apostle says he says for I know this that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock also from among yourselves men will rise up listen asserts speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves he talks about kind of a thing that we see too happening in today's churches and particularly in America when people get upset about different things and they speak things that aren't necessarily that nothing that are not necessarily true they're drawing people after their own lusts their own desires the Bible says therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn you every night and day with tears and so passes I have the responsibility to protect the flock where the guard against perverse teaching ungodly teaching I think it's important that any reputable church that any church that is called by God and I really do believe that so they make it a priority to to make sure that the right teaching is preached from the pulpit that's one of the things that I'm very very passionate about as a pastor is to make sure that the information that you're getting is biblical everybody say biblical everybody everybody say biblical come on walk with me so it's about it's about preaching truth and pastors have the responsibility to protect the flock and make sure that they are being exposed to truth passes are called to feed the flock as it says in Acts chapter six verses one through four and this is an example of the Apostles who were in a predicament where there were some there was some dissension that kind of rose up within the body of Christ I kind of read this a little bit in action chapter six verses one through four says now in those days when the number of the disciples were multiplying there arose that complaint against the Hebrews by the Helenus because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution then the twelve summoned the multitude of disciples and said it is not desirable that we should lead the Word of God has served tables no he wasn't demeaning serving table he just said that it's not desirable in other words that's not the primary responsibility of the elder or the Apostle therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom that we may appoint over this business but verse number four we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word of God so so here that now the question is not whether or not the Apostles and the elders could do all those other things it's not an issue of what not a pasta you know the a pastored can help with whether it be set up or whether it's help with different things and areas and ministries other than preaching and teaching and prayer it's not to say they can't but but he was really arguing is that at what expense because their primary responsibilities of a pastor of a church is to feed his people and to make sure that he's praying for them in fact I would say that the more the less the more involved that you see and I say this from a broader perspective I want you to understand and I'll kind of back there with this example but the more you see a pastor or senior pastor that's involved in so many different nuts and bolts of ministry that's the last time he's in the word and praying for the people of God when I was not first God ordained many years ago as a deacon there was a small church it was all about thick maybe like maybe three or four verse deacons and one of the things that we made sure to do was that our pastor would never ever have to worry about doing anything except prayer and been in the word as long as he was communicating with the people praying with the people encouraging the people and teaching the word that was what we wanted him to do so if you become along and he would try to get involved in anything else we would be like no we don't want you doing that it wasn't because he was handicapped it wasn't because he couldn't it's just we knew and understood that his primary responsibility was to pray for the people of God and to minister to them and into their knees in to to make sure that they're there lifting them up to God in prayer this is the primary responsibility of pastors and leaders of their churches and so with that being said I'm gonna cover it I got ten things really kind of nine I'm gonna kind of cover and we'll get you out of here over to a fellowship in here in a few moments and so so I'm going to take these one by one so here's the question how should the flock honor their pastor in their spiritual leader how can we make their job easier and so first point is so we understand we just covered their calling now we're going to talk to the flock and what we can do to help because this is something obviously that is important it comes around it's how many know they're honoring your pastor is not just an october thing it's something that we do all the time is and you understand that here in a moment why that's so very very important so number one the first thing we can do to make our job the job easier for our pastors is the flood is called to obey their spiritual leader says in Hebrews 13:17 obey those who have the rule over you and be submissive for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account and let them do so with joy and not with grief Church to listen to this this is powerful but that would be unprofitable to you so here's what he says he said now be submissive the idea of submission it brings along the context of it naturally brings along the thought that is if we're not always going to be in agreement with your spiritual leader that's why you know you have to submit it everybody in this room knows for example everybody here think differently you looked at things differently if you are your own pastor you would probably do it differently than me if you had the opportunity everybody think and do things differently but what have we said okay everybody get to have their way what will we have chaos right so the idea this word submission comes into play he said be submit be submissive missive in other words you may not want to do it but you do it because you understand that that the pastor has been called to lead he's called in his role and he called us to be submissive to their leadership he said they watch over your souls and we said that here in a moment in other words pastors have to give an account listen to this church not just for themselves pastors have to give an account for how they lead their flock every pastor this call of God will have to give an account to God that's why I say to those passes are there and I think most of us who understand this that that we make sure to treat our congregants with respect with decency and with honor why because they're God's people they're God's people and every pastor will one day have to give an account to God for how you treat it God's people and let me tell you something Pasteur's fear that it brings them into fear because they understand the significance of it and so a lot of times they have to be prayed up they can't pass it just can't respond even like the congregation respond to the pastor the pastor's call to live in a higher way y'all remember Moses right when God told Moses to speak to the rock and Moses got mad because the people got on his nerve and he spent a hit the rock so hard and God said because of that Moses you can't go into the land of promise you can see it but you can't go in there why was that because the responsibility of the leader it's much higher than just those who are who are under that leadership and so pastors have an awesome weight on their shoulders I want you to understand that the Bible says that they were given account and he says this he says let them do it with joy and not grief alright so in other words don't make it hard for your pastor don't have your pastor have to come in and be like oh god I want to deal with this a day because it's just gonna be this it's gonna be that in other words be a member in good standing now that's not to say that you're simply never to challenge something or you're never to ask questions because that would be unhealthy so we want to ask questions and we want to do it the right way but we want to make sure that we're doing it in a way that is respectful how many know that it doesn't benefit the congregation when it's people are rebellious to their senior pastor so make sure that you are being obedient to your spiritual leader number two the another way we can honor our pastor spiritual leader is that we pay them well first Timothy 5:17 through 18 and many of us are familiar with this verse I give you a little bit more context on it says let the elders or the pastors who rule well be counted worthy of double honor now hear this especially those who labor in the word and doctrine for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox while to trace out the grain watch this and the laborer is worthy of his wages now understand something here so the context here is that whenever they had an ox that was trading out grain in the field or in the farm whenever that was happening that they wouldn't muzzle the ox in other words they wouldn't put a muzzle on the oxen because they wanted the Ox to eat why because they wanted a strong healthy ox so the Ox can make sure to trade out their green because they ought to spend hours out there and so what they did was they didn't muzzle the ox that oxygen was also trading the green got to eat some as well how many know that a pass is much more important than an ox and so the context here is that the pasture or you know needs to be well taken care of this is a that's talking about his physical need in other words the Ox you know we want to take care of the Ox and so the context is that the pasture need to be taken care of they shouldn't have to worry about how they're going to eat how they're going to support their families they are worthy of double honor in fact the scripture is saying there that not just respect but double it especially those that labor in the word and in doctrine and the reason why we know this is a reference to wages as it says here that the labourer is worthy of its wages and so that's the context so a church one thing the church can do to to encourage their pastors to make sure that they're well taken care of and I remember some years ago when I was part of another church and the pastor a church is doing really really well now I don't want to say the name of the church because it's being recorded but they the congregation got together and they a centum on an extravagant place and and not only did they send him an extravagant place but they they took up an offer and it was a large larger Church and it gave the pastor a large offering so that they had plenty of money when they win and I just kind of remember that there was some folks that were sitting there and I remember hearing it's like why does the pastor need all that and I just kind of looked at I because I don't understand that way of thinking and I thought to myself really me all after all the pastor's have to go through and watching over your so and caring for you don't you understand that when your past is healthy that that boomerangs back to you that's the way I understood that and so I don't know I didn't understand that way of thinking but the idea behind that church was that we're going to make sure that I pastors are taking care of church that means let me just say this to you when a pastor is is respected and well taken care of it blesses the church let me take it a step further every blessed Church let me say that again every blessed Church that are doing well making disciples and making a difference they honor and they respect their pastors churches that usually get in trouble our churches that don't so I just wanted to to remind us of that number three another way we can honor our passage there are to a be a doer of what is taught one of the things it says in James chapter one verse 22 and 25 it says but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves Church it is nothing that it's more frustrating for any pastor or leader then that the people are being taught the Word of God but they don't apply it it's nothing more frustrating than saying you know Amen but not doing what it's taught and every now and then you hear somebody say a pastor I I know the Word of God says but usually when you hear that you know they've just told you hey they're not going to obey it now think about it from a pastoral standpoint the pastor's responsibility is to preach the Word of God the pastor responsibility is to teach and to articulate God's truth no matter what this is the pastor's responsibility and so when somebody come along and say well I'm not going to obey that or I'm not going to I'm not going to do that then it kind of puts the pastor's kind of like on lockdown because his only Authority is the Word of God are y'all here when I'm saying this morning Church and so so the church one of the ways that you can be an encouragement to your pastor is to when the pastor preachers say pastor my goal is sitting here today it's not only to listen to what to say but to make application I'm going to apply what I learned let me tell you something right now pastors love it when they see their people walking in the truth that they communicate let me tell you something it encourages to pastor tremendously I had a sister gizelle she had to leave literally but earlier but she told me earlier this week she says she says to me she says pastor I just wanted she said I made of a point not to just kind of come to you and say good word but she's I made it a point that when I come to you that I actually say to you how what you taught is impacting my life and and I was like wow I mean that was very very encouraging to me because we've spent a lot of time doing this and so is very important to us that the people of God that they commit to applying what they have been taught furthermore the only way you're gonna grow is through application you don't just you don't grow by just hearing the word they are hearing I'm saying this morning you can come to church every Sunday but and you can hear the word but it won't be until you make application that your life will change fourthly we got to be committed to healthy relationships the Bible says in Ephesians 4:32 and be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you pastors don't want to spend a significant amount of their time trying to resolve conflict in the church the Bible gives us protocol in terms of how we are to resolve conflict I said this so many times it is worth saying here again you're never going to find a perfect church and if you find one they don't join it because you will mess it up there are no such thing as a perfect church every church will have a level of conflict the churches that are most healthy are the ones that understand how to resolve conflict so one of the things that passes are very very discouraged or walking environment where the people are not getting along with each other when you know when they see a lot of brother I don't like the mess but so and so I don't like this and I don't like that and pastors do not like it Kenton can I give you another can I give you some advice do not go to your pastor and gossip about another member in the church let me tell you what because you put the pastor in an awkward position first of all because the pastor's responsibility is to care for the entire flock of God that's the purpose of it so the pastor and he's accountable to God so his job as a pastor is is to make sure that he is a fostering and atmosphere where people are getting along with one another so it's so very very important that we do that and so one of the ways that you can help and encourage your pastor is to work hard at relationships to get along with each other when there's conflict hey go to biblical right go talk to that person directly if that doesn't work then find another brother or sister in the church they look men's brother so-and-so a sister so so we are having problems can you come in and come with us because we need to try to work this out and I'm not saying that pastors shouldn't get involved get there some things that every now and then a passionate need to get involved but a pastor should not be spending a whole lot of time trying to resolve conflict because how many know that conflict is inevitable and it's all over the place and that can consume you so so make sure that you working hard to commit to healthy relationships in the church fifthly a way that you can encourage your pastor your spiritual leader is to invite and bring others to church David taught on they're not consecration week on Thursday and she had as a title harvest and and she referenced the encounter that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman over in GaN John John's Gospel chapter number 4 and there was a woman that had a encounter with Jesus and she was coming to get some water and Jesus began to prophesy to her about her life and tell her whole story about all having a husband she's had when she realized that Jesus was much more than a man that he was something that he was indeed the Christ she got so excited and the Bible says in in the John chapter 4 verse 29 this woman she went out and she said to everybody come see a man who told me all things that I ever did could this be the Christ so this woman taking a page from divers lesson this woman did not teach a deep theological message all this woman did was she had an encounter and she went out enthusiastically and she said hey come see a man who told me everything that I ever did and so because of her enthusiasm when she went out there she invited people people came and people showed up so let me know that the pastor's primary job is according to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 12 is to train and equip the believers to do the work of ministry you can look it up yourself Ephesians chapter 4 verse 12 that's the responsibility you know and unfortunately there's a lot of churches and a lot of us believers sometimes we tend to think is responsibility of the pastor you know to to preach to serve to help out another way in other parts of ministry but also it's the past responsibility to bring the people in pastors you got to do all of that and how many know that the body cannot function that way and that's not the way God is on it pastor it doesn't mean that they are excluded from bringing people it just means that their primary responsibility is to train and equip the body so that they can do the work of ministry so then so one of the ways that you can encourage your pastor is bring others to church invite people on a regular basis and Buddy you can't make them come I get that but you can invite just to invite people to church I'm gonna tell you something right now in church nothing gets a pastor more excited than when you walk up to the pastor's a pastor I want you to meet my friend that works for me I want you to meet my neighbor pastor I want you to meet my coworker I wanted nothing will encourage your pastor more than that so invite people bring people to church with you when you come number six make sure that another way to encourage your pastor is you want to make sure to financially give to the work money related issues is one of the big drivers of stress and pastor ministry pastors are always having a challenge of having the resources they need in order to make sure that God's people are well taken care of from a pastor perspective and I can say this a great service can be upended by a bad financial report and so one of the things that we need to do as much as we can we need to make sure that we're doing our part to give financially to the work of the ministry because it can be very difficult very stressful for a pastor to not only have to worry about that their preaching their teaching and leaning in the ministry but how to come up with the ministry to do ministry and so that a lot of times that weight falls on them and so one of the ways that we can help is is I always say this become a tither number one be a tither I've talked plenty of messages on that and we believe in that here but we encourage you to be a tighter but at the very least do your part and give abundantly to the work of God what that does for you is it gives you a place where you can come you could have a body believers your own church but also it's your way of helping to advance advance God's kingdom and his agenda forward so we want to make sure we're doing that and so make sure that you do your part by giving to God's work number seven and we're almost done number seven is simply one of the ways we can encourage our pastor is to show up everybody says show up just show up just show up let me let me tell you something Bob would say the Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some in other words some people do it he said but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the Day approaching now I mean know that the evil is on the rise if anybody home I mean know the evil is on the rise today more and more and the idea is the more that we see Christ because Christ talked about before you come back he talks about how bad things are going to be things are going from bad to worse in so many different ways and so we ought to be coming together more and more there's nothing worse for a pastor if y'all see listen to me say Amen there's nothing worse than for a pastor to prepare a meal and no one shows up to eat now if if you said to me pastor if I said I'd be at your house today at 4 o'clock and man and let's say we please let's say you we planned this last week and you went out you bought yourself a nice roast and and and if you spent a couple days you marinated that thing and you spent hours cooking and preparing and and and and and then all of a sudden when the time came for me to show up I didn't show up better yet I didn't even give you a call to tell you all we're going to show up how would you feel how do you think a pastor fields where he spends 5 6 15 20 hours laboring in the word because you come expecting a good word and when you don't get it you let the pastor know about it pastor do you do a little bit on the word you expect that then the least that the church can do the flock can do is that when the pastor prepares that you come and eat that you show up let me tell you something church pastors that are passionate about the Word of God spend a whole lot of time doing it a lot of time doing it and no pastor likes preaching to empty seats nope I don't care who he is if a pastor have a church of a thousand and he can visually see that there's five or six empty seats he don't like that he rather see a house feel every seat filled so one of the ways you can encourage your pastor is is to show up just show up and you know the next time we think about you know I'm not their legitimate reason some time to miss church but but that should be an anomaly there shouldn't be the norm and just saying well I'm just you know get into the thing well I'm just I just don't feel like it a day I'm just you know the reality of it is is there's a lot of things that many of us don't feel like doing and but you know what we press the head and we do it anyway many of us don't feel like going to work every day during the week I can man it's like three days a week actually nowadays I'm close to retirement it's like every day is a labor for me to go into that office because I can literally walk and head office and say I'm done because I already earned my retirement and so every day I never feel it my wife Terry is like if I need you going to work today yeah I'm going I'm going today and and I've persevere and I get up and I go because I expect something on the other end of that and so why is it that when we come to the things of God the same God that we said that gave us everything that we have who gave us the job who provides for us daily who we say we worship with all our heart soul and mind and we won't even come to his house to worship Him with his people on Sunday that we that we throw that up for grabs I don't get it we don't throw anything else up a grab but we throw that up for grabs like okay well okay yeah I don't get that I don't understand that it's never been a day and I'm just not I'm gonna speak about myself just for a brief moment but there's never been a Sunday my wife would tell you even on vacation we're thinking about church it's never been a sunny we sit back and say we're gonna do church tomorrow not a sin it is like a fourth unless somebody's half-dead we're coming to the house of God because you know why it's not just about me it's about my brothers it's about my sisters I got to think about that pastor who put in the work who put in the time I want to make sure that I'd be an encouragement to them in their work because I read you the statistics earlier about about the complexity of what it means to be a pastor so one of the ways that you can help with that is you know just show up just just show be just say you know I'm gonna be I'm gonna show up and be an encouragement not just to your pastor but to your brothers and sisters in their body number eight another way you're gonna encourage your pastor is to get involved it features 416 I get to wipe my nice pretty new towel I got I don't even feel like I want to wipe with it because it's so nice but I'm gonna do that thank you so much crystal if he's in chapter 4 verse 16 says from whom the whole body join and knit together by that which every joint supplies look at that the whole body look at this search is joined together and knit and knit together by that which every joint supplies according to the effective effective working by which every part does it share grows causes a growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love so listen to that church so here's how the church grows the church grows by that which everybody uh shares everybody in other words get involved every joint supplies in other words and so the idea here is obviously all of us would give booty to give financially to the work of God and we understand that because he is a giver of all things so we support his ministry that way but we also need to support his ministry our gifts and and our talents and so your pastor needs you to get involved you don't just need you to show up he need you to figure out a way how can I be a help think about this sometimes and I know this and sometimes people will come to church and they will find things that are wrong well you know we need to do this person wasn't nice today at the door we need this we need that we need this we need that did you ever think that maybe that God may be calling you to step in and help with that pastors need their people to get involved Church listen to me don't have a consumer mentality don't come to church with an attitude is I'm just coming to get in mine and I'm out but figure out a way this is for your spiritual growth as well figure out a way to you know what let me figure out a way to get involved I need to help I think you know I don't just want to be a church member but God has called me to this body and part of your calling is to serve the body of Christ serve it so you know so so we don't just come to the church and and just think about okay I just want out but how can you utilize the gifts and talents to help that church advance the kingdom of God because we're all in this together to advance the kingdom of God and so so one of the ways we greatly encourage our pastor is pastors love it when he sees people get involved but peace people coming into church they join and they say you know what pastor how can I help out what do you need and in fact number nine here's the ninth point pastor like it when the people take initiative this you know what pastor I saw did you need such an you know can I help with that if I give me you don't even have to ask just just take some initiative say you know I want to help out I see there's a need here and obviously God has called me here so you know what I'm going to help out if you see your church or your pastors struggling in the ministry hey then help out particularly if you have the ability to be able to do it help out be an encouragement to your pastors out there I want to make sure that you're taken initiative you're getting involved as the scripture says and then finally own it everybody say own it this is the last one own it number 10 own it think about the disciples for a moment I want you to think with me for a moment the disciples had a responsibility the Apostles had a responsibility to spread the message of Jesus Christ Jesus died and he went to be with the father and he left the ministry to them now I would surmise that if their attitude was like this well this is Jesus ministry and you know so what we will try to do what we can do this is his ministry we're just going to try to try to you know help out and do whatever we can how many you believe that we wouldn't be here today their attitude was they own it in other words Jesus gave them the vision y'all see listen say Amen Jesus gave the new vision but they own the vision date they wrapped their arms around the vision as if it was their very own vision that's why they were able to preach the gospel to the degree that you and I are sitting here today hearing about Jesus Christ because they own division I'm always amazed sometimes when when I hear about this and we pastors talking about this a lot of times and how people always come into the church and they want to live their life sort of vicariously through the pastor I'm not talking about giving good advice or or helping with division because every good pastor is humble enough to receive good advice in ways that they can help do things better that's best that's beside the point everybody understand that's what you want you look for that but but when you have people who come in and and you know and they couldn't get their way at wherever they were at so they want to they want to come in and and and they want to kind of give a new direction a new vision well here is what God told me you hear y'all everybody look this way here is what God told me and a lot of times with people what people are really saying is you know I really know I think I know better than the pastor and this is a vision I mean one time lady came to me she says you need to change the verbage you need to change the name you need to change this vision state change at all and I looked at her like you I really I looked there like you are out of your mind but that's but I'm amazed how people come in anything oh you know no no you're not that's not your place your place is not here me man I say this and I say with all humility your place is not to tell the pastor how to lead the ministry that God had assigned to him you won't be given accountable you won't you don't have to give account to God for that that's his job so understand as the people of God we have to understand our place and how we to do that so it's one thing to say pastor can I can I help but it's a whole nother thing to say well pastor let me tell you how to do this that's when you've overstepped your boundaries and that's when a good pastor and love will rebuke you with love because he understand that this is not something that he called upon himself this was given to him by God so watch so when that vision that that pastor has is it's not fully implemented or embraced the whole church suffers because it's you know it's the reason why God called it in the first place and so one of the things that that the flock can do is that that they need to own a vision if they don't know what the vision is get with the past to talk to somebody figure it out we need that we need what is the vision of the house because I whatever I do I want to make sure that I support that vision this own it you know that would greatly encourage a pastor know that the people they embrace their vision they own their vision and they're running with the vision they understand it and everything they're doing they're making sure that this thing is being carried out and this is the way that we can these are ways that we can encourage our pastor so I gave you I gave you 10 things there and I really believe that if you the next time you really think about honoring your pastor and pastor's like to be honored and all that and but but make sure that that you're doing these things because these things have lasting effect these things affect him in ways that that it follows him on a regular basis and so because at the end of the day but every good pastor wants is his flock to be well every good pastor want to see his people advancing and growing every good pastor want to see his people healthy and walking with God and living alive with the sense of purpose that's why pastors do what they do they do it for no other reason they don't do it for monetary reasons they don't do it because it's popular they don't do it because they get a whole lot out of it trust me in fact there's a lot of sacrifice that come with being a pastor a lot of sacrifice and so I believe that if you take a heat to some of the things I said today I think we'll have much more healthier churches as we move forward in the body of Christ amen come on if you received that come on give Jesus a Handclap of praise if you received their word this morning

Channel: FOUNDATION CHURCH

Views: 10,114

Rating: 4.6307693 out of 5

Keywords: honor your leader, honor your pastor, how to honor your pastor, how to honor leadership, how to honor leaders, how to support your leaders, how to support your pastor, pastor appreciation, spiritual leader, honor and support leaders, honor and support pastors, Foundation Church, Foundation Church Stafford VA, pastor Gary Bailey, Gary D. Bailey

Id: KjYfhPJq8jM

Length: 45min 52sec (2752 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 29 2017