The sermon, 'Joy In The Dearest Place On Earth' by James Lundquist, is based on Hebrews 13:7-17 and focuses on the roles and responsibilities of church elders and members. Lundquist emphasizes the importance of elders in shepherding the congregation, watching over their souls, and guiding them with spiritual oversight. He highlights the necessity for church members to obey and submit to their leaders, as this submission is an expression of their obedience to Scripture. The sermon discusses the joy that arises from a harmonious church relationship, where elders lead with joy and members follow with trust and confidence. Lundquist also reflects on his personal journey with the church, describing it as the 'dearest place on earth,' a concept inspired by a quote from Spurgeon. The sermon encourages members to see their church as a sanctuary where they grow spiritually and experience the joy of community.

Our sermon text today is taken from Hebrews 13. I will be reading from verses 7 through 17. I am not familiar with Greek grammar, but with all the clarifying and interrupting phrases, Try to keep focused as I try to do my best to read it in a way that actually makes sense. Hebrews 13, starting in verse seven. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him outside the camp bearing His reproach.

For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the One to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account let them do so with joy not with grief for that would be unprofitable for you let's pray heavenly father open our hearts and ears and understanding holy spirit pour yourself out on this place that we may receive the message you have prepared for us through your servant James. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. We are been going through John, we're not in John this morning. A little background to why we're not in John. A little background to this message. I have preached this message before, eight and a half years ago.

So that was actually two months before this church was planted. I went with Jason to a church in Massachusetts area, in the Boston area, that they were planting, and they had asked Jason to come up to teach them to talk to them about elders and church. Jason asked me to come along, and this is a passage that God had used now 15 years ago, then a few years before that, that God had been using on me to show deficiency in myself and my attitude towards my leaders at the time. God is gracious to bring me about and since then this has become a passion and I've talked about it many times to many people in many ways. And so I was able to go up there and help and teach them on this passage on verse 17 of Hebrews 13.

But that was eight and a half years ago. Since then, things have changed. We planted the church a couple months later. We knew this was coming. This is a different congregation.

Lord willing and by His grace, I've matured and now I'm an elder and look at it a little bit different. So although the content is the same, the audience is much different. It's not that I didn't love them, but I love you much more and want to care for you and come not as a member of a church I did before, I'm still a member of a church, but I come in a little bit different this morning. But this is something that has shaped my life and those that have known me for a while, I said in the email before even becoming an elder, before even planting this church knows that this is something, a soapbox maybe I got on a little too much maybe in extended teaching over the days at Hope Baptist even. But that's where some of the history of this is.

This is Also, that's a history, so why now? Well, as we know, I've preached five times in the last 11 weeks, and so it is helpful with all that original study to be able to come to something that I've been looking for a reason to re-preach this anyway, and reframe this, and re-study this, and look at this in today's that day for that. Everything I'm going to say about church members also applies to me. Make sure we realize that. Everything that we say about church members as elders also applies to us.

I have two other elders that I am to obey and submit to as well. Jason has two others he's to obey and submit to. Michael has two others that he's to obey and submit to. So that's a true plurality. Talk a little bit about that later.

That's what a true plurality of elders is. That's a big aspect of it. We obey and submit. So everything I'm going to say also applies to me. The title, Joy in the Dearest Place on Earth.

Well, joy, we get that from our text here. We've talked about joy. I love talking about joy. I've been privileged to preach on it two or three times in different contexts up here. And this is about joy.

Your joy, our joy, in the dearest place on earth. And I get dearest place on earth from a quote from Spurgeon. I'm just going to give you a little piece of it and I'll read the whole quote at the end, but a favorite favorite quote of mine. Give yourself to the church. Imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth.

I recognize we have some people here that aren't members of this church. May this encourage you, though, in the membership of your church, wherever you are, that that would be the dearest place on earth for you, that that would be your favorite church with your favorite elders. The dearest place on earth, right? You can think about other things when you hear me say, well what about my home? What about these other areas which are very dear?

But it's not the same as church. Especially not the same as Sunday morning, Wednesday night, when we gather for teaching, for prayer. We gather with the people of God. We are taught by God. We worship God in a different way than we do in our own families for family worship.

We praise God. We experience and help by God's grace, his kindness, his love, his correction, his forgiveness. It's a place of rest. Especially Sunday should be a place of rest to recover from the week and prepare for the week to come that we don't know what's coming, but God does. He's caring for you through the dearest place on earth.

A place to be encouraging and building one another up. Joyful elders are a key to Sovereign Redeemer Community Church being the dearest place on earth. I have three main points I'm going to go to. I'm going to talk about elders' responsibilities, member's responsibilities, and the effects of elder's watching and member's obedience. Now I recognize, completely recognize, I am taking this out of order as the text gives us.

And I trust I am not disiring the text. That's the last thing a preacher would want to do, is to make anybody think that the text is out of order. It is not. If anything, I'm the one that's out of order. But I don't think so.

I think I want to present it this way just to present just my care for you. There's some hard things to be said here, some hard language to hear, and I want to start off with the elders' responsibilities. So we see in verse 17, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Just briefly here, church membership is implied here. It is implied elders only know who they're accountable for if people have said, we're willing to be accountable to you through church membership.

Unless you've identified that you're willing to be accounted, then we don't know if we're eldering you. We don't know if you're the souls we're watching over. Now, here is a qualification. Nobody, none of your elders, ever has or ever will expect you to become a member like that. If this is going to be your dearest place on earth, if you are going to obey and submit to the elders here or wherever you are to be, That's something not to be taken lightly.

Our covenant is not something to be taken lightly. So it takes time. My family, when we came here, it was probably six to nine months. I'm not saying that's what it needs to be. I'm just using it as an example.

We didn't become members right away, and we moved here to be members of the Hope Baptist. So I'm saying that and there's a little qualification there. So that's just briefly there. That's not the intent of this text but it is something, this is the text we brought up if we were to teach on church membership. Now, elders' responsibilities, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account.

The primary purpose of elders is shepherding. That is our primary purpose as we are told in Scripture. 1 Peter 5, 2, Shepard the flock of God which is among you. Shepard the flock of God which is among you. I'm to shepherd you.

You have examined me, Michael, Jason, voted, decided this is you are the among you. I'm not shepherding Faith Baptist, I'm not shepherding Hope Baptist, I'm not shepherding any other church. Now we're friends and we can counsel. I might preach over at Hope Baptist, right? I've taught over at Hope Baptist as an elder here, but that is those elders caring for them by having somebody else.

When we have, like Mala might be in the pulpit here in about a month or so. When he's here, he's not your shepherd, but your elders have said, hey, we want him to preach to care for you. That's still us shepherding the flock among us. God gives elders to the church to shepherd Jesus' blood-bought bride. I'm coming back to Acts 20.

But to shepherd Jesus, blood, bot, bride. That is weighty. And I recognize that weight. Michael and Jason recognize that weight. I'm going to say I, I, I, am much because I'm speaking, but whenever I say that in context of the elders, please think of Jason and Michael.

We know that's a weighty responsibility, But we're to do it. God tells us to do it. So how are we to shepherd? Shepherding is the umbrella of what this is under. Well, from Acts 6-4, when they were setting up deacons, the Apostle said, we will give ourselves, where we get what the elders are to do, we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

So we are to give of ourselves, to pray for you, to pray with you, to bring your name before the throne of God, so with you and giving ourselves to that and to the ministry of the Word. Serving with Scripture, teaching you Scripture, expository preaching, helping understand the meaning of Scripture, bringing the whole truth of God to bear, to draw you to Christ, to draw you to the throne of grace, to draw you to your great Shepherd, not an under Shepherd. It's not about us. It's about us helping you. And you have a role in that as a body.

We talked about that a couple weeks ago. You have a role in that as a body to draw one another, encourage and build one another up, and draw each other to the truth of scripture as well. But that's two of our roles. And then here in 13, we see another responsibility is to watch out for your souls. To watch out on behalf of your souls, to give spiritual oversight.

So watching is a primary responsibility of your pastors. It's only one verse, but I want you to turn to Acts 20. Turn to Acts 20 because I want you to know where this is in your Bible. I remember a lot where things are, by where it is in my Bible, what page, what column. So it's hard for me to give up this Bible that's falling apart.

My memory is not as good as it used to be, and I remember where things are here but turn to Acts 20 and 28. So this, therefore take heed, now this is Paul, sorry this is this is writing to the Ephesian elders okay So this is directed to the Ephesian elders. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Therefore take heed to yourselves. That take heed, keep watch, pay attention.

So what we're told to do first is watch yourself elders. Watch yourselves first. Be careful. Pay careful attention to your own souls first. If you don't, that's not going to help people.

You can get up here and preach and fake it. I'm sure you can go through the motions. We know that in the last couple of weeks, there are two pastors, or used to be pastors, that aren't Christians anymore, completely denying the faith. Right? In places where churches were built pretty big even.

So God tells us first, take heed to ourselves and then to all the flock. Keep watch over yourselves and then keep watch to all the flock. And to shepherd them, be careful with them and be careful with yourself and their souls because this is Jesus blood-bought bride understand who we are and who we are shepherding now says to watch out for your souls. And I say that watching is a primary responsibility of pastors, so you start going to, they're watching me, and that's uncomfortable. We don't like being watched.

I don't like being watched. You don't want somebody looking over your shoulders when you're working or when you're doing something, right? It makes you nervous. Am I doing it right? Am I typing it right?

All of a sudden everything that you could do just perfectly a moment before, you have problems doing because we don't like being watched. We have cameras everywhere, cameras at intersections, we have cameras on our phones, everything it seems like is being recorded and you almost have to always go around thinking you're being recorded, right? And it's uncomfortable. We don't like being watched, right? Except when we're sinfully wanting to draw attention to ourselves.

We do like it then, right? We like it for people to notice me when I'm doing good, when I'm helping, when I'm serving, when I've done something, even things that we justify in our minds. Hey, who acknowledged me that I obeyed my mom and dad today? Who acknowledged me that I did well at work? Who acknowledged me of just how great I ran the home today?

Right? And it's not saying that you shouldn't be acknowledged and people shouldn't be acknowledging you, but those are kind of the circumstances we like being watched. But in the way God talks about it here, in our general lives, we don't like the idea that people are watching us. It can make us feel uncomfortable, but God says your soul needs the caring, watchful eye of a godly leader. That's what God says.

And so if it's uncomfortable, we need to find a way for it not to be uncomfortable and pray for it not to be uncomfortable. So why your souls? Let me say just watch out for them, right? Just like just sheep, right? We're under shepherds, Just watch them like sheep.

Why does he say your souls? Well, our purpose is really to prepare you for eternity. Prepare you to stand before the Holy God and to live for all eternity. That's our purpose and your soul is eternal. Right?

Now, if Christ was returned right now, our soul and body go, right? But for the last thousands of years, People die and their souls are in heaven, their bodies are in the ground. And someday when Christ returns, they'll catch up. But our souls are with Christ. If we were to die today without Christ returning, your soul, if you're a Christian, If you're a Christian, your soul is instantly with Christ.

You are there, and you know you're in heaven, and you know you're in the presence of God and of your Savior. So we're preparing you to stand before God and for all of eternity. That doesn't mean we're not concerned for the present. It can't mean that we're not concerned for the present. How you're doing in your personal life, how you're doing in your marriage, how you're doing in parenting, how you're doing in your roles, in your work, And whatever it is your hands are to do, all your concerns, your health concerns, your highs, your lows, our concerns are still for those, but especially how they affect you as God completes the work in you and prepares you for eternity.

We want to care for your present, for how it proclaims the gospel to your family and to the world. How you're being used to advance the kingdom. How you're being used to praise God for how you go through your daily life. So we are absolutely concerned for the present, but especially how it helps you as God completes his work in you and prepares you for eternity. Now, watching.

Here's the uncomfortable part. What are we watching for? Please listen carefully and hear one of your pastors on behalf of the others that do love you. And please be persuaded that we'll get to obey, but be persuaded that this is good for you. That God has said it and that this is good for you to have your souls watched over.

Some of the things we watched for. Turn to Hebrews 2. The first 12 chapters of Hebrews, or I should say it the other way, Hebrews 13 is almost like the application of the first 12 chapters. When Gary read, and I had him start in verse 7, I'll mention 7, but I was spending most of my time on, or almost all of it on, on 17. There were a lot of therefours.

All right, but a lot, so many of the therefours were set up in chapters one through 12. It was hard to pick where do I start because here's a therefor, and then you back up there. I think there were three or four there fors in what was read. And you kept backing up, backing up to where was a good place. But Hebrews 1-12 is the application to it.

You can almost think of it as Hebrews 13. But what are we watching for? In Hebrews 2.1, we see that we are to watch for drifting. We are to watch out for your souls for drifting. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away." Now this is written to you, but as it's written to you, it's also written to us to watch out for this.

Are we seeing anything that in our mind that might cause concern that you're drifting. And that would be good for you for us to watch and see and bring it to you if we were concerned. Hebrews 3, turn over to Hebrews 3 verses 12 and 13. We are to be watching for unbelief and deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3, 12 and 13.

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." So we're to watch to see if there is anything that we're concerned about that would make us concerned that, hey, there's unbelief there. You're being deceived by sin in your actions or what you're saying, what you're doing. We're to pay attention to that. This is your Jesus blood-bought bride.

Hebrews 12. There are so many places I want to stop. But go over to Hebrews 12. Let's read 1 and 2. We are to watch for the subtle, continuing influence of remaining sin and its effects on us, especially if it would move us from the faith in Christ alone.

It's very similar to the last one, but this is a little more sneaky of its influence that we're looking for, which also adds to drifting. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. So how do we deal with the continuing influence of remaining sin? How do we help you with that? The exact same way.

We will look to Jesus with you and for you. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for The joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." In working through these things that we are to watch over your soul for, our primary objective is to direct you to Christ as we prepare you for a life with Christ forever. To have you look unto Jesus. Matthew 7, we turn there, but in Matthew 7 we are to watch for the influence of false teachers, wolves, and sheep's clothing. I could have read some from Hebrews 13 as well on this.

Matthew 7, 15, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous Wolves. We're watching to see who's influencing you. And primarily this says here, wolves in sheep's clothing. Who's influencing you? Coming to you, tickling your ear as a Christian, but really they're not helping you.

They are going to encourage you to drift away and influence you away from God towards unbelief. Or maybe not that hard, but they're going to influence you away from the true scripture and take it more lightly than it should be taken. I know I've done this with different people and who's influencing you, preachers who's influencing you. I'm listening for who you're listening to. In one case, one of you was listening to somebody that I had no recollection of.

So I started listening and then was like, hey that's good and encouraged a person to keep listening to them. I'm like, hey thanks, that's somebody that wasn't on my radar but it's somebody at a national level that probably should have been on my radar. Another is music. I've had several discussions about music. I'm not talking about the worldly music, I'm not talking about books, I'm not talking about the worldly books.

Those should be easy. Those are definitely, those lyrics definitely influence you away from God. We can talk about it later what you're listening to or not. We can have a discussion on music. My focus right here is who's influencing you, coming to you really as a wolf in sheep's clothing.

And people know that my family knows. I can ruin a lot of songs that they listen to on the radio and say we won't listen to that. It's not just because their lyrics aren't tight. I can give some people a little forgiveness, but sometimes the lyrics are way too loose to the point of, especially when they attribute things to God that are sinful when you think about the lyric. And be careful of what we're saying.

That may not have been the intent of the writer, but they had plenty of time to think through it and they should have been a lot more careful. But music, talk about music and how it's influenced, the books, who's influencing books in the Christian realm? I know there's a couple times, I know Jason in the past has talked about popular books from the pulpit and said, please get rid of them. We've talked about books that we've even handed out and said, we really made a mistake there. That was wrong.

Please get rid of those. I know I've been in some people's homes and saw a book and knew the writer and knew that they were not a Christian, although they presented themselves and had some heretical things in there, and asked somebody, please throw that away, and they threw it away. I was thankful for it. They didn't know. They didn't know.

That's fine. They didn't know. But that was part of watching. Now, we don't only watch for that. And hopefully that's not what we're watching for the most.

Hopefully what we're watching for the most is evidence of grace in your life. And letting you know about it. You're a Christian. If you're a Christian, if you have believed and trusted in Christ alone for salvation, repented of your sins, believed the gospel in Christ alone, if you're a Christian, you have the indwelling Spirit in you, and He's going to grow you. And there are evidences.

There is growth. And we should be looking for maybe way more to encourage, in order to encourage you, maybe way more be looking for these evidences of fruit, of grace in your life. You need help discerning where God is growing and conforming you. How God is completing his work in you for that day. You're so close to yourself, right?

You live with yourself all the time, even your wife, even your children, that you don't see the micro or even the macro growth at times. Sometimes it's hard because we get so caught up in what God is doing in our lives and all these pressures we have in our family, our work, financial, health, other things going on, all kinds of things, that we can get so depressed, so joyless, because we just start saying there's nothing going right. Will I ever obey? Will there ever be a time when I repent and I look back and I really meant it? Will I ever love these people?

That's where elders watching can be so helpful to you. Because we're not with you every moment of every day. We can be stepping back and we can see the progress at a more macro level. You might come to us and say, guys, I don't think I'm loving. We can go, let me point to this.

We can come to you for observing and say, brother, I'm so encouraged the way you responded to your wife there. Six months ago, you would not have responded in such love and kindness. I want you to know that. Sister, I want you to know that we've observed just how well you have been with your children. Two years ago that wasn't you, but look at the progress you've made.

I give you that kind of encouragement. The elders can be wrong. We have meetings and we talk. We're plurality and we'll talk. We might mention something and somebody else might say, you know what?

Nothing really needs to be said. Do you know their trajectory? Let me talk to you about their trajectory. Nothing really needs to be said. The Holy Spirit is working in them and they're moving.

Let's just continue to pray for them and be joyful with them and encourage them. Or another, I think you got this wrong. I'm closer to that situation than you are, here's what's really going on. And we help one another watch as well and bounce these things off. So we watch for evidence of grace, we watch for evidence of Deeper understanding of the Gospel and of grace.

You need that deeper understanding of the Gospel. You can't move from the Gospel. You are saved by the Gospel. You are saved by Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone. And the more you understand the deep, deep truth of the Gospel and of grace, the more amazed you will be, the more you know of the love of God for you, the more you will love.

And we're looking. We are to watch for those evidences. We're to watch for evidences of you loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and make you aware of it. That's good. Evidence of loving your neighbor.

Evidences of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Evidences of Romans 12 serving and unity as we talked about a couple weeks ago. May that be the weight of what we bring and observe and talk about to encourage and build you up. And may you do that to one another as well. Encourage one another.

Maybe you would be an example of that for you as you encourage and build one another up. When do we watch over your souls? Well, that's anytime we're around you. That's uncomfortable to hear, right? That James or Michael or Jason were in your house.

Oh no, they're watching. They're going to look at my bookshelf. They're going to listen when I'm listening. They're going to do this. So I talked about this preacher.

What's he thinking about and all that right I know it's uncomfortable to hear but that's been happening anyway that's been happening anyway right but we still laugh I will laugh with you joy with you weep with you rejoice with you tell stories with you just everyday life we're not gonna do anything in public either we're gonna care for you we're gonna love you we're gonna be gentle with you. You are Christ's blood-bought bride. You're not mine. You're His. I am His.

I'm a member with you. I'm a sheep with you under Christ. Some key times that we do watch over are Sunday and our teaching. I'm not really watching you right now. I'm talking to you.

I'm trying to explain the scripture to you. I'm not trying to... There's nothing, There's no response that I'm looking for that's going to make me think one way or the other necessarily. I'm not looking for any kind of affirmation that this has taken effect really. But this Sunday is a time to watch over you, especially when we're among you.

When we're among you and we're teaching during times of prayer, specific prayer, public prayer, hospitality, personal care, discipleship, home visits. We would be very active in our watching and caring for your souls everywhere and all the time. And we trust Christ, though. He is the Good Shepherd. I can't watch over your souls 24 hours a day, but the one who ever lives to make intercession for you, He is.

He is. And our prayer is that what we see and observe is right and be careful and careful in what we think. And we do pray for you to be generous with us if we come. We just want your good. We want your good.

And what we see is what we see. And we could be wrong. Our perception could be wrong. But we want the best for you. We're thinking the best of you.

Think the best of us as well. I am often blind. I'm often blind to what's obvious to others. You're often blind to what's obvious to others. But even though faithful elders will watch out for your soul because we love you, we care for you, said you are Jesus blood, bought bride, so precious to him.

Please go ahead and let us know. Although you know we're going to do this, let us know. Hey, pastor, hey, elders, please, I want your observations. Let us know. That's encouraging.

Let us know. And ask us, what evidence of God's grace do you see? I'm struggling. Have you seen evidence of God's grace in this area? I'm struggling.

Help me. Help me see where God has grown me. And maybe we don't know, but we're like, hey, we'll help you watch. We'll help you, we'll help you watch. Now where, ask us where we're observing sin or potential sin or patterns of sin.

As I said, much we will look over because we just trust the Holy Spirit. We know how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. Just trust the Holy Spirit has you on trajectory. He will complete you at the speed He wants to complete it out. It is different for everybody.

The speed in each one of these areas is different. And we're trusting that the Holy Spirit will do it in the right way. We are not the Holy Spirit. We are not the sovereign one that knows the beginning from the end. And so our faith and our trust is in the Holy Spirit that He is bringing along.

But where we think we need to say something, make an observation, we will. I've done this. When God first brought this to my attention through some preaching, it wasn't even at my church at the time in Pennsylvania, it changed me. I went to my elders. They'd never heard anybody ask them this before.

They didn't know how to react. So I'm inviting. Right? It was uncomfortable for both of us at the beginning up there. And I continue to ask and I want the observations of my elders.

These are conversations we love to have. It's also a conversation to have with your spouses. Have them and think the best of one another. Think the best of another husband, wife, ask one another, hey we're the evidence of grace And where do I need to care for you more? Where are your concerns about patterns I have that may not be helpful?

And take it with grace. When you ask, or if somebody brings something, at a minimum, they may be completely wrong, but at a minimum it's their perception. And that's happened to me before where I was confident they were wrong. But I didn't tell them they were wrong. And I have, it wasn't my reaction in the beginning, but I have learned and I have grown not to just, you're wrong.

Let me tell you why you're wrong. No, because that's their perception. And at a minimum, something I have done has led them to that perception. So what I want to do is take a step back, and I want to pray, God, show me what I'm doing. There's something in my countenance.

There's something in my manners, something in my words, that is something I'm doing that is leading them to this perception. So I don't want that perception, because that's not a godly perception. They have it. Or they might be right and I was just blind and I need to come back and thank them. Thank them.

If not, it's something I need to seek forgiveness for maybe even. But let's think the best for one another. So the elders are responsible to shepherd you by watching over your souls. Number two, Let's talk about church members. Church members' responsibility.

Obey those who rule over you and be submissive. These words can seem very hard, very sharp to hear, and you may be very, very uncomfortable with this. You thought you were uncomfortable with us watching, you may be very uncomfortable with this. Obey and submit, right? Obey those who rule over you and be submissive.

There are reasons why we can be very uncomfortable with this language. We're Americans. We are Americans. We are individuals. We have freedom.

We have inalienable rights, God-given rights, to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and our declaration of independence. So we have that ingrained in us in many ways as Americans. As Christians, we know we submit to God. We even know that we're taught about submitting to civil authorities. We know about children obeying and submitting to parents, right, but these can have tough, and especially our American minds, hey, you may have had a bad experience with an authoritative Lordenate over you elder before.

That might be real and affecting your thought on this. You might be also sinfully saying, I reject that. I am not going to obey and submit to authority. I'm not going to submit to the word of God. I'm not.

I don't see it. I don't see it the way it's being taught. I don't think it's as hard as that. I can find a bad translation that will help me soften this and bring that to you, let you know. Or maybe you just haven't studied it, and that's fine.

You just don't know it. But God, you're here. We can talk about it. I can teach on it. But God, the one that gave you fallible leaders is definitely not uncomfortable with this language.

He wrote it. He preserved it. And all the faithful translations we would put up here, four or five of them, are on these lines. I want to be very careful not to weaken the effect of this text. I don't want to qualify it away to where it has no effect.

But there are, we do need to help define our terms here, especially in obey and be submissive. Now those, let's go with the easy one first, those implies is your elders and implies more than one. We've talked a bunch on elders. I'm not here to talk about elders in the office, but everywhere in the New Testament talks about Elders, it's always plural. Leaders, overseers, elders, it's always plural.

And because of verses like 17 here, because of verses like this, a plurality is one, a safeguard for the elders and a safeguard for you, right? To protect you, right? The blood-bought bride of Christ. So these are safeguards having plurality of elders. Now, rule, just leaders that go before you, and obey.

Let's get to these sharp words. Obey. I don't want to take away the intended effect. What God wrote is right. But if you're reading this in Greek, you might come up with some different language to help us with this.

Obey. This is a different Greek obey than what you find in Ephesians 6 for children obey your parents. This is not that. This is not that kind of obedience. This is to be persuaded, to trust, to have confidence in your leaders.

And the submit here is not, it's only used here. This Greek word for submit is only used here. It is not the same Greek word as in Ephesians 5 in the marriage context. So this obey and submit is not the same as parenting and in the marriage context. This is obey those who rule over and be submissive.

It is be persuaded by your leaders and yield to them is what that submissive means. They have confidence in your leaders that they're watching over your soul and yield to them as they do it. Trust your leaders. Trust your elders. Trust your overseers.

Yield to them. Be willing as They teach you that you come in with a willingness to be persuaded by the truth of scripture. That's what this means, but it's still a willingness on your part to obey and be submissive. Our desire is for you first of all to obey and submit to the Chief Shepherd, the Savior, and justify your soul as the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I say that obey and submit, I mean that in the most pointed, sharp term possible.

Obey with no hesitation, completely. Christ is completely authoritative in His word. Submit to him completely, no hesitation. That is the obey. That is a higher obey than what's even in Ephesians 5 and 6.

One commentator says it this way. Our authority, elders' authority, is derived from scripture. But it should not be confused with the authority of scripture. Your obedience to scripture is absolute, right, we talked about a couple weeks, non-negotiable, Non-negotiable or obedience to scripture. Your obedience to scripture is absolute.

Your submission and obedience to pastors is not absolute. However, because of the clear command of Scripture, your obedience and submission to pastors is an expression of your submission to Scripture and not in contradiction and authority of scripture. Jesus says, we've studied a lot in the Upper Room Discord, right, Jesus, if you love me, keep my commands. This is a command. It's not a suggestion.

This is a command. And it demonstrates love in the way you are willing to trust, have confidence in, yield to, obey, and submit to your elders. We want to be faithful under shepherds. And in verse 7, if you look back at verse 7, we want to be remembered like that in verse 7. Remember those who rule over, who have spoken the word of God to you, that we would have a faith that you would want to follow, the outcome of our conduct that you would want to follow.

Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. It's a weighty responsibility and God says a word to give an account for this as well. An account not just for how we have shepherded you, not just how we've watched over your souls, but that comes back, I don't know how that account is going to look or what it means when we're standing beside one another in heaven. You are responsible for your sin. I'm responsible for my sin which includes how I watched over your soul.

Be careful of making this a conditional, too conditional, obedience and submission more than Scripture speaks to. Right away when someone says obey and submit and they're not talking about God, talking about somebody earthly, right away we want to go to the qualifications as much as you agree with scripture. And so we get stuck on that instead of thinking, alright, how can I? We think of the exceptions, we think of the ways out, the loopholes, first of all, which can go through our mind, instead of talking about, okay, how can I? How can I?

Right? So be careful of the conditions that we might put out there more than Scripture speaks to. This gets to what's your default position. What is your bias in obeying and submitting to your elders? You are to have a bias.

And your default position is to follow, believe, trust, have confidence, be persuaded by your elders. I've talked to my family, I've talked to others, it's kind of like this, right? This is the way I was, the way I spoke about it when I was at hope, the way I spoke about it when I was in Pennsylvania and this started coming and making a lot more sense, and I was convicted on it. I'm a church member. When my pastor is talking to me or preaching to me, I'm sitting there with just anticipating being fed, being taught, and I'm just going to soak it in.

I'm trusting them. They're teaching me truth, and I'm going to take it. I'm going to take it and listen to it as it's truth. And if I ever push back in my mind, I'm going to hesitate. Wait a second.

Why did I push back? God, you've given me these leaders. Was it because I'm not being gracious? Am I being too nitpicky because they got a couple words mixed around? But I know they didn't believe that.

And this church is so gracious. I misspeak. Jason misspeaks. Michael misspeaks. And nobody, I think, has ever nitpicked us.

I don't remember anybody ever nitpicking me. He said, James, you said these three words in reverse. Mouth got ahead of my brain. But you're gracious because you know, you've seen our conduct. But it's odd for me to disagree.

And if I'm going to disagree, the first thing I'm not going to do is go to the past. First thing I'm going to do is examine my own for, hey, why am I hesitant to agree with him? Why am I hesitant not to follow what they've set out for the church, the direction of the church? Right? I'm not the elder.

They've been praying and talking about this, doing a lot of things behind the scenes, maybe for a year that I haven't seen, and how they're teaching. But have that default. Our desire is to teach and lead you by the Scriptures. To watch over your souls. And direct the activities of the Church in a way that will declare the praises of God that called us out of darkness to walk in His marvelous light.

That's our desire to lead you to the throne of grace, to lead you to the Gospel, to lead you back to your Savior. Have confidence in Him. As we do this, is your default going to be to question, or to trust and believe? To resist, or be persuaded? As I said, you're such a gracious church to lead.

I was not asked to preach this. I've been looking for a time to do this. This was not Michael and Jason leaving and saying, James, well, we're out of town. Preach this. Now, I wish they were here.

That was my one regret about choosing to do it now. Because they, I am confident, be right there with me. They would amen this. You are a gracious church to lead. It's one thing to listen critically, like a Berean, and compare things to the scripture.

It's another to be a critic, like a movie reviewer. Those that heard me speak about Mrs. Spurgeon knew that, talked about how there were in that time sermon critics, like movie critics, They would write up their critique of sermons and publish them. That's not what we're to be. Not what we're to be.

This is not for roast pastor. In fact, you're to protect your pastors from slander. I've done that in the past. I've just protected Jason. I don't think I've had anything from Michael yet, but I've protected pastors of Hope Baptist.

I protected pastors of our word before, especially once I grasped this. Protect them from slander, or one another mostly. So number two is members are responsible to obey and submit. Number three, the effect. The effect of elders watching and members obeying.

Let them do so with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable for you. The effect is your elders are joyful and you're profited by this. We are here to profit you, to profit you especially to do good for your souls. And grieving and groaning pastors are a disadvantage to you. God is for your advantage.

He says this is for your advantage because He is for you. He loves you. He delights in you as He loves and delights in Christ. And this is Him loving you, saying this is to your advantage, and I am for you. I am for your advantage, and here is something that is for your advantage that I need to draw your attention to.

Because this is not our natural disposition. As I talked about, this is not our natural disposition. We know that true joy can only come through Christ, and Christ brings a seeding joy to his bride, and that's our purpose is to help with this. To draw you to Christ. Draw you to the truth of the scripture, the sufficiency of scripture in all things.

May that be how you find us leading you. There are ways Jesus brings your pastor's joy through your response to godly shepherding. It's not about our feelings. Don't hear that. It's not about our feelings.

We have some thick skin. We've got to have some thick skin. It's not about our feelings. It's joy in your joy, what God does in you. Bring us joy.

I've got three ways your elders have joy in you. How you can affect our joy. Your elders have joy in your knowledge and application of the Bible. You will find joyful elders when you are gaining a knowledge and application of the scriptures. How well do you know the gospel?

How well do you know the knowledge of His grace and mercy? And how well in that in salvation is it affecting you? That's back to Hebrews 12, isn't that? That's back to Hebrews 12. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." John, in 3 John 1 says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

When you read that, he's not talking about physical children. This was a term of endearment he had for his brethren. It will bring, it brings, put it that way, it will bring, it will continue to bring, but it brings joy to us. As you grow in the knowledge and application of the Word of God, it brings joy. It encourages us.

It shows that God is using our teaching or God is growing you as you encourage and build one another up, which gets us to number two. Your pastors have joy in your response to our teaching. How you respond to our teaching, to our leading, brings joy. It demonstrates God at work, not us. It demonstrates God at work in you.

Piper calls it the miracle of preaching when we're talking about preaching. The miracle of preaching. Think about it. That God would use fallible, sinful men. That who knows what's affecting them as they stand in this pulpit of what they've walked in here through this week or maybe even this morning.

That they come and they would say anything about the authoritative, infallible, perfect word of God that would affect you. That would draw anybody to be saved. That would draw marriages to be united and loved one another. That would cause parents to love their children, children to love their parents. That would cause you to be a diligent worker, that would cause you to go out of your way for hospitality, to serve somebody in need in the church, to give money to Turkey, to give of your finances and resources to help somebody in the church.

It says it's the miracle of preaching, that God would use that to affect the souls of the people in the flock. We do expository preaching. We are centered on Scripture to explain the meaning and intent with application. That's expository preaching. And we tend to do what's called sequential expository preaching, a verse at a time.

Today, this is expository preaching. It still is. Even though it's not sequential, it's still expository. But one pastor says, your responsibility is to be an expository listener. We expository preach, you expository listen.

That is listening for the meaning of a passage of scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our personal and corporate lives as Christians. You're to walk in here with the mindset that I'm going to be persuaded. God, persuade me through your word, through whoever's up there today. Persuade me and whoever the elders put up here. Persuade me through what the song leader may read.

Persuade me through the prayers. Persuade me through the recitations. Persuade me through the reading of text. Those aren't your elders doing those things some of the time, but your elders have put them up there and be willing to be persuaded by whoever's up here. And apply the teaching.

Matthew Henry, Christians must submit to be instructed by their ministers and not think themselves too wise, too good, or too great to learn from them. And when they find that pastoral instructions are agreeable to the written word, they must obey them. Get me out of the way. You may not like the way I say it. You may not like the illustration.

You may not like the order of the sermon, the length of the sermon. But if there's something that is said that is truthful, you must obey it with the word of God and look for those things. There is gold somewhere in here, I am trusting there is gold somewhere in here you can nab onto, slash right onto. That's the second way. The third way, your elders have joy in your growth in grace.

We have joy. We have a lot of joy. As we talk about, as we observe, as we even talk with you about how you are growing in grace. You get there through Bible study, reading, listening to teaching, worship, fellowship, prayer. This is how God preserves you against drifting, unbelief, deceitfulness, how He increases fruit and the evidence of grace.

We have joy in your growth and grace and you get that primarily through your Bible, your worship, your fellowship, your prayers and worship Sunday morning. Sunday morning. Come prepared. None of you should ever be surprised what the sermon text is on, what songs we're reading, the recitation text, right, that We send all that out ahead of time. Come prepared to be taught, to be persuaded, to have confidence that you're being taught the word of God.

Make this day also a non-negotiable. Just make it a non-negotiable in your mind. I'm going to be here. It's going to take a lot. Now, I know, especially Jason, I talk quite a bit about what it takes for children not to be here.

It takes quite a bit. Parents have wisdom in that. Each family is different. Each child's constitution is different. But this is a non-negotiable.

It's going to take quite a bit for a child, because if somebody is not here, then it's most likely at least two people aren't here, because I don't care how old they are, they're not staying home alone, especially my daughters. So it affects more. But just make it a non-negotiable. It's in there, it's there. And I have a story I can tell about how God used this with my work recently, where it ended up turning out well because I said, no, it's non-negotiable.

I'm not. I'm not. It's been my case for a long time and I'm not. If for fellowships, stay for the meal discussions. Hey, I owe you more meaningful discussions over the meal.

I do. That's a bad deficiency in me. I owe you more. You should expect more. Utilize me.

Utilize the three elders. Utilize us for those meaningful discussions. It's not a time for us to relax. This is the day. We're here.

We're available. We will be here. Men's study, right? Sundays are non-negotiable. Prayer meeting is probably the second most non-negotiable.

Make that an easy one. Come prepared. I prepared my family either at home or in the car of things to be prayed for. Put on the top of their mind what's going on. Preparing.

I've talked about prayer meetings before. Prayer meeting is not a non-negotiable, but it should be an expectation of your family we're going husbands let me just say this husbands don't let your wife wonder on your way home whether we're going to prayer meeting or not. Have this planned out. Know you're going and let it be odd that you're not going. Let it be odd that you're not going.

Let prayer meeting be a standard. We have lots of prayer meetings where it's jammed. I don't care the size of the house, let it be jammed. People that were here, even at Hope Baptist, when we were meeting in a small apartment, somebody that lived on the seminary thing, We jammed 100 people. We jammed 100 people into, I don't know, 300 square feet, 400 square feet, maybe 500, maybe.

Right? 30, 40 guys in a 10 by 10 room, And the ladies got to be downstairs because there were stairs they could sit on even. Right? And they could sit in the kitchen, the fan room, and it took up all the room. Don't let that be a concern.

You come be jammed if that's the case. Santals were not jammed and it was wonderful, but it was full. Right? Church, you just keep coming. Don't take this as a rebuke.

Hey, keep coming. Keep coming. There's other areas for us to observe and for you, for us to have joy as we see your growth in men's study, women's mentoring men. Of course, make it easy for ladies to go. Special meetings we call once a while.

And we have a joint service coming up with hope here on the 15th, because we can't be in this building. The 15th, come. Don't think of that as a day off. Come. Come.

Don't think of that as a day to go visit another church, even come. Let's worship together with this church we're partnering with for Turkey. Things come up, there are things going on, I get that. But let that be your intention. So those are three ways your elders have joy in your growth and grace.

Be a joy to shepherd. It is profitable and an advantage to you that your pastors are joyful. This can almost be seen as self-serving. This is on the edge of how this is said. You can come across, well that sounds selfish, but we know it's not because God wrote it and commanded you to have this.

And it's for your advantage, for your profit, for your good. And it glorifies God for you to do this for your own advantage. That's your motivation. This is to my advantage. Use that motivation for your advantage.

You have a joyful elder team. You do. You do. Back this up. Talk to Michael and Jason when they get back.

James said this, are you joyful? Are you a joyful elder team? Our joy is from God through you. Through you. We're an elder team that leads and teaches and watches with joy because you are following the leading.

You respond to the teaching. Your souls are being watched. Because of this, we're going to be way more effective at the advancement of the Gospel in you, in your family, in our community, and further out all the way to Turkey. We're sending out a family to Turkey to plant the church based on you. Based on you.

You are an example to a church not yet planted. The Templetons aren't going if it wasn't for you. They're not going because of me and Jason. They're going because of the church and the love and the care and the example and what they will bring and I trust I haven't been to the church in Turkey it'll be a part of for the first couple years right but we're trusting them we're trusting them And I'm sure because of cultural differences, there will be things they learn and examples they'll get there. But right now, this is their example.

You're an example to them of how a church will obey and submit to their leaders that they can teach on, they can lead by example. Having joyful pastors is to your advantage. Joyful leaders will watch more. We're men. We're fallible.

But joyful leaders will watch more, will teach more earnestly, will be more comforting to you, will encourage you more, will pray for you, and will thank God for you. I have three applications. The applications, Number one. Number one I actually get from verse 18. The beginning of verse 18.

The writer of Hebrews says all this and he says pray for us. Pray for us. Pray for your leaders. Pray for us. Jason wrote this in a blog post, I think this last week or two weeks ago.

A prayer for your pastors is a prayer for yourself. A prayer for your pastors is a prayer for yourself. You can apply that in many different ways. A prayer for your wife, men, is a prayer for yourself. A prayer for your husband is a prayer for yourself.

A prayer for your children is a prayer for parents. A prayer for your work, you can apply that in many different ways. But here, pray for us in verse 18. Pray we would have joy because you are a joy to shepherd, because you are growing in grace. Number two, although you are a Joy to Shepherd, it's not coming with a hammer here, you must apply this.

You still must apply this. Not everybody here, I'm not nigh you to think everybody here is in the same boat, thinking about this the exact same way, aren't being, aren't having to see themselves in some way. Although you're a joy to shepherd, you must continue to apply and ask yourself, am I a joy to shepherd? Just like we need to, There's no doubt, trusting your marriage, there's no doubt that you love one another, but you still need to continue working on that and asking for observation and help and care. At work you get observations, children are getting observations, we're asking for help, right?

We still need to continually ask ourselves, where are we deficient? Where are these sin patterns? We're continuing. And this is one of those, hey, am I a joy to shepherd? Have I drifted from being a joy?

Have I drifted from that? Am I a joy to shepherd? You've heard this from me. It's not my original thought. But don't limit the observation of yourself to yourself.

It's part of what God's saying here in His care for you as we watch over your souls. Don't limit the observation of yourself to yourself. Ask your spouse, ask friends, parents, us especially as well. I hope you have found and will find me and us to be comforting, caring, understanding, and to lead you to the Word of God. Our phones are on.

Our phones are on. Come to us. I don't care. Don't worry about, I think James is busy. Thankfully we have Jason, that we bought his hours.

Michael and I completely get it that he's going to be the one that you call first and most because he's the one we bought the hours and is most likely available. But call me any time of day, any time of night, any situation. I'm appreciative of your caring for whatever situations you know of, because we know quite a bit about one another that's going on. But this is the task that I also love, to care and watch over your souls. When I say don't limit the observation of yourself to yourself, may draw your attention to Proverbs 18.1.

This also can apply to membership. A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment. You need help. I need help.

I'm not wise in my own eyes. Any wisdom I have comes from God. And most of that wisdom comes from the help of my elders, and my friends, and my brethren. Number three, last observation, back to where we started. Is Sovereign Redeemer Community Church the dearest place on earth for you?

Is it your favorite church with your favorite pastors? I'm not saying that to puff myself up. I'm talking about how are you thinking about this church, where God cares for you, feeds you, nourishes you, grows you, where we've been through so much. I joke often in my house, and you've heard me joke about moving to the beach. Oh, we're going to move to the beach.

And I was doing that so much. I had to clarify with my family a couple of months back. It ended up not being helpful what I was saying, especially in light of this. I had to clarify with them. Oh yeah, it could be a lot of fun, but I'm not.

I'm not. It's not saying nobody can move. Don't take this illustration as nobody can move. Let me tell you my thoughts. You're welcome to move.

You can transfer your membership to another church. There are churches out there. And if you do that, may that be your favorite church as well. And give yourself to her. I told my family, hey, there's so much here.

Especially as a 52-year-old man came here 12 years ago. There's so much that we've lived life together. I forget how many children, four or five children, have been birthed while here. A lot that we've done together. I'm going, I'm 52 and these years we put up, I can go somewhere else and live for 20 years and not have close to those same experiences.

I'm not giving this up. I'm not. It's the dearest place on earth. So let me read the rest of Spurgeon's quote here. Give yourself to the church.

You that are members of the church have not found it perfect, and I hope that you feel almost glad that you have not. If I had never joined a church till I found one that was perfect, I would never have joined one at all. And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it. Still, and perfect as it is, It is the dearest place on earth to us. All who have first given themselves to the Lord should as speedily as possible also give themselves to the Lord's people.

How else is there to be a church on earth? If it is right for anyone to refrain from membership in the church, it is right for everyone. And then the testimony for God would be lost to the world. The church is not an institution for perfect people, but a sanctuary for sinners saved by grace. Who, though they are saved, are still sinners, and need all the help they can derive from the sympathy and guidance of their fellow believers, of their elders, their pastors.

The church is the nursery for God's weak children where they are nourished and grow strong, is the fold for Christ's sheep, the home for Christ's family." For the members here, I pray that you're able to say that about Sovereign Redeemer Community Church. If you're a member somewhere else, I pray you can say that about that church. Give yourself to it. Throw yourself into it. If you're not a member somewhere, please, please find that church you can give yourself to, whether here or somewhere else.

When I preached this eight and a half years ago, I closed the message with this. This was two months before we planted this church. I close it with this. Here is the prophet I look forward to. Remember, I'm a member, not a deacon, not an elder.

Here's the prophet I look forward to. I am excitedly joining with 100 people to plant Sovereign Redeemer Community Church. Jason's desire is, God willing, to grow old, leading the next generation or two in this church. God willing, I want to grow old. I want to grow old.

And see that day. Day one, Jason, now Jason and Michael, but day one, Jason will become And Sovereign Redeemer, Community Church, my favorite church, The dearest place on earth. Now Michael and I have joined Jason in leading the dearest place on earth to us. God willing, I will grow older joyfully leading you. I will get to see more elders joyfully lead you.

Lord willing, I'll grow old enough, won't be able to elder anymore. Not an age thing, that's more ability, mind, whatever. And I'll be a joy to be shepherded, not shepherding anymore. And be thankful to God for the prophet to your souls today. And especially on that great day.

Let's pray. Our God, you have demonstrated so much love and kindness to us by giving us your Holy Word. The Holy Spirit, you would help men stand up here and try to explain the meaning and intent of your word. God, my prayer is that these people, that we, the elders, love so much, continue to get gold out of these messages. Help us all.

Help us, elders, to watch over your bride, your sheep, with such love and care. Help them to obey and submit, to yield, to be persuaded by us. Help them obey and submit, yield, be persuaded by us. Give us lives that are worth imitating. But Christ, you are the one we are all being conformed to.

Help us to be conformed to you. Thank you for your word. Help us to apply. May this church continue to have so much joy. And may that joy spread for the advancement of your kingdom, your gospel.

Amen.