This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida, where Reverend Kevin Labia's our senior pastor. Today's message is part five of a sermon series titled, What is the Church? This sermon is taken from Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17, and is titled, Our Elders. Now here's Kevin with today's message. Well, good morning. It's great to see you. Welcome to Willow Creek Church. If you are a guest this morning, let me invite you. If you've not done so already, to look in your bulletin, there's a stairway portion there. It's white. If you would take the time to fill that out completely, let us know that you were here. The offering plate is going to come across your own a little bit after the sermon this morning. We would love to hear from you that you were here, and be given a way to connect with you in the coming week to welcome you to the church, point you in directions where you can get connected and see Willow Creek Church become your new church home. So if you've not yet attended to that, if you are a guest this morning, please do so. My name is Kevin Labby. I'm the pastor of Willow Creek, and it is my joy and delight to have you here with us this morning. Let's bow our heads. Have a word of prayer before we go into God's word, seeking the ministry of his spirit to shine the light of the gospel into our hearts and in our minds. Let us pray. Our great God and King, we love you. But we know we love you not because of any great thing in us. We love you because you first loved us. And Father, in your rich and lavish mercy, you have not only justified us freely by your grace, you have adopted us into your family. We are now your beloved children. And Father, you did not stop there in adopting us. You committed to us your spirit that we might be sanctified, growing in holiness, taking part of the abundant life that Christ promised and made possible. Father, would you please this morning use your word to sanctify us in our bodies and in our souls that every expression of our humanity would be to your glory more and more every day. And Father, we thank you that the gospel of your son Jesus is not just a private message of individual salvation, rather Father, it is a message by which we are set free to come together and work for your purposes in the world. Lord, we bemoan the condition of our creation as we look around at the world and hear of news in North Korea or in Philadelphia, Father, we would be moved to utter despair if we did not have the hope of the gospel. And Father, I freely confess and maybe my brothers and sisters along with me that I turn aside from that hope and do despair for getting the anchor we have in Christ. Father, remind us this morning that the storm sweeps by and the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever. Father, help us to stand firm in the grace in which we now live. Help us to live lives of repentance, born of love, not of fear, not of guilt, not of condemnation for these are gone, your perfect love has driven them out. Father, help us to come to your word this morning be renewed and refreshed for our private ministries and our public ministries all for your glory. We pray in Jesus name, amen. If you haven't done so already, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be looking at verse 17 this morning. Hebrews 13, verse 17. If you are new to the Christian faith, maybe haven't been in church in a while, let me give you encouragement that if you have a Bible, Hebrews is toward the very end of the Bible. You'll find it toward the close of the New Testament. This is chapter 13, verse 17. These are the words of God. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. Isn't it a great feeling when you know somebody's got your back? You know that you're facing something difficult and you're wondering are you going to be able to endure and then somebody appears from maybe out of nowhere and has your back. They supply what you need in that moment of crisis and through it you endure because someone had your back. You're not alone. Suddenly you're in the council of many good people who love you and care for you. Maybe it's a friend who comes through at an unexpected time. Maybe you're in the hospital. You've received a diagnosis. You don't know how you're going to go on. You're feeling alone and vulnerable. And then you hear the gentle tap at the door. A friend walking through and bringing with them. Hope. It's good to know someone's got your back. Maybe it's a family member. You feel the weight of financial pressure. If you're being backed into a corner the phone calls are coming in. The dead collectors are harassing and then a family member comes through to provide what you need to bridge the gap to move forward. It's good to know somebody's in your corner. Somebody's got your back. Maybe it's an unexpected deliverer. I remember one time flying into Newark, New Jersey. That's a pretty rough town. If you've never been there, if you're from there, my apologies. I seem to be on a run of offending different cities every week. Last week I savage wheeling West Virginia. My apologies. Newark is pretty rough. I went on board a plane that was jam packed. It was full. Every seat was taken. I was just a young guy. It was one of my first earliest flights. I went toward my seat. I saw some big hulking guy in it. And I was perplexed. I didn't see any other seat to sit in. There was a guy there. And I was like, what am I going to do? I was going to say something to this guy. He's probably just going to laugh me off. I was nervous. And so I went to him and I asked him. I said, sir, this is my seat. He said, we'll get you to find another one. Kind of brushed me off. I think he wanted to get off the plane faster when we arrived at our destination. And then before I could react, this big arm went over my shoulder and pointed right at him. It was a woman behind me, pointed right at the guy. I said, get up out of his seat. I turned around. Where did you come from? Who are you? I hugged you. I love you. Chad, you get out of his seat right now. I'm going to come over there. She read him the ride act. He got out of the seat. I actually got some extra peanuts on that flight because of her unexpected deliverers are great things. It's good to have somebody in your corner. One day when I was a kid, my friend Ned and I, we went out to a hill to go sledding. And the hill was called hospital hill. Because when you went sledding down it, you always ended up in the hospital. At least usually it was a ride of passage in my town. In Hamburg, New York, you didn't become a man unless you went sledding in the icicle jaws of hell down hospital hill. Now you Floridians, maybe some of you haven't gone sledding before. I imagine most of you have, but there are wonderful sleds where you can aim yourself and direct yourself. And then there's that flying saucer, that friend of lawyers and attorneys everywhere class action losses, the most dangerous thing you've ever seen in your life. It's a really just a saucer. You sit on it and you go down the hill, any number of directions spinning. Well, Ned and I resolved not only were we going to do hospital hill, we were going to do it on the flying saucer. And somehow the combination of our boyish stupidity and God's providential mercy aligned. And we emerged victorious at the bottom of the hill. We made it. We were men. We had entered into the pantheon. Other guy saw us. We thought this is the greatest day. We went walking home. We were reliving the victory in no sooner where we on cloud nine. Did we see some giants on the horizon. Some older boys coming our way. They were walking toward us and immediately I was filled with no small amount of fear wondering what's this going to mean. No sooner I ascended the lofty heights of greatness where these giants going to reach up, grab me and throw me down to earth. I knew there would be no passing by them without something. Some form of harassment. The question was to a degree would we be harassed? Not would we be? Well, when they approached an arm went up. One of the guys reached up his arm and I went back like a dog that's been beat too much expecting some sort of smiting right there on the roadway. And then Ned stuck up his hand slapped him five. So I looked at Ned. I could believe he was friends with these guys. They started conversing back and forth. People I thought would be enemies. Now we're good. Ned had my back. He knew them. And I was covered. You see Ned was the youngest in a family of 15. He had 12 older brothers and sisters born to the same parents. A huge family. Ned had nephews who were older than him. Figure that out. This family was huge and connected all throughout the town. He was known. And as long as I was with him I was good to go. Fear was gone. I knew Ned. When you're connected, you feel confident. You don't feel as exposed. When you know people have got your back, you can weather almost any storm. When you feel especially vulnerable is when you feel alone and isolated, fragmented. And that's often times where we find ourselves. Even though we might have 900 friends on Facebook, a thousand followers on Twitter, we can go through our days feeling nevertheless very much alone. Now there are sociological reasons for that, philosophical reasons for that. Deep down beneath it all there's a theological reason from that. We are built for communion. We are designed by God to be in fellowship. We are bearers of God's image. And what is God? He's eternally triune, father, son and Holy Spirit in communion, in fellowship, in relationship. We are born in his image. We are designed for relationship. But sin messes all of that up. We've rejected the Lord. We've run away from Him. We've been running ever since. In alienated from God, what do we do? What we need to find other sources of security. Other sources of peace. Other sources of protection. We know that we've offended God. And we doubt that He's got our back. So we need to find our own sources of security. And that leads us on this hurried and harried attempt to shore up our fortunes. What do we look for security if we won't find it in the Lord? In our sinful nature, we look everywhere else. We look in power. We look in prestige. We look in possessions. We think that by amassing those things, we'll make ourselves secure. If our 401K is big enough. If our garage is filled with enough cars. If we've got enough food in the refrigerator, then we can weather any storm. We've got our own back, right? And sometimes we feel good. We achieve that pinnacle. Our financial goals are met. Our relational goals are solid. We got what we think we need. But then a dawning realization happens, doesn't it? No sooner do you get those things, then it dawns on you. Now you've got to keep those things. And then the feverish, hurried and harried attempt to secure what is ironically designed to provide security takes over. And you end on this vicious cycle of never truly knowing peace. Never truly having comfort. Sin frustrates. And our solutions to sin's frustration are faulty. We don't get anywhere for our striving. It's an ironic and vicious cycle. Very few of us, as a result, lead very integrated lives. In our feverish pursuit for power and prestige, possessions, it leads us on many journeys. We take on many different lives in the workplace, in the school, at home, in our family. We're desperately searching in those relationships and those things what God alone can provide. And we gather up all that we can, not realizing, that sometimes those things aren't complimentary. They're actually conflicting. Sometimes our striving at work comes at the expense of the family our work is designed to bless. Sometimes our students, studies at school comes at the expense of the faith that we want them to found their lives upon. In searching and striving, we're oftentimes led to very fragmented and conflicting lives. Now the question for us this morning is how do we get back to wholeness? How can we get back to peace? How can we overcome the effects of sin and its fragmentation to bring back the peace and the purity that should characterize lives in fellowship with God? And the answer not surprisingly is Jesus. Jesus came to earth to reconcile all things to himself, to bring back what's been fragmented and spread apart to unify our lives and bring them back to wholeness. And the first place in which he does that is in the church. He's personally invested in that great work. If you have your Bibles, turn back with me to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John, chapter 10. We're going to look at verse 7 of John, chapter 10. In this chapter, Jesus reveals himself as our good shepherd, the one who desires to protect us, to promote our peace and our purity. The one who, in a word or two, has gone our back. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, I'm the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I'm the door. If anyone enters by me, he'll be saved. And he will go in and out in fine pasture. That is, Jesus is saying, if you will follow me, I will lead you to peace. I'll lead you to wholeness. I'll lead you to purity and protection. I'm the good shepherd. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus' desire for you is protection. Peace, purity, prosperity, and he will spare no expense to realize it. Even the expenditure of his own blood. To reconcile all things to himself, Jesus will lay down his life. And for whom did he lay down his life? It's not for you, the church. And so you, the church, are described in God's word as the first fruits of God's saving work in the world. What God is bringing to the entire world, he's first bringing to the church. So God's desire for us in the church is that we would not lead conflicted lives characterized by insecurity, but we would lead lives that are harmoniously peaceful. Quiet, simple lives. Lives not characterized by that radical and endless, hurried and harried pursuit after idols. We don't need idols. Power and prestige. We can let go of the world because we've taken hold of God in Christ. In the more we take hold of Christ, the more we let go of the world. Now Jesus does not bring that peace in just a moment. There's a process of maturation. There's a process of what the Bible calls sanctification. We need to grow in God's grace. And God has given every provision of His mercy that we would grow in grace. And one of the primary provisions is that to which the writer of Hebrews refers in our verse this morning. The leaders of Christ's church. The shepherds. The elders. We are not to see the shepherds and elders of the church as tyrants or board members. Or any of a million other misconceptions we could hold about them. We are to see them is standing in the place of Christ. In our day and age, ministering albeit imperfectly in his stead. They are his under shepherds. There's only one good shepherd. There's only one shepherd that can do it all and do it perfectly. But he, it is mercy, has raised up in appointed under shepherds for the church. And we are to receive them well. Hebrews 13, verse 17, begins, obey your leaders and submit to them. If you're a no-taker, you might want to write this down. What the writer of Hebrews is pointing us to is the provision of these leaders. As well as the posture we should have toward them. If you read in the book of Hebrews this particular chapter, which you realize is that the writer is preparing for a day in which he, whoever he was, will not be there to guide this particular church. And he's encouraging them in his absence to embrace the leaders that will come after him. In the first generation of the church, they were guided by the apostles. Those leaders that Christ specifically appointed himself, the twelve, and then down Judas adding Matthias and then adding Paul to their number for a total of 13 of those called apostles. When they went home to be with the Lord, they left behind them elders like Timothy and Titus. Those who would lead the church moving forward, the writer of Hebrews is saying, obey those leaders just as you did the apostles appointed by Christ. Because by extension, these elders are appointed by Christ as well. And your posture toward them should be one of obedience and submission. Now for us as Americans, those are fighting words. We don't obey and submit to anybody, right? We're Americans. One of my favorite state motto is the state motto of New Hampshire. I actually have one of their license plates, my brother-in-law bought for me. It says on it, live free or die. I love that. I want to put that on my front door, live free or die. I'm an American to the core. My national hero is Jeremiah Johnson, self-reliance, rugged individualism, submit no bay, forget about it. I remember several years ago, David Letterman had a top ten list on July 4th where he described why the Americans won the Revolutionary War and gave many reasons. But he said of the English, their diet, tea and crumpets, our diet, squirrel and whiskey. Made me laugh then, still makes me laugh now. Americans, obedience and submission, they don't come easy to us. We expect to be heard. We expect everything in life to be a democracy. And we can opt out of it anytime we want. We can succeed anytime we feel like it. And we apply those values in the church to our peril. The church is not a democracy. The church is a monarchy. We have a king. Our king is Jesus, who's our shepherd king. And he's a benevolent king, not a tyrant. He loves the church. And he raises up for the church leaders. And he says to the church through the apostles, submit and obey those leaders. That their work would be a joy. Why? Because as the verse goes on to say, they are tasked by Christ to keep watch over your soul. Now that keeps me awake at night. As a pastor or an elder, you know, one day you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the good shepherd, the shepherd king, and you will give an account of how you cared for the flock entrusted to you, how you shepherded their souls, how you sought to protect them from false perspectives, from false priorities, from the harm of false practices, how you laid down your life as Christ laid down his life for the church. You know, it's interesting the writer of Hebrews says that we should do so with joy, and we should embrace the protection of these shepherds with great joy and make sure that their work is a joy. Now of course, I'm not advocating, nor is the Scripture advocating mindless loyalty to an ecclesiastical hierarchy. When the writer of Hebrews says obey and submit, he's not saying obey and submit to the detriment of God's word, he's presuming that these elders are leading in the pattern of Christ. But that in the book of Acts, when the apostles preached the Berean church, they listened to what the apostles had to say, but even though they were apostles, they didn't just go with that. They checked the scriptures to make sure that what was being taught was in accordance with God's word. I was encouraged this morning at the 9 o'clock service that I said something wrong in my sermon. I committed accidentally a great heresy, and somebody came up to me after the service and said, I'd like to talk to you on something that you said. Apparently, I had referenced the fact that yesterday, I was out with my family on Lake Jessup, and I said that I was on a fan boat, and they corrected me that I was not on a fan boat, I was on an airboat, and they said, you're in Florida now, buddy, it's not a fan boat, it's an airboat, and I was happy for that correction, to be brought back into true sound teaching. Leaders in the church are not infallible, they're imperfect, but if their heart is wrapped around Christ, and if Christ is the good shepherd who super intends even their care, even when they get it wrong, unless it requires gross disobedience to God's word, we need to trust that God is going to work through their leadership to bring about what He desires. Our Christ is big enough to do that. They bear a profound responsibility, and Christ will hold them accountable. He'll hold me accountable. Sometimes we view elders as those who are on a power trip, or those who have low self-esteem and need the stroke of their ego by the church to be exalted into a position of supremacy. What a ridiculous notion that is, and what a destructive thing that is to unleash in your life if you're one of those gents that believes such a thing. Those who become elders will be held at a higher standard. They will receive a harsher judgment, Christ has entrusted to them a profound ministry, and they are worthy of our love and our respect and willingness to take that on. Now the Bible goes on to say that we should make sure that those elders have joy in the exercise of their ministry that we don't wear them down with needless burdens. That's very tempting. Sometimes as a dad, we pile all the kids into the van and we go someplace. We were in the car quite a bit yesterday, and the kids were getting fidgety in the back, and I normally have my wife with me. My wife is such a great broker of peace. As she turns around, she bargains, she mediates, and eventually restores some sanity. She bribes them if she has to, gom, candy, where does she get this stuff in her purse? I have no idea. All sorts of amusements to get us there peacefully. She's very good, but sometimes it's just me. And the kids know, if it's just dad and he's driving, you better be real careful. And one of the things I'll say to them is, look guys, you can keep doing what you're doing and distract me from what I should be doing. And then we can all get hit by a car and we can all end up going to the hospital or even worse. Maybe the morgue. Are you going to pay attention now? And that everybody gets real quiet. It's threatened them with death. That always helps. It's a good parenting tip. But the point is the same. The privilege of being an elder is one of great responsibility and so that they might be focused where they need to focus the writer of Hebrews is saying, make sure you support them. That their work would be a joy and not a burden. Through that, we are blessed. Our lives are led in the truth. We come to share in the perspective of God. And in sharing more and more in the perspective of God through sound teaching and protection spiritually, our priorities become the kingdom's priorities. And if our priorities are more and more aligned to that perspective than our practice of faith falls more and more aligned in our lives, our blessed. That's Christ's pattern for the church and for the elders in leadership. And when that's working well, you don't want to settle for anything less. It is a beautiful thing. When the church loves its elders and respects them and the elders love the church and respect the church, there's a wonderful cycle in synergy that's unleashed in the community. Where every member knows somebody's got their back. You're not alone anymore. You're not alienated. You've crossed over from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son and Christ is super intending your life from the right hand of the Father, interceding for you. He sent the Holy Spirit to watch over you and protect you and the Spirit imparted gifts to the church, one of which the gift of elders to shepherd your soul. Not in a condescending or arrogant posture, but in one of peace and of love for your good, which means the glory of God. Yesterday as we were out on Lake Jessup on the airboat, we went into a little section of tall grass and we saw about 20 or 25 little alligators and wow, they were really cute. At the end of our thing, we actually had a little baby gator on our arm, his mouth taped shut, and he was real soft. He seemed so harmless. And out there you were tempted to think, oh, these are just baby gators. Where are they going to do just nibble on my finger? But the guy on the airboat, he said, look, keep your hands in the boat because wherever those gators are, Mama's close by. And we looked around. We couldn't see her anywhere. Where's Mama Gator? He said, I don't know where she is, but she's here. And you touch one of those kids? You're going to see her real fast. That should be the same in the church. Maybe you don't know where the elders are all the time. Maybe they seem to be in the high grass. But I can tell you, after three months on the job, so to speak, Mama Gator's here. You are loved. And over the next few months together, I think you're going to see more and more, just how much you are loved. And how much these men have committed their lives to the glory of God for your good. And what a joy it is for you to uphold them before the throne as they seek to do the same in your life. This coming week, the charge for all of us, and I want to join you in this, is would you pray for our elders? Would you pray for us as we make big decisions about the future of our ministry together? Would you pray for them that their homes and family life would be characterized by peace, so that out of the wellspring of joy they might minister here and care for the household of God? And would you maybe pray too about your own heart to the elders? Maybe in times past, there were hurts and difficulties. Maybe it's time to let some of those things go. And to move forward, seeking peace and purity in the means that God has appointed. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the gift in the blessing of elders and shepherds who love the sheep. And Father, we thank you that despite their struggles and their foibles, their limitations and their humanity, we have a great and good shepherd who oversees them all and draws straight lines with crooked sticks. Father, help our church to know the joy of Godly leadership and the joy of Godly deference in obedience and submission. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Willow Creek Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org And our phone number is 407-699-82-11.