Hebrews 13: 7-21
Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Yes you can be offended, as long as we aren’t greedy; God will not leave us. That is what we say to encourage our brothers. God is our constant, although we are fickle and may change. Leadership is found in God’s Church. Everything rises and falls on leadership. This is true in companies, and most especially in the Church. Pastor Chew shared with us what it is like to be the senior pastor of SIB KL. His responsibility is to share the word of God with us. He must also live in character and conduct that we may want to imitate. Lastly, he is to keep watch over all of us.
Sharing the word means that he cannot corrupt or manipulate the word, which means that he must study, research and then present it to us. He doesn’t pander to our whims and fancies, rather he must give us a balanced biblical view. We may not always like it, but so be it.
Hebrews 4:12-13
It’s not just him, it’s the word. It penetrates and it judges and as much as you want to hide from it, it will find you out. Therefore all he can do is preach the word, unadulterated, unashamedly and unapologetically. He has to catch us by the neck and say, “Look here.” And keep our hearts from hardening.
He also has to do more than just drive emotions through speech. For if one is to teach the word, he must make sure that he is worth following.
James 3:1
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Many people fail to see this. Pastors have fallen, their Churches scattered and split. Morally, a good teacher of the word must also lead a good inner life.
He is also to watch over us; not in a Big Brother type of way, but to stay vigilant like a watchman over us. He doesn’t tell us what we want to hear, but what we need to hear. He must be doctrinely pure and morally clean. If he is, then it is our responsibility to submit to him. There are 2,500 ways to run a Church, in a Church with 2,500 members. There are people whom have left the Church because they were not made cell leaders, did not approve of the way there was no Sunday School or just plain didn’t agree with something said by another member. Do not judge leaders for what is inside you.
If you believe your leader is not good enough, he shall humbly release you and pray that you will flourish in another Church.
We ought to be persuaded in a trusting way. After hearing, we are to decide. If you tell a Pastor that you are going to sabotage him with innuendo, lies, slander and gossip – what joy will that bring you? What advantage? And more importantly, whose side are you on? Cover him with love instead and he shall give you a 200% return.
If he has to spend time worrying about your worries about him, where will he find the time to lead as he is ordained to? It is your call to leave the Church, and let our Pastor get on with his job. A Pastor’s plight is not an easy one as there is not perfect place to be. You are either doing something too much or too little, and they will always make mistakes. Will we forgive our Pastors?
Don’t fight your Church with criticisms, build it instead. Intercession for our Christian leaders is a prayer shield we must all take up.
14 November 2010
Special Thanks to Ps Dr Chew Weng Chee
great one