Peter's Exhortation to the Elders (And Nola Baptist) part 1

We'll take your Bible and turn back with me to 1 Peter. Like I said earlier, we'll be in 1 Peter chapter 5. I read verses 1 to 5 earlier, but we will cover, we will divide this morning's message. We'll center around verse 1 in the beginning of verse 2. There's a natural transition there in the middle of verse 2. We'll cover the rest of the verses. This will be a part 1 and a part 2. Sometimes I aim to cover a bigger portion of Scripture, but it just works out that way. There is quite a bit that I believe the Lord wants to teach us here in verses 1 to 5, and I want to make sure we get all that He has for us.

Now last Sunday we started our summer series. I'm calling this our summer series, and that is Messages from the Pastors Heart. That's that open-ended series. I've called it a running series that we revisit from time to time. Many of the topics and many of the needs that we have addressed in the future, they are up on the church website. Sometimes people have questions about certain things, how we cover certain subjects, and those are there. I have referred people to those resources in the past to help them, and these messages will be there for us as well for the future and for the days to come.

Now at the conclusion of our message last week, I explained that these messages were a part of what we are calling a monumental summer. This is preparing us for what we believe is a monumental future. As a church, I believe that we have a great future, a monumental future. There are lots of other adjectives that we could use. Last week, Peter's exegetical testimony, I believe that it spoke right to our monumental future. Peter's testimony is my testimony. I explained that to you thoroughly. It's really our testimony individually, and it's our church's testimony.

Our Lord is working through us and in our disappointments, and our Lord is sanctifying us to do grand works through us. And I say this as an encouragement to you, and it definitely is for me. If our Lord Jesus can use old Peter for great things, then he sure can use us. And I'm very thankful for how much we've learned in John 21 and from this apostle Peter. Now question, what is the secret to being used in this manner? Peter's been our example. He was our exegetical testimony. We see how God used him in a great way as the Lord sanctified him. So what is the secret to being used in a grand way, a monumental way, just like Peter?

I believe we can ball that down to one word, and the secret is obedience. Obedience to the work that our Lord wants to do in us. Peter had to be obedient, he had to die to sin, he had to die to self. He had to repent and surrender to the Lord's will for his life. He had to do all of that and more to get to Acts 1. Now what was in Acts 1? We just caught a glimpse of his future, did we not? In Acts 1, verse 14, he became this leader within the believers. And then in Acts 2, it seems like Peter broke out in a grand way. This was a grand work when the Lord poured out his spirit on Pentecost through Peter's preaching.

And I use that language purposely. Peter broke out in a grand way in his future to be used in kingdom work for a glorious way. And I strongly encourage you, if you've not listened to that message, make sure you do so. Because really all of these messages tie together. We can say they're a puzzle, they connect with one another, they're like bricks, they stack on one another, on top of one another. And this just all fits together for our monumental summer and our monumental future. Now last week I explained that John 21 is very personal to me. And our passages before us this morning, these verses are much the same.

I have prayed over these verses many nights, many occasions, many times. John 21 can be called a life chapter for me because it is the chapter that we looked at last week. In 1 Peter verses 1, 2, and 3, specifically those 3 verses can be called life verses for me. These verses pertain to my calling. These verses pertain to my commissioning from the Lord. You can say it like this, my vocation. Now question, this is all part of introducing the message. What is the purpose of this message this morning for the Nola Baptist Church? Three purposes that I see.

First this message will be a reminder, whether we know it or not, we need to be reminded of a lot more than we know. So some of this will be a reminder for some of us. And then also this message could bring about correction. As born again people, we are redeemed, but yet we are still sinful. We can fall into error and sin and not even know it. There could be one who needs correcting even in a way of thinking that maybe hasn't even affected behavior. So we may need a little bit of correcting or either major correction. And then third, this message I believe will prepare us for the future.

I have said many times that a message that you may receive could be for events 4 or 5 even 10 years from now. I have seen that in my own life. That's taught me to be a good steward of what the Lord teaches me so that I can retain it for the future. And I believe this message relates to our monumental summer and our future more than you may know. And I know we are all different and we need this in different ways. So let's move to the title of the message. I'll give you the title and then I'll show you how we'll break down these verses. We have Peter's exhortation to the elders. I think that's obvious, comes right out of the verses.

Peter's exhortation to the elders. And just like last week I'm going to add to this title, I'm going to add to it, change it at the conclusion and that's part of our application. Now simply this morning I want to make two observations. I want us to see who addresses who out of verse 1 and just in the small portion, beginning portion of verse 2, I want us to see what is the concern. Those are really two questions, two observations. Who addresses who? What is the concern here in these verses? Let's go back to our verses, read verses 1 and 2 or the first part of verse 2.

"Therefore," now we see that's a transition, writers transitioning from the previous information, "Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder or co-elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a protector also of the glory that is to be revealed." Verse 2, "Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight." Now that's where we'll stop here this morning. So let's look at our first observation or our first major truth in our outline. Number 1, who addresses who? This comes right out of verse 1, who addresses who? Now the first two can be seen in verse 1 and we see that with this personal pronoun I.

The new American that I'm reading from says, "Therefore I." But a question, who is this I? Now I think most of you would know this is the Apostle Peter. This letter has always been identified with Peter, the Apostle Peter. This is our same Peter that we've been studying so much in John chapter 21. The opening verses of this book state that this is Peter, Peter as the author. He was one of the leaders among the apostles. You know that? Now a question, what is the setting or the background of the letter? It is obvious that the church was facing persecution.

If we study the book, we see that many, many passages within the book tell us that they were facing persecution. And I encourage you to go read the book and see all of the references to their persecution. Now historically, if we know the timeline of the book, this was during the time of the persecution brought on by Emperor Nero, the Roman Emperor Nero. And that was a horrific time for God's people and the church and specifically these people. So Peter, the Apostle Peter, he's writing primarily to encourage the church not to lose hope and to look to Christ during this time. Now there were issues within the letter in the church.

There were doctrines that were dealt with, but persecution was the main issue here. But I want us to see two specifics that come out of this exhortation, these verses. First notice Peter and his position. We need to see Peter and his position. Now to notice his position, we need to notice that Peter does not identify himself as an apostle here at all. He only identifies himself in these verses as an elder. Now he does identify himself as an apostle in chapter 1 verse 1, but he does not do this in chapter 5 verse 1. If we turn a page over, we see that in verse 1 of chapter 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

So we see the difference in chapter 1 verse 1 and in chapter 5 verse 1. But if you understand verse 1, you know there's an allusion to his apostleship at the end of verse 1. What does he say? "I am a witness of the suffering of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed." This speaks to the fact that as an apostle, he had to be a witness of Christ and the resurrection. Now this brings me to ask two questions I believe that will help us. First what is an elder and why does the apostle identify himself as an elder? An elder was a church office commonly mentioned all throughout the New Testament scriptures.

The elders were pastors, they were shepherds, they were overseers of the local congregation. I have taught you that those terms are synonymous for one office. We learned of this office extensively more recently in our study of the Ten Pillars of the Church series. Specifically we covered church leadership very quickly on November the 18th of 2019. And so we understand here the office of the elder. But this leads us to that second question. Why does Peter, this apostle Peter, why does he identify himself as an elder? Simply Peter functioned as an elder in many church settings.

Now if you do some research on the original language here, this phrase that is before you, "fellow elder," is one word in the original. It means simply a fellow elder or a co-elder. And this is accurate in putting it in my own language, but notice what this means. If I can put it in my language. Peter saying, "I come to you as one of you. I come to you as a fellow elder, a co-elder, one just like you." So we see that Peter is getting down on their level. He is identifying with them in their office, in their calling, and in their work in every way. Again, my language, but it's accurate.

He's saying, "I'm coming to you as one of you." But then notice the other elders among us. Go back to the verse. "I exhort the elders among you." Now this is the other who that is involved here. This again, the main truth that I phrased, who is addressing who. This is the other who right here in the verse. These are the elders of the church or the churches. Again, these were the men who pastored the churches, shepherded the churches. They oversaw the local churches. Those who would have received these letters, 1 and 2 Peter. And we see this office in many, many places within the New Testament.

Just 2 or 3 here that will help us see their office. Ephesians 4, verse 11. Paul speaks of the offices that were given and he mentions the office of the elder. What does Paul say? "And he," that's the Lord Jesus, "he gave the apostles," that would have been Peter, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. Those terms describe the elder. And we see Paul writing in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1. What does Paul say? "The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of an overseer, he desires a noble task." This is where Paul begins to get into the qualifications. So we have those who aspire to that office, that position.

And then in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, Paul is instructing the church there at Ephesus, saying he'll never see them again. What does he say? "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, elders, shepherds." Those terms are synonymous to describe that office there. So what are we seeing here in verse 1? Peter does not come to these elders as one who has authority over them. He comes as one of them, fulfilling the same calling. And these other elders, they were the elders of the church of the churches.

If I can use this language, they were the boots on the ground in the local church work. They were doing the day-to-day work. They were working hard. They were preaching. They were teaching. They were counseling. They were helping. They were organizing. They were governing. They were doing all of this work. And Peter, he comes to them and he says, "I'm just like you. I'm doing the same job that you have been doing all these years." And even this one word here, "exhort." Again, I'm reading the New American. I exhort the elders. This speaks to Peter's approach. This word "exhort," it does not denote a stern command.

This is a kind and mild encouragement, a kind exhortation from Peter to these men who were in this office. So we see who is addressing who. And then our second observation, notice what is the concern. What is the concern? I believe that if we read verse 1 and the beginning of verse 2, we'll see that transition. "Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, and a protector also of the glory that is to be revealed." Notice the shift. "Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight." I'm calling this Peter's concern.

Here we see the reason for this particular exhortation or encouragement. He is calling them to their job. That's accurate. He is calling them to their duty. Many Bible commentators on our reference call this a duty. Job is accurate. Duty is accurate. Peter is concerned with their duty, their office, their function. So we see Peter, he is exhorting the elders here in verse 1, and now we see what they are being exhorted to do. Now there are three details I want us to see here. First notice, shepherd the flock. Notice he says to shepherd the flock. What does he say? Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight.

Now with this portion of verse 2, we have two verbs here. Shepherd is a verb and these two words together are exercising oversight. These are the two verbs, the action words here. Now this word shepherd is the main verb of the two. The King James, it uses the word feed. That's accurate. And this verb feed, this verb shepherd, would have reminded the readers of this book of all that earthly shepherds would do as they tended their sheep. That was a common everyday vocation. And with this language, every one of them would have thought about a shepherd tending his sheep.

The shepherd, he would lead them to good posture for food, no matter if it was a small or large flock. Oh, he would keep them near good water. He would protect them from the predators or the thieves. Oh that reminds me of what King David did when he was a shepherd boy. What did he say when he stood or he went to schwaesaw? He said, oh when the lion or the bear came to attack the sheep, my father's sheep, what did he say? I slew them. So a good shepherd protected the sheep from thieves and predators. The shepherd, he would care for the sheep in times of sickness or injury. He would even discipline the sheep when they wandered from the flock.

And see, an earthly shepherd would provide constant care, constant care for his sheep. And this is a picture of what an elder would do for the church. And all of these readers, the original readers, would have known instantly the language used here. But the aim here in these verses are a little more specific. The primary job of the shepherd or the elder is to feed the flock. First Timothy 3 verse 2 reads, it reads that one of the qualifications of an elder is the ability to do what? To teach. That speaks of one of their primary roles. Another primary job of the shepherd is to protect the flock.

I referenced earlier Acts 20 when the Apostle Paul is instructing the church at Ephesus. Paul instructs the elders of the church at Ephesus to protect the church from teachers that would come into the church. He is saying there are those who will rise up among you to devour the flock. We see those two primary jobs of the elder all throughout the New Testament scriptures, especially the epistles. Now this shepherding, it would entail many jobs and these men would have gotten that, but primarily feeding and protecting were their main jobs. But then notice this second verb, oversee the flock. Go back.

Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight. Now this is that second verb, exercising oversight. This speaks to another function of the elder. This comes from the word overseer. This comes from the word bishop. That's translated bishop in different translations. Now it is more than simply overseeing the church. It means to take the office in an official capacity. This carries with it some authority. It carries with it a recognition of that authority as well.

These men were to not only shepherd the church, feed the church, protect the church, but they were to govern the church in spiritual affairs in an official way with authority. And then third, we must not miss this little phrase, do this for the flock of God. All of this, all of these actions and more are for the flock of God. We see that right after the word shepherd. Shepherd the flock of God among you. And it's almost like we can say exercising oversight over the flock of God among you. And we must see this phrase flock of God. Now this term flock of God is one of many, many analogies used to describe the church.

All throughout the New Testament, the church is described as a field. The church is described as an olive tree. It is described as a vine. The church is often called a body or a family, even a building in 1 Timothy. And the church is often called a family. But specifically, we need to see that the church, the people of God are referred to as the flock of God. Now who is this referring to? This speaks to the church or the churches that these particular elders oversaw. It was not uncommon for elders or ministers in that day, even to oversee more than one flock or more than one congregation.

So this would have referred to the sheep of God, the flock of God that these men knew. They knew the names of their people. They knew their faces. They came to their mind. Oh, they knew the families. They knew the husbands. They knew those who were struggling, those who were strong. So this is the flock of God that they were to shepherd and oversee. So what are we seeing here? We have Peter. And Peter is exhorting these elders of these churches to discharge their duty. He is tenderly calling them to work hard in their job. They were to be busy feeding and protecting and even discipling the flock.

They were to do for God's people all that an earthly shepherd would do for his sheep. They were to take their positions of authority in the church and to govern the affairs of the church properly. Now notice what we have here. Occasionally, I will ask you in your mind if you will take a step back and look at big picture. That helps me sometimes. So let's take a step back and let's look at the picture here. We have the Apostle Peter. He is lovingly calling these men to their duty. He is calling them to be faithful in their authoritative position. He is identifying with them as one with them.

But over his shoulders was this apostolic authority because he was the Apostle Peter. And see for these men who were reading this book, there should have been two motivations within their heart. First of all, it should have motivated them that Peter identified with them. What does he say? "I'm one with you. I'm just like you. I've been working just like you. So brother, I know you. I know your struggles. And I'm right in the trenches with you." See that should have motivated them. And then second, yes, Peter's authority over them, it should have motivated them. As an Apostle, he definitely had authority over them.

Thy authority should have made these men perk up, straighten up, and receive any and everything that Peter would say. So these men would have been motivated. Oh, maybe they would have tightened up. They would have straightened up. They would have been called by the power and the work of the Spirit through Peter to be busy and faithful in their jobs. Now with all of that said, I believe we can go back and see this verse a little different. What do we see? Therefore, there's a transition there. Peter had been writing, teaching. He had already been dealing with the persecution they were facing.

Truthfully, when I was preparing my notes, I made a list of the verses that dealt with persecution. There were just too many. This was a struggling church, a persecuted church. And what does he say? "Therefore, I exhort you, the elders, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed. And shepherd the flock of God among you." I believe those words were full of passion. I believe those words were full of love. I believe those words were animated by the Spirit of God.

Yes, some authority, but I believe God used those words, just those verses, to do a great work in these men. Now in the introduction, I mentioned that 1 Peter 5, verses 1, 2, and 3, they can be called some life verses from me. These verses pertain to my calling. I've used another word, my commissioning. They pertain to my commissioning from the Lord. And being that these verses pertain to my calling, they do have a tremendous bearing on us at Nola Baptist Church. In the introduction, I also stated that I saw three purposes for the message. This will be a reminder for some. Oh, it's always a reminder for me.

This could be a correction for some. This will definitely prepare us all for the future. This will serve as the application for the verses, just like in last week's message. I want to make application at the end after we divide the verses, and I'll make application with three questions, just like last week. Now our first question of application. First, personally, how does this apply to me? I am the one that Peter is addressing here. We know that this was addressed to those first readers, those elders that he knew, probably by name. I'm certain by name.

Oh, but God is saw fit that this book has been given throughout the ages in the canon of God. And so Peter, I am the who here that Peter is addressing. And I've been called to this office as an elder. I've been called to this office of pastor and shepherd and overseer. And I have been called to this ministry exactly like these men. I'll try to be faithful with our time, but I'll give you an overview of my journey. I remember faithfully that day when the Lord God called me to vocational ministry. It was in March of 1995. I can show you the exact place if those old bleachers are there in Highland Baptist Church in the gym.

There are a lot of things that were going on in my life at the time. I was busy serving in the life of my local church, Highland Baptist Church. And God moved on me and God called me and He began to call me to vocational ministry. Oh, I prayed for 11 months, not dragging my feet. I wasn't one who ran. Oh, I consulted men of God around me. Went through obstacles and difficulties in my life. And so my call to this ministry started back in 1995 in the gym of Highland Baptist Church, my home church. I'll never forget how God moved to call me to First Baptist Church in Ellisville.

I remember meeting with those men, those people involved in calling me. I remember the verses that the Lord used and how He worked in my heart to call me to First Baptist Church Ellisville. I'll never forget how content and satisfied I was there. I'm very thankful the Lord enabled me and others to build a solid, healthy student ministry there at First Baptist Ellisville. And I had everything that I wanted, everything that I needed. I did not desire to move, but the phone rang one day. And through that phone call and that contact, the Lord moved on me and used specifically John Ford to call me to Brookhaven, to East Haven Baptist Church.

I could tell you about all that the Lord did to call me. And see, that was all part of my call. I can show you and tell you and articulate for you how God began to change my heart. When I was in student ministry, I always served as an associate pastor. I did whatever my pastor needed me to do. And I preached regularly. My pastor called me on a Saturday evening and said, "Chris, I'm sick. I need you to find a sermon and preach in the morning." I did my best to find one. And I'll never forget one day at East Haven Baptist Church when my pastor said to me, "Brother Chris, you don't preach like a youth minister anymore. You preach like a pastor.

A rock in my world." I was being faithful to my call, but my heart was changing. I never knew my pastor listened to what I preached. And that was a part of God changing my heart. Brother Keith is a witness to that. I was praying and seeing God change my heart. And I knew I was being prepared for pastoral ministry. And then I've shared this with you. I shared it last week. I use this phrase, "Then the Lord jerked the rug out from under my feet and the floor out from under the rug." And I spent some four years or so praying and waiting. And God was refining my call. He was changing me. Really, there was a long journey of repentance from me.

I had to repent of a lot of worldly ministry that I did not know was in my heart. And see, that was all working in me, God working in me and preparing me for bringing me to Nola Baptist Church. I can relate to you stories of how I came in 2010 to Nola Baptist Church. Mr. Wesley White called and asked me to come preach. After I preached a couple of times, he came up to me and he said, "I think we were right out by the Magnolia tree." He said, "Can you just keep coming and tell us when you can't come?" I said, "Yes, Mr.

Wesley, I will." But I can tell you about how God worked during that time and how God worked in the people that were here and how God worked in September of 2011 and moved on me to take the position of the pastor and how people affirmed that call. You have affirmed that for seven plus years. You have affirmed that call. You have affirmed that you know that I'm called. You have affirmed that work together. And see, that's all part of God working and calling and putting me here, right here, right where God wants me to be, to be the elder, the shepherd, the pastor that He's called me to be. This pertains to me in a different way.

This pertains to me and the fact that as an elder, I'm exhorted to shepherd the flock. I'm exhorted to be an overseer. That's my duty. That's my job. That's my life's calling. That's what I'm wired to do. That's what I'm supposed to do. That's what I want to do. I was sharing with one of men of the church even this weekend. I want to be better at doing that job. Never perfect, no. I remember back in 2011, that week when I was praying fervently, whether or not He wanted me to take the church. I'd been praying for almost a year. The Spirit of God really burdened my heart to preach and to pray and to plan carefully.

And all through these years, my primary job has been to preach and to teach and to plan carefully. And I'm very thankful that the ministries and the programs that we've developed have been word-centered and Christ-centered, and they've not been dominated by entertainments and all of this stuff that so many people think that they have to have. I'll give you an example. It's always been on my heart to pour into the hearts and lives of our young people, but every single time we meet together, we might have food, we might have fellowship, but we always open God's Word. Because no matter what we do, we're going to be word-centered.

In our programming, we've worked hard to do it right and to be gospel-centered, Christ-centered, and word-centered. And I've worked hard to exercise the oversight that God's given me. Not perfect, oh with flaws, because I'm a redeemed sinner like you, but that's my job. That's how this applies to me. I'm the who in these verses. The who. I'm a part of these elders. And then the second question, how does this apply to you? How does this apply to you? There could be one here this morning. You need to see that elder leadership is biblical. It's thoroughly, thoroughly biblical. This is a biblical office.

This function, the function of the elder, the overseer, the shepherd, the pastor, all of this is biblical. There's verse after verse after verse that back up this position and the calling and the duty of overseeing and governing the work of the church. I've been very faithful to explain to you that that's Brother Keith and I's function. Function is elders. But yet we do believe in what's called congregational leadership. Whether you know it or not, we are all congregational. You know, I don't know if you know it, but within churches there's debates about what style of leadership.

I was talking with a minister friend of mine, and he made this interesting comment. He said, "Whether you know it or not, all churches are congregationally led." I listened, and he said, "Chris, if I stand up to preach and everybody gets up and walks out of my church, then the congregation is just led." It's true. But what am I showing you? We believe in elder leadership, but yet we will see more and more in the future. The congregation, the members of the church participate when future governing documents are brought before the church.

Oh, you'll participate when we do bring in other elders and deacons because that day will come when we deal more with budgeting future decisions. What am I trying to show you? How this applies to you. But in still dealing with this question of how does this apply to you, I want to ask you to write down three words. First of all, I want to ask you to write down the word "trust." Trust. You know this word "trust" can be a difficult thing. Some of us trust easily. Some of us, it's really hard to give people our trust. I never forget the times when I was a layman in the life of Highland Baptist Church.

When I would see Brother Dennis, my pastor that I loved dearly, I'd see him make decisions that I did not understand. I would see him make mistakes. They were obvious mistakes. But I watched him faithfully, diligently work hard to be the pastor that God wanted him to be. And I can explain to you the process whereby I began to trust my pastor. I knew he was a man of God. I loved him and I put my trust in him. And then the second word I want to bring to you, this word "service." This word "service." I'm so thankful to see how many of you, more and more of you are stepping up to serve.

I'm thankful for the times you come to me or come to Brother Keith and say, "I want to serve. I'll do. I'll work." You know, from time to time I hear things that you do that I'm not supposed to hear about. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for the times when I see things done and no one asks you to do it. See as God begins to work in our lives and we begin to trust the work of the ministry and the leaders that God has put before us, oh then we begin to put our hearts in our lives and we begin to serve and we begin to work and we do it because we want to do it. We do it because we love the church.

And lately I have been very, very blessed to have more and more men say, "I'll serve. I'll do. Tell me what to do." But then this other word that I have really been pondering over and praying over a lot lately, I'd ask you to write down or turn to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. The writer of Hebrews is dealing with a congregation here. What does he say? "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you." Now I'll be honest with you, a lot of people would grab a hold to that first part, obey your leaders. Oh, and then they just get behind a bully pulpit without. And what do they say? You obey me. You obey... That's not the part that grips my heart and keeps me up at night. When I wake up at four in the morning, this is the part of the verse that I remember, "For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account." Now what's the third word? Submission. Submission. Now I don't use these words arrogantly.

In the life of the church, I had to learn to trust my pastor and I had to serve and pour my life and I had to submit myself to the work. And all along the way in pastoral ministry and serving on church staff, I always submitted to my pastor. Oh, sharing my heart. Oh, going to their home. Oh, praying and wanting to be right with God. But always submitting to the work when it was biblical, when it was right, and when it was true. Now the third question, how does this apply to Nola Baptist Church in our future? The future of Nola Baptist Church depends on godly leaders. Listen, folks, you better write that down.

The future of Nola Baptist Church depends on godly leaders. The ship sails or the ship sinks on solid elder leadership. I have biblical proof of that statement. I was talking with some of the men of the church dealing with some issues and I looked at them and I said this, when I look at the churches there at Revelation, the seven churches, two of those churches did not receive a rebuke or correction, five did. And what did the Lord say? He said to the church at Ephesus, "If you don't do what I say, I'll come remove my lampstand." See, the lampstand was a symbol of the Holy Spirit. What did He say?

"If you don't do what I say, I'll come remove my presence." So what does that mean? You can meet, you can assemble, you can sing, you can do all that you say you're going to do and I won't be there. But at the beginning of every one of those letters He says to the angel of the church. That's the messenger, that's the pastor. And I don't say that arrogantly. No, that comes with great responsibility. That comes with a great burden. And listen, you better be called of God to do this work because if you're not called of God, you'll shipwreck the church.

So the future of Nola Baptist Church depends on godly leaders, godly men who are called by God. And our future, there will be days, I'm afraid to say, where some or some group will outwardly challenge the leadership of Nola. If you've not had that, I'm thankful. I'll never forget one of the churches that I served. I watched a group of men challenge the leadership and erode the leadership and worked hard to topple the leadership. I'll never forget my home church days. I watched man after man, group after group. It was just like a war attacking the pastor and attacking the leadership.

We see this in the scriptures because in Acts chapter 20 verse, what is Paul saying to the Ephesian church? He's saying to those elders, do your job well. Why? Because that day will come when false teachers will rise up among you. Now I'm not acting like a prophet and saying what will happen, but in our future, chances are they will be people who are outwardly challenged. Leadership of the day. Leadership of the church. Now when that day comes, it'll test us. It'll test you. It'll test me. And it'll prove us for who we're going to be as a people, as a church. But it always makes us better because the Lord is always about building his church.

Now at the beginning of the message, I said that I would add to the title or alter the title. Here's the alternate version of the title. I gave you Peter's exhortation to the elders. You can alter Peter's exhortation to me. Peter's exhortation to Brother Keith. And I believe it's Peter's exhortation to us. Because this applies to all. I believe this is an exhortation to us, for all of us to be faithful to this office, to this work, and everything that it entails. Now last Sunday I said that the message from this series, the messages in this series, were going to be monumental message dealing with a monumental summer and a monumental future.

Some of you might not know where that comes from. I shared with you last Sunday that I listened to a message that Brother Keith preached back in Joshua about a year ago called monumental worship. We've discussed it many times in the last couple of weeks. Now if we look at a brief summary of what took place there, it was when Moses was turning over the leadership to Joshua. Joshua was taking over the leadership of the people. They were crossing over and they were going into the Promised Land. And what did they do? They took 12 stones out of the bottom of the river and they were monuments to the work of God.

Now question, what does this language monumental worship mean? See they looked back and they looked at those monument stones and they worshiped the Lord for what God has done in the past. And those stones meant something for them. Now listen to your pastor. Nola Baptist Church must have monumental ministers, monumental elders, monumental leaders. I'm going to share a little more of my own testimony. I'm going to make a little more application. I'll mention to you how God called me in 1995 in the Gem of Highland Baptist Church. I'll never forget the prayer I prayed. I had struggled over what God wanted me to do in my life.

I had gotten saved quite a few years earlier. I didn't know what the Lord wanted me to do. I was very frustrated. And in prayer, as best I knew how, I said, "Lord, I've been average so much and I don't want to be average in your work. I want to do it right." And all these years I've worked hard to do it right. And that's my prayer here today. That's still my heart here today as I stand before you. Now we've seen a lot of change in the ministry of Nola Baptist Church. We've grown immensely, young people, children, families. I've had seven plus years here of bivocational ministry working hard at two or three jobs. You being patient with me.

And that's all been a part of the work of God growing His church. And I'm very thankful that through the Anchored and Truth partnership, there have been many changes in the life of our church as men have stepped in to lead in some wonderful, wonderful ways. And many of you know and some of you don't know, but I've had the opportunity to be full time here, at least for a year. This is all part of the work that God's doing here. And I believe with all my heart is for that monumental future. And I want to be the elder. Peter's calling these men to be, but God wants me to be. Now as your pastor, I ask you to do a few things. First of all, pray.

First of all, pray. Pray that the Lord will work. Pray for us. I need your prayer more than anyone in this room. And the Keith needs your prayer because we want to do this work right. And all I know many of you are serving, serve and serve the work of the church. And pray and ask the Lord to open up your eyes to the work that is before us. Ask the Lord to give you vision and faith to see the work of the church. That's been one of the wonderful things to see going in the life and the heart of some of the men in our church. The Lord is really just turning on light bulbs for people.

And men are seeing, people are seeing the possibilities that He has for us. So what are we seeing this morning? Peter's exhortation to the elders. Peter's exhortation to me. Peter's exhortation to Brother Keith. But I believe Peter's exhortation to us. Now how will this continue? Sunday we'll pick up, right where Peter, transitions to begin to identify the type of men they will be. And that's when it will get real personal for me and Brother Keith. Let's pray. And then we'll...