“Positional Servitude”

Part 2

Ephesians 4:11-16

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Being licensed and ordained is not an automatic qualification of service for an individual who leaves one ministry and joins another.  When a person resigns their membership at one church and joins another, they still need to be tested and approved of before they are placed in a position to serve in a leadership capacity.  Some pastors have discovered the hard way that certain people were not qualified for the positions that they had acquired.  One question that needs to be answered is how did they leave their last church?  Did they formally inform the leader of that ministry that they were resigning from their position there to attend another ministry?  Were they subject to authority while attending the previous ministry or did they leave because they could not get their way?  Do they exhibit arrogance and believe that they are greater than they actually are? 

Many pastors have inherited people problems from other ministries.  It’s important to know whether a ministry actually requires a person to PRODUCE in order to serve in a particular position.  Unfortunately, in some instances, a person may be considered qualified for a position because they have contributed large offerings or have been long time members.

In some cases, pastors may require that their ministers obtain a letter of request if another ministry invites the minister to preach.  The pastor has this stipulation in place in order for the minister to receive permission to preach outside of their local church.  Some may view this as being an unnecessary process because the pastor should not hinder the person from doing the “Lord’s” work.  However, many pastors are experienced in ministry and possess knowledge that can provide protection from unpleasant and negative experiences.  If a ministry or a particular leader is unscrupulous, the minister’s pastor may be aware of this information and intervene so that the minister is not taken advantage of.  But the greatest thing that this process will reveal is whether the minister is accountable to anyone or not.  God doesn’t use A-N-Y-O-N-E who is not accountable to someone else.  God does not expect for members of the body of Christ to function without accountability.  Some people have gotten angry with their pastor because the pastor would not “recognize” their gift and place them in a position, but the pastor recognized that the person lacked humility and their lack of humility disqualified them from being of any service to God.  Every position that God has provided to benefit the body of Christ should be filled by individuals who are humble and possess a good work ethic.  

 

“Positional Servitude”

Part 1

Ephesians 4:11-16

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Many ministry leaders are impotent in their service to God because there are individuals serving in positions they have not been qualified to possess.  Some pastors have become overwhelmed because they have become a one man army instead of an army of one body.  God never intended for one person to do EVERYTHING!

In Exodus 18, Moses’ father-in-law observed as Moses was judging Israel.  After he saw how Moses conducted business, he told Moses, Man you’re going to kill yourself!  Then he wisely instructed Moses to choose capable leaders to judge the small issues and to bring the most difficult issues to Moses.  Some pastors are expected to visit people in the hospital, bury the dead, counsel everyone, conduct weddings, feed the hungry, etc.  One person cannot do E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!  Do you know why deacons were chosen? The deacons were selected to fulfill the day to day responsibilities that would prohibit the Apostles from spending adequate time studying and preaching the word of God.  Many churches have deacons and ministers who are unfruitful and lazy.  The position of deacon and minister are not given so that certain individuals may have specialized seating.  If the person is not functioning in the capacity that the positions require, capable people should be replacing them.  I know that it can be a difficult choice to remove people from leadership positions.  However, if they are not a benefit to the people, they need to be replaced.  One way to determine if an individual is mature in the faith is to observe their response to correction.  If they are not mature in the faith, they may leave.  If they do, that will be one less problem to deal with.

No one obtains spiritual maturity overnight and we ALL need time and opportunity to grow, but there should be a certain amount of growth BEFORE people assume positions.  The Bible teaches us that there should be a testing phase BEFORE people step into various positions.  In Matthew 19, a young man came to Jesus wanting to know how he could obtain eternal life.  Jesus’ response was for him to keep the commandments.  The young man acknowledged that he had observed the commandments all of his life.  Jesus then instructed him to sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor.  The young man had no desire to comply with these instructions and he left.  Guess what Jesus did?  HE LET HIM GO!  Jesus didn’t run after him and try to convince him to stay and He did not change the requirements in order to appease him.  Jesus gave him a choice and the young man chose his possessions. 

Many people in our current culture would call Jesus’ actions hardcore and unloving, but God has standards and He requires us to live up to them.  God is also a just God and the only reason He would require us to relinquish anything is because it doesn’t benefit us in our relationship with Him.  He will replace whatever we have given up with the things He wants us to have. But He wants to be our FIRST choice.  Jesus did not cater to people’s expectations and He doesn’t expect us to compromise His principles either.  If a person cannot support a ministry or pastor without having a title or position, they are not a benefit to that ministry or the kingdom of God, and if they desire to leave, so be it.  Leaders who serve under the leader of a ministry are required by God to support the vision of the leader as they have received it from God.  God expects those who have been chosen for support to do just that:  support.  If a person is unable to support what the leader has instituted, they are no longer qualified to serve in that capacity or they need to relocate to a ministry that they can support.  God will not approve of mutiny or disorder.

 

“Giving Respect to Leaders”

Part 2

Many assume that when a leader is in error, they are within their rights to offer the harshest correction possible.  However, this viewpoint is wrong.  God has LEADERS who are qualified to correct His leaders. 

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, people who were in the palace were probably aware of it.  However, God sent Nathan the prophet to tell David of his sin.  David was willing to receive a rebuke from someone that was selected by God to bring correction.  Do you know who didn’t tell David about his sin?  The chef.  Even though the cook may have been aware of the act that took place and would have been fully correct in calling David’s actions sin, if he had done so, there would have been a vacancy for a chef.  It is not likely that David would have been willing to receive correction from someone who was not in a position to properly correct him. 

God is a God of order and He has His way of handling everything.  Even if a leader is in error or has not been chosen by God to be a leader, they are still a REPRESENTATION of God and should be handled with caution when addressing them.  When David was anointed to be Saul’s successor to the throne and Saul tried to take his life, David simply fled.  He did not duel it out with Saul and kill him even though Saul was in the wrong, and David did not allow anyone else to harm Saul either.  If a leader is in error, and is not living in accordance to God’s Word, we have the option to leave that church and allow God to deal with that leader.  If we stay and disrespect them, God will deal with them and He will deal with us.  His rules are THE rules.  There have been times when two different people have committed similar crimes and the one who committed the smaller crime received a harsher penalty than the one who committed the greater crime.  While that may not seem fair, each individual is being punished for the fact that they have committed a crime.  God is about order.  The reason that we cannot simply break protocol and deal with the issue the way we would prefer is because God only functions in ORDER and a lack of order leads to ANARCHY. 

In the military, many people have worn the rank of Colonel.  Every person did not deserve to wear the rank but each one had to be respected because the person will not always be in a position of leadership but the RANK will always carry AUTHORITY and the AUTHORITY of the position must not be COMPROMISED.  We cannot disrespect leaders because most people lack the ability to distinguish the difference between the PERSON and the POSITION and God does not want us to cause others to diminish the authority of the positions He has created.   There is a difference between Eli the priest and Samuel.

Many of the issues that we face originate from a lack of submission to authority.  A lack of submission to authority is a lack of order in the eyes of God.  God will NEVER dwell where there is a lack of order.  Even though we’re children of God, He will distance Himself from us when we live without order.  He has a standard that He requires us to live by in order for us to please Him and be in right alignment with Him.  It doesn’t matter what place or position we hold in God, we are not exempt from living by His standard.  We will suffer the consequences of our actions until we get in order and do things God’s way! The reason God is such a stickler concerning our respect for leadership is because unless we can properly honor a human leader, we can NEVER properly honor God’s position.  First John 4:20 teaches that we cannot love God in lieu of loving another human. 

1 John 4:20-21

²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

 

“Giving Respect to Leaders”

Part 1

Numbers 12:1-15

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. ² So they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. ³ (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)

⁴ Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!” So the three came out. ⁵ Then the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. ⁶ Then He said,

“Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision;
I speak to him in a dream.
⁷ Not so with My servant Moses;
He is faithful in all My house.
⁸ I speak with him face to face,
Even plainly, and not in dark sayings;
And he sees the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
To speak against My servant Moses?”

⁹ So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed. ¹⁰ And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. ¹¹ So Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. ¹² Please do not let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb!”

¹³ So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “Please heal her, O God, I pray!”

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again.” ¹⁵ So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again.

The pastor may be your parent, sibling, relative, or friend but often times, we do not know how to properly separate the roles.  If the pastor is your close friend, it’s fine to call him “Mike” when the two you are alone or with a small intimate group.  But you should not address him in an informal manner in front of the whole church just to show everyone that the two of you are close enough to refer to one another on a first name basis. 

When people become familiar with a leader they sometimes speak to them or about them in a disrespectful manner because they do not realize how God views the position.  People do not fully understand how God views leadership.  Even if a leader is completely wrong, God never SUPPORTS or PERMITS the disrespect of leaders.  In Acts 23:1-5, Paul mistakenly disrespects the high priest but when it is brought to his attention who the man is, Paul IMMEDIATELY acknowledges his error.  Although this man does not acknowledge Jesus as God and he was completely wrong for instructing someone to assault Paul, God still doesn’t authorize Paul to speak against someone in his position.  God requires that the position of leadership be respected.