Eroded Scheduling

Opening Prayer and Review of Previous Warnings

0:00 The following address was delivered at the 7th Annual Trinity Pastors Conference held at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:10 Now let us again seek the face of God and ask the Lord's help for our time together in this hour.

0:19 Our Father, we are deeply grateful for the pervasive sense of your presence with us and your grace upon us in these days. We confess that we are both thankful and humbled whenever you are pleased to draw near to us and to give us some measure of grace to taste and to feel spiritual realities. And we therefore plead that this day will be no exception to that blessed reality. We thank you as a loving Father.

1:02 You know our frame. You remember that we are dust. You know that days such as these of sustained, concentrated mental and spiritual discipline and exercise of heart take their toll upon our frail humanity. And we beg of you that you would give to us unusual measures of mental and spiritual and emotional alertness and quickening.

1:31 Not, O Lord, that we may, simply feel and enjoy spiritual realities, but, O God, that we may grasp them and absorb them and, by your Spirit's grace, hide them in our hearts against the days to come. Send then your Spirit and fulfill your promise that they who wait upon you shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall rise, run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Lord, we believe that promise comes sealed to us in the blood of your beloved Son, and we hold it up before you. Make it good. In our midst today we pray for the sake and honor of the Lord Jesus. We ask in his name.

2:28 Amen. Excuse me, Jeff. Would you mind performing the role of a deacon for me? I'm getting some water.

2:41 Thank you. Now, as you men know, I began my treatment of the subject, warnings to avoid ministerial backsliding and ministerial burnout, with what I trust you acknowledged by your nodding heads and by your murmured mmms, seeking to describe the recognizable symptoms of these two major ministerial maladies, namely backsliding and burnout. And then we proceeded to address these issues, particularly in terms of what in my observation and in my reading of those who've addressed these concerns are some of the major causes of this burnout and of this backsliding and giving admonitions, hopefully, that under God would, constitute both therapeutic and preventive medicine. And yesterday we covered four of these warnings or admonitions. I exhorted you to beware of allowing the demands of official ministerial duties to erode the disciplines of the devotional nurture of your own soul.

4:03 Secondly, beware of thinking that the performance of specific ministerial duties warrants the negation, suspension, or dilution of generic Christian duties. God made no man a pastor with the view that he should be less of a Christian. And then thirdly, beware of trading off a good conscience before God for proven giftedness and apparent usefulness by God. You'll notice I changed the wording a little bit.

4:39 The word apparent really does not apply so much to giftedness as it does to usefulness. Beware of trading off a good conscience before God for proven giftedness and apparent usefulness by God. Brethren, we must ever remember that no man ever entered heaven because he could preach and rule in Christ's church or because he was eminently useful in those tasks within the church. Rather, all who enter heaven will do so because they are regenerate, justified, sanctified, holy men.

5:20 And then the final admonition brought before you was to beware, thank you Jeff, beware of allowing your position and duties of the ministry to isolate you from the church. From the nurture of the body of Christ. You should have a relationship within your own local assembly regardless of whatever other relationships you may sustain outside of the assembly in which you have real accountability, real meaningful interaction with the flock of God and real friends among the flock of God. Now this morning we proceed.

The Fifth Warning: Don't Let Perceived Needs Dictate Your Time

6:04 We proceed to take up the remaining warnings which I trust if heeded will be used both as corrective and preventive medicine. So my fifth admonition, and this is the one that grew out of the council received from one of my fellow elders earlier this morning. Beware of allowing the use of your time and the proportions of your pastoral labors. Beware of allowing the use of your time and the proportions of your pastoral labors.

6:35 If you do using them. Of the proper translation of that is beware of relief your time and the proportions of your pastoral labors to be

6:46 dictated by the perceived needs of your people.

The Problem: Erosion of Common Grace and the Need for 'Reparenting'

6:53 Beware of allowing the use of your time and the proportions of your pastoral labors to be dictated by the perceived needs of your people that is their needs and they perceive them now let me first of all describe the situation I have in mind and then secondly seek to give the biblical and practical antidote if under God you develop any kind of relationship to your people that to any degree approximates the biblical standard of the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep then it will not be long before you will have a ministry of what has come to be called pastoral counseling I rather use the term individual pastoral care that would in many situations if it could totally absorb all of your time now this is a peculiarly intensified problem in the light of the generation in which we live

8:10 with the tremendous breakdown of the nuclear family since World War 2 and with all of the other indications of the erosion of common grace operative in such things as the public school system in the general climate of society whether it comes to expression on the ball field of some young man that's involved in sports in which he's deified because he can carry on the ball field of some young man that's involved in sports in which he's deified because he can carry a ball well or kick a ball well and teachers are dishonest with respect to rewards expressed in grades etc all the way through every fabric of society there has been a general erosion of common grace and then there has been this concentrated erosion of the nuclear family functioning with some degree of normalcy according to biblical norms where there is strong male leadership where there is genuine femininity and domesticity in the wife and the mother and where there is a commitment to the bearing of sufficient children that children are brought up in a climate in which they learn many of the dynamics of interpersonal relationships under the strict scrutiny

9:34 of an assertive father and a supportive mother now I can look back in the into the late 30s and early 40s in my early childhood in Connecticut up and down a block that was like a little United Nations we had a little Italy we had a little Ireland we had a little Poland and we had one apartment dwelling where the prominent member was a very very pronounced Scott who was proud of his Scottish accent and of his Scottish background and yet though there were no Christians in any of those countries where there was no religion or any of those families to our knowledge with perhaps one exception there was at least the semblance of a structure of family life such as I've just described and that meant that within all of those families there was in common grace a climate in our neighborhood that put tremendous restraints upon us all of the parents assumed that the other parents would be honest about the conduct of their children if deserved under the eye of someone else's parents so if Mrs Yates the Irish woman across the street told my parents that I had beat up her sonny or if I had used some cursed words my parents

10:55 assumed her allegations were true and they called a family court and by one means or another extorted the truth out of me and I was there by usually disciplined for trying to avoid truth and discipline for the truth that's the way it was and if the shopkeeper who owned the local grocery store where we used to have to take our little black coupons during the war to get a pound of sugar some of you don't know what that world is do you well that's the world in which i was brought up if he said to one of the parents hey your kid was trying to lift some of the candy from the candy rack parents assumed he was honest because he assumed you were honest he gave you food on credit assuming you would pay it and the people in the neighborhood did pay it now that's the world in which i lived and grew up and that was not something unusual that was middle america if i may use that term well with the erosion of those dimensions of common grace and family structure those whom the lord is pleased to save out of the of the present society and present generation come to us not only with all of the fundamental needs that

12:16 have to do with spiritual nurture they are babes in knowledge babes in experience babes in matters pertaining to the things of god but they come to us desperately in need of being reparented from the diaper stage upward they've not been taught fiscal responsibility they've not been taught the judicious use of time they've not been taught respect for authority all of the things that god has ordained should be taught in a home where there is an assertive strong dominant male head as father and husband and a supportive feminine domestic woman acting as wife and mother and the chemistry of sibling interaction where social graces and the ability to relate to others the chemistry is taught people come to us with little if any of that input that is fundamentally parental and domestic and when god by his spirit regenerates them and they repent and believe and in the complex of conversion are given the spirit of adoption and are united in the spirit of adoption and are united to him to christ

13:39 god does not have a special packet of all of those graces and disciplines and perspectives which he stuff into their psyche upon their conversion it just does not happen and while he brings a packet of motivation and of desire and of aspiration he does not heена brother and sister brother and sister brother and sister brother and sister Bring the packet of those graces cultivated. So what happens? We end up not only having to be pastors, giving ourselves to those broad categories of pastoral responsibility clearly outlined in the Word of God, but these people expect us to be their fathers as well.

14:35 And in many situations, it is proper that we should give a modicum of fatherly directive. But what happens is, now that their hearts have embraced biblical norms, which involves loving constituted authority for the benefits that come from it, they latch on and identify with us as a kind of surrogate father and can begin to...

15:07 to expect and even subtly and sometimes not so subtly demand that we give them a personal private course in parenting them that would in essence be as though we had them from diapers to adulthood. And when that happens, one can begin to be utterly inundated with the pressures of individual pastoral care and...

The Consequence: Guilt, Depression, and Burnout

15:38 which derive from this need for parenting as well as for pastoring. And if we allow then the perceived needs of our people to dictate the apportionment of our time in ministerial labor, it will not be long before we're going to be burned out or backslidden because we're going to be kicking, between a guilty conscience that we're not really spending the time in sermon preparation we ought, to be confident that when we stand to preach we're cutting a straight course in the word of truth, or we know we're not doing the kind of general reading that's going to keep our minds fresh and healthy and in good general overall resilience so that when we come to specific ministerial preparation, we're going to be in a position of self-discipline, our mental faculties are in their best shape, and so we go around with a guilty conscience that we're failing in this explicit responsibility to preach the word, to cut a straight course in the word of truth, to feed the flock of God, or on the other hand, seeking to preserve that, we end up with a guilty conscience that here are bleating sheep with desperate needs,

17:06 limping and halting, limping and halting, limping and halting, in fundamental areas of being able to function to the glory of God. They don't know how to sort out authoritative, dominant male leadership yet exercised in a context of tenderness, vulnerability, and patent lovingness. They've never seen that. They don't know what it is.

17:33 They don't know how to exercise it. And so they're crying out for help in this area, crying out for a biblical perspective on a wholesome career ambition. They came through the hippie stage in which materialism and things and anything but getting high and protesting was part of the wretched system that we want to kick in the shins. Of course, while dad pays the bill, while we kick him in the shins.

18:03 But to the whole idea, you see, that there is a biblical doctrine of holiness, of holy ambition, and of sanctified desire for excellence. And that has to be poured in. And we're not able to respond to all those needs and we feel guilty. I'm not meeting the needs of the sheep.

18:19 So in order to get rid of the guilt of that, what do we do? We start spending more time with them and then we get the guilt that we're not doing this. And then after a while, that double guilt leads to depression, doubting the validity of our call, wondering if we're really in the right place. Am I scratching my head?

18:38 Am I scratching anybody where he itches? Yay or nay? Now, what has happened? Well, in many cases, though it would be overly simplistic to say in all cases, in many cases, we have allowed the use of our time and the proportion of our pastoral labors, and I might even add to that, because I'm thinking with you on this matter, the proportion of our pastoral labors and our own self-expectations, of pastoral labor, to be dictated by the perceived needs of our people.

19:18 Now, what's the biblical antidote to both the backsliding, the guilty conscience, the burnout in which we're so busy meeting all these needs that people are crying for us to meet, that we have burnout or actual breakdown? And I think of a case right now that's tragic in this very area. A man gave up his exercise times and began to schedule in counseling sessions, felt guilty if he had a free evening in which he could just sit and read a wholesome novel or watch a ball game on the television. If I'm sold out to Christ every evening, I'll be among the sheep.

20:02 And what's happened? He's not preaching any sermons right now. He's not ministering to any sheep right now. Burnout.

The Antidote: Biblical Examples of Prioritizing God's Will

20:12 Why? For this very reason, he allowed the use and the apportionment of his time to be dictated by the perceived needs of his people. Now, what's the antidote? The antidote is found in principle in three texts of Scripture that I want to set before you this morning.

20:34 First of all, Mark chapter 1. The example of our Lord Jesus Christ here and a second example in John 11 in which the Lord Jesus did not apportion his time and energy as a general rule by what people perceived their needs to be. There was a higher court which dictated how he would apportion his time and his energies. Mark 1 and verse 35.

21:08 Our Lord had been up late the previous evening giving himself to healing the sick, casting out demons. Verses 32 to 34 and now verse 35. And in the morning a great while before day he rose up and went out and departed into a desert place and there prayed. Our Lord upon waking that morning was convinced that he needed a season of intense protracted waiting upon his heavenly Father.

21:49 I think the context will indicate what it was upon his own spirit that so pressed him with that sense of need for this protracted season of pre-dawn intercession. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him and they found him. You see the telephone couldn't get him but his disciples did. It took a little longer.

22:16 Feet don't move as fast as electrical impulses but his season of solitude was interrupted by an unexpected unasked intrusion. And his disciples followed him and found him and say unto him all are seeking thee. Lord we've just come out of a place where the needs were not all met even when it was time to shut down business for the night and get a few hours of shut-eye and all back in this place where you ministered yesterday till after sundown. Lord they are seeking you.

22:55 Now remember to him who looked upon needy men with compassion in their spiritual and physical needs the words all are seeking you. This seeking was not a luxury of just wanting to look on a famous preacher and get his autograph. Sick demon possessed people people whipped and scourged by the wretched teaching and practices of the Pharisees which our Lord called the imposition of grievous burdens to be borne. And one can only imagine something of the tremendous pull upon the holy soul of the Son of God when he heard Peter say all are seeking thee.

23:38 And what did he do? He steeled himself against the holy impulses of his own holy soul. Compassion, desire to meet need respond to need and he said unto them let us enter into the next towns that I may preach there also. For to this end am I for I will not the needs of men express with tremendous intensity and expressed in such a way that it even moves the bowels how I will apportion my time and my energy. It is the revealed will of my Father that determines those things. I know the mission on which I am sent and while I wish that mission included more days in that town in that village with those tremendous needs the holy Son of God motions that no doubt hold him power and said no.

25:00 For he would have been ministering if I may say it reverently in compassion to needy men at the expense of doing the will of God. And brethren there are times when we are sitting in our studies ministering to the needs of men at the expense of doing the will of God according to the scriptures. There is the first example in the life of our Lord then the classic example in John chapter 11 John chapter 11 and here you see it's not just generic masses of nameless people with generic need which always move the Lord when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion. Here are some intimate friends in fact we might say the most intimate domestic friendship of our Lord Jesus revealed in the scriptures. Was the friendship with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. I mean that's pretty powerful claims over the heart of the Son of God.

26:10 Not just generic compassion for men in their need but the most intimate friendship. Now we read in verse 1 of John 11 A certain man was sick Lazarus of Bethany of the village of Mary and her sister Martha and it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick. The sisters therefore sent unto him saying Lord and oh how they knew how to get to his heart. They didn't say behold Lazarus is sick behold he whom thou lovest is sick. Lord everything in our previous interaction indicates that there is a peculiar attachment in human affection as well as divine redemptive love. He whom you are bound to in unique chords of love is sick. That was more powerful than saying will you come and heal Lazarus.

27:20 He whom thou lovest is sick. But when Jesus heard it he said this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. You see the uniqueness of the pull of their need is underscored by the uniqueness of the bond of affection with which he was tied to them and then this strange verse when therefore he heard that he was sick the exact opposite of what we think love would do.

28:03 He abode at that time two days in the place where he was. He was prepared to give the impression of hard heartedness to his intimate friends and obviously that impression took hold in the mild rebuke that one of the sisters later gave him and said Lord if only you'd been here he wouldn't have died. In other words you didn't care enough to come when we sent the message. There was enough time for you to get here.

28:35 You disappointed us Lord. Jesus deliberately exposed himself to the temporary impression of hard heartedness for the ultimate good of the very ones upon whom that impression was made. Now isn't that what the passage teaches us? Later on they understood that he had a far more glorious purpose in mind.

29:05 They were asking him to come in order to heal their brother. He had a more glorious end in view. He was going to let him die and raise him from the dead. Now what's the principle?

29:20 The principle is dear brethren that though we do not claim to have that kind of relationship which involves the revelation of the will of God within the orbit of the unique interpersonal relationships of the members of the Godhead. Nonetheless according to the broad principles and the specific precepts of the word of God we are not to allow even the pull of the most intimate human affections and ties to dictate portion our time. And we must be willing to leave ourselves vulnerable to the accusation of being hard-hearted at times when people think they know how best we can respond to their need. Are you willing for that? Now remember he didn't do that the first time he was developing a friendship. And based on that solid friendship they didn't come out right and say you've negated everything you've told us by your previous actions that you love us.

30:32 No. There was just the mild irritation. Lord if you had been here our brother had not died. You see when you establish intimate open-faced loving bonds with your people those bonds can stand the strain of an occasional impression that you really don't love them.

Pastoral Illustration: Weaning from Chronic Dependence

30:55 And eventually they'll see that what you did was really the highest dictate of love. May I illustrate in the concrete with reference to this very verse. With reference to this very problem. As a number of you know about four or five years ago God began to give us a new dimension of breakthrough in the black community and how God did that is a marvelous story of his sovereignty.

31:24 But with that came some of these young black couples who if you've seen any of the documentaries on black inner life experience Bill Moyers one done here in Newark. I spoke to one of our young black men recently. I said did you see that documentary? I had it taped and was going to gather our blacks together from the Newark area and say now look is this accurate?

31:48 And I asked him personally he said oh yes. He said in fact that man who's shown as being the local stud who fathered five or six kids doesn't live with any of the women. He said I know that guy by name. And he said the young woman that is featured in there who was a junkie and fathered two or three children she's now dead.

32:07 He said oh no that documentary is very accurate. That's the Newark in which I was reared. And God brought us a young couple out of that matrix. Their marriage was in a shambles.

32:19 Held together by a thread so thin that only the Lord could see it. And in every area of marital stability what is the role of a man? A husband? What is the role of a wife?

32:36 What is a biblical pattern for that relationship? What is a biblical perspective on career? The whole business. They needed a father at every level.

32:47 So we sought to take them where they were. Spend some concentrated hours with them. And in addition to the public ministry of the word which if it is indeed pastorally oriented will continually be addressing these various issues not only explicitly in the exposition of the watershed or what Dabney would call the epitomizing text and passages but by way of relevant and legitimate application and they were beginning to get some of the pieces together but they needed concentrated periods of specific counsel on what it means to be a godly husband. What it means to be a godly submissive wife.

33:25 Well to make a long story short you don't pour your guts into people that way without a very deep bond of affection being developed. Well what happened is I began to sense that this young man was de facto adopting me as his father and began whenever he had to make a decision to want to call me for input. And I said no. He's got enough now of the general principles and the only way he'll develop his spiritual muscles and develop and learn to walk on his own I've got to wean him from me.

33:58 That's one of the benefits of taking all your calls through an answering machine with a monitor on. And so and so would call and say Pastor I just got to talk to you. I've got a decision to make this afternoon by five o'clock and I'm just not sure. And I'd sit there hard hearted and wouldn't pick the phone up.

34:18 And I wouldn't call him back. I'd wait two or three days and then when I'd see him at prayer meeting I'd call him aside and say Hey I got your call on Monday. I deliberately didn't pick up the phone. How's that situation worked out?

34:33 Oh Pastor when I couldn't get to you it drove me to my knees and to my Bible. And God gave me wisdom and the thing's been completely resolved. I said alright so and so. You see now you must begin to exercise yourself.

34:49 Spiritual maturation comes how? Those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. And so you must then be vulnerable to the appearance of hard heartedness. That they might see the glory of God in terms of the dimensions of their own growth.

35:14 Well what did that do? That gave him greater confidence that the next decision he had to face under God he could wrestle through. So that now after a couple of years we still have a most intimate warm loving bond. But I rarely get a phone call.

35:33 Now that's what we're talking about. If I had allowed him he would have developed a chronic dependence that would have eaten up hours that should have been spent with other people who were just as messed up as he was when he first started coming three years ago. Now the problem is there are some men that have an unmortified sick, wicked desire to keep people nursing at their breasts. And if that's in you my brother you better go to a place called Calvary and ask God to put it to death.

36:07 And you better have somebody who loves you and knows you to sit down with you and help sort out why you want to have everybody and his uncle looking to you as the oracle. As I told my fellow elders that's why I feel so uncomfortable in these afternoon sessions standing there all alone. I'm not used to dealing with questions all alone. I've always got six men around me and we're discussing it together.

36:29 And it's not that I don't feel some measure of at least having some experience and at least a minimal acquaintance with biblical principles. But that's just not the orbit. That's just not the orbit in which I move. And I frankly feel very uncomfortable in that posture of being the oracle.

36:46 Though I know I'm not being the oracle you men would challenge me my fellow elders would if I said anything off the wall. But if you know why if you want to know why I seem to be antsy and a bit uncomfortable and at times try to throw the thing back at you. That's not an effort to appear humble. It's an expression of discomfort.

Paul's Example: Not Bullied by Others' Interpretations of Providence

37:04 And I would beg you men in this matter to face the great principle of this passage in John. And then one very quickly from the life of the Apostle Paul. And we'll have to carry this on into next year. Acts chapter 21.

37:19 Acts chapter 21. But it's vital that we see the biblical principles that lie at the root of this and at least have one or two concrete pastoral illustrations to which you can then relate. In Acts chapter 21 we read verse 8 And on the morrow we departed, came to Caesarea, entered into the house of Philip the evangelist who was one of the seven, and we abode with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.

37:48 And as we tarried there some days there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. And coming to us and taking Paul's girdle he bound his own feet and hands and said, Thus saith the Holy Spirit so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owns this girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. He was making a prophecy that as Paul went to Jerusalem this is what was going to face him. And he didn't say therefore thus saith the Lord thou shalt not go.

38:20 He said this is what's going to happen. Now people made an inference from that. And when we heard these things both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. We know the will of God for you Paul.

38:36 In the light of what is there awaiting you you must not go to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered what do ye weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded we ceased saying let the stubborn bull head take his due. Let this intransigence no, we cease saying the will of the Lord be done.

39:18 Now you see brethren there are times when people collectively will be quite certain they know the will of God for you. But don't let their pressure cause you to capitulate. As you have poured over the word of God and in prayer and in the orbit of the sound counsel of your fellow elders and trusted friends and confidants determined the will of God for you in the outworking of your biblically mandated duties is such and such don't allow other people's interpretation of providence or what they think are clear signs that you ought to do this or that dictate the use of your time. I've got more people who know what I ought to be doing in the work of Christ's kingdom. And if I did one fifth of it I couldn't live with a good conscience for a day. Now people say well so and so did this. I said yes, how do you spell his name?

40:17 They look at me and I say how do you spell his name? So they spell the name of that individual. I say good, now how do you spell Albert? How do you spell Martin?

40:29 And they're a little bit piqued. I said please spell. Now I said did the two sound the same? I said the will of the Lord be done for him the will of the Lord be done for me.

40:38 I thank God so and so did this and this and this and this. And he will answer to his Lord for the use of his five talents. But I assess that I'm a two talent man and this is how to invest them and I'll answer to my Lord for the investment of what he has given me to do. Now that will give to some people the appearance of bullheadedness and intransigence.

41:04 Well yes it is. Bullheadedness and intransigence not with regard to your own independently formed judgment but solidly formed judgments based upon careful collation of biblical principles brought through the crucible of the multitude of counselors. And if we can't know the will of God in that way then I have to despair of knowing anything. But once knowing it let us not be bullied by the demands of people upon our time and upon our energies.

Conclusion: Remove the Monkey of Guilt and Trust God's Sovereignty

41:40 And so if I'm speaking this morning to some of my dear brethren going around with a horrible monkey of guilt upon your back could it be my dear brother that that monkey of guilt has been conceived in the womb of allowing people's perceived needs and people's perceived assessment of what you ought to be doing to dictate how you use your time and how you expend your energies rather than a principled structuring of your time and the expenditure of your energies according to a wise and judicious application of biblical principles in consultation with wise counselors and all under the rubric of earnest prayer. You see the problem is brethren some of us take ourselves too seriously and I like to tell myself periodically if I drop bed tomorrow the world would go on and the work of the kingdom wouldn't miss a lick. You may not be quite as important as others would lead you to think you are. And part of that monkey may be you have a wrong assessment of your importance

43:08 and therefore leave yourself vulnerable to all of these pressures. If you don't do this what will happen? Mark my word brethren any one of us died dead tomorrow the work of the kingdom wouldn't miss a beat. For Christ is building his church and that gives us the glorious luxury of saying no at times even when it appears we're hard-hearted to multitudes.

43:31 Saying no or not yet even when it appears we're being insensitive to the unwritten canons of intimate friendship Mary and Martha. Saying yes even when people interpret providential factors and even a word of divine revelation. That was a prophet who said this is what's going to happen to Paul and then even come quoting scripture portions of divine revelation but they're drawing inferences from them they have no right to draw and don't allow yourself to be bullied. And if you're discouraged today because of that ask God to help you to see the monkey for who he is and where he was conceived and ask God to take him from your back and make that womb that conceived him sterile by the application of biblical principles. May God grant that a discouraged brother sitting here today will say well if for no other reason that fellow elder said that in our brother's ear because my heavenly shepherd knew that I as his sheep needed to be led by that particular stream of quiet waters to have my soul refreshed. And if so then it will have made the early morning concoction of an extra head worth the effort and the embarrassment of appearing late. But it's also taken up the first hour

44:58 as I told you yesterday brethren God is doing things in these days that I believe are of his agenda and we've not been able to quite keep a handle on it but we hope we can keep in the flow of it. Well let's pray and then we have time for our half hour or 25 minute break for coffee and for refreshment. Let's pray. Oh our Father we do thank you that you know our frame you know how vulnerable we are you know that if the devil cannot freeze us out with indifference and coldness of heart and lack of responsiveness to the needs of men he would seek to burn us up with that very virtue giving to us a false conscience allowing us to be bullied by people's own perception of their need and their own perception of their demands and rights over our time and our energies. May we ever be Christ's bond slaves on the one hand free from men and yet joyfully the bond slaves of men. Oh Lord help us in the application of these things we need your wisdom and for that wisdom we cry and we believe you will give it according to your promise. Continue with us in our time together today we plead in the name and for the glory of your beloved Son.

46:24 We thank you for this opportunity now to refresh ourselves to partake again of the good things of your bounty. May we do so with joy and with a sensitivity to each other we ask in Jesus name. Amen.