Christian Ministry: What Are The Tasks? Part 4

Introduction: The Third Task of Shepherding – Guiding the Flock

0:00 Well, brethren, let's again pause and ask the Lord's blessing and put our time together as we come to this last session of our brief conference and seek to turn to the Word of God for further guidance on what it means to be shepherds after God's own heart. Let's pray.

0:22 Father, again, we're overwhelmed with the privileges you've given to us. We think right now of so many of your servants in other parts of the world. Shut up in prisons in Russia, in China, parts of the Middle East where men rot away in prisons for the sake of Christ and His gospel. We think of many other places where servants of Christ labor all alone.

0:53 No one to encourage them, to instruct them. No other brethren of like mind to fellowship with them. Lord, be mindful of all such today. And minister to them in your grace.

1:06 And as we have the privilege of once again sitting together before the Word, help me, O God, that I may be accurate in the handling of that Word, helpful and practical in the application of it. And may each of us have the Berean spirit to search these things from the Scriptures to see whether they are so. Bless us now in this, our final session, as we ask these mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.

1:38 Well, brethren, having laid before you two of the ways in which we carry out our role as shepherds, let me just give you the heads. First of all, we do our work of shepherding by feeding the flock with solid biblical preaching and teaching. And then secondly, we do it by caring for the individual needs of the sheep by loving, wise, assertive pastoral input. Now, the third way in which we shepherd the flock is this.

2:16 By guiding the flock in its congregational life with loving, assertive leadership. By guiding the flock in its congregational life with loving, assertive leadership. by guiding the flock in its congregational life by wise, loving, I think I left off the word wise, wise, loving, assertive leadership.

Biblical Basis for Guiding the Flock

3:02 Now let me very quickly, I don't have time to go into detail because I preached too long in the previous hour, but it's your fault. You were pulling it out of me and I didn't look at my watch. So I'll shift the blame to you. Let me give you several key texts which show very clearly that no man is a true shepherd who is not engaged in guiding the flock in its congregational life with wise, loving, assertive leadership.

3:32 In 1 Peter 3, 5, Paul says, If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care? Of the house of God. And that word take care is the very word used in the story of the Good Samaritan. When the Good Samaritan took the guy who had been battered and bruised and left half dead and left him in the inn, he said to the innkeeper, take care of him.

4:05 See where his needs are. Respond to those needs. And in 1 Peter 3, 1 Timothy 3, 5, an elder, is described as someone who takes care of the house of God. That is, he exercises wise, loving, assertive leadership of the congregation of God's people.

4:32 Hebrews 13, 7 and 17. Remember them that had the rule over you, men who spoke unto you the word of God. Those Christians never had the notion that they ran their own congregation. The writer to Hebrews says, Remember them that had the rule over you.

4:58 Assuming that they knew there were those who ruled over them, men who ruled by speaking to them the word of God. In verse 17 he says, Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit. Submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls as they that must give an account that they may do so with joy and not with grief. The assumption is there were men who were exercising rule, and the two words obey and submit, if you will look them up in a concordance,

5:38 they are the very words used in the other authority structures taught in the word of God, the citizen to the state, the wife to her husband, the children to the parents. So there is real, wise, loving, assertive leadership, and God's people are called upon to submit to that leadership. And then in 1 Peter 5, Peter says, The elders among you I exhort, who am also a fellow elder, shepherd the flock of God, exercise, exercising the oversight, not lording it over God's people. And that Greek word means

6:23 to exercise an authority down upon people, not like little tin gods oppressing and crushing people. No, we are to exercise the oversight with wise, loving, assertive leadership, not with selfishness, selfish, harsh, and unbiblical leadership. Now, what is involved specifically in doing this? Well, let me give you just three very simple headings.

Task 3, Part 1: Bringing All Church Life Under God's Word

7:01 Number one, seeking to bring all programs, practices, and ministries under the searchlight of the word of God. Seeking to bring all programs, practices, and ministries under the searchlight of the word of God. In 1 Peter 3, 14 and 15, Paul writes to Timothy saying, These things I write unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly, but if I tarry long,

7:39 that men may know how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Well, what things had he written about? Well, he had written about the programs, practices, and ministries of the church. He said that the church is to be marked as a body of praying people.

8:08 Chapter 2, verse 1, I exhort therefore first of all that supplications, and prayers, and intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all men. In other words, what is to dominate the life of the church is not programs to entertain, but a structure where true worship, where there is true prayer, true communion with God exists in the churches. He goes on in verse 8, to go into the roles and the gender in terms of leadership. I desire therefore that, and you have in the original the article

8:52 before the word men, I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing. In other words, male leadership is to dominate in the church. And furthermore, he says in verse 12, I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over her, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. In the ordering of the life of the church, women are not to preach and teach in the mixed assembly, and women are not to give spiritual rule in the assembly of God's house.

9:33 Women elders are defiance of the will of God. Women elders are a defiance of the will of God. Women preachers are a defiance of the will of God. And older women are to train the younger women.

9:52 So if an older woman gathers some younger women to teach them in a more formal way, she is not violating a God-given position, though the word there in Titus is not the word for formal teaching. But women teaching women, women teaching children, yes, Timothy learned the word of God from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. But they didn't make old grandma Lois an elder, an elderess. No, the word of God is clear.

10:28 And nothing could be more clear than what is said here and in the parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 14, as in all the churches of the saints, let your women keep silent in the church. It is not permitted for them to speak. That is, not to speak the word of God authoritatively in the mixed assembly. So brethren, as shepherds, we are responsible to take care of the house of God, to see that behavior is according to the word of God.

10:56 Notice chapter 3, the standard for elders and deacons. What are you going to do? In a church situation where anybody that's been around for a little bit of time and he's a businessman or he's well-known and well-loved, nobody ever examines him by 1 Timothy 3. You've got elders or deacons that got no business being elders and deacons.

11:20 What is your responsibility? To seek to bring all of the programs, practices and structures of the church under the searchlight of the word of God. It's God's house and He alone has a right to say how we behave. It's not our club to be run by our rules.

Task 3, Part 2: Patiently Laying Out Biblical Teaching

11:43 It's God's house to be run by God's house rules. And it's our responsibility before God, first of all, not to go in like a madman and throw everything over, but to search the scriptures and under God to bring everything in our church life to the standard of Holy Scripture. Secondly, then we are to patiently lay out the biblical teaching as to what is pleasing to God. We are to patiently lay out the biblical teaching as to what is pleasing to God.

12:22 Maybe we should start with expounding Matthew 28, 18 to 20, where Jesus said, All authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. Stand before your people and say, Dear people, I have no commission but a commission to teach you whatever Christ has commanded. And if Christ has commanded, I must teach it.

12:59 And if Christ has commanded it, you must obey it. Because he said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Don't sit here and talk about, Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus.

13:17 But just don't tell me what he says. Tell people, That's hypocrisy. He doesn't want to hear you singing, Oh, how I love Jesus. He said, If you love me, keep my commands.

13:30 You've got to teach him that. You may have to get yourself a bulletproof vest, but you've got to teach him. You've got to teach him. And that's why Paul said, when he was writing to those Corinthians, where the women were taking a role they shouldn't.

13:47 He said in 1 Corinthians 14, 37, after giving all those regulations, he says, If any man thinks himself spiritual, or a prophet, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you, or I say unto you, are the commandments of the Lord. When apostles give directions for the life of the church, that is the word of Jesus Christ. And so we must bring all programs and practices under the light of the word. Then we must seek to lay out patiently and clearly the biblical teaching as to what is pleasing to the Lord.

Task 3, Part 3: Crying to God for Obedience and Repentance

14:24 And then thirdly, we must cry to God that the Lord himself will give to his people a heart of obedience. We must cry to God that he will give to his people a heart of obedience. When we read through Revelation chapters 2 and 3, it's a tragic thing. Christ stands in the midst of the lampstands, the seven churches of Asia Minor, and he points out the sins in five of the seven churches and he calls them to repentance.

14:58 And it's a pathetic thing to see Jesus Christ having to stand in his own church and say, I have somewhat against you, I have somewhat against you, I have this against you, I have this against you. We need to pray that God will give to our people a spirit of repentance, that they're ready to change anything that causes grief to the Lord Jesus whose church it is. Now that's our task, brethren. Our task is not to just keep the status quo.

15:30 There was a certain old black preacher kept using the word status quo in his sermon. And one day one of the sisters came to him and says, Preacher, you's always using that word status quo. What's the status quo? And he says, well sister, the best way I knows to tell you is this, the status quo is the mess we's in.

15:53 It's the mess we's in.

15:56 Now you won't find that in Webster's dictionary. But that's it, that's the mess we's in. And we need to cry to God that the people will see the mess we's in needs to be changed by the word of God. When Jesus went to the temple at Jerusalem, it says in Mark 11, that first night that he came into Jerusalem, he went in, and the Greek is very vivid, he went in and looked round about upon all things.

16:26 His eye went over his father's temple and he went back that night and probably spent a sleepless night in prayer and fasting because the next morning, you remember, he was hungry as he came out of Bethany on his way to Jerusalem and he saw that fig tree and cursed it. It said he was hungry and then he went into Jerusalem and what did he do? He turned over the money changers, he drove out the oxen, he went in and cleaned out everything in his father's house that had no business being there and he said, you have taken my father's house that should be a house of prayer for all the nations and you've made it a cave for robbers. And my friends,

17:10 we need something of that spirit of our blessed Lord that we see that the church is his house and in his house only the things that he has commanded should be there. And when Jesus looks round about in our temple, in our churches, and he sees women preaching and he sees women leading and he sees no order in the worship, everything confusion. He sees no real Bible preaching, just standing up and whooping, getting the people all excited and telling them flowery things. Jesus looks at that and he says, you've turned my father's house into a den of robbers.

17:55 And we need to share the spirit of our Lord that by his word and spirit he would come and purge his living temple made up of the living stones. That's our responsibility. I have no sympathy for people that say, well, I'll just preach the word and leave the state of the church to the Lord. Is that right?

18:17 Shepherd the flock of God. Take care of the house of God. We've got to be willing to get in the trenches, brethren, and pay a price that Christ's church will become what it ought to be. And then finally, our fourth job as shepherds, and with this I'll be done, is to protect the flock from enemies without and within.

Task 4: Protecting the Flock from Enemies Without and Within

18:42 You see, no shepherd is doing his job if he simply feeds the flock, if he cares for the individual needs of the sheep, and if he guides the overall life of the flock, he's got to protect the flock from enemies without and within. Acts 20. Let's come back to where we started. In this passage, we close this morning.

19:08 Paul said, take heed to yourselves and to the flock. Why? Verse 29. I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

19:26 And from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to do what? To draw away the disciples after them. Wherefore, watch ye. He said, now you elders, there are two great dangers to the flock, and you've got to protect them from those dangers.

19:48 There's the picture of a pack of wolves circling round the flock, circling, circling, circling. What are they looking for? They're looking for a stray sheep. They're looking for a weak sheep.

20:01 They're looking for a sheep that gets separated from the flock. And when they are able to, he says they will pounce upon that sheep and they will devour it. See the language? Grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

20:18 There are the wolves from without trying to devour the flock. Some of those wolves come over the TV religious programs. Some of them come by the watchtower literature. Some of them come in many ways.

20:36 But we need to protect our people from the wolves that would devour our sheep from without. But something more subtle, he says, from among your own selves. And who was he speaking to? The elders.

20:52 He said, right out of the shepherds there are going to come men. And what are they trying to do? Look carefully at the language. They speak perverse things.

21:04 Why? To draw away the disciples after them. They are shepherds looking for their own flock. And they're going to try to make their flock out of your flock.

21:17 See that? To draw away disciples after them. They're not concerned about the truth. They're concerned about their own ego.

21:27 They want to have a following. He says, now you be watchful. You be watchful. You be watchful when someone begins to start visiting the homes of your people without your knowledge.

21:41 And the first thing you'll do is you'll try to start sowing seeds of disaffection to the God appointed shepherds. He'll try to alienate the sheep from the true shepherds. That once they're alienated, then he'll say, ah, those men are not true shepherds, but I am a true shepherd. God have mercy on you if you aren't watchful among your people.

22:10 God says, be watchful. You shepherds of the church at Ephesus must protect the flock from the wolves without and from those within. And my friends, that means you've got to have your ears open, your eyes open. That's why he says, be watchful.

22:28 That's a military term. That's the picture of the man sitting at his post at three in the morning, pitch black night, and his ears are straining, listening for the slightest crackle of a leaf or the snapping of a twig, his eyes peering into the darkness, his pupils fully dilated, looking for any sign of any enemy. That's the word he uses. You shepherds, be watchful.

22:54 Look for the movement of the wolves. Watch for men rising up from within. Oh, you say, that's being paranoid. No, it isn't.

23:04 That's being a good shepherd. That's being a good shepherd. And that's the awesome responsibility that God's given to us. Brethren, to put it as simply as I know how, God has said he's given us to the flock that we might be instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit to get the whole flock safely to heaven.

23:27 That's what we live for. That's what we sweat for. That's what we cry for. That's what we bleed for.

23:33 That's what we pour our guts out for. It's that we might get our people safely to heaven. What is our responsibility as ministers? To take care of ourselves and to take care of the flock.

23:49 And as we look at that great description of responsibility, surely we cry out as does the Apostle Paul, who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient for these things? Who can guard his own heart, let alone guard the flock? Who can keep his own heart, let alone keep the people of God in the way of holiness and in the way of fruitfulness by patient, balanced, loving instruction in the word of God, intimate pastoral care, wise guidance of the congregation and perceptive protection from its enemies.

24:29 We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything is from ourselves. But brethren, God has given us the Holy Spirit and he's given us the Holy Spirit not primarily to give us glorious experiences that we can write about in a book. He's given us the Holy Spirit to give us the moral courage, the mental and spiritual strength, the discernment, the wisdom, the love, the patience and all that we need to be good shepherds of God's people. Oh, let us cry that God will fill us with the Holy Spirit, that we may be the kind of shepherds God's called us to be.

Q&A: Counseling Non-Members

25:12 All right, I promised you we'd have a little time for questions. Earl, you had a question. Oh, yes, all right. Yes, sir.

25:22 I'll do what I'm told. That's it. I got to keep that on. All right, good.

25:26 I have two. All right. The first one is going back with the individual and spending the individual, caring for the individual needs by loving, wise and assertive pastoral input. Yes.

25:39 How much time do you spend in counseling and helping non-members? That's a good question. Our elder right now is involved with a member, a non-member who is a friend with a member who is . Yes.

25:59 All right, so the question of our brother is, how much time do you spend with a non-member? And my answer is this, that what is clear in the Bible is that I am to shepherd the flock. That's the only thing that's clear. Now, if I can do my work as a shepherd to the flock and use some of my time to be of help, whether by evangelism or just helping to keep a home together without sacrificing my God-given duties here, Galatians 6.10 says,

26:32 as we have opportunities let us do good unto all men, but especially those of the household of faith. But as the congregation grows, you're going to find that if word gets out that anybody with a problem can come and get hours of counseling, it's going to undermine your shepherding of God's people. So as a general rule, we do not shepherd, we do not offer counseling to people outside the church family. We refer them to Christian counselors who are earning their living that way.

27:06 Now, occasionally we make an exception where we feel it's proper to do so, but it's only an exception and we tell the person, now don't spread this abroad that we've spent time with you because there were peculiar circumstances. And you see, the devil will use a good thing to keep us from the best thing. And he'll use our heart of compassion to be vulnerable to try to meet needs that God has never called us to meet. So that would be my counseling.

27:33 That would be my counsel on that matter and that's what we seek to practice in our own use of time in our eldership. All right? Second question. And secondly...

Q&A: Church Planters and Accountability

27:51 Yes, yes, yeah. Yes, it's a matter that I just would say in all honesty, Earl, that I just do not have what I consider a satisfactory resolution of the biblical identity of a man who is a proven man, who is sent forth by a church to plant a church in another culture, in another town, in another city. So I think what we must do, unless we're prepared to say that the office of evangelists describes that and God still gives evangelists,

28:35 but then the problem I have is there's no inspired record saying an evangelist must be. So I'm very reluctant and Owen argues very powerfully against any notion that the office of evangelists is a standing office from that very perspective. So the way we have functioned is this, that since the work of church planting involves the exercise of pastoral gifts, preaching gifts, etc., a man must at least meet the standard of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 plus show those gifts and graces particularly needed

29:18 to cross culture, to cross a culture and to minister in another culture. Number one, an unusual aptitude for languages. Number two, an unusual flexibility in terms of cultural adaptability. Number three, the absence of any kind of crippling provincialisms.

29:44 In other words, if a guy has been brought up in a certain cultural framework and anything outside of that, he gets unstrung, he doesn't belong there. And you say, how do you know that? Well, in our case, we try to send a man into several situations for a summer and then get a readout on him. Steve Hoffmeier, who's been sent out by our church to the Philippines, he spent a summer in Africa and then he spent another summer in the Philippines and the readout we got was in these extra things he manifested unusual adaptability and therefore had he stayed among us we would have had no problem recognizing him as an elder so we felt he had the

30:28 God-given capabilities to labor in that capacity and then we sent him out as a church planter but one who had been scrutinized according to the standard of 1 Timothy 3 but we're reluctant to call him an elder because an elder is supposed to take heed to the flock in which the Holy Spirit's made him an overseer so if we make him an elder in Trinity Baptist Church he belongs there shepherding those sheep. So I have problems with that idea of make a man an elder and then send him. I've got problems with that for that very reason. So that's where I am and I...

31:02 He's accountable to the functioning of the elders. Exactly. And our elders visit him on the field. I have visited him this past summer.

31:15 Two of our elders went over and were there for the constituting of the church and now he has been recognized as an elder in the church that he planted until such time as God raises up men that he is already training and when they become elders then a decision will be made whether they now as an indigenous church will lay hands upon Steve and send him out to plant another church which they will oversee and then we will simply be in an advisory capacity. All right? Yes. Ron?

Q&A: Member Accountability and Church Discipline

31:49 Yes. Good question. How much should the members expect? How much should the elders expect the members to keep an account of one another?

32:06 Well, if we're preaching the biblical concept of New Testament church life then our people will come to understand that they have real accountability one to another. They are to exhort one another daily. They are to bear one another's burdens. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5, not to the elders, but brethren, you are to support the weak, you are to be patient, etc.

32:35 Well, as your people are instructed there's a wonderful network of accountability that goes on and long before sometimes we as elders notice that someone maybe has been absent for a week or two, one of the members has and they'll come and say, look, did you know that so and so has had unusual sickness? We've said no, we didn't know. Well, I checked up, I missed them for a week or two. Thank you.

32:58 And then we're able to follow through or send one of the deacons to check into the matter. And often in a healthy church situation, according to the natural age groupings, according to the natural groupings of shared interests like the young mothers, these lovely little networks of normal cells develop, not artificially because you've all split them up by geography or by age or by alpha, by alphabet. And we never even know what's going on until I get a note to be read at prayer meeting. Please read at prayer meeting.

33:32 Dear people of God, thank you so much that for the past three weeks since I came home from the hospital with our new child, I haven't had to cook a meal. Thanks to those who've come in and cleaned my house. We didn't even know. Nobody organized it.

33:46 It just happens where the people are instructed in terms of their God-given responsibility one to another over a period of time. That becomes a climate that when an outsider comes in, they immediately recognize that and they become incorporated into it. I thought the process could develop and restore. What point does the member wish that?

34:17 Yes. How do you keep that distinction? Yes. Well, I think again there needs to be periodic teaching.

34:24 For example, both privately and publicly. For example, recently one of the women came to me and said, Pastor, I'm not sure what to do. There's one of the sisters in the church that anytime I'm with her, I'm on the phone, I'm in her home, I just feel she indulges in gossip and I don't know what to do. I said, well, here's what the scripture says to do.

34:43 And I opened up Galatians 1 and Hebrews 3. And I said, now you go lay out the evidence and treat her to deal with it. And if she doesn't, take one or two others that you know are aware of the same problem. Keep me abreast of what is happening.

35:01 Well, she called me the day before I left and she said, Pastor, she's stonewalling me. Every time I ask to get with her, she's got an excuse. What shall I do? And so the counsel was, you tell her, look, this is a serious matter.

35:15 The Bible says that if you have ought against anyone, go tell them their fault, assuming then that the person is willing to be received. You must give me a hearing. And then if she stonewalls you, she's left no opportunity but for me to go with that sister, call her in and say, look, so and so, this dear sister tried on five occasions to get to you. You've been resisting it.

35:40 That is contrary to the word of God. Obviously, your own conscience is troubling you. Now let's deal with the issue. So you try then to monitor.

35:49 There are times when people will start to say something to me. Did you know that I stopped them off. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

35:55 Are you about to tell me something you know? Yes. Go to them. Then if you're not satisfied that the issue has been dealt with, then come and seek counsel as to what the next step is.

36:05 So it's an ongoing process of private instruction as well as the public instruction from the pulpit as to how to deal with interpersonal relationships. And you'll have some, you'll always get some that feel they're God's chief protector of the flock. And they go around butchering people in the name of helping to restore them. Well, then you've got to take them aside and say, look, you haven't earned the right to do the unofficial work of chief inspector of the flock here.

36:36 And then you've got to. So those things, you know, they will be open to abuse, but there's no truth that the flesh will not abuse. But that's again, keeping on top of things and being aware of what's going on in the flock. Very good.

Q&A: Dealing with Wolves and Heresy

36:53 Yes, brother. Yeah. All right. Yes.

37:10 So, I have a question. I have a question for you. I'm a Christian, and I've had a little bit of a hard time trying to get angry because I know the person is a real. I know the person is trying to pray because I thought I wouldn't get angry because I know that wolves, you know, and I don't believe, you know, sheep away is a vile of the sheep.

37:39 Yes. You know, basically I, I would keep members, I pray them to respect, you know, a man to come along and say he's a pastor and this little respecter so they don't want to I would say two things it is scriptural according to such passages as Romans 16 17 it is scriptural in some instances to publicly name and mark those who are troubling the flock

38:23 I beseech you brethren mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling contrary to the doctrine which you learned and turn away from them for they that are such serve not our Lord Christ but their own belly and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent so if you've gone to this man and said look I do not regard you as a shepherd but a wolf and I don't want you messing around with my sheep and if one more of my sheep come to me and say you've tried to call them get into their homes and influence them we are going to publicly name you

39:06 and tell our people to avoid you that if you come by way of the phone they're going to hang up if you come and knock on the door we're going to tell them not to open the door that's what the Bible says to do with people that by their fair speech would beguile your people I had in my notes but I didn't have time to give an example of protecting the people back some months ago at the end of the service four or five scruffy looking guys came in and sat down at the back of the church and afterwards because some of our men have been trained to be watchdogs in the right sense one of the deacons came to me not one of the elders he said pastor he said those guys that came in he said they're going around trying to talk to our people and pass out tracts and the rest so I went to them and I said what are you guys doing here?

39:50 oh we came to go to the bookstore and get some books I said well then you get your books and then get on your way this group has been gathered as a church committed to a certain confession of faith and you are here trying to propagate things contrary to that if you want to come and sit and learn you're welcome but you're not welcome to come and propagate your heresy well lo and behold they thought we didn't mean it a couple months later they showed up and that deacon went right to them and said I'm going to be right at your elbow you guys and if you say anything contrary to the word of God you're going to be ushered out of here and he ushered them right out to the parking lot and told them if they didn't get out we'd call the police and we'd have them haul them out you've got to protect your sheep

40:32 some guys are awfully bold and these guys were teaching heresy they didn't believe historic Christian doctrine and they saw a big crowd of people and figured hey here's good hunting ground but we said no way you're going to hunt with our sheep and so there are times when you need to do that and that's scriptural and so it may be in that case if you're afraid you might blow your cork with this guy maybe to write him a letter sit down and write him a nice firm letter and say if any of our sheep tell me that you've been on the phone you've been trying to influence them I'm going to have to publicly name you and tell our people to avoid you because you are causing disruption in the life of this church

41:16 and God has appointed me as a shepherd over them not you alright well I think the ladies are all ready brethren and we can carry on conversation while we eat shall we give thanks to God yes