Ordination of Greg Nichols — "The Pastoral Office"

The Significance of Ordination and the Pastoral Office

0:01 There are special occasions in the life of individuals and in the life of churches when it is very natural as well as most appropriate to bring into very sharp focus the testimony of the Word of God concerning those events which touch the lives of those individuals or those groups of individuals. For instance, weddings always provide a wonderful occasion to open up the Word of God and to bring into sharp focus what God says concerning the institution of marriage. The occasion of baptisms is a wonderful occasion to bring into equally sharp focus the whole matter of public confession of Christ, the privilege and obligations of that confession. Funerals provide a very natural opportunity to take place. The occasion of the Word of God and its message concerning the certainty of death and the brevity of life and the awesomeness of the world to come, of heaven and of hell. Well, the occasion of the installation of a pastor, the ordination of a man of God to the work of the ministry forms a very natural and wonderful opportunity

1:23 to focus upon those concepts that are given to us in the Word of God which relate to the Word of God. And the whole subject of the work of the Christian ministry. This evening, as I'm sure each of you is aware, Mr. Greg Nichols will be formally recognized and duly set apart as a teaching and ruling elder in the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Hackettstown.

1:50 And what I wish to do tonight is to seize this opportunity to direct your attention, particularly from the passage that was read in your hearing, to the whole subject of the work of a pastor, an elder, a bishop, an overseer. And I will be using those words interchangeably tonight because the scriptures use them interchangeably. I'll not pause to prove that that is so. Most of you are very much aware of that fact.

2:21 So if at one point I speak of Pastor Nichols and then a little bit later of Elder Nichols, it's not because I thought he became an old man. By simply sitting here tonight, we're using biblical terminology for pastor, for elder, for overseer or for bishop. And what I wish to do first of all is to direct your attention to the origin of the pastoral office. About two weeks ago, the Emmanuel Baptist Church met and at that time voted unanimously to recognize Mr. Nichols as its pastor. As its teaching and ruling elder. The church at that time recognized that in a very peculiar sense, it was recognizing in Mr. Nichols gifts and graces to teach and to govern and to lead them as a congregation of God's people.

The Divine Origin of the Pastoral Office

3:26 Now where in the world did the Emmanuel Baptist Church ever get the notion that it's proper to teach and to govern and to lead them as a congregation of God's people? Now where in the world did the Emmanuel Baptist Church ever get the notion that it's proper for a group of Christians to come together and by their vote to acknowledge that someone should function in their midst with peculiar leadership authority and with special Christ-given powers to labor amongst them? Is this simply a human tradition which we, because we feel there's no better, are following? Or is it something that was decreed by church courts and councils centuries ago, which we ought to somehow obey out of respect for the opinion of the church? What is the precise origin of the pastoral office? Well in Ephesians chapter 4, the answer to that question is given to us in the clearest of all terms possible. For in Ephesians chapter 4, after the Apostle Paul has mentioned some matters relative to the unity of Christ's people, and then something of the diversity of the gifts within the unified people of God, he says this, and I read now from Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 8,

4:54 Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, that is, Jesus Christ, after his death, burial, and resurrection, when he went back to the right hand of the Father, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And then after a parenthetical statement in verse 9, we read, He that descended is the same that ascended far above all. That he might fill all heavens, that he might fill all things, and he gave some. And so the Apostle is saying that the gifts that are given to the church are the direct donation of the exalted Lord of the church, Jesus Christ. And among the list of those gifts that are given, we read, He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and he gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, And among the list of those gifts that are given, we read, And some pastors and teachers. And the only gift of Christ concerning which there is no question as to its permanence is this last mentioned gift of pastors and teachers. Not that they are two separate gifts, but they are one gift conceived of

6:18 under the two-fold notion of pastors and of teachers. And so the word, The word of God is very clear as to the origin of the pastoral office. The church has pastors, the church has official teachers, the church has elders, bishops, and overseers for one reason and one reason alone. It is because Jesus Christ, the head of the church, has been pleased to give such gifts to his church.

6:53 And therefore, Therefore, we must regard this matter of the gift of a pastor-teacher as nothing less than a sovereign provision of the exalted, glorified Lord of glory. What we are witnessing tonight is not the expression of the activity of the Emanuel Baptist Church, or the activity of the Trinity Church, or the activity of any other ecclesiastical group. We are witnessing, are witnessing the activity of the exalted Christ himself. It is the ascended Christ who alone gives gifts to his church.

7:37 And so we meet tonight, I trust, with that consciousness that we meet under the sovereign provision of Christ. Furthermore, we must regard the origin of the pastoral office not only as expressing the sovereign provision and will of Christ, Christ, but the wisdom of Christ. You see, it is Christ who knows that though his spirit dwells equally in every true member of the church, and though every true believer has direct access to the mind of God in scripture, and direct access to God through Jesus Christ as a New Testament priest, Christ in his wisdom knew that his church would need specially equipped and specially recognized pastors and teachers. And so the gift of a pastor teacher is not only an expression of the sovereign will of Christ, but of the wisdom of Christ, and surely it is an expression of the tender love of Christ. In the fifth chapter of Ephesians, we read that Christ nourishes and cherishes his church. As an expression of his love,

8:58 he not only laid down his life for his church, but having been raised from the dead, he continues to nourish and to cherish his church. And one of the expressions of the nourishing, cherishing love of Christ to his church is that he continues to give to his church, passionately. Pastors and teachers, for as we shall see momentarily, it is for the good of the church that they are thus given. They are not given for the exaltation of a man that he may have a title, reverend, or pastor, or bishop, or elder, or anything else. But they are given to the church for the well-being of the church as an expression of the loving concern of Christ to his people. Well, you see, in the light of this clear teaching of Ephesians 4 and verse 8 and verse 11, we must never, never look upon the origin of this office as the fruit of human ingenuity or mere pragmatic expediency. You see, people often say, well, wherever you have a group, you've got to have a leader. A ship must have a captain. A ball team must have a leader.

10:20 In any group of people, if you're to operate efficiently, there must be a chief and lots of Indians who run around and do what the chief says. No, no. We must never regard the origin of the pastoral office as arising out of some common conviction of human societies that without a leader, things just won't go very well. This is an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we must never think that any group of individuals can put a man into this office. Now, you may have bishops who have that name in a special sense given to them by ecclesiastical organizations who may lay their hands upon individuals and make them reverends, make them pastors, make them elders. But if a man is truly a gift of Christ to the church, it is not any group of individuals, who have put him into that office. It is Jesus Christ who has deposited him as a gift from heaven

11:28 in the midst of that church. And all the church can do is to recognize what Christ has done. In Acts 20 and verse 28, the apostle Paul made this very plain when speaking to the pastors and teachers of the church at Ephesus. He said, take heed to the flock of God, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. You see, it was not the congregation who by their vote made these pastor teachers the overseers. It was Christ himself by the activity of the Holy Spirit who constituted these men, the shepherds, the pastors and teachers of the flock of God at Ephesus. Now, how does God do this? Well, you see, he doesn't do it miraculously. He does not, as it were, form a man in the courts

12:25 of heaven and then, with the fanfaring trumpets of angels, suddenly deposit him in a blazing cloud of glory so that one day a shepherdless church looks up and there a man floats down from heaven and with it a voice saying, this is your under-shepherd and my gift. No, no, he doesn't do it that way. He does it in the more ordinary way. First of all, by a secret providence and by a mighty operation upon the heart of a self-centered man who by nature could care less about others, he first of all transforms that man by his grace, gives him a love for himself, and then he puts into the heart of that man a yearning to share the knowledge of Christ with others. And then by a thousand strands of influence, he forms the character of that man, forms the mind of that man, molds the emotions and the ambitions and perspectives of that man until that man has a mind and a heart that is imbued with a longing to shepherd God's people. And then he works in the hearts of people who then begin to discern what Christ has put in the heart of that man, and they sense that he loves them,

13:50 with a selfless love, and that he desires nothing more than their well-being, their salvation, and their spiritual growth, and their spiritual maturation. Then by the regulation of the word of God, he brings that people and that man to the point where they are prepared to commit themselves to this relationship of a shepherd to the flock. And it is in this way, that Christ gives this gift to his church. So we must never regard this matter of the recognizing, the making of a pastor as the work of any group of individuals. So much then for the origin of the office of a pastor teacher. The origin is nothing less than that of the activity of the exalted Christ. Consider with me in the second place, the essential functions of the pastoral office. What are the essential functions of this office?

The Essential Functions of the Pastoral Office: Shepherd and Teacher

15:01 Now, if you ask many people that, they'd say, well, a reverend ought to be one who can go into your home and sip tea and talk about lovely, nice little non-entities and just make you feel good. So that when he goes, you just feel so good all over. You've had a visit from the reverend. Or others should say, he ought to be someone that can really get a good job.

15:23 Get out there and really mix with the young people. You know, a real nice guy and everybody. And then he ought to just spend all the time he can with the young people. And once in a while, get a few nice thoughts together and give them out as long as he doesn't go longer than 15 minutes or so. And he ought to be there when you're sick. Why, the sheets ought hardly to be pulled up on you in your hospital bed before he's there. And he holds your hand and he says lovely little things to you. And then at funerals, he's there to say sweet things, to preach all your relatives into heaven, even though they may have lived like the devil, but he can just talk them into heaven by his sweet talk. That's what a lot of people think the function of a reverend is.

16:03 They believe that to be the function of a pastor. But as surely as we look to the scriptures for the answer to the question, what is the origin of the pastoral office? And we discover it is nothing less than the activity of Christ when we turn to the same Bible and ask the question, what are the essential things? The functions of the pastoral office. This book is not silent. In fact, this very passage that describes the gift gives us the heart of the function of this office. Notice the language. He gave some pastors and teachers. Now, the word for pastor is the common Greek verb for word for shepherd, common Greek noun for shepherd. You know, the familiar Christmas story. There were

16:52 shepherds abiding in their field. Keeping watch over their flocks by night. That's the same word in the original. There were shepherds abiding in their fields. And so the essential function of the pastoral office is bound up, first of all, in the word shepherd. Now, what is the task of a shepherd? Well, you say a shepherd is supposed to shepherd his sheep. You see, the noun shepherd is also the verb to shepherd in English. A shepherd noun, shepherd's verb, his sheep.

17:24 Well, it's exactly the same in the original language. When Christ gives pastors, shepherds to his church, what is a shepherd to do? He's to shepherd the flock of God. And that's exactly the language that is used in Acts 20 and in 1 Peter, where Paul, speaking to pastors, to elders, says, shepherd the flock of God. Now, what does a shepherd do for the flock? Well, he doesn't just come around at fleecing times. He does it for the flock of God. He does it for the flock of God. He does it to feed his sheep and live the sheep of God. He does his own way. Well that's a shepherd, but he has also many other other ways of serving his sheep ... And we know a shepherd and a shepherd during the pastoral office is not really, but show up to a worship service each day. Well,

18:28 And the great model is Jesus Christ himself. You remember what he said about a true shepherd? He said, that man, you go out and you hire him to watch your sheep. One day the wolf comes and the guy says, five bucks a day ain't worth getting my hide torn.

18:43 Off he goes. He says, the hireling flees when the wolf comes. But he says, the good shepherd will do what? He will lay down his life for the sheep.

18:55 The first responsibility of a shepherd is to be bound up with his sheep in selfless, self-denying love in which he is willing to give his very life for the protection of the sheep.

19:15 And another great responsibility of the sheep as we think of it in terms of the scriptural concept, the shepherd is to lead the sheep into adequate pastures. Jesus said of himself, when he puts forth his sheep, he goes, he goes before them. In the 23rd Psalm, the great shepherd is viewed as leading the sheep into what? Into green pastures.

19:40 He doesn't lead them into nettles and thorns that are not nourishing and only hurt them. He leads them into lush pastures that they may feed upon that grass for their own nourishment. He leads them beside quiet waters or waters of quietness where they may drink to their refreshing. Now what does that mean in practical terms of a pastor?

20:05 It means that his great task is to be that kind of a shepherd for his people. To protect them from the weeds and the nettles and the thorns of false teaching. To guard them from those influences that would erode true spiritual health and well-being. To give himself at any cost for the good of his flock.

20:30 To risk even the affections of the sheep if necessary to help them and to guard them. He is to shepherd them. He is to be to them everything that a shepherd is to the sheep. But the second word used in the Ephesians 4 passage is teacher.

20:52 He has given pastors and teachers. You see, you move from figurative language to plain old everyday didactic language. By what means does a pastor shepherd his people? By what means does he lead them into green pastures?

21:10 By what means does he protect them from the wolves and from the nettles and the thorns? How does he do it? What instrument does he have? He has the word of God and the word of God alone.

21:24 He is to carry out the functions of a shepherd by means of the rod and staff of the sheep. Of this blessed book. And so the apostle Paul speaking to a young shepherd of souls says, Timothy, preach the word. The time will come when they'll heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

21:47 They won't want to hear truth. They'll want to hear smooth things. They'll want to be told, we're all God's children. God is all love.

21:56 There is no such thing as sin. There is no such thing as hell. There is no need. There is no need to take sin seriously.

22:05 There is no need to be born again of the Holy Spirit. No need to repent. No need to take seriously the death of Christ upon the cross. No need to take holiness seriously.

22:18 No need for all of this concern. All is well. No, no, my friends, a true shepherd will give people 16 ounces to the pound of this blessed book. He will preach the word.

22:32 Notice what Paul said. To a young shepherd, he didn't say, seek to get men to come to some common ground of agreement with you. He said, preach the word. And the word preach has bound up in it authoritative proclamation.

22:50 Thus saith the Lord.

22:55 And so true shepherds, true pastors, are pastors who shepherd by teaching. They give the saints, nothing but the wholesome food of the word of God. They are willing to be thought fools that they believe everything this book says. And they are willing to be thought a little bit light upstairs because they are convinced that when this Bible says to all men that they are sinners and they fell in Adam, he believes that literally and he tells his people.

23:33 And when he reads in this book, that Jesus Christ, whose gracious words amazed men, is the same Christ who spoke of outer darkness and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and who said, except men are born again, they'll never see the kingdom of God. He dares to believe that and to tell his people that. Not once in a while sneak it in so if you knew what it was, you'd catch it. No, no.

24:01 He lays it out openly, simply, clearly, earnestly and repeatedly.

24:10 And he does it with compassion. For you see, bound up in the whole concept of a shepherd is that he loves his sheep. And in his teaching as he lays out the truth of God and warns them concerning error and seeks to guard them, his great concern is to do so for the good of his sheep. You see, the entire word, the work of a pastor and a teacher can be summed up in two simple words.

24:41 Instructing and governing. That's the great work of a pastor. To instruct and to govern. To teach and to superintend, in the language of Peter, to take the oversight, not as a little tin god, but taking the oversight as a responsibility from the Lord Jesus.

Mutual Duties: Charge to the Pastor (Greg Nichols)

25:06 Well then, we hurry to consider, in the third place now and finally, in the light of the origin of the pastoral office. Its origin is to be seen as the gift of the ascended Christ. The essential duties of the pastoral office to govern and to teach, to be a shepherd and a teacher. Now, thirdly, what mutual duties arise from this teaching?

25:31 And here I want to speak, first of all, to Mr. Nichols. In the light of the origin and nature of the pastoral office, this says some very serious things to you, Greg. And then I want to address some remarks to the members of the Emmanuel Baptist Church.

25:50 And my exhortation to you, Greg, would break down into these several headings. First of all, in the light of the origin of this office, in the light of the basic tasks attendant upon this office, I solemnly charge you, Greg, to stand in awe, not of your people, but of your accountability to the living God. To stand in awe of your accountability to the living God. We read in Hebrews 13, 17, Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them, for they watch for your souls, as they that shall give an account. In a very real sense, Greg, though you've exercised for some two years a de facto oversight in the Emmanuel Baptist Church, were you to be summoned into the presence of God prior to tonight, you would not be held accountable to the same degree for the souls of those to whom you've ministered as you will be held accountable from this night forward. For the moment you are duly recognized as a gift of Christ and formally installed

27:18 as a pastor and teacher, there is now, if I may say it without being irreverent, a new piece of paper in the ledger that God keeps with respect to your life. There is a renewed dimension of accountability, and I charge you before God to stand in awe of that accountability, so that in the whole of your life and your ministry, everything will be governed by the reminder that that day will come when you will stand before the God who made you and who has placed you into this office. It will have a tremendous influence upon your honesty in terms of what you teach. When you come to those truths that you know may be unsavory to your people, it is the record and recognition that I shall stand before my God to answer. Did I give them the whole counsel of God?

28:23 It is only as you can stand with a conscience as did the Apostle and say, I take you to record this day I am pure from the blood of all men, I shun not to declare the whole counsel of God that you will be able to look forward to your day of accountability with joy. It will also have a tremendous influence in the manner of your teaching, not only the substance but the manner. You will give an account to the living God, Greg, for it is possible in the manner in which we live and teach to undo the substance of what we teach. This is why the Apostle Paul again and again laid emphasis upon the fact that his life and his manner were an amen to the content of his preaching. He could say our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost even as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sakes. And your accountability to God ever bearing down upon your conscience will be a prod to be faithful in the substance of your teaching, in the manner of your teaching in life and certainly in the whole area of your motives. The heart of a preacher can be stained with many many impure motives and few things are more calculated to keep the motives pure than to remember. I am on my way

29:51 to stand in the presence of Him before whom all things are naked and opened. And so I charge you Greg as one who this night is being recognized as a gift of Christ to this church to shepherd and to teach this people to remember and stand in awe of your accountability to God. But then secondly, I charge you to rejoice in and to draw upon your resources in God. For when we contemplate the nature of our tasks surely we must cry out with the Apostle Paul who is sufficient for these things.

30:34 And one of the greatest encouragements to a servant of God is to know in the language of 1 Corinthians 9-7 Paul said what soldier ever went forth with his own rations in other words when the army conscripts a man and sends him forth to battle. It's the responsibility of the government and the superiors who send him forth to provide his ammunition and his rations and all that is necessary for him to fight. And so likewise the Lord Jesus Christ does not form men into pastor teachers and send them forth and say do the best you can with what you've got. He promises His own presence. Lord I am with you always. He promises His spirit to all of His servants. He promises that there will be grace sufficient for every trial that will come upon you. And if you're to be a true minister of Jesus Christ Greg, God will see to it that again and again you are boxed in to the verge of a disaster. Where you will

31:41 be made to feel experimentally. Oh God I can't go on another day unless there is the infusion of grace and power from a source other than myself. For in the language of the great apostle when I am weak then am I strong. And the great instrument that God has given by which you will not only be reminded of your need but by which you will be enabled to rejoice in and to draw upon your resources in God is that instrument of all prayer.

32:18 And so I solemnly charge you Greg whatever else you become in the ministry may you become a man who learns what it is to wrestle with God in the secret place. For in a very real sense any triumphs wrought in the pew under your preaching are simply the mopping up operations of triumphs won in the secret place upon your knees before the living God. And then thirdly Greg I charge you not only to stand in awe of your accountability rejoice and draw upon your resources in God but I call upon you tenaciously to hold to the priorities of life and ministry given by God. Hold tenaciously to the priorities of life and ministry given you by God. Because every congregation is made up of people who have previously conceived images of what their padre ought to be. And if we could somehow paint a collage of what every individual thought their preacher ought to be it would be a very interesting thing.

33:35 And the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter and Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the prophets put together couldn't meet the standard of that collage. But almighty God who has called you has in his word laid out your priorities. First of all priorities with regard to your own life. You are to be as a man before God all that a Christian man ought to be regardless of his occupation. And you are never to allow the demands of the ministry to erode your functions as a husband and soon as a father and as a son and as a relative and as a neighbor. As a Christian man your life as a man is to evidence as Paul said to Timothy showing progress in grace. Give thyself to these things that thy own progress may be manifested unto all. Then of course with regard to your ministry grant may God grant Greg that his priorities may be yours. That

34:47 Christ will be the great and constant theme of your preaching. I determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him as crucified. That the whole counsel of God will be your goal in proclamation. Simplicity and clarity will be your manner.

35:05 There's an insult you ought to revel in Greg. And that insult is to have some proud self-righteous sinner come to a service and go out and say I'll never go back there again. Why that was so simple little children could understand. If that accusation is made glory in it. Revel in it.

35:25 And pray God that you will never get beyond speaking to the little ones. Speaking as Paul says in language that is simple. That is unadorned with all the flowery encumbrances of rhetoric. And is indeed a proclamation of Christ in all of his own native beauty and power. And then in your love for your people and how you express that love as a power in the pattern of your ministry. May God grant that you will adhere to the priorities of the scripture. But then I have a word to say to the Emmanuel Baptist Church. For this night you are in a very solemn position as well as a joyful position.

Mutual Duties: Charge to the Congregation (Emmanuel Baptist Church)

36:17 For with the gift of Christ of a pastor teacher come some responsibilities that you've never had before. Now in many ways you've already expressed some of these things but there's a sense in which that was gratis. You were under general obligations but now you come under specific obligations in these areas. Though we have many friends who are not members of the Emmanuel Baptist Church even as I look into your faces as I preach I'm going to be singling out the members and directing these words not only to your ears but as I speak them as I'm able to pick you out I will send them to your eyes as well.

37:01 And I solemnly charge the members of Emmanuel Baptist Church in the light of the teaching of the word of God, number one to receive this servant of God with humility and with thanksgiving. Why should Jesus Christ give to you the gift of a shepherd and a teacher? There are thousands of God's people in this country and around the world who've never once had the gift of a pastor teacher. Who have and who do this day struggle with no leadership of a Christ given pastor teacher. They do the best they can studying the word together, listening to tapes, having occasional speakers and I know of many such groups in my own regular correspondence and as I read periodicals from the mission fields, places the spirit of God is swept thousands into the kingdom and there is such a dearth of pastor teachers. Why, why in this little place in New Jersey for a relative handful of people, why should the ascended head of the church

38:28 by a discipline that is involved years form and shape and mold the gift of a pastor teacher and deposit him in your midst. I say receive this gift with humility and with thanksgiving recognizing that we had no claim upon the head of the church that we should have such a gift is all of his grace and in that recognition there will come the spirit of humility and then this next exhortation will be relatively easy to obey. I solemnly charge you not only to receive this gift with humility and thanksgiving but secondly to submit to him and his office with biblical intelligence submit to him and his office with biblical intelligence now what do I mean by that well I'm simply trying to articulate the truth of Hebrews 13 17 obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them you see there is no submission to the office without submission to the person who fills it obey them that have the rule over you that specific men in a specific office

39:56 but we obey them for the sake of the office but we are to obey them with biblical intelligence that is not with the ignorant superstition of the peasant in the little village down in South America who feels that the local priest holds his salvation in his hand and if he doesn't do what he is supposed to and be a good little peasant reverencing the priest the priest might lock his soul out of heaven by failing to say masses for him after he is dead now we are not calling upon you to render that kind of pagan superstition to Mr. Nichols he neither seeks that nor desires it but you are to render a submission that is marked by biblical intelligence that is as far as the word of God is expounded and the directives laid upon your conscience are the expression of the word of God then you are to submit to the one whom God has placed over you not only in public preaching but in private admonition so that when he comes to you and lays open from the word of God the standard of God either to encourage to admonish or to rebuke my friend remember who put him there Christ did

41:25 and your dealings with his servant will be regarded by the head of the church as your dealings with him Jesus said whosoever receives whomsoever I send receives me he that rejects whomsoever I send rejecteth me and I have met an awful lot of professing Christians in my 25 years in the ministry who very piously talked about loving the Lord Jesus and submitting to the Lord Jesus who probably never once submitted to a God appointed overseer when it pinched them where they needed to be pinched I solemnly charge you as a congregation to submit to this servant of Christ with biblical intelligence and for some of you who will be under Greg's ministry who are not saved oh do you see what God has done he has mercifully put a roadblock in your way to hell think of it God could let you plunge into hell with never confronting a preacher who preaches to your eyes and preaches to your conscience and preaches with earnestness and concern and compassion what a manifestation of love if God puts an earnest pleader in your path it's a roadblock on your way to hell

42:54 don't despise it don't despise such roadblocks but listen to the word that they bring you and then finally to the congregation I solemnly charge you not only to receive him with humility submit to him with biblical intelligence but pray for him with fervent prayer and love him with unfeigned love the greatest service you can render to a pastor teacher is the service you render for him on your knees before God or if not on your knees when your hands are in the dishpan and you're thinking about the church and your pastor and you say oh God bless him today as he wrestles with the word as he seeks to know your mind for the ministry of the Lord's day give him light give him understanding Lord as he's forming the arrows and putting them in the quiver Lord may there be some arrows for me Lord deal with me through his ministry in the name of Jesus Christ amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen

The Importance of Expressing Appreciation to Your Pastor

44:21 amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen I'm going to tell my own people this because it would sound like I was pleading for something for myself.

45:07 But you know, I think one of the biggest misconceptions people have about preachers is that if they say thank you, that word this morning met a need, that somehow he'll have a head as big as a dirigible the next day and he'll be spoiled with pride for the rest of his days.

45:27 Nothing could be further from the truth. You ladies here tonight, how would you feel if you labored off and on, really, for hours, thinking up a lovely menu you're going to have for some special guest and then you gave a good six or seven hours of specific labor to preparing everything from the way you were going to spread the table to the appetizer to the salad to the soup to the whole whips and your friend came with a smile and you welcomed at the door and they sat down and seemed to enjoy everything. Then they get up and they went home and they never so much, as once even grunted, something that could have even been remotely interpreted as thank you.

46:08 No note ever came the next week.

46:12 Deathly silence. You say, well, you know, everyone has a lapse of memory. Let's try again. So you have them over two weeks later.

46:19 And this time you even go to more pains and you spread a lovely table and they seem to enjoy it and they leave and they never so much as even grunt again to say thanks. Not even thank you formally. Not even so much as thanks. No note.

46:34 This goes on week after week. What do you begin to think about your friend? You begin to wonder, have I got a friend? Have I just got someone that likes to take advantage of my table?

46:46 I mean, what's it cost to say thanks? Just to say thanks.

46:52 And yet there are multitudes of God's people,

46:56 spiritually, by the hours of arduous labor of servants of God and never even say, thank you, dear man of God, for that which fed my heart. You wonder why men get discouraged. He doesn't want you to say, hey, you're another Dwight L. Moody or you're George Whitefield incarnate.

47:20 No, he doesn't want anything like that. He'd know you were lying if you said it anyway. You think he's a fool? He knows better than that.

47:30 But thank you. Loving with unfeigned love, communicating in every good thing, a hearty thank you. And when God's had, deep dealings with you through a peculiar message, how much time does it take to sit down and write a little note on the smallest kind of notepaper? I'm not talking about the big stuff, the real small stuff.

47:52 Dear pastor, God met me in a special way this morning through your ministry. And I've known a new measure of deliverance from an area of sin that's plagued me for years. Thank you for your labors. Love in Christ, one of your sheep.

48:09 I tell you, there are times when such a note from some of God's people has been worth more to me than if I received a note from the bank that someone had just put $10,000 to my account.

48:23 That's what you labor for. Oh, dear people of Emmanuel Baptist Church, show your love to God's servant. Love him with unfeigned love. And then show him that you love him by communicating in every good thing.

48:38 Not only meeting his monetary needs, that's relative. It's relatively easy. But by meeting the needs of that word of appreciation, that word of constructive criticism. You want to set him up so that he'll take criticism?

48:54 Say a few hearty, genuine thank yous before you come up and say, Pastor Nichols, there's something I'd like to talk. If the first thing you say that's specific is a negative criticism, you're setting yourself up for alienation. Because he's...

49:11 He's also a sinner like you are.

49:16 Now, this is not a matter of buttering him up. No. It's a matter of being genuine and sincere. And so I charge you as a congregation not only to receive him with humility and thanksgiving, submit to him with biblical intelligence, but to pray for him and to love him with unfeigned love.

The Blessedness of a God-Honoring Pastor-Congregation Relationship

49:38 And if God will give to grace, to grace to Greg, to heed the charge I've brought to him, ever to labor as under the eye of God, ever to labor in the strength of God, ever to labor by the standards of the word of God, and if he gives grace to you, the members of Emmanuel Baptist Church, ever to receive him with humility and thankfulness, ever to submit to him with biblical intelligence, ever to manifest your love in an unfeigned manner and fervently pray for him. There's only...

50:14 There's only one relationship next to the relationship of the soul to Christ that can exceed what will be your experience. It's the relationship of a God-honoring marriage that becomes richer and richer with each passing year. And the only thing that comes close to that is the relationship of a pastor-teacher with his people who dwell together within this framework of the word of God. Oh, that it may be your experience as a church, and God will be praised, his name will be honored, you will be blessed, and the work of God will advance.

Closing Prayer

50:54 May God grant it to be so. Let us all pray.

51:07 Our Father, we thank you for the scriptures without which we would stumble and constantly err in the most practical matters as well as in the most profound issues of life. We pray that the portion of your word which have been considered tonight may be written upon all of our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit and that these directives may be heeded by Greg as he assumes these responsibilities and by this congregation who receive this gift from your hand. Bless us then in these sacred moments in which we will formally engage ourselves in the relationship of God and the recognition of your servant as a gift of Christ to this people. We ask these mercies in the name of the Lord Jesus, the great head of the church. Amen.