The responsibilities of the elders

We're going to chapter 5 of 1 Peter and the responsibility of the elders. So if I have someone read the first four verses of chapter 5, and actually you can read them off here. If you have a handout, you can read them off there, but you don't have a handout. So you can read it off here or you can read it off here in the Bible if you like.

The elders who are among you I exhort. I am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Well, if you notice in here, there's a couple of key words here. We're going to actually, there's a point there. I can't quite actually see it all that well. Oh, there we go. Okay, good. I exhort, exhort is a key word here.

And shepherd, those are a couple of key words in this passage. He first kind of talks about in verse one, he talks about how that he's kind of really interesting. He's a fellow elder, which is kind of cool. And then he talks about shepherding the flock of God. And he has basically four contrasts there. And then he kind of finishes up this little section with comparing the ministry of the elders to the ministry of the chief elder or the chief shepherd. And that's kind of an interesting thing too.

So let's go ahead and we'll look at Okay, so I found this, I used Macaulay, a fair mountain constable, a couple of the folks we used. Macaulay had, he went through and he kind of pointed out some of the words that aren't really scriptural, like clergy is not necessarily scriptural. So let's concentrate on the words that are scriptural. He had a list of ones that were not scriptural. Reverend, I know that was reverend. You'll find reverend. Go ahead. Somebody said pastor? Actually pastor is scriptural.

So anyway, he has three categories here. So let's look at the first one. The first one is Elders or Presbuteros, which means literally one advance in age. So I get to qualify for that just because I'm old, right? But hopefully a person as they get older gets more mature. That's a desire. And that's God's desire too. You can think as we mature in his word, that can be irrespective of your physical age. But the word literally means advance in age. The second one is this word overseer, escapas. which means one who oversees.

Actually, what's interesting is, I did a little search. Bishop is a word for Episcopal. I get my Greek words back in a little bit. In my Bible, I could not find the word Bishop used. Overseer is used exclusively. I want to show you the other translations, but Bishop is not used. Overseer is used.

Meaning one who oversees a title, emphasizes a function, like we're going to see. The function of the leader, basically. And we're going to see that, and let's get down to the other one. And the other one is, the third one is pastor, teacher. And that's kind of sizing the idea of shepherding. The word pastor is actually another possible translation for shepherd in some passages. And then the word also about teaching. So those are the three words that are used in scripture. So in this passage, we're going to, actually, that is the word.

I didn't realize that when he did that. He zoomed in for me. I hope I can zoom out. OK, so the first part of verse one, Jim, would you mind going upstairs? You know where the office is? I think so. I think they may have forgotten us. Because I think it's been 10 minutes.

Thank you. So the first part is, therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder. So we're going to look at that phrase. So the first part, he refers back to the previous section of scripture in 1st Peter. And I kind of have it on the handout. Actually, this is kind of good. You guys can't see what it is. This is cool.

Why do you think, what's a therefore therefore? That's been said many times. So why does he say therefore? He's summing something up. We had the first four chapters of 1 Peter, now he says therefore, and he's going to address this section to the elders among you. So why is it therefore, therefore?

And you know, just whatever occurs, you know, I really have you just kind of off the top of your head. Well, what do you think? Well, before we were talking about suffering. OK. OK. Good. Good. Exactly. Well, it seems like before I show you the next part of that, the handouts are coming, Tom. So you haven't missed anything.

It seems like that Peter's concerned that these people in Asia, Asia Minor, are undergoing severe trials and suffering. And he wants the elders involved in that. He wants to encourage them to be part of this. And that's why he says, therefore, based upon all I told you about what's going on here, and how you're going to go through these trials and suffering, I want the elders among you to do their job, basically. I'm going to encourage them to do their job. So that seems, actually I have a quote here. from Kosovo, he says, in view of the inevitable trials, Peter gave a special charge to the elders, overseers of the congregations of his readers. So this is a special little section to say, hey, times are tough.

You need to do what God is calling you to do, basically. So he exhorts the elders among you. Exhort is a main verb, like I pointed out in this section. And the direct object is the elders. Notice it's plural. There's more than one elder. Elders among you.

And so let's just go on to the next section up here. Exhort is the idea to admonish, exhort, to urge, to pursue someone, to pursue some course of action. And I have a couple of verses in there that we could look at. So could we look at, someone will read Philippians 4, verse 2.

I urge Yodia and I urge Sintiji to live in harmony with the Lord. Sintiji? I know, so I gave you the hard one. Yeah, you gave me the hard one. Live in harmony with the Lord. So this is a word of encouragement. This is not like a rebuke. This is just urging you. In this case, in the Philippians passage, he's urging these two people, two ladies, I believe, to live in harmony, live together in harmony. And that's something that Peter is about. Let's live in harmony here. And he's urging the elders, let's you know, let's do what God has called us to do. So that's kind of the sense we get here. So there's a couple of passages that maybe carry that along.

First Thessalonians 4.10. In fact, we labor and strive for this, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, especially of those who believe.

OK. Here's just a little bit. Strive. Yes, I think strive is the word. Yeah, I think you're right. Your scripts read and suffer reproach. Yeah. Strives. Yeah. Actually, let me just see here. Yeah. Your street's just a little minor. Mine has urge again. And for 10 says, yeah, I see. For indeed, you. Did you talk about Macedonia in your passage?

First Thessalonians 4.10? No. Okay.

Well, this is First Timothy 4.10. I have the obvious one for you. It says for indeed. Okay, let's go back to 9.

First Thessalonians 4.9 and 10.

Now, as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for yourselves are taught by God to love one another. For indeed, you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more."

So here's a case where they're already practicing that, and he's saying, I want you to continue and even go beyond that. Yeah, thanks so much. Absolutely. Yeah. The Christian says we encourage you. We encourage you brothers to do so. Right. Actually, we're encouraged. Encouragement is another possible synonym for this Greek word. Now I have one more. Great, thanks.

In 1 Corinthians 4.16. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. Is that the one you thought? Okay, that's good. Actually, beseech is what, you know. It sounds a little stronger. It's how certain words sound stronger. If I said, I encourage you to be bothersome to me, beseech sounds the strength of that. It's interesting. The inner linear says beseech.

Is that right? OK. It's almost as strong as exhort. Right. Well, and that actually isn't, you know, exhort is, you know. So context is important always. I, Peter, exhort the elders among you, and this is really cool, as your fellow elder, who was Peter, and what was his standing in the body of Christ? It's impossible. It's amazing. He doesn't look at himself as being exalted. He says, I'm coming to you as just a brother. I'm involved in leadership, you're involved in leadership. Here's what I want to tell you. I want to encourage you to do this. He doesn't say, watch out, a good guy is coming. But you also know that he's an apostle because he was a witness.

Exactly. And actually we're going to see that. A co-presbyter, a co-elder. Right, exactly. That word actually is fellow is co. Peter saw himself as a co-elder with them. Pretty amazing. And actually, Weiss kind of picked up on that. And he kind of rearranged it a little bit. The elders, therefore, who are among you, I exhort you, I who am your fellow elder. Which I thought, I like that. I like the Wiest rendering of that. You know, Wiest tries to take the original in the birdcage and put it into the text.

And that's why I like to use him a fair amount. OK. Roger, I don't get the idea that any of the apostles thought anything more of themselves, even though they were They were gifted by special powers. They were just human beings. Especially Peter. It seems like Paul sometimes. Because of necessity sometimes, he would say, this is not me speaking. It's not him a little stronger sometimes. I can't really quote you a verse for that. Of course we have so much more writing to follow. We have all the books in the New Testament just about.

But even he, these people wanted to sacrifice a bull to them because they thought he were God. They ripped their clothes, went down amongst the people and said we're just human beings just like you. And he saw himself as the chief of sinners too. He didn't have a high view of himself in terms of his humanity.

Now we're going to get into this next part. He's going to talk about himself as a witness of the sufferings of Christ. What's interesting here is, it's going to be more than just seeing. It's more than just, if you say I was a witness to that car accident. Or if you had to go to a trial and you came before the judge, we're going to see that it's more the idea that you are making an official statement about what you witnessed. That seems to be more the thrust of what's going on here. A witness of the sufferings of Christ, he calls himself a witness, martus, a word that refers to an official witness, in this case, Because of what we see in scripture, the basic word doesn't have this, but called to testify by God.

The Lord had people to testify for him. If you look at the early church, you have Peter, Paul, Barnabas, all those different men, and many others as well. God called them in the ministry to testify for him. So that's what's being said here, as a witness of the sufferings of Christ. And there's some kind of cool verses here. And they refer to his witness when he talks about that.

So let's look at, could someone read in Acts chapter 3, I want to read 12-15, Acts chapter 3, 12-15. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him wrong? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the daughter of fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release them.

Another verse? Yeah, down through 15. OK. But you disown the holy and righteous one and ask for a murderer to be granted to you. But put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. Right. So the very last part kind of speaks to the fact that we are witnesses. In a sense, he's giving a witness right now. He said, I was a witness, and he's giving a witness by testifying to what happened. What happened when Christ died on the cross.

And then he does that again later on in Acts. And that's the next section. Acts 10. And this is through the Gentiles this time. Acts chapter 10. There's actually one handout left. I think we didn't make quite as many as we should have this week. Acts chapter 10 verses 39, 38, 39. And we actually could go back even farther than that. Could someone read 38, 39 in Acts 10?

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses of all the things he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put him to death by hanging him on the cross.

Right, okay. So once again, he's witnessing in his words as well as testifying to the fact that he was a witness. Eyewitness. Go ahead. Isn't could more to speed. Translated as murder also. Yes. I didn't search that. I put those in. I'm not sure I searched that out enough. And that is interesting. I don't know. You don't have it easily here. I do. I don't have I don't have it. And I'm going to check that out. Yeah. Witness. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. OK. Well, I didn't know that I was looking through here, but I didn't have the time to go on that path. I just kind of took it with that and kind of ran with that.

And it could be sometimes it's interesting, though, the original word and how it's used and the original meaning. is not necessarily how it's used in that context. So witness seems different than martyr. Or you could argue by being a martyr you're a witness. You could argue that at some level possibly. Cheryl, do you have something? In the Greek, it's a martus and it's a noun masculine of uncertain affinity. A witness literally, judicially, or figuratively genitive case by analogy a martyr.

The first part is what I saw as an official witness. That's what I was interested in. Because Peter, the passages in Acts really demonstrate that he was God's official witness. So that's good. You're right. So actually a martyr is a witness. A lot of people come to Christ by seeing martyrs how they die. Right. That's good. Started out as a coward, but he turned around and the Lord blessed. And we're going to see more and more Peter. I'll bring this down. Because the Lord asked him to shepherd his sheep. We're going to see that in part two. That fits in really well here as well.

So we talked about this, the word witness. And this is why I was counting. The word does not refer to an act of seeing, but to an act of testifying to what has been seen. Peter is not merely claiming to have seen the crucifixion, but to have been retained to give testimony concerning what he had seen. And if you think about that, we have in scripture, we have men and women that are there to testify to what God wants to tell people. And we are the same, in a sense, we are the same way. By us coming to know the Lord, we are then witnesses and we can testify to what God has done in the same way. In that first part, where it says, a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed, that would strike me that that Peter was talking about the transfiguration, that he was awakened to that, as well as the suffering.

Okay, that's a good point. Right, and actually I didn't actually think, I'm not sure I actually went down that path, but that's a good point. He did see the transfiguration. But he also saw the resurrection, which counted far more toward him personally. Right. That's a good point. Peter was eyewitness to the entire picture. He's also going to be able to share in the glory. Right. Exactly.

As a believer. So we're going to see the next part here. And a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed. Let's do this. OK. Partakers, this idea of having in common, having in common is used as a noun to denote a partner, a companion. So there's another parallel verse I think that kind of speaks to that. And we've covered it in the past. There's actually a couple in the last week.

1 Peter 4.13 says, But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also, at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exultation. So as a point out, a partaker, a having in common.

So the gospel says here, he himself has participated in the sufferings for Christ's sake. One point is that Peter suffered as we suffer, right? As Christians. So he suffered as Christ suffered, right? And that's actually just what we looked at. He testified to that. Actually, this is kind of a repeat here. I apologize for that. Well, Peter did share in Christ's sufferings because they were beaten, they were flogged. Exactly.

Unfortunately, I didn't actually have that up here and I probably should have gone that direction. But actually, that's what all believers, and we kind of covered that in the list of sufferings that a believer has that will suffer for Christ's sake because We have been identified with Christ and as He suffered, we will suffer because we are identified with Christ. So when he talks here about a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed, I saw it also as looking at the fact that Christ is the first fruit. as heroes and movement partakers of that. So there's actually several different approaches I could have taken.

Anyway. And I like yours about the fact that he was witness to the glory. Fiscally, he saw that. But it seems like in both his situations here, it's more than just seeing. It's beyond that. It's deeper than that. Other thoughts about this? I think sharing is more meaningful than partakers. Right. That's a good point.

We don't suffer physically here in the United States. We're not persecuted. We still suffer emotionally and mentally. We have problems. People don't like us because we're Christians sometimes. That is a weak form of suffering, but it's still suffering. Yeah, it is. And that's something that we're blessed with that in this time period in church history we're not, here in our country, we're not. But we see the winds of change.

I mean, it's just amazing how quickly things, if we think of our lifetime, how quickly things about God's word and about so many other areas, about Christians, how Christians almost become a bad word. Where at one time, a Christian gentleman, a Christian lady was considered, that was pretty, you know. That was wonderful, but times have changed and that's not the case. What happens the next step? It goes beyond that. It's not that we just don't like you. We see a little bit of that too. You're hypocritical, you're biased in the world's view. And that may come. It probably is coming.

I don't know, some of you are going to remember that, but when Bob was president of the American Heart Association, there were many emails that were sent to the American Heart Association from around the world of people who saw that he was a Christian, and how could a Christian be credible as a scientist? And that was 10 years ago. And they tried to get him, you know, the American Heart Association to dismiss him as president of the Heart Association. So that was happening 10 years ago from around the world. Wow. Interesting. So, you know, it is here. No, it is. It's easy to see it's here. It's just that we don't, you know, Every day we don't experience that, but I think what you said is right. The winds of change are in the air.

Right, and we see more and more that people will discredit us because you're a Christian. You can't have the right view of things. You're going to view it wrong. you're going to view something as right or wrong according to God's word you're going to say that's right and that's wrong you can't do that everything is right there's no right or wrong and then I think back on that Old Testament quote you shall not follow a multitude to do evil and it's coming Well, yeah, right away if you're a Christian, you believe in creation, you don't believe in evolution, so it dismisses. And a whole other series of topics. You're assumed guilty immediately. Well, you can't judge rightly because you're a Christian.

You think that's wrong. Well, you know, that can't be wrong. I want to do that. That can't be wrong. I talked to a young man last night who is a millennium. OK. Millennium. Millennialist. Yeah, right. No, no, a millennium. So he is of that generation. Tell me, what age bracket? These are people under 35. Under 35, ok thank you. And so he was telling, we were talking about, he was from out of town. And he was asking me about the marijuana thing in Colorado. He's from Chicago.

And he said, well you know, when the millenniums take over the country, Well, because they will. They'll be the people in office. They will be the people who run corporations and run the city and county state governments and are elected to offices. And that's what he meant. We're talking about political things. And he said, well, you know, when the millenniums take over, the world is really going to change.

The U.S. is going to change because we don't care about drugs. We think it's fine for people to have drugs. We think it's fine for same-sex marriage. We think it's fine for any kind of marriage. I mean, this is, and truly, that is what is coming. It's coming. And I, you know, Bob and I have talked about this, golly Moses, in our lifetime, we never thought that we would see this kind of shift. in true thinking. It was a fringe, but it's not going to be a fringe. No, I agree with you. It is coming.

Actually what's interesting is I work in the defense business for the Air Force. And they even recognized it. And there's a show called Defense News. You can watch it on TV. I don't have cable. Well, my son has cable, but I don't have cable. Anyway, on this Defense News program, they're talking about the millennials and how they're going to change what we view as our enemies in the world.

We, having grown up through the Cold War and stuff, Russia, China, Millennials don't see them as being that big a threat. Their heads in the sand, but never mind. Maybe they see terrorists as a threat, but it's even not clear they see terrorists as a threat. It's just they have such a naive view of what is a threat. And so even the people outside of Christianity, they recognize the millennials have a different view about the rest of the world.

And so what the defense industry is concerned about is, well, if they don't think we have any real enemies, we're not going to have any business. We're not going to be building. I mean, this is kind of a very self-focused, I want to build stuff for the government. And they know that's their business.

But they realize that Who's our enemy? And to us, most of us would say, I think I know who our enemies are. We'd probably name the terrorists and certain world powers that are intent upon destroying people and hurting people. But they don't necessarily see all those as being that bad.

But you know, biblically, we've been told this. Exactly. I mean, this is not a big surprise, but I guess we just didn't think We kept thinking it was going to be far down the road, and it's not that far. And if we live a long time, we're going to see this. Well, let's go on some more encouraging words here. We're supposed to encourage one another, right? Until we see the day approaching? Well, but that's the idea. This is not our home. No, absolutely. And more and more we're realizing this is our home. OK, so let's get into this section.

This is kind of cool about shepherding the flock of God, shepherding the flock of God among you. And shepherd is poimano, to act as a shepherd. There's kind of two ways. There's a noun form, and then there's the act of actually shepherding. To act as a shepherd, from poimen, a shepherd, the Greek word, which literally means to shepherd, includes the duties of Tending, feeding, guiding, guarding.

And then here's a couple of lengthy passages I want to read here. But just before we start, let's see here. What I find interesting, and this is shepherding issues in the sense, obviously we're not shepherds. As an elder, we don't have a bunch of sheep outside. We're making a metaphor, is that right?

Obviously we are applying those ideas of feeding, guiding and so on to the body of Christ or the people that are involved in a certain church or whatever. So let's look at John 21. This is where Christ talks to Peter. John 21. I'm going to read just a little bit more than what I have down there. Let's just read John 21, 15 and 16.

So when they had died, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, I knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee, he said unto him, feed my sheep. And he said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Jesus, Peter, was grieved, because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee, Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. He just keeps using the word love, love, love. There's a whole pattern there with filio and that kind of stuff, which I'm right now going to overlook at the moment. But notice in all three verses, there's a different word, I think, actually.

Lamb is a one, lambs, plural, is a one that's in 15. Does someone else have another translation that has a different word than lambs? in verse 15. It's translated lambs if the word is arnea. Right. And then sheeps, I believe that's a different word, right? Yeah, it says little sheep under the subscript word for word. Right.

So he even does a little thing with the lambs and the sheep. Shepherd my sheep, tend my sheep, So that's basically his direction to Peter and then Peter is basically, you know, telling this to the elders among us, he wants to shepherd the flock of God. And he's going to talk about some of the things, some of the contrasts. They shouldn't be doing it for certain reasons. But basically, they're to shepherd the flock of God. And then the other passage, which is kind of interesting, is in Acts 20, Acts 20, 28.

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his ivory. So we see here, and this is an interesting thing, that God is in control of the, if we are following scripture properly, God is in control of the leadership, right? And God is living his life through the body, so God is in control at the top and at the working level, so to speak. So it says, The Holy Spirit has made you overseers. And then it's, I was saying, it's Christ's life in you, so Christ is living out his life. So he's involved in the leadership, and he's involved, rightly, in the body of Christ, living out that life. It's interesting in that John passage, and I wish I'd looked this up.

In 15 and 17, there's different words for speed. That's speed, and then there's shepherd, and in this verse, it's shepherd. Although the King James translates it. Shepherd, there is a there is a pattern there. And as many times you find, I don't know if they're used in the same sense or not. But it'd be interesting to look it up and see. There is possibly a little bit more information there. I saw that as I was going through, but it was one of those things.

As Tom said, there's the thing going on with love in there. That's an interesting thing to track. Then there's the thing with sheep. Sheep and lambs are in there too. A couple of different things that are going on in that passage. That's pretty cool. So then Macaulay actually had a little summary thing. He kind of grouped some of these ideas here, grouped some of the functions.

He said the two basic ideas contained in shepherding are the idea of protection and provision. They talk about exercising the gifts, but let's just go back to the protection part. The guarding comes under protection. Provision is feeding, guiding. So you can kind of, you know, if you look at, if you look at your, you know, you'll see that you're tending, feeding. So he tries to kind of divide up those things. So protection idea and provision idea.

And then he talks about the fact that the exercise, that requires maturity, spiritual gifts, maturity, and authority. And he has three passages here, one in Timothy about gifts, and another part of Timothy about maturity, and a part in Titus about authority. So I thought we should read those. So let's turn to 1 Timothy 4. I'll just go ahead and read these. 1 Timothy 4 verses 14 and 15. It says, Do not neglect spiritual gifts within you which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterances or laying on of hands by the Presbytery, or mine has a little note, Board of Elders. Take pains with these things be absorbed in them so that your progress may be evident to all.

So first of all he talks about the fact that utilization of your spiritual gifts, so they are gifted in man basically, then maturity kind of comes about in 15. Take pains with these sayings, actually that's not as evident. I thought the word maturity was in there. Yeah, I thought the word maturity showed up in that. And then in Titus 2, Titus 2 and verse 15, it says, These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority, let no one So he talks about the authority there.

These passages are talking about the leadership in the church. Okay, so there's actually three contrasts that follow. So I'm just going to go through this quickly. The first contrast is exercising oversight. Oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily. So here's just serving as an overseer. And the focus here is more on the duties discharged, not that you have this office here.

And he talks about the fact that it's voluntarily, according to the will of God, and you're not doing it because somebody is twisting your arm, or because somebody says, you know, I think you would make a nice leader in this body or whatever. It's to be voluntarily, willingly, It should be something that you desire to do. The consul has, first he should serve willingly as opposed to grudgingly. God wants us to perform any service for him willingly.

Elders should not serve because they feel they must do so because of some external pressure, but because they desire to serve God. So that's the first contrast. The second contrast is not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, being ready and willingly.

As an elder should serve zealously and enthusiastically as opposed to selfishly. He should not serve for what he can get out of the ministry now, but for the love of his Lord. The gain one could derive from elders ministry includes honor in the church as well as possible financial gain. He talks about some passages that talk about that they receive double honor, which seems possibly to refer to some kind of payment or some kind of money involved in that. So it's not for sordid gain, but willingly.

And the third one is not to lord over those allotted to your charge. And lord over, as that is, is to speak of ought. and of bureaucratic rule over the flock, which is forbidden of true shepherds. And with this idea of an example, that kind of showed up in other passages we read. Elders should lead and give an example of godly living that others can follow rather than driving people forward with authoritarian commands.

And then the last part, which I think is kind of cool, and here's a part that I always have liked, and I feel it takes some of the pressure off. Because I'm not, you know, I'm the under shepherd. I like that word under. Because it takes, just like, in a way, if you think about it, if Christ is going to live his life through you, then in a way, you can relax. I mean, if you trust him, and focus on him, that's what he wants. I think it's the same with the chief shepherd and the elders and the under-shepherds. He wants the under-shepherds to be dependent upon him and to let him work through them and the body they're in charge of. And then talks about receiving an unfading crown of glory And I don't think too much about that really. It's not on my mind hardly ever.

But essentially it's this fabled flower that didn't fade away. It must have been kind of a cool flower. I actually didn't look that up to see what that was but it would be kind of interesting. A flower that doesn't fade away. Most flowers do it seems like at some point. And the crown is the Faunus crown. crown of victory, athletic games, also for festivals, marriage feasts. So that's a quick, and like I mentioned before, read the policy manual and if you want more in depth coverage of elders and deacons and the rest of it, it's in section 2.

All right, let's close in prayer. We thank you, Father. We thank you so much, Lord, for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. We thank you for your word that tells us so much about your desire, your desire in your body, your desire in every aspect of life, Father. Your desire in suffering, in trials and tribulations. We thank you, Lord, that you remain ever faithful, and we thank you that we can trust you in all things. We ask it in your Son's name. Amen.