Jump Start # 1634

Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”

Our verse today shows the relationship that the church is to have to her leaders. The leaders here would be the shepherds or elders. “Watching over your soul” is what overseers do. This is what the word “bishop” means. They are given the task of watching over. They are to protect, feed, and lead God’s people. The shepherd Psalms, Psalms 23, describes this vividly. The sheep were led to  quiet waters, green pastures, and even through the dark valleys, the shepherd was there. He was watching over the flock.

There is one expression in our verse today that is directed toward these leaders. The rest of the passage is directed toward the congregation. The shepherds will “give an account” of how they watched. Ezekiel 34, is a powerful reminder of what shepherds didn’t do back in ancient Israel and God was angry with them. There was plenty to do, but they didn’t do it. The flock suffered. Today, congregations suffer because leaders do not watch over the flock spiritually. They are too busy watching over the check book, the church building and bossing deacons around, that the church is dying and falling apart and they do not even see it.

It is to the congregation that this passage is addressed. There are four concepts here.

First, obey your leaders. It does little good to have leaders if there are no followers. The men in the position of leadership ought to be trusted, qualified, and have knowledge of what God wants them to do. Decisions must be made. Obey them. They want you to grow. Obey them. They need to feed you spiritually. Obey them. The spirit of radicals and rebels runs too often in some of our veins. We resist. We ignore. We fight. We disobey. We do what we want. In the home, this is disaster. Teenagers that ignore parents, coming in at whatever time they want, doing what they want, are on fast track to trouble. Little ones don’t want to go to bed when they should. Parents that cave in, soon learn that the kids call the shots, not them.

Why obey the leaders? Because they are qualified, experienced, spiritual and know what needs to be done. So, a special series of lessons are offered. Do you go? A special class is taught? Do you show up? We do what we want. Down the road, our little house starts to totter and fall because we do not have the faith to stand the storms of life. Our kids grow up weak and fall away. We do not have the love of Christ in our hearts. Why have we become this way? Unless we change, we fool ourselves into thinking we are Heaven bound, when actually, we have been disappointing and embarrassing God for a long time. It didn’t have to be this way. We simply wouldn’t obey. We did what we wanted. It took us away from God. The leaders know what we need. Do you obey?

Second, submit. We too often think that this word applies only to wives. It is used throughout the N.T. First, we are to submit to God. We are to submit to one another. We are to submit to the government. And here, we are to submit to the leaders of the church. Submission is an attitude. It differs from the first word, “Obey.” Obedience is the outward action. Submission is the inward attitude. A person can obey without submitting. He can fuss and hate it and complain the whole time. Many do that. They go to church services because they “have to.” They stay married because they “have to.” It’s the “have to” that compels them. If there was no “have to” then they would be gone. That’s obedience. Submission is changing your thinking. It’s bending your way for another. It’s “I want to do this, but I will decide to do what you want.” I may not want to at first, but I will be a team player and bend my will for you. We are to submit to the leaders. You may not want to go to services, but you will, because you know it’s the right thing. We have lost the spirit of submission. It’s all about “Me,” these days. If I don’t want to, then I won’t. If I don’t like it, then I’m not doing it. Me…me…me. Remember Jesus’ call for discipleship? If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. The denying self comes first. If we can get around self, we’ll never make it in the kingdom of God. Submit.

Thirdly, not obeying and not submitting brings grief to God’s leaders. One thing you notice as you walk through the Bible, God doesn’t like it when people take pot shots at His leaders. When rebels tried to take over and oust Moses, God opened up the earth and destroyed them. David understood that one does not touch God’s anointed. Among God’s leaders today, accusations are not to be made without two or three witnesses. Trash talking God’s leaders is wrong. This is done far too much today. We don’t like this down at the church house and before long, we are talking negative about the leaders. They don’t do this and they don’t do that. It can get real ugly. Kids hear what is being said. Is it any wonder that some would never want to be a leader in God’s church because of what they have heard growing up.

Grief to God’s leaders. It pains them when we are not doing what we should. They lose sleep at night. Their prayers are consumed with us. They want us to do well. They want us to grow and thrive in the Lord. They want us to have strong marriages. They want us to be shinning brightly for the Lord. Instead, we don’t show up half the time. Instead, we are doing what the world does. Instead, we fuss and fight and complain. The leaders grieve. Where did they go wrong? What can be done to get these people right with the Lord? Why are these people rebellious, weak or lukewarm? What needs to be taught? What needs to be preached? How can these people please the Lord as they are? Grief. Tears. Heartache. Good men torn to pieces because we are doing what we want to do. They pray more, care more and are doing more for our souls than we are. They want us to go to Heaven more than we do. These leaders want you to do great spiritually. Are you working with them?

Fourth, this would be unprofitable for you. This is where the selfish spirit and the heart of rebellion leads to. This is unprofitable for you. You are not getting away with disobedience and refusing to submit. You are not getting away with doing whatever you want to do. You are not getting away with marching to a different beat. You are about to get it and it won’t be pleasant. It will be unprofitable for you!

Two things may be implied here. First, because of your disobedience to the leaders and your refusing to submit to them, you are out of line with God. You will be disciplined. It may be a rebuke. It may be a public warning. It may be fellowship is broken. The guy who goes to church, but doesn’t obey nor submit, isn’t right. The leaders may have to lead the congregation in disciplining you.

Second, this is unprofitable for you because God isn’t pleased with this. Unless this course is turned, it will lead to being disciplined by God, especially at the judgment. This is a dead end road. This leads to missing Heaven. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus and do whatever you want, whenever you want. You have commitments and obligations both to God and His people. A married man cannot live as a single person. That doesn’t work. Neither can a disciple live like a person in the world. That choice comes with consequences. Those consequences are not profitable. They are not pleasant. They are not what you want to go through. Shame, embarrassment, and eventually eternity of Hell awaits those who will not obey and submit.

What we do can make the work of our leaders nice and easy or we can be a royal pain to them. We can be  profit from following the leaders or we can experience the pain of punishment for not following them. The leaders are cutting a path to Heaven. Why would we not want to follow them? Do we think there is a different way? There isn’t.

Obey. Submit. Make it pleasant for them and it will be pleasant for you.

Roger