Beware of Wolves Among You

In Acts 20, Paul models what a church pastor should be by speaking directly to the elders in Ephesus. He tells them how he’s pastored, inviting them to follow his example in humility, service, vulnerability, and courage. He also warns them that, should they neglect their calling, the people they shepherd will be vulnerable to wolves. For us today, being a part of a church means submitting ourselves to the guiding and guarding of the spiritual authority placed over us. It also means we are on guard against Satan and his schemes as he threatens to sabotage the church with deceit and manipulation. By maintaining a posture of humility and by fixing our gaze on Jesus, we can become fruitful people who resist the schemes of the Enemy and bring the goodness of the gospel to the world around us.

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 What do you expect from your pastor? Now don’t shout it out and don’t text me yet. But what do you expect from your pastor? Throughout the history of the church has actually been different answers and it’s pretty fascinating to study that. I’m about to show you kind of the way people divide the eras of the churches in four categories.

And so I want to use those. Now, these are caricatures. You can find evidence of, you know, otherwise, but generally speaking, I want to show you of the four eras, the four expectations people have had of their pastors. So, of course, we have to begin with the early church. The early church expected their pastor to be the one who is executed.

Most of the time, the government would crack down on Christianity, not by just martyring the whole church. That’s okay. It’s literally messy. What they would do instead was find the pastor and publicly humiliate him. And if need be, execute him to spark fear in everybody else to stop following him. The way.

And so today, you know the temptation is to become a pastor. Maybe you’ll get a book deal, maybe you’ll get popular on YouTube. Back then, you really didn’t want the job unless the Lord called you to it. ’cause it was actually pretty likely you were gonna die among them And history is like St. Peter, who is not only killed for his faith, but church history says what?

He was crucified upside down. So that was the early church expectation. Lead the way in dying for us, just how Jesus died for us. The Middle Ages is always a fun era to study. The Middle Ages expected their pastor to be the exorcist. They wielded the power of the spirit. Back then, certainly more than now, they understood the spiritual realm.

They would use phrases like magic and know that those kind of things actually And just to kind of peek into the window of the psyche of a middle, of the person in the middle ages. I’m about to say a middle aged man, but that’s a totally different psyche. But in the middle ages is, they only took communion once a year.

And that’s because they actually, they were so scared of the passage in the Bible that talks about If you take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, you can die. And so people are like, maybe I’m doing it in an unworthy manner. They really believed. They really kind of saw the priest or the pastor as having all sorts of power.

And so they were really in fear of it. In the 1100s, for example, you have Thomas Beckett. You likely learned about him in high school. He famously Famously opposed King Henry ii. And as a result, of course, he was murdered in 1170, but 50 years after his death, they decided to take his bones as a relic in a church setting and you can come and pay money.

And they would say, if you touch these bones, you’ll receive the power of the spirit that was manifest in Thomas. Beckett. Weird and strange to the modern ear, but this is what they believed back then. So, of course, those were the type of expectations they had on their pastor. Now, the Reformation, which began with Martin Luther, the Reformation expected their pastor to be the expert.

Because of the Gutenberg Press, because we were able to print out so many books, and people were largely, vastly increasing their, uh, readability, This, the pastor was supposed to wield the power, not so much of the spirit, but of the mind. The pastor should be the expert in every room. They should be the most educated.

Think Jonathan Edwards in the 1700s. He would literally be so educated. He would just preach from a manuscript. And people would just be so amazed by his knowledge. He would study 12 hours a day. His diet included peppers and jalapenos throughout the day to keep him awake, so that he was studying as long as he could.

And so in this era, it wasn’t so much an emphasis on the demonic world like it was in the Middle Ages. It was the world of the mind, and the pastor should be brilliant as a result. Now we have the modern age. The modern age expects their pastor to be the executive. Think CEO. Sure, there’s a time where we expected the pastor to wield the power of the spirit, and even a time where they expected to wield the power of the mind, which I still think we have to a degree.

But more than anything, it seems to be, we expect pastors to wield the power of the market. To be the most strategic among us, to understand building plans, and how to market your ministry, and to multiply campuses. Now, not all of this is bad, I’m just saying this is the expectation. The megachurch movement, which really gained steam in the 90s, changed what we all define as success in ministry.

And as a result, pastors are putting on that pressure. Sermons have to be way more practical. Don’t dive too much into theology. Your authority depends on how big of a room you can gather. If you are a small church pastor, you’re probably not worth listening to because bigger is always better. It’s no wonder that pastors are quitting at an alarming rate.

In the last year, Barna did some research. It says 65 percent of pastors feel lonely. Over half of pastors have considered quitting in the last year and in just my conversations, I promise you that’s true. And this is what really saddens me the most. This week, I have the honor and privilege to speak actually at our state convention for the Southern Baptist in Arizona.

And my charge is to give a charge to all the pastors in the room to encourage them. And so I’ve been studying these numbers a little bit more than normal. And it just, this is so sad to say, and I hate this, but Apparently, as of last year, Barna Research concluded one in five pastors have considered self harm or suicide in the last year.

Pastors are exhausted from all of these expectations. So the question I want to ask, should we even impose these expectations to begin with? And throw our opinions aside, what does the Bible say pastors should be and do? And that’s why we’re in Acts chapter 20. Now here’s what’s fascinating about Acts chapter 20.

It’s, all of Acts is filled with speeches and sermons, and this is the only one where the speech is actually directed to the church, to the elders of the church. So this is a saint speaking to fellow saints. Everywhere else that Luke records, he wants to record those sermons and speeches to non believers.

So that’s just interesting, something to keep an eye on. And Paul here is on his third and final missionary journey. He’s a lot older than when we first began when we talked about him in Acts chapter 9. And he’s deeply concerned for the church. He seems very emotional, and we’re about to see why in verse 17.

Now from my latest, he’s sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders. So we’re actually talking about the Ephesian church. We’ve talked about the last two Sundays. This will be our third. When they came to him, he said to them, You know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plot of the Jews.

We’ve been learning a lot about those plots, remember? The Jews keep following him and causing riots and trying to stone him for preaching the gospel message. Verse 20, You know that I did not avoid proclaiming to you anything. that was profitable, or from teaching you publicly, think like a Sunday gathering here, and from house to house, think our vernacular together groups.

I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. And now I am on my way to Jerusalem compelled by the Spirit, notice the Trinity right there, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, except That in every town, the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me.

So why does he keep going? Well, but I consider my life of no value to myself. My purpose is to finish my course or to finish the race and the ministry I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. And now I know that none of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will ever see me again.

Therefore, I declare to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, because I did not avoid declaring to you the whole truth. Plan of God now, there’s a lot that we just read. Let me just highlight a few key phrases Paul is making here So Paul is talking about how he was an elder in Ephesus And now he’s preaching to other elders saying here’s notice my conduct how I lived Therefore you live the same way such as verse 19.

It says serving the Lord with all humility Those are two really important phrases first of all serving the Lord It’s very helpful for elders or we would use the modern day phrase pastors same thing You pastors ultimately have to remember, I am here, Pastor Caleb’s here to serve the Lord. We’d love to serve the church, but our ultimate loyalty and allegiance is to the Lord himself.

And then it says, with all humility. I love C. S. Lewis’s definition of humility. Have you heard it before? It’s, humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less, right? It’s putting others above the interests of your own. And Paul has modeled that time and time again. And then he also says with tears, which I think just shows how vulnerable Paul was willing to get.

We’ve been talking about how he was, uh, admitting his weaknesses to the church in Corinth. He’s obviously doing the same here in Ephesus. So first of all, that kind of tears down our modern understanding of a pastor who’s great and mighty. No, he’s weak and humbled and like we are nothing without the Lord.

And he’s willing to show his tears, which I think reminds me. The pastoral task is not just a job where you clock in and clock out. It is a calling, and it’s a whole way of life. In verse 20, I also want to highlight, he says, He did not avoid proclaiming to you anything that was profitable. This is why we preach the whole counsel of God.

It’s why we believe in the whole Bible, not just bits and pieces of it. We often like to say, you know, when you, um, what do I often like to say? I, I forgot it. When you pick and choose what to follow, you have a faith that’s fake and hollow. So that’s why Paul says in verse 26, I’m actually innocent of the blood.

I don’t have judgment because I told you everything. It’s your job to respond to it or not. Okay. So that’s a lot. Again, Paul is saying this to elders because the elders or pastors need to be doing this. So, with all that to say, just what we read in those 10 verses, what is Paul saying about the expectations we should have of pastors, not just for Ephesus, but even the church today?

Well, here’s the first one. As an elder, the pastor serves the church by guarding his heart. Elder here actually implies character. Anytime you see, this is why we say elder’s qualifications. Now today we think elder as in older in age, which certainly can also be the case, but also elder means older in maturity.

So hopefully a pastor, they can be in their 20s, but they need to have maturity beyond their years. They need to be able to withstand the pressures of ministry and not cave into temptations of the devil or accusations of the devil. This is why he tells the lead pastor of Ephesus, which is Timothy, in the letter, 1 Timothy, several years later after writing Acts 20, he says, pay close attention to your life and your teaching.

Notice how he equates both of them. Some of us, we, pastors are only known for preaching good sermons, but do they preach a good life, right? It’s very important. They need to guard their heart, persevering these things for in doing this, I love this line, you will save both yourself and your hearers. So in other words, I want to save as many people as possible.

The job for me is to teach the whole counsel of God, but also to practice it. And in so doing, I not only save and sanctify myself, but those who hear. Some definitions of pastoral leadership that are among my favorite. One is by Ruth Haley Barton. She says the following, she says, the best gifts you can give to the people you lead is your own transforming self.

I love that so much. Ultimately, I know my confidence is first of all in Christ alone. But if I am pursuing him, I can have a bad Sunday where I’m not preaching very well. That’s fine. What’s actually more important is am I and our pastors, are we living out the gospel? Another great, uh, quote is from Robert Murray, Murray McShane.

Maybe some of you like me use his Bible reading plan. He says, my people’s greatest need is my personal holiness. We base that off of Acts 20. And what Paul says later, 1st Timothy chapter 4. Now, I’m actually about to get to the church, so just hold on. Isn’t this fun? You’re just hearing about how me and Caleb need to do a better job, okay?

But just hold on, because I’m about to, you know me, I’ll put it back on you. But actually, I want you to hear this, because not only for my congregants, our congregation, but also if, you know, you’re visiting or you are going to have another pastor someday, uh, I want you to know the three unique temptations pastors face.

To pray for them and to help them, because I actually think it’s part of your job, but to also help pastors. And don’t think of just the pastor. I’m saying this as a pastor’s kid. Think about their family and how you can help them along the way. The three biggest temptations that I have seen are heresy, moral failure, and burnout.

Heresy is just when you begin to slowly, notice how Paul says, I taught you the whole counsel of God. Heresy is when you begin to slowly but surely remove the essentials of the faith. There’s actually a lot of essentials and there’s not when you kind of see the whole scheme of things. In other words, I need to, pastors need to talk about sin and Satan.

We have to address those things. We have to talk about heaven, but also there is a hell. We have to say Jesus is fully God and he’s fully man. We need to talk about how we need to repent from our sin and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you guys with me? It’s so easy to slowly but surely redefine sin, talk about, you know, glaze over passages of scripture.

So heresy is man. so easy to cave into. The second one is moral failure. This is all over the news. There’s podcasts being made about this, about how terrible pastors are. And I just think it’s so funny. I talked to like my neighbors and like, I’ll never go to church because all pastors are jerks. And I’m like, I already told you I’m a pastor and like, it’s such a weird, I get it, but like, it’s just, it makes the conversation awkward.

I’m like, yeah, they are. I don’t know. Um, but moral failure, it’s like using your power and abusing people. This can be secret sin. It could be hurting people, being angry and just rude to people. There’s all sorts of moral failures that if the church is doing their duty and the other elders see it, they, you know, confront them and possibly remove him from leadership.

And the last one that I think is really prevalent and not talked about is burnout. It’s really easy to get emotionally exhausted. I’ve learned to say pastoral ministry is, is not hard all the time. Um, I think you get better at it. So that kind of stuff isn’t hard, but it’s always heavy. It’s not rocket science, but you’re dealing with souls and feelings and all sorts of things.

And it just gets really, really heavy. And if pastors don’t have a regular routine of Sabbath, if we’re not constantly engaged in the scriptures and on our own selves, then we will burn out. I hate to say it, but I already have friends in ministry. that have left the ministry just in their 20s and 30s because they burnt out.

And it’s hard. This is why Paul says in verse 24, I’m committed to finish the race. He’s not just telling the elders that because he’s trying to impress them. He’s saying, I want you to finish the race as well. And it’s constantly every day saying no to heresy, immorality, and burnout. But again, what does any of this have to do with you, the church?

Well, now Paul shifts his attention to what will happen to the church. If the elders don’t do their job, and I think this would be helpful for you to know. Here we’re about to see Paul’s second expectation. Let’s look at verse 28. Be on guard for yourselves, and for all of the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers.

This verse we see the Trinity again. So the Holy Spirit appoints the elders, or the overseers, to shepherd the church of Paul. God, many imply God the Father here, which he purchased with his own blood. Whose blood? Jesus. So we see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in verse 28. You see it all throughout the book of Acts.

I just like highlighting it when we see it. I know that after my departure, underline this if you can, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flog. This is the most chilling warning. They don’t come from the outside, they often come from within. If this is correct, of the two gatherings we’ve had, there is a real chance that one of you, or me, I don’t know, that’s terrible, is a wolf, right, among us.

And now you’re just like, guard up. You should, okay? Just read your Bible. Okay, um, verse 30. Men will rise up even from your own number, And distort the truth to lure disciples into following and notice that attractive, it’s to lure them in. Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years, I never stopped warning each of you with tears.

It seems like Paul knows something’s coming. He knows that it’s so easy for the flock. To fall into the hands of wolves and that’s the second expectation as an overseer the pastor shepherds the church by guarding his flock Now I do want to mention real quick. I’m using this in singular tense, but this is of course plural We believe in the plurality of elders I think it’s such a joy to have me and pastor caleb as the pastors, but again just for the sake of clarity I just wanted to mention that, but it also works in the singular tense as well.

What is an overseer? An overseer just means that you’re somebody who looks over and looks ahead. You’re the kind of the visionary. That’s the modern version of it. But also the biblical phrase is like, you’re shepherding. You’re taking a group of sheep to a certain direction, and you are able to look above all the sheep and make sure we’re all heading the right way.

And the biggest threat is not that the shepherd isn’t creative enough and innovative enough to cast vision. The biggest threat are what? The savage. If you’re good at kind of flipping through the Bible quickly, anybody else win those competitions? Right? Like Iwanas. Go to Matthew chapter 7, if not, it’s on the screen.

Matthew chapter 7, Jesus uses this very similar language. I think Paul knows this. And, and I want us to key in on this. Verse 15 of Matthew chapter 7. This is towards the end of his Sermon on the Mount. He says,

Clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves. Look a couple of those phrases. First of all, be on your guard, which means if you’re not looking for it, it’ll happen without you noticing. So you have to be aware, as it says in other passages of scripture. And sheep’s clothing reminds us it’s usually the people you least expect.

You think, oh, certainly that’s not a wolf. Usually that means, let me take a second glance and actually test their character, which we’re going to get to and how to do that. But the other hard thing is that it means they’re from among you. They look like sheep. Here’s what’s been helpful for me in trying to protect our flock.

Wolves don’t look like wolves. Kevin D. Young, he’s a good theologian of our day. He reminds us of what we’re up against. And I just want to talk about the devil and all of his tricks. And just remind you, these wolves are obviously employed Uh, by the devil. This is what he says about the devil. He says, the devil’s a liar.

And not just any liar, a very good one. He normally avoids direct assaults. That’s usually what we’re looking for. That’s not how he does it. He prefers deceit and misdirection. Think of the snake in the Garden of Eden. Merely suggesting that God’s word might not be fully trustworthy. The devil specializes in traps and snares.

2 Timothy 2, 26. He masquerades as an angel of light, 2 He blinds the minds of 4, 4. Our enemy, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, is wicked, tricksy, and false, Revelation 12, 9. He is a father of lies, John 8, 40, 4. Which is why, he says, watch out for these ravaging wolves. They’re playing the long game, to kill steal and destroy as Jesus talks about the devil in John 10 10.

And what’s hard is they like to play mind games. And here’s what I’ve noticed about wolves. They love to wreck all things that are good and righteous. Let me give you an example. This year, 2024, we said the big vision, of course, is to make not attenders, but disciples. Okay, we’ll keep preaching that. You haven’t figured that out.

You know, you did good. But we also said the theme of the year is how to make friends and love other people. Right. And then we said in January, for those who were here and remember it, we said, okay, making friends and loving other people takes four progressions, four steps, and it always takes time. Go ahead and look at the screen on the next screen.

It’s proximity and then vulnerability and then practice and then mission. Let me give you some examples. So proximity, you just need to be around each other some more. We’ve just noticed people in the life of church, Man, nobody knows me. You’ve come for two Sundays. How can we know you? If we know you, it’s so vague and not real.

Get around each other. That’s why we often say your first next step needs to be joining groups. That’s what Growth Track is all about. Get in groups and serve alongside people. you get to know them pretty well. Why? Because you’re around them. I remember in college, one of my best friends today that I literally talked to yesterday, freshman year, he lived right next door.

Sophomore year, he lived right above me. We didn’t even really become good friends till junior year. Why? Because he was kind of weird on the exterior, right? He had some weird things that he was into, like Star Wars and all this other stuff that Caleb likes. And so, But after proximity, being around him over and over, I was able to look through all of that and realize we’re actually good friends.

We’re even planning a trip in February together to go snow skiing for my birthday, right? But it took a whole lot of proximity, but, and then it took vulnerability. But let me stop there. Proximity. I’ve noticed this in the life of our church, if I could be honest. The dark side, the shadow side, what the wolf will capitalize on, what the enemy wants to make you misunderstand as we begin to replace proximity with familiarity.

It’s where we just start to dishonor each other. Oh, it’s just you. You don’t say hi. You don’t care for the people around you. You’re familiar. You don’t honor them the way they should be honored, because you’re just friends. And the enemy uses that to hurt us and to divide our church. The second step we said was vulnerability.

And we try to model that on stage and off, like we want to show you our weakness. We base that off of what Paul said in 1 Corinthians about his whole ministry was actually about Christ and Christ alone, therefore he came in weakness. So anytime I can, I want to be vulnerable with the congregation in a way that is healthy.

And we try to tell our groups to do the same. But you know what happens a lot of times? Some of us get vulnerable and a wolf or the enemy. We’ll try to embarrass you as a result. Okay. I was vulnerable and now that person’s using it against me. I’ve had that happen in my own life thinking, do I keep staying vulnerable because I’m giving people ammo to hurt me and the wolf will hurt you.

And that’s a good being vulnerable. It’s a good thing, but he tries to pervert it. And to make us hurt and also to never be vulnerable again. The next stage of friendship journey is practice. This is when I would say you’re really doing community together and like you’re fasting together or you’re learning how to be generous and hospitable and peacemaking together.

Now the dark side of that, what the wolf will try to capitalize on is to turn those practices that practices into legalism. Where you have to fast every Monday and Wednesday where you have to give this percentage and it just turns into something it was never meant to be. It was no longer about practicing for the sake of Jesus.

It’s just practicing for the sake of the practice. Last one, of course is mission. I’ve seen a lot of friends fall into this trap where wolves or the evil one will try to dissuade us by saying, yes, you need another event. You need to do one more thing. You can’t have a night off, and eventually you’ll wake up so burnt out.

You leave the ministry altogether. Now, wolves are very hard to detect and they’re very hard to defend against, especially if these two things are occurring. One, if the pastor’s not courageous enough to confront it, I have learned some things I have let go too long and then it turns into something that’s really bad.

And I’ve had to repent of that, honestly, even here at Passion Creek. So one is courage, but the second is for the congregant to give permission for the pastor to speak into the situation. That wolf that is coming for them, if that makes sense. Like, I believe pastors, we’re called shepherds for a reason.

We’re called to guard and to guide people in our congregation by pointing out lies. Right? Calling out sin, and showing the supremacy of Jesus, and guiding us through scripture, and I hope you please, I, please see that we have patience. I love Eugene Peterson, he talks about how pastors are shepherds, not sheepdogs.

Sheepdogs, what do they do? They, they nip, and they bite, and they bark, and they’re angry, and they’re controlling of the sheep. That’s not what we’re called to do. Me and Pastor Caleb, and every other pastor, biblically, is supposed to be a shepherd. We’re, The sheep know them by their voice and it’s all through invitation.

You may hear us say that phrase all the time, right? We’re just inviting you into these movements, into these practices. But here’s the thing, and I have to say this, if you do not see me or Pastor Caleb as shepherds that can protect your soul, a few things have to happen. Either you have to go somewhere else, and I hate that, but I hope you find a shepherd that you’re willing to listen to.

Or you have to examine your own heart. Sometimes the problem is the person. Sometimes, like, look, you’re not worthy of following. Other times, it’s not the person you have a problem with, it’s the position. So I have found some people blame pastors, they’re just not a good leader, I need somewhere else. But then you find, through the trajectory of their life, they don’t want authority, they’ve never found authority to submit to.

And it’s a hard, humbling thing, I get it. But it’s very important for us to be a healthy church, to allow the sheep, sorry, to allow the shepherd guide the sheep. And we’ve talked about this in another message about expectations of a pastor, but here’s the biggest thing. We are a healthy congregation if we look to our pastors, not just for reassurance, which you need, but also redirection.

What do sheep do? We stray, we wander. I say we because I consider myself a sheep as well, and I have pastors in my life. We drift and wander, and it’s the shepherd’s job to often gently bring us back into the fold. And if you don’t have a pastor in your life that can redirect you, examine your heart or examine your church and make sure you resolve that.

Sounds good? Alright, now, notice how Jesus helps us detect who are the wolves, because that’s the really hard part. Look at verse 16. You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Two things quickly to note about fruit in the Bible. Number one, fruit is always equated to character. That’s why you’ll see the fruit of the Spirit.

It’s not about competence. It’s about love and joy and peace. It’s these characteristics and here’s the thing. I’m so excited in our church We’ve had a lot of people newer people that seem to be great with competence and I’ve been praying god revealed me their character And you know the best way I can figure out our people’s character.

What do they do when they don’t get their way? I actually get pumped. I like to help people and I like it when we’re all happy, but I love opportunities where you and I, we rub up and if something doesn’t go your way, how do you humbly respond? That is a picture of your character. That is fruit. The other thing about fruit biblically, it’s not just character, it takes a long time.

Fruit never appears overnight. We tend to forget that because we just go to the grocery store and it just happens to be there. But what about fruit do we know? It takes seasons to grow a tree. A tree won’t produce fruit right away. And so we have learned this skill as well. As a pastor, we need to give people time.

How I, it’s not overnight. Do we just give people a position? How will you deal with the ups and downs? And will you be with us for a long period of time? And here’s what I’ve noticed. Never ask somebody about their fruit. Look for it. We don’t pay attention to flattery, we pay attention to their fruit. Put another way, wolves will deceive you with their words, so discern them by their works.

Here’s what I found. Let’s just look at the three practices we’ve done as a family this year. Hospitality. Here’s what I have looked, I’ve noticed in ministry this past decade. Hostile people will be among the first to tell you they’re very hospitable. Here’s what I know is so true. Peace breakers. Those who never have good relationships in their life will be the first to tell you they’re amazing at making peace and they have no problem forgiving other people and they never hold bitterness in their heart.

They’ll even use language like emotional health and making sure there’s boundaries in your life. And yet, when you look at the fruit of their life, they’ve never repented, they’ve never given in, they’ve never been able to have somebody else, they’ve never been able to dwell with people they’ve disagreed with, but they’ll tell you they have, but they can’t show you.

This one’s especially true. Greedy people are the best at convincing you they’re very generous. I have found generous people love to give in secret, just as Jesus called us to. You’d be amazed when you learn how generous some church people are. You would never guess because they do it all in private. But often the people we think, they’re so generous, they give so much.

They only give in public and they do it for the praise of man. So we don’t look to their flattery. We don’t listen to that. We look at their fruit, and that takes time. So Jesus says pay attention to their fruit. Eventually it will show. So this is a pretty intense passage, okay? Let’s look again at Acts 20.

Paul, he’s in tears here for a reason. Verse 31, Therefore, be on alert, remembering that night and day for three years, I never stopped warning each one of you with tears. It’s as if Paul knew something was coming, that this church in Ephesus was going to fall astray. And I think the reality is, is every church is constantly in danger of falling astray.

When I first started ministry, I actually started preaching at the age of 16. Praise the Lord, none of you were in here, or else that probably would have done damage. I don’t know what they were thinking, but I began to do it at the age of 16. And I really thought, starting ministry, getting ready for it, I thought the hardest part about being a pastor was sermon prep.

Because in the beginning, I would have like six weeks to prepare for a sermon, so it was so fun. When I was about to launch a church, I thought, I have to do this every Sunday? Like what? And here’s what’s so hard, you can preach really good on a Sunday and then Monday morning, it doesn’t matter. Slate wipe clean.

What are you going to do for me this next Sunday? Like Sunday’s always coming. It got very discouraging when I realized sermons were essentially, God is my English teacher and he assigned me a, you know, persuasive essay, eight to 10 pages every single Sunday that I have to turn in. Like, what? When you look at it that way, it kind of gets a little bit overwhelming, and it’s exhausting, and, uh, I’m so tired of my, I’m not tired of God.

But I never liked my English teacher for those reasons, right? Another essay? So I thought the hardest part of ministry would be creating sermons. And the reality is, is it’s beautiful. Like, I get to be away from people during sermon prep. I’m like all alone. I get to read. I get to think. It’s great. I love sermon prep.

The hardest part about ministry, as I’ve done it more often, is not sermon prep. It’s not a lot of what you think. The hard part of ministry is that vision leaks and people drift. Vision leaks. It’s like the vision we have, what are we here to make? Not attenders, but see that’s vision right there. But here’s the reality.

If I don’t mention that for five weeks and I say that again, some of y’all will forget. This is just reality. We forget it leaks. Imagine it like a, like a jar of water that has holes in it. There’s two ways to stop that. Either try to plug up all the holes with your hands or just keep pouring water. We’ve learned the best strategy is just to keep pouring water, keep sharing the vision over and over and over again.

Formedbyjesus. com, right? Go to our website. You’ll notice Pastor Caleb, poor guy, he every Sunday before I come and preach, he says, man, if you’re new here, go ahead and take the Stick six challenge. Here’s what you’ll experience within the next six weeks. And like all of us are like saying it with him.

That’s actually good leadership. Why? Because first of all, the new person’s never heard it before. And you might forget it because vision leaks. And so visionaries, we have to be overseers saying the same thing over and over again. and never getting tired. That part’s fun though. I think it’s great to do vision Sundays.

You’ll notice last Sunday, we did a vision Sunday with spiritual formation because I found a way to do it. I need to hurry. Here’s the hardest part of ministry though, is that people drift. It’s so sad. We can have people who are with us on mission, actually doing the thing in January and by June, they are long gone.

Not just from our church, but from the kingdom. And it’s hard. My favorite book I read every Sunday morning to give me courage to come up here is by Thomas Akimpas in The Imitation of Christ. And he gives this warning to elders, shepherds, what happens because people drift. He says, Do not place much confidence in a weak and mortal man, helpful and friendly though he be.

Do not grieve too much if he sometimes opposes and contradicts you. Those who are with us today may be against us tomorrow, and vice versa. For men change with the wind. This is hard because some pastors say, well, my solution is to not care about my sheep. And of course that’s not Bible. And the reality is the shepherds have to smell like the sheep and they have to be willing to get wounded.

That’s just leadership, but they have to keep a tender heart. And that’s hard because people drift. And we don’t want our vision to leak. Our vision actually isn’t a building, although we would love that. Our vision is the people we’re building. It’s to be formed by Jesus. It’s to consistently practice Sabbath scripture and simplicity.

It’s to make friends and love other people through the holy and hard work of hospitality, peacemaking, and generosity. We have to keep beating that drum because it’s so easy to forget. Vision leaks and people drift. And so as an overseer, I’m asking you for permission. to be an elder, for Pastor Caleb to be an elder that can detect those leaks and and allow us to remind you of the vision.

I’m asking you as a shepherd, allow us to be pastors who detect drift in your life and slowly but gently call you back into the fold. That is a joy, it’s hard, but give us permission. And Paul here, I think he’s in tears because he knows something’s coming here at this church in Ephesus. And turn to Revelation chapter 2.

We see many years later what does happen to Ephesus. When you think about it, there’s a lot of things we can drift from. But what is the worst thing we can drift from? The worst thing is what Ephesus wound up drifting from. This is Jesus, the chief shepherd, who sends this word of warning. It 2, verse 1, This says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand.

This just shows his supremacy and who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your labor and your endurance. It’s actually beautiful. If you remember first Thessalonians one three works, labor, endurance. So he’s saying, I know this. It’s really good. And that you cannot tolerate evil people.

You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not. And you have found them to be liars. So they’re like listening to Paul. Hey, watch out for those false teachers. Jesus is saying you’ve done a good job with that. In fact, verse three, I know that you’ve persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name and you have not grown weary.

What an incredible church. What’s wrong? They are not drifting. The vision isn’t leaking. But now verse four, but I have this against you. You have abandoned the love. You had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

See the warning here. I think this is a very good warning for us as a church because I think we’re smart. I think we try to endure hardship like we’re doing the practices. It’s pretty incredible. I’m very proud to be your pastor. But the biggest temptation, and none of us are above it, is we can get so good at detecting the false teacher’s heresies, but we still drift from the Father’s tender heart.

Why do we Sabbath? Because we want to encounter the love of God. Why do we read Scripture? Because we need the truth, and the truth will set us free that Jesus alone is good. Right? And as we practice hospitality, oh, it’s so easy for us to forget. We think hospitality is the means to the, is the, is the end.

No, it’s a means to an end. Why are we hospitable? We’re hospitable because God was hospitable with us. Friends, we sinned. We separated ourselves from God. We were far from Him. And yet Jesus came down in the flesh. Lived among us, dwelt in our neighborhood, died for our sins, for the punishment we deserve, rose again in victory, and has now extended us a seat at his table for eternity.

Why are we hospitable? Because he was hospitable to us, and we’ll never forget that. Why do we make peace with others? By forgiving and not holding on to bitterness and moving forward in love and covering over a multitude of sins. Because Jesus made peace with us. We were enemies of God, the scripture says.

And yet, while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. And he made peace with us. Second Corinthians 5 says he reconciled to us. So of course, because I’ve been reconciled to Christ. Of course, I will reconcile with my brother and sister. It’s the love of Jesus that motivates me to do these things.

Why am I generous? Not because it’s a smart thing to do. Man, I’m generous because Jesus was so generous, He gave up His whole self, died on the cross and rose again so that I can have new life. That is the ultimate generosity. So, of course, I’m going to be generous with my finances and my time and all of these things.

Let us not forget. I’ve been feeling like it’s been a call for our church the last few Sundays, and it should be a call every single Sunday. Set your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Finish the race. I do not want the wolves or the enemy to detract us from the very good thing we’re doing.

And that very good thing is that response that we know. Our calling is to be formed by Jesus, and we know without a doubt, Jesus is better than anything this world has to offer. Will you, as a congregation, continue to join me in setting our gaze on him?