1 Peter - 2022

Please have a seat and take your bibles. And our reading is gonna be from 1 Peter, chapter 5, and we're going to read the first 7 verses. Let's hear the word of the lord. To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings.

Who also will share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care. Watching over them, Not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be. Not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve. Not lording it 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 will never fade away. In the same way, you, who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility towards 1 another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Well, good morning.

My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the pastors of the church, 1 of the elders, and the sermon is now to me. I'm preaching to myself. As we'll we'll see in a minute, but let me let me just pray. For the help us now as we look at your word, it is your word, it's challenging to us.

We pray that you would correct us and challenge us and perhaps rebuke us and encourage us in the name of Jesus, our men. I don't know really much about his personal life or anything like that, but I I think it's right to say that the the president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zellit no. What's his name? Zelensky, again, how you is is a pretty impressive bloke. You know, he's a really example of a a leader.

Perhaps at war. He's inspired a nation. He's become a soldier and he's taken off his presidential suit and he's put on combat gear and it's just very inspiring. I mean, I don't know whether you think that. When I see him, I I'm inspired.

I almost wanna go to Ukraine and fight for him and lots of people have been doing that. Very impressive. And also, he's led a country to win eurovision, which is, you know, tops. And he was happy about that, wasn't And I'm sure we're happy as Britain to come second to to that because we haven't been anywhere for years, so it was amazing. Last year, we got whatever it is points.

Yeah. No points. Peter's writing this this letter that we've been looking at, and it and it it's to a group of Christians that are living in in a hostile world. They're living in the world of Rome. It's a hostile world.

It's hostile. Against people being in being Christians, and he's encouraging them. Stand firm. Stand firm for the lord Jesus Christ in the midst of suffering. And he's talked to lots of different groups within those churches, wives and husbands and slaves and just ordinary people, and now he's turning to speak to the leaders of those churches.

And Peter wants to encourage those leaders to be inspiring like the president of Ukraine. He wants those leaders to inspire people. Now not like taking up arms, which is going on in Ukraine. We're not to take up physical arms, but he's told us in chapter 2 verse 12 to live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits us. He then tells us to be like Christ, the righteous 1 who lays down his life for the unrighteous.

To bring them to God. So that's the battle that we're being called to. And Peter's learned that the hard way. He knows that he's not to take up the sword. If you know the story of Peter in the God of gethsemane, when Jesus was arrested, Peter drew a sword out to fight for Christ, and he he even chopped the blokes ear off.

And Jesus healed the year and then said to Peter, that is not the way we do the kingdom of God. We're not here to take up physical arms. We're here to love. We're to here to lay down our lives for people. And that event, if you know the story, caused Peter to run away, to go and follow Jesus at a distance, and then he denied knowing Jesus 3 times.

And then you have the death and the resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ. And after that, Jesus restores Peter to leadership. And what happens in that story? You find that Pete Jesus asks Peter 3 times, do you love me? Do you love me?

Do you love me? And 3 times Peter says, you know that I love you. You know that I love you. He's restoring Peter to leadership. And then Jesus says, after each 1 of those, do you love me?

You know I love you. He says, feed my lambs. He says, take care of my sheep. He says, feed my sheep. So for Peter, loving Jesus was to care for the sheep, the flock of God.

And that's what Peter's doing here in these these verses. He's talking to the elders, the leaders of the church, These churches that are scattered around Rome in hostile territory, front line territory, and he's He's like Rodimir Zelensky. He's saying, I wanna I want you to be like him, inspire people. Be among the people. Don't run away.

Put on the combat gear. Be a sheep amongst them but lead the sheep. That's what he's saying. So we're now preaching to the elders, and we have elders in this church. If you're an elder in the church and you're not out there working, someone stand up.

Come on. Stand up. These people. I'm preaching to them. You can all go to sleep now.

I'm preaching to you, you, you, you, you, you, you, and you at the back. And there are some out working. Yeah? Now you do need to listen because it will help you. So here's the first point I want to bring it up to you.

Is Peter, the writer, the speaker. Verse 1, look, to the elders among you I appeal. That's Peter appeals. That's the Peter that in chapter 1 verse 1 is called the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the 1 writing this to the elders among you, I appeal to you as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's suffering, who also will share in the glory revealed.

So Here is the apostle Peter speaking to you elders. Now, it's an amazing thing, this Here in 2022, we can hear the voice of none other than the apostle Peter. It's extraordinary. The 1 that Jesus called by the Sea of Galile to be his follower. If there was a conference on for leaders, Christian leaders, And the apostle Peter was the speaker, huge amounts of people would book in.

Well, we don't need that. He's here. Now, speaking to us through this letter, isn't isn't that amazing? The Peter that heard the teachings of Jesus Christ from the mouth of Jesus. The the Peter that saw the miracles of Jesus The Peter that saw the transfiguration of Jesus, that special occasion when Jesus went up a mountain and and showed something of his real glory Yeah?

This is the Peter that saw the sufferings of Jesus. People misrepresenting him, people following him around to try and write notes on him, to twist what he says. Because they hated him. This is the Peter that was there in gethsemane when Jesus was arrested. This is the Peter that followed at a distance but saw the trials of Jesus.

As they lied about him and then put a crown of thorns on his head and mocked him. This is the Peter that saw Jesus the good shepherd laying his life down for you and me if you're a sheep. Peter saw that. To the elders, among you, I appeal to I I I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ suffering, who also will share in the glory to be revealed. Now we've seen this before, but do you see the timeline that Peter is on?

He's between 2 big events. He's on that timeline. He's between the cross, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory of Christ, the second coming of Christ. When all will be revealed. And that's the timeline he lives on.

He looks in 2 directions. Back to the sufferings of Christ and forward to the glory of when Christ comes again. He sees suffering and glory, and he's in the middle of them. And Peter is saying to the elders, I want you to see that. I want you to live like that.

I'm an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're a faith witness, and there's really no difference. Behold the lamb elders, behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin look to him, and then look to the glory to come. See like Christ who said for for the joy set before me, iron endure the cross. Be like that.

See the cross, endure the cross, endure the suffering, but see the glory, the joy set before you. Look at verse 4, look what he says. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory. That will never fade away. You're gonna receive a crown of glory.

So you're between 2 crowns. The cross, a crown of thorns, and the crown of glory. I appeal as a fellow elder. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? He's sitting on the same bench as us.

He's appealing to you elders there, and you look around and you think, oh, there's there's Paul there and there's Steve and there's Steve and there's Steve and there's Dean and this Rory and this Pete and this Peter. Right? Amazing. He's on the same bench. Some people wanna make Peter the vicar of Christ.

He says, I'm a fellow elder. Some people wanna make Peter the first pope and call him a Pope. He says, I'm a fellow elder. 1 of the popes, Leo the first, said he is the consort of the trinity. Peter says I'm a fellow elder.

They all got it wrong. To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's suffering who also will share in the glory to be revealed. Here's a man who's sitting on the elder's bench. He's humble man. He's known adversary.

He's he's inspired about what is to come. He's seen and shaped by the suffering of Christ, but he's taken up with the glory that is to come. And he's 1 of us and he's speaking to us. Right? Peter, the apostle says, Steve, Paul.

Appeal to you. That's the first point. Second point. Peter speaks, and he speaks to the elders Look at verses 1 and 2 again. To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's suffering who also will share in the glory to be revealed, be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care watching over them Now that's an actual term.

It's the overseers. The overseers. Not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be, not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve. So you've got 3 terms there. You've got elders who are to be overseers, who are to be shepherds.

So all the same people, There's not 3 different groups. It's all the same people. Elders. You need to be overseers. You need to be shepherds.

Now, what is an elder? Well, the word elder comes actually from what it says really, an older person. That's where the original word comes from. It actually originally meant a mature male, a mature man with seasoned judgment. That's where the word comes from.

A chewer man with season's judgment. And it's a lovely picture, really, of of just as you have older people that look after children, you you never leave children on their own. You always have to have older people look after children. Then elders are to look after the church. And in 1 sense, that's for all of us here because we're all older than the children out there.

And there's a wonderful job for us as older people to encourage the younger people It's a young load of younger people here. Do you need encouraging? Fine. You absolutely do. You're on the front front line of change and there's all kinds of clever people trying to manipulate you and yeah.

All all of But this lot have been there. It's hard for you to understand that. They've been there. They were your age ones. Yeah?

Amazing, isn't it? Yeah. And they know what it's like to be manipulated by ugly teachers. And they know what it is to have all kinds of things thrown at they suddenly know what it is to suddenly become a man or a woman and things happen to your body and you think Like, they've had all that. You older people encourage or talk to the kids.

It's absolutely vital. Encourage them. There's that. But these elders are more than that. They're not just older people, encouraging people.

It's an office, a position. I don't like those words, but that's what it is. They're they're not necessarily older than anyone in church, but there's a spiritual maturity to them. You don't have a young convert as an elder, but you can have a young man like Timothy as an elder that's been around for a long time. They're mature leaders in the church.

The word there, elder, the Greek word is presbytery for those who like to know that sort of stuff. So that's the word elder. The word overseer That's where you get the word bishop from. Bishop. And it simply means not someone with a big hat.

It certainly doesn't mean that as we'll see in a minute. It means to look out for. It means to care for. It means to sort of organize diligent insight over the church. Every elder is a bishop.

Bishop Dean. How are you today? Yeah? Bishop Rory. How's your hat?

Take it off, man. Yeah. Every elder is a bishop. And then what is the work of an l of an elder and overseer is to pastor. Every elder is a bishop, and every bishop is the pastor, and that's what the word shepherd means.

Shepard means pastor. It's the same thing. That's the description of the role. That's what we should be doing. And it's none other than reflecting the chief shepherd the lord Jesus Christ.

The highest office is the lord Jesus Christ, and he washes disciples feet. The highest office is the lord Jesus Christ, the chief shepherd, and he lays his life down for the sheep. Look at chapter 2 verse 25. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer bishop of your souls. That's Jesus.

He's the shepherd pastor and bishop of your souls. Look at chapter 5 verse 4. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will see receive the crown of glory that will never fade. Every elder is a bishop. Every elder is a pastor and therefore a shepherd under the chief shepherd, who is the shepherd and bishop of your soul.

Now, how does jeez do you want to be shepherded by Jesus? I mean, who else is there to follow better than Jesus? The 1 that loved you so much he gave his life for you. Do you wanna be shepherded by Jesus? But how does Jesus do that by the under shepherds?

That's how important this stuff is. This is how important church is. Don't be a lone sheep wandering around without a shepherd. Don't say, oh, I only refer to Jesus because Jesus, the chief shepherd, has put sub shepherds in. The great shepherd has appointed shepherds who were elders who were over see is over you.

That's how he shepherds you. Isn't that interesting? And we'll see this in a minute, but If you just say, I'm not interested in church, I just wanna follow Jesus. You can't do that because if you follow Jesus, Jesus says, I'll introduce you to my people and there's a shepherd. There's the local shepherd for you or shepherds.

It's always plural, by the way. And then notice the word among you in verse 1, The elders are among notice that it's very important this because the elders are among the sheep, they are part of the flock but also under Christ, they're over the flock. And that can bring big big problems in churches. Because some of the sheep, sort of like the idea that the pastor the pastors and elders are among the flock, and therefore, we don't have to listen to them. They're just 1 of us.

And others sort of raise up the the shepherd's the pastors to be almost saints, and you have to sort of bow to them, and and they have to have special sort of chairs and things. Yeah? Some people try to emphasize the among relationship and therefore refuse the authority of the under shepherd, and others put put the shepherds on a pedestal and wanna sort of say, no, you don't need to mix with us. The effective pastor, and they all just get this, needs both those relationships. You need to be among the sheep to know what the sheep are eating, to know what's going on, to know their problems, to love them, to care for them.

You need to be among them, know their names, And yet, you're over them in the sense of leading them, guiding them, helping them, These bishops are part of the local church. There's not an outside authority It's not like you've got the local church and then you've got some great big bishop over there who's over the that is not what Peter is saying. It's never like that. There's not a hierarchy like that. And just to show you this, look at verse 3.

For those who would like this sort of stuff, that that term where it says those entrusted to you, guess what word that is, those entrusted you. Talking about the the sheep of the flock. Guess what word that is? It's clergy. Now you may have heard that you have this clergy there like the ministers, and you have the laity.

That's never in the bible. It's not taught in the bible. It's not a clergy and a laity. The laity are the clergy. The sheep are the clergy.

So when you hear someone say, oh, let's go to the clergy conference. You should say, yeah, I'll come. Yeah? Or, you know, the clergy. Were you talking about the sheep?

We've turned it. That's what religion does. It takes the words from the bible and messes the whole thing up. It's the exact opposite. Anyway, I that's got that off my chest.

Thanks, Paul Whitfield for allowing me to do that. So you've got Peter speaks. Peter speaking, the apostle Peter. He speaks to the elders, and he tells them to be shepherds. So that's my third point, shepherds.

Peter Elder's third point shepherd. And he appeals, and he says, be good shepherd. And he tells them what to do and what not to do to be a good shepherd. A shepherd obviously feeds the sheep, guides the sheep, guards the sheep, lays his life down for the sheep, rescues the sheep, you know, gets rid of the wolves, notices that that isn't a sheep, but that's a goat. Yeah.

And that's and and that's the sort of thing a a shepherd has to do. But the the primary job of a shepherd is to make sure the sheep are eating. That's the primary job, tenderly leading sheep to pasture. The problem is, and we all know this, sheep are stupid. Alright?

Just think about what I said there by the way. Sheep well, we'll come on to who the sheep are in a minute. Sheep are largely stupid, and they don't actually know how to feed themselves. They need a shepherd to lead them into a good field, and that's the job of the shepherd. Now where do Christians feed.

Well, you shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So the job the first job of the shepherd, the elders, the bishops, is to make sure that the sheep have got good food, good pasture. Now let me say this, and here we are elders, and you've got to think about this, and how this is gonna work through in in Cornerstone. Because this this blew my mind away when I thought about it. So you ready?

The teaching of the church is the responsibility of the elders, all of you. Yeah? So if it's imbalanced or eccentric, or there are areas missing or over emphasized, It's not just the preacher's job. It's your responsibility. So you elders, you've got to make sure what us preachers are saying is not imbalanced, Not eccentric.

I'm not saying the preacher can't be eccentric and there's some joy in the service, but the teaching isn't eccentric. Or we're emphasizing 1 thing and missing out something else. It's the eldership that's in charge of that. The teaching of the church is the responsibility of the the eldership, and they are men of the Word of God, and their job is to encourage the sheep to keep the word of God, to listen to the word of God, to be comforted by the word of God, to be fed by the word of God, to be love the word of God, to chew the cud, the word of God, to enjoy the blessings of the word of God, to go into the world, in faith in the word of God, Paul writing to a younger elder, Timothy, he says teach the word in season out of season. When it's going well and there's a big flock coming.

When it's in season, everybody want us to hear the word of God, and when it's out of season, there's only a small bunch of us. You don't change You keep keep teaching the Word of God. Oh, scripture he says. The Word of God is God breathed. This is the bread of God.

The breath of God. Of course, there are enemies of the flock that need beating off, and that is a hard work and it's done regularly, I can tell you. I'm always sending people off to other churches. That's not quite fair, but I do do that. Because there's people here that need beating off and and that that they're coming in with with other things.

Than the word of God. And sometimes it's necessary for a shepherd, for an elder, for a a bishop, to seek away with sheep, and and it costs you're upset when a loss cheap is gone. You count them this 19 there's only 99. Where's where is he? It's meant to hurt, and there are sheep that are rebellious and they need disciplining.

And at the close of a day, the shepherd would often examine each sheep as they came through the door. Because she get all kinds of horrible things, ticks, and their their wool, you know, gets briars all stuck all over them. You have to pull them off. And it's the shepherd's job. It's the oldest sometimes it's horrible, but they get maggots in their bottom.

And the shepherd has to examine the bottom. And I'm saying that as you go out the door, there may need to be some examinations. But if you did that, then then you're into an issue another issue. And I think Chris Striden would stand up and say there's a safeguarding issue here. But the point is that they know their sheep and they correct their sheep, and they love their sheep, and they examine their sheep to see that they're feeding well and they've not got diseases or maggots up their bottom.

So Peter's saying this, and then he goes into 3 knots and 3 butts. It's a different bus. 3 knots and 3 butts. 3 pitfalls for elders. That are around.

So elders you're listening. Look at verse 2. You do this. You be a shepherd. You take care of your sheep.

Not because you must, verse 2, but because you're willing as God wants you to be, not because you must, but because you're willing. Christian ministry is not just another job. It's not just on this need to write another sermon. It's not just I need to go to another meeting. It's not just I need to deal with a another misunderstanding.

It's not I need to go and deal with yet another 1 of those sheep that's gone astray. It's much more than that. There's a vision There's a willingness. There's an excitement about the ministry. Elders, you need to be excited people.

There should be a vision, a willingness, wanting to see men and women and boys and girls feeding on the word of God, loving them doing it when they do it, eager to see them grow. When the elders of the church lose their vision, the church begins to die. Now as you get older, you lose a lot of energy, but we should never lose our vision. Our excitement our desire to see the Lord Jesus Christ glorified, our desire to see more sheep into the fold. We need bright eyes, for the Lord Jesus Christ as we look back at him on the cross and forward to the glory to come.

We need a vision and hope. We need eager and ready feet to move wherever the chief shepherd wants us to move. We need hands already actively involved. In picking off the maggots and feeding the sheep, we need hearts that are beating for God. We cannot be dull and careless.

As leaders of God's church. Was Christ Stalin careless when he died on the cross and shed his blood for these very people than how could leaders be dull and careless. We need people to be full of energy and willing to go. So brothers and sisters here, pray for us elders, will you? Praise, we won't get dull and Dalin just unexcited.

Pray that the motivation to seek Christ glorified would be in us. Would you pray that? That's 1 of your prayers. It's what God wants. But it's a second not and but.

Not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve. So Christ again wants us to eager to serve. Not pursuing this honest gain. Do you see that? If you're in the ministry, if you're in the eldership, With with the question of how can I gain from this, you've already blown ministry?

Just asking that question, what can I gain in the ministry is absolutely just blown blown what ministry is about? Minit ministry is not so much a position but a servant Did you know that? The word minister means servant. We have a prime minister. His job is to be the first servant but it doesn't work like that often, does it?

And we if we're ministers, if we're to be shepherds, We are to serve. We're to lay down our life for the sheep. That's hard work. Yeah? We're not in it forget.

We don't freeze the flock. We're not counting the fleeces. We're not saying, well, how much does that fleece? Well, that fleece is worth a lot. Let's get them into the church.

It's 1 of the reasons why I have no idea who gives in the church. You should give, but I don't know who gives, and I don't wanna know who gives. And if you've got big money, don't talk to me about it, I don't know what to know because if you're giving big money and I know it, I might say, oh, you're a lovely man when you're horrible. Yeah? Oh, lovely fleece.

When there's maggots all up your bum. Yeah? We're not to fleece the flock. We don't count the fleeces. We're not interested in What we get out of people, we're interested in caring of being eager to serve.

Notice that? Far too many people aren't they after money for ministries. But we're not to do that. So pray for the elders, will you? Will you pray for us?

We won't start thinking about money and You know, I mean, I I remember a few years ago. I think Phil was there. We were at some kinda I don't know what it was anyway. A a conferencing thing. And there are a whole load of these ministers going on.

Well, I need a 6 year contract, and I need an ever increasing wage, and I need this big pension. Do you remember that? Because it was so horrible, wasn't it? So ugly. Make sure I've gotta have this pension before I can do what do you talk go away?

Third, not, and but look at it. Verse 3. Not lording it over those entrusted to you, So not lording it over the clergy, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being an example to the flock Because the thing that interests an elder is not governing, lauding, is caring Yeah? And again, Jesus showed that by laying his life down by washing the disciples' feet. An elder doesn't start laying down lots of rules that are not in the bible.

He hasn't got a lust for power He's got a lust for life of the sheep. That's what he's got. It's a bit like an elder's this example to the sheep You know, I I think you've seen it, haven't you? Where you see a flock at 1 end of the field, yeah? And then the chief shepherd comes with a bucket of food.

On the other side of the field. You've seen this, haven't you? And he shakes the bucket. An elder is like the first 1 to say, Food. Food from the chief shepherd.

And the elder is the first in an example, is hurtling over there And the other sheep were going, bah. What what's he know that we don't know? And they start going, whoa. And they're just, whoa. That's an elder.

Yeah? You're the chief borrower. Yeah. It's the opposite in the world. The world is a pyramid system, The man at the top has all these people underneath him, goes like that.

But it's completely the opposite for a church leader. It goes like this, that the more you have that you serve the bigger you are in Christ's size in that sense. So church leaders is not measured by how many people are under him but how many people are above him, better to more blessed to give than to receive. And that's why that whole system that's gone so wrong in religion, and religion goes wrong with Christianity and Christianity sort of can turn into religion. So you you hear, don't you?

A bishop is enthroned. Well, that very term is against what Peter is saying here in throne. He's a king. I don't know whether you know, but a bishop lives in a palace. It's called a palace.

Well, that whole thing is wrong, isn't it? Here's the apostle Peter, a fellow elder, a shepherd, an overseer, a feeder, not lording it over, but gently guiding and enthusing and encouraging and being an example of chewing on the word of God. Okay. So Peter speaks to the elders, He says be Shepard's fourth thing of the flock. So you can wake up now of the flock of God.

The flock of God. Look at verse 2. Be shepherds of God's flock under your care and then verse 3 entrusted to you. There's a clergy word again. Be shepherds of the flock entrusted to you.

Now that word is a very strange word because it means a lot it. It's the word that is used when you throw a dice. Entrusted to you. You throw a dice. You don't know what number is gonna come up.

It's got really not anything to do with you. You throw the dice and the allotted number comes up. That's the word that's used here. So what he's saying is to the elders, be shepherds of the people God's throne to you. The people that God has allotted to you.

So if you go to Australia or something like that, they have such vast flocks you know, vast flocks in vast areas that you might have thousands of millions of sheep and therefore you, as the owner of all the sheep, the 1 that's paid for all the sheep, you might have lots of under shepherds. And you divide those flocks up, that flock up. It's 1 big flock, but it's divided into smaller flocks with the undershirt and that's the sort of things going on here that you've been entrusted. Yeah? This isn't a football team.

Where the elders get together and say, well, let's sell him off. Or let's put him on the back bench. Or she's worth quite a lot. We could get a couple you know, we could get 10 other players if we flog her to another church. You know.

It's not a football thing. It's God allotted. It's not that you think, okay. You know when you choose your football team, is it on What's that thing called when you do it? Fantasy football.

Fantasy football. And you choose your well, I'll have him as center forward. I'll have him as goalie. I'll have him as striker. Church don't do that.

I know Phil Cooper would like to do that. We will sit there and say, well, why can't we have him in our church? And We we're just a lotted you lot. Yeah. It's just a lotted God's given us.

Given you. To the eldership. And we don't complain. You choose your friends but you don't choose your family and you don't choose your church. And so these are blood bought sheep.

These are chosen by God and brought under our care and so they're entrusted to you by the the grand shepherd himself. So pray for us elders. That we're rejoicing the sheep. Be a good sheep so that we can rejoice. And love each other.

So Peter speaks. He speaks to the elders. He says be shepherds. Of the flock of gods, but here we are. The flock has responsibilities.

The sheep need to listen. Look at verse 5. In the same way, you who are younger submit yourselves to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves in humility towards 1 another because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, You don't just come to the cross in repentance and faith.

You come to the cross in repentance and faith, and Jesus a lot is a lots you to a church. You're allotted into the flock. You're never alone. There really isn't anything in the bible as a lone sheep. You'll get massacred.

And yet there are hundreds of people that pastors will tell us every pastor knows. There are people that pop into church. Then you don't see them for another month and then they've been around all the other churches. They just pop in their loan sheets. They're never under a shepherd.

And they think they're spiritual but they never grow. They never serve. They're never a joy. They're always coming in and just tasting other fields, other other other sort of pastures. They like the fresh juicy bit over here, but they don't wanna be committed to when they have to go and be debugged.

And so there's a humility that needs to go on. Here. In the same way, you who are younger submit. There's a submission and a a humility. Look, if you're a sermon taster and and to you online, let me speak to you.

You know, look, you're very welcome to come online, but if if you just like to tune in to a sermon or you like just the way you like the way I preach, Well, you don't, actually, because you're not listening. You need to be part of a body says Jesus. I remember years ago when I first started to preach. I used to preach the down and outs in the center of London. We'd feed them and then preach to them, and sometimes preach to them and then feed them, which is not fair.

1 bloke came up to me, and he said, oh, yeah. It spoke like that. They all did in those days. Oh. 0, I love it when you preach.

I always come when you preach. I love it when you preach. Always hellfire with you. Yeah. It probably was in those days.

And I said, oh, okay. Well, What do you think about what I say? Oh, it's rubbish. But I love it. That's That's ridiculous, isn't it?

If you're just coming, sermon tasting, it's not what church is about. You need to be in a field where there's a shepherd and we have elders that run small groups. We wanna shepherd you, care for you, look for you, look for the maggot. Wash you in the word of God. Not in some overlording way.

We've just seen that. That's ugly. But because we love Christ, and we love the word, and we love you, and we want you to love the word, and love Christ and see him more fully. But but there is a submission here, and there's a humility here, isn't there? You see, the trouble is you often people that say, I love the lord, but I don't like the church.

You can't do that. There used to be a song when I was a teenager, about girls. So I'm sorry. It's offensive and it's not. I know it's not woke, but it was back in the seventies.

Some of you will remember it. It was nice legs, shame about the boat race. Do you remember that song? Yeah. The boat race is a face.

So he was looking at this girl, she walks in with nice legs. Oh, shame about the face. I mean, it's it's not a nice song. I know, but, you know, that was what it was in the seventies. Nice legs, shame about the face.

Trouble is we do it the other way around. Nice face Jesus. Oh, I love you. Don't like the body though. Nice face shamed about the body.

The trouble is if these sheep are allotted to us, you're gonna get some odd sheep. You're gonna have a sheep with a gummy eye and a and Maggotty bottom. Yeah. And that's salotted, and we need to love those people. They won't find acceptance anywhere else.

That's why the church should welcome people like that. We're open to the strange people, the odd people. The trouble is when people just go from 1 church to the other, they often sit next to the gammy eye, Maggie bottoms, odd person. And they think the whole church is that. And so they're offended when the eye goes old.

Look at that. Look at that. And then and then they go off. And there's no humility there. There's no love.

There's no submission. There's no kindness. We are to love the body however unattractive they are. We choose friends, but we don't choose church or flock. So it's really important that we get this.

So Peter speaking, he speaks to the elders, He says, be shepherds in all of the ways that we've seen of the flock of God. They're not yours, they're the flock of God. But flock, help the shepherds. Love the shepherds. Let them lead you and care for you and guide you.

Be part of a church. And that's why home groups and small groups are absolutely important. If you've been visiting for some time, you need to make a decision. Come with us or not. Yeah?

So go and see the new or visiting group over there. Chris Tilly, he's 1 of the bishops of the church. Bishop Chris, are you there? Go and see Bishop Chris. Right?

And and he'll help you and introduce you in how to how to get into a smaller flock within this bigger flock that will help you grow and love the lord Jesus Christ. The great shepherd of our souls. Let's bow ahead and pray, and I'll hand over to thee. Just take a minute to just think about how we're doing as a flock are we listening to the word of God? Are we listening to our leaders?

Those we've been entrusted to. As elders are we being an example, are we overseeing? Father, we come to you today and we We thank you so much for speaking to us. Thank you for this passage that you've given to us. We thank you Peter has written to us today.

And it's not just Peter. It's the Holy Spirit. We thank you for using him. We thank you that He was an example of how it can go wrong and and how we can be restored, and that's such an amazing thing. And, lord, we all need to be restored today.

Lord, please forgive us for when we get things wrong. Please forgive us for when people say nice face, shame about the body, because Lord, we know that we do get it wrong. We are we're not like Jesus yet fully. We fail. We hurt people.

We say things out of turn. We don't say things when we should. We say, we talk a lot, and we don't maybe back it up with actions. So please, lord, forgive us for all these things. Help us to want to be more like Jesus, and We pray that that would come out in how we treat 1 another, how we love 1 another, how we serve 1 another.

And lord, please, would you So this week, you know, we pray that you would help us to live better than we did last week, to encourage 1 another more, to pray for 1 another more. And Lord, as we pray that as we do this, we would we would be full of joy, because we are living out the gospel. It's actually true and we're we're proving it with our lives. So we pray you would help us in all these things. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.