Leaders Or Servants Series

But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.’” (Acts 4:18-19)

When they went out and preached again about Jesus the Sanhedrin dragged them in again and asked why they continued to preach when they’d been commanded not to

Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29)

Deciding what to do when faced by this kind of conflict can be difficult.

ILLUS: At the first church I served, there was a deacon who was committing adultery.

Stan, one of the Elders (the “chief” Elder and a cousin to this deacon) was on vacation in Florida but I consulted with the other 2 Elders and we confronted the Deacon.

I explained to the Deacon that we’d been told of his adultery and he rather flippantly said “Well, I’ll just resign my deaconship.”

There something in his tone that angered me and I said “I don’t think you understand – you don’t get to resign, you’re fired.”

That didn’t go down real well with him.

But then Stan, the cousin and vacationing Elder, returned and called a Board Meeting. He made sure they reinstated the Deacon and perverted Scriptures in ways I didn’t think anyone was capable of doing. He explained to me that the Deacon had repented.

When I said “he hasn’t told me he’s repentant” Stan responded: “Well, he’s mad at you!”

That made it pretty obvious that the Deacon had not changed his attitude.

In addition, the Elders (actually Stan) ordered that I was not to bring this matter up again.

Now, I had a problem.

I was commanded in Scripture to honor the Elders.

But they were commanding me accept this Deacon as repentant (which he wasn’t)

And I didn’t have the resources or the ability to FIX the sin in that church.

So if I could not fix the problem… who would???

That’s right – God would.

I’m not going to go into the details of what happened, but suffice it to say

I NEVER back talked those Elders

I NEVER rebelled against them.

But I NEVER accepted the sin of that Deacon – and it drove them nuts!!!

Do you think God fixed that problem? (Yes, He did)

Granted, I got fired.

But...

Because I trusted God

And because I refused to attack the Elders

And I because refused to accept the sin...

in less than a year, the Deacon and his Elder/cousin lost their offices in the church.

God cleaned house.

ONE LAST THING - at this church you’ve got great leaders.

You have leaders that are servants of God and of you.

You have leaders who remember who owns this church.

You have leaders take their responsibility before God VERY seriously.

It’s a joy to honor and submit to these Elders.

Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”