Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Welcome & Announcements (Hopson)
Good morning family!
Please take your seats.
6 announcements:
1) Connect Card
Thank guests for attending
Explain what the Connect Card is, where to find it, and where to return it
2) NextGen Vision lunch
Parents, teachers, and NextGen volunteers join us immediately following the service for a NextGen Vision Luncheon.
This will be a great opportunity to ask questions, learn more about how we plan to disciple your kids from lost to leader, and to engage with other parents
3) Sabbatical
Lord willing, begins today after the lunch
Will be back at PBC on Feb 26 and back in the pulpit on March 5
4) Fellowship Groups
Most of our groups will be launching soon
Members, an elder should be reaching out to you soon with information
Not a member but interested in a group?
Please talk to an elder or contact the church office.
5) Sunday Nights
Meeting once a month
Next PM gathering will be Feb 26
6) Women’s Speed Bonding event
Exciting, creative event designed to help older ladies to connect with younger ladies
Please save the date for March 11 at 10AM
Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.
Call to Worship (Psalm 23)
Prayer of Praise (Nancy Akers)
God of Wonders
O God Our Help in Ages Past
Prayer of Confession (Craig Figgers), Pride
O for a Thousand Tongues
We Fall Down
Scripture Reading (1 Timothy 4:11-16)
You can find it on page 1179 in the black Bibles
1 Timothy 4:11-16—Command and teach these things.
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
Pastoral Prayer (Hopson)
Prayer for PBC—Elders
Prayer for supported ministry—Operation Christmas Child
Prayer for US—President's cabinet
Wisdom, discernment, integrity, courage
Prayer for the world—Jamaica
Prime Minister Andrew Holness
Against violence, drugs, rape, domestic abuse
Pray for genuine conversion for nominal Christians
Pray for effective cooperation among the many Christian organizations already established in country.
Local churches—passion for evangelism, holiness, and spiritual maturity
Missionaries--safety, fruitfulness, perseverance
Send laborers into the harvest
Pray for the sermon
SERMON
START TIMER!!!
Sometimes you need to learn how to quit when you’re ahead.
Like the sports gambler who wasn’t content with over a million dollars, so he decided to get just a little bit more.
Just over a week ago, the Jacksonville Jaguars trailed the Los Angeles Charges 27-0 in the first half.
Jaguars QB Trever Lawrence had already thrown four interceptions, and it looked like the Jags were well on their way to a crushing defeat.
At that moment the unnamed gambler who didn’t know when to quit placed a bet online.
He waged $1.4 million that the Chargers would hold on to win the game.
If his bet proved correct, this gambler would make an extra $11,200.
Instead of getting just a little bit more, the gambler watched in horror as the Jaguars stormed back to a 31-30 victory on a last-second field goal.
Instead of walking away with $1,411,200 that gambler walked away with nothing.
He should have quit when he was ahead.
By now most of you have heard the news that our three elder nominees (Sam, Jason, and Sterling) were overwhelmingly affirmed by the congregation during our Members’ Meeting last Sunday night.
One of the concerns leading up to the vote was the relative youth of the elder nominees
It’s clear that, even if some had concerns, the congregation as a whole did not see their youth as a reason to not affirm them as elders
Some of you might say to me, “Hopson, you need to learn how to quit when you’re ahead!”
But I still think it’s fitting today (as we officially install those men to this office by laying hands on them) that we hear from God’s Word on how rookie elders should relate to reluctant sheep
Turn to 1 Timothy 4:11
Written by Paul from prison in the early AD 60s
Written to Timothy, who was a young pastor in Ephesus
Purpose of the letter:
1 Timothy 3:14-15—“… I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”
This is a letter about how to behave in church!
Near the top of his concerns about how a church should behave is how shepherds and sheep relate to each other.
Big Idea: One sign of a church’s health is how members and elders relate to each other.
This truth has unique and specific applications for both members and elders
So I’m going to speak both to our members and to our elders (with special application to our newest elders)
Two challenges:
1) A Challenge to Reluctant SHEEP
“I’m not reluctant at all!
I am excited and eager to follow the men that God has given us as elders!”
Praise God! What the Scripture says still applies to you.
Perhaps God would use you to help encourage those who might be more reluctant
Some of you are reluctant...
Maybe it has something to do with their age… or lack of experience… or your reluctance towards authority in general… or some painful experience with church authority in your past
If you are reluctant for these or some other reason, I want to encourage you that some level of reluctance is okay.
The Bible takes Spiritual authority very seriously… so should we!
Spiritual authority is sometimes abused, with serious negative impact!
Perhaps you’ve heard examples of church leaders behaving badly like Mark Driscoll, Bill Hybels, James MacDonald, Johnny Hunt, etc.
Perhaps you’ve seen it played out in your own life
This isn’t a recent problem...
3 John 9-10—I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.
So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us.
And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.
Diotrophes was a self-serving leader who used his authority to wrongly excommunicate people he disagreed with!
It’s no wonder some of us may be reluctant to fully trust and follow our elders, whether they’re young or not!!!
And yet, even though some leaders abuse or misuse their authority, God’s Word doesn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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