GATHERING THE FLOCK
INTRODUCTION:
A. WHAT ATTRACTS PEOPLE TO A PASTOR?
1. The Scriptures are filled with examples of men who drew others after them in love for God.
2. Men such as Moses, David, Peter, and Paul, had vast numbers of followers.
3. On the other hand, men such as Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Apollos never had much of a following.
B. WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE?
1. Charles Spurgeon said it takes love to be a good pastor. (Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia, vol. II, p. 80)
2. Spurgeon spoke of what he knew and love is definitely essential for a pastor.
3. But love is not the difference between a Moses and an Elijah, for both had love.
4. The difference is not in devotion, but in the gifts and callings of God.
C. THERE ARE DIFFERENT ANOINTINGS
1. Some men preach eloquently, but they can’t pastor a church.
2. Some can hardly preach, but they do well in pastoring a church.
3. A good preacher who is not called to be a pastor may attempt to pastor a local church.
4. He may have a strong beginning, but within a few months or a year it will dwindle to nothing.
5. His power to preach is undiminished but it doesn’t satisfy the sheep.
6. The flock is not satisfied with eloquence and revelation alone.
7. Some are called to an itinerant ministry, they don’t belong in the pastorate.
8. God divides the gifts severally as He wills.
9. This is just one of many reasons why sheep sometimes scatter.
I. HOW TO SCATTER THE SHEEP
A. AN EMPHASIS ON MIRACLES WILL SCATTER THE SHEEP
1. Fifteen years ago I thought one of the things that would build a church quickly and solidly was an emphasis on miracles.
2. I thought if I could get God to perform enough miracles, the people would come in droves.
3. It seemed to work for a while, but eventually these religious thrill seekers would race down the road to some other place looking for a new thrill.
4. I have since learned that God does not build a church on signs and wonders but on the teaching of His word.
5. Miracles excite the sheep, but in the long run only the word of God causes believers to grow and multiply.
B. THERE’S A BUILT IN LIMIT TO MIRACLES
1. When God heals a woman who is deaf, everybody gets excited and expects more of the same!
2. Next, when God heals a man who is blind, everybody gets excited and expects more of the same!
3. Afterwards, when od heals a lame man, everybody gets excited and expects more of the same!
4. The people sometimes go crazy with excitement, but they always want more, more, more!
5. They want the spectacular and the sensational.
6. So, what do you do in the fourth and fifth service?
7. Somebody might say, "Raise the dead!" So, what do you do after God raises all the dead and heals all the sick in your church?
8. If all God wanted us to do was perform miracles, eventually we would be out of people to perform them on.
C. MIRACLES WERE MEANT TO CONFIRM THE WORD
1. Miracles, signs, wonders, and gifts of the Spirit were given to confirm the message of the word.
2. Their purpose is to authenticate the gospel.
3. They were never intended to replace preaching and teaching.
4. They were meant to support the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.
II. OVERDRIVING THE FLOCK SCATTERS THEM
A. TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY OVERDRIVES THE FLOCK
1. With literal sheep, pushing them too fast or too far can kill the lambs and the weaker sheep.
2. In time it can kill the entire flock.
3. That same type of thing can happen in a local church.
4. A pastor can overdrive his flock by pushing them too far and teaching beyond their depth.
5. The Bible makes a distinction between the "milk" and the "meat" of the Word.
6. Beginners must be fed milk until they have become grounded in Christ.
7. If we try to feed them meat when they are only ready for milk, it will starve them and eventually devastate them.
8. Sheep need to be pastured in the green grass of the fundamentals of Christ before they are taken to the deeper things of God.
9. We must discipline ourselves to avoid the sensational in favor of the nutritional.
B. YOU CAN OVERDRIVE THE FLOCK WITH TOO MUCH PROPHECY
1. Some think if each person in the church had hands laid on them while someone prophesied over them, they would grow.
2. They think a direct revelation of each person’s ministry would establish a strong local church.
3. I’ve discovered that this is not the Lord’s plan for us. It simply doesn’t work that way!
4. Instead of motivating people to become overcomers (using the Word of God as the Sword of the Spirit), it makes them lazy and causes them to sit around waiting for the prophet’s next "revelation."
5. Instead of equipping them for service, it paralyzes them with confusion and self-consciousness.
6. It causes them to stop all the things they were already doing.
7. They don’t know what to do with all their revelations about the future.
8. It’s more than they can handle.
9. They need a prophet to continue to tell them what to do. They eventually want to be manipulated by a man rather than guided by the wisdom of God.
C. YOU CAN OVERDRIVE THE FLOCK WITH TOO MUCH ACTIVITY
1. Some think the more meetings people attend, the more they will grow.
2. It seems unbelievable that someone could get too much good preaching and worship.
3. BUT, people need time to digest what they have gained from seasons of revelation and instruction.
4. They need to apply it and test it in everyday life.
5. It is possible to become overstuffed and get too little exercise.
III. POISONOUS DOCTRINES DESTROY THE FLOCK
A. SOME CHURCHES CLAIM THEY DON’T HAVE ANY DOCTRINES
1. A doctrine is a belief.
2. They are claiming that they don’t have any beliefs.
3. I like to ask them if they seriously "believe" that they don’t have any "beliefs"?
B. IF YOU DON’T STAND FOR SOMETHING,
YOU’LL FALL FOR ANYTHING!
1. Those who are not taught in the Word will wind up going somewhere else.
2. After a while, people will start to fall backwards.
3. They will lose interest for one reason or another and simply become drop-outs.
4. Others will become confused and go off into doctrinal by-paths.
5. We fail the sheep if we don’t set high standards.
6. We fail the sheep if we neglect to lay foundational truths in their lives.
7. They are blown about by every wind of doctrine. Fads hold sway over them.
8. This is what is happening in the new Yuppie churches that are springing up here and there.
9. They say they "just want to celebrate Jesus."
10. They claim that they don’t teach any doctrine.
11. They make their people into a ready prey for cultists.
C. DIETARY IMBALANCE HARMS THE SHEEP
1. Any dietary imbalance will in time produce a loss of appetite.
2. You simply cannot eat steak every day and retain a relish for it.
3. The same is true with any gift of the Holy Spirit if it is overemphasized.
D. TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON PROPHECY
1. I’ve attended churches where there are numerous prophetic utterances in every service.
2. After a day or two of this, you no longer listen.
3. You get tired of it.
4. You begin to wish that the leader would actually lead the service like he was supposed to.
5. When there’s an abundance of prophecy, it’s difficult to sort out the good from the bad.
6. Consequently, we tend to discard it all.
7. A prophetic message given at the right time is tremendously edifying, but too much has
the tendency to produce the opposite effect.
IV. HOW TO GATHER THE SHEEP
A. TREAT THEM LIKE THEY ARE MATURE
WHILE ACCEPTING THEIR IMMATURITY
1. When you raise children you learn to accept immaturity.
2. However, you try to help them grow out of it.
3. If all you ever speak to your children is baby talk, they may never learn anything else.
4. You have to speak mature words to them if you want them to learn to speak mature words.
5. We spoke to our kids when they couldn’t understand one word we said.
6. We taught them to talk, to sing, to appreciate beauty, to get involved with people.
7. We taught them by doing these things with them and accepting their immaturities.
8. We didn’t scream at them when they did a poor job of washing the car windows.
9. We spoke to them as mature people and told them better ways to do it.
B. HELP THEM TO MATURE
1. We taught our children to keep house, to wash the car, to feed the animals, etc.
2. We loved and enjoyed each other’s company as we did these things together.
3. We enjoyed their company even when they were babies so that eventually we would
be able to share with them as mature adults.
4. They’ve grown to love and enjoy the same things that my wife and I do, now that they
are getting older.
C. THE SAME IS TRUE IN THE FAMILY OF GOD
1. We should continue to love those around us even when they seem unlovable, so that they can learn to love and be lovable.
2. We should continue to share our spiritual blessings with those around us, in hopes that they will eventually feel the same way that we do about God’s blessings.
3. This way, we can become a genuine family of God, enjoying our Heavenly Father, enjoying each other, and working together to get the family chores done (rather than leaving all of the chores for the "adults")..
D. THE CHURCH IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FAMILY
1. Consider Matt. 12:46-50.
2. The problem with our American society is that our relationships have become superficial.
3. We are acquainted with people, but we don’t really know them.
4. We work for the same company and live in the same neighborhood but we don’t even know each other by name.
5. America’s commitment is to give our time for wages.
6. If another company will pay us more, we quickly make a shift with few emotional pangs or feelings of disloyalty.
E. THERE SHOULD BE LIFE LONG COMMITMENTS
1. Lifelong commitment to anybody is rare in today’s society.
2. People don’t even make lifelong marriage commitments.
3. This is not a good thing for us as a society, as a community, or as a church.
4. I have the feeling that there are certain people in my social circle who will need me around for the rest of their lives.
5. This is what the family of God is all about.
6. We supplement and compliment each other, not for a week, or a month, or a year, but throughout a lifetime.
7. This is what ails so many of our youth. They have no one who really cares.
8. No one cares to gather them into the Kingdom of God.
CONCLUSION:
Are you Gathering with Jesus, or Scattering?
Luke 11:23 "He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth"
