 All right welcome back. Let's pick up a few more responsibilities and then we look at a couple of rewards for the pastor. So the next one, pastors are to be the Lord's servants as they maintain Christ-like attitudes during difficult times. Let's read 2 Timothy chapter 2 22 to 24. 2 Timothy 2 22 to 24 chapter 2 is 22 to 24. Pleading evil desires of youth and worship, right, business, faith, love and peace along with those who call them the Lord out of a pure heart. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments because you know they've reduced quietness and the Lord's servant must not quarrel. Instead he must find everyone able to beat and not listen. Yes thank you Jafina. So it says here that pastors are to maintain Christ-like attitudes even during difficult times. So there will be times in ministry when things will go up and down. There will be situations, there will be people, there will be seasons of ups and downs, right. There'll be those difficult times, there'll be seasons when things are going smooth. But we are to maintain Christ-like attitudes not only during good times but also during those difficult seasons because that's where our true character is shown, right. And so Paul is saying here, avoid avoid things. Do I need to flee from evil desires and pursue righteousness? Verse 23, don't have arguments to do with foolishness, don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments because you know they produce nothing but quarrels, right. So maintain Christ-like attitudes through good times and even through the challenging times. Next one, they are to reject the practices, pastors are to reject the practices of the surrounding culture. Now this is from 1st Timothy chapter 4, 1 to 6. Let's read that. 1st Timothy 4 is 1 to 6 and then we'll just discuss on what that means. 1st Timothy 4, yes. 1st Timothy chapter 4, 1 to 6. Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith giving heed to the saving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience, sheared with the hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If you instruct the brethren in these things you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. Thank you. Thank you Rosalind. Now as pastors we must understand that there are different kinds of cultures and different kinds of practices that are there around us and they sometimes come in and infiltrate the church. So as pastors we must be understanding and we must know how to protect our congregation from things that can affect them. Now I'm not saying that all cultures are wrong. Little did we know that from 2020 once the pandemic had hit everything's gone online. Now we didn't know it 10 years back right things have changed. So things have changed some things have changed for the good so it's all right right but there are cultures and there are trends and new kind of cultural changes that can come and affect the church. As pastors be aware that whatever culture whatever things that are surrounding it must not affect the truth of God's word. It must not affect the working of the ministry within the church. We have to protect them. If you feel that there are now for example everyone's open about gay marriage they're getting married in the church then there's also the LGBTQ and where they again get married in the church. There are believers who are you know in this but now the wrong thing to do is to say it's okay right because it's a cultural thing nowadays we are no more in 1990s we're in 2020 or 2022 and we're on we're we're just moving fast in the future so things have changed. Maybe 10 years back it was it was a big deal but now it's not a big deal. Now that as pastors we must be very careful that we don't accept everything that culture says right so what is truth is truth what is sin is sin and that cannot be changed right so as pastors we must we must ensure that we have this ability to to bring forth the truth and to protect the church from the things uh from the cultural settings and Paul is writing this to Ephesus where there was so much of you know cultural I would say religious cultural ethnicities and different kinds of people who are involved in different kinds of idol practices sexual immorality when he's writing Timothy and he's saying be aware right don't let those things come in and infiltrate the church right then just a few things reject drunkenness uh as pastors we must have care we must be able to care and share with people very important next point is to be content with what we have and not to be lovers of money let's read first Timothy chapter three and verse three first Timothy three and three first Timothy chapter three verse three not given to drunkenness not violent but gentle not quarrelsome not a lover of money yes let's read Titus one seven for a bishop for a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God not self-willed not quick tempered not given to wine not violent not greedy for money yeah thank you so much Rosalind so we see here that as pastors we must be content with what we have and not lovers of money now Paul is writing this it's interesting you see Paul is writing this is thousands of you know years ago and we're seeing all of this even right now in the church right uh where you know ministers of God have become lovers of money and it's very sad because I remember uh you know just to think it was a couple of months back somebody sent me this video clip and the video clip was um from I think it was god tv or something and uh and in the clip it is this I think it was a televancillus to uh I don't know what his name or is but but he was preaching and he began the 30 30 odd minutes that you have in that episode uh he began talking about money and he started saying okay this is what I have this is what I you know I have a I have a dog which is $9,000 I have a jet which is you know 15,000 15 million and now we're planning to buy another jet and then this jet is going to you know and this is what I want to do with my house and this is what my son wears and you know the whole 25 minutes he kept saying all about money when and in the last five minutes he says uh okay the phone is going to ring now so we're going to go open up for donations and the angel of the lord is right next to you and for some of you he's saying give $5,000 for some of you he's saying give $3,000 so for those who the angel of the lord is saying give $5,000 make the call first then we'll go to the 3000 and I thought what's happening here Paul is writing this thousands of years back saying we are not to be lovers of money but to be content with what we have and you know in a day and age that we are living in and it's it's very hard to find people who are content and Paul writes contentment loneliness with contentment is a great gain being content God I want to thank you for what I have but as pastors and leaders be careful do not let the enemy enter in because he can enter in in a very subtle way and he says Paul also says the money is the root of all evil for wealth we can do anything so we must guard our hands against this right and it says there to be content and not lovers of money right and we praise God for those who are there around us who are truly serving God where money is not a priority at all right and God will you know if we are doing God's work if you're doing it faithfully God knows how to provide for it right but the moment the focus becomes money to do ministry we've lost the way right our focus must be minister or ministry and God will provide for the ministry to be done it's God's word it's God's kingdom it's God's work and God will provide for it right so this is something as pastors we must be very very careful right now especially when you know the ministry is small we are focused on building the church but what happens when the ministry grows suddenly we're getting a lot of offerings a lot of tides and people are just giving into God's kingdom guard your heart let not money cause us to fall it's very sad where we see you know ministry is taken to court because they've not filed their IT or they've uh there's tax evasion and there's all kinds of problems in ministry right why it was too much money and then they've not dealt with it the right way so if you are in the pastoral ministry you're leading your own ministry have a team of people or have a dedicated person who can look after the accounts of the church you may be getting very less money or you know within the ministry but as the ministry grows you know people will start giving in you know that okay Lord I want to do things the right way so you're setting up the example you're making things right from the small when things are small itself right pastors are to give themselves the public reading of the scripture and do the work of an evangelist pastors are to keep Christ's work on the cross before the people so it's not there are plenty of verses so I will share this document I'll put it up on the stream so you can download it and read from this as well so Christ the pastors are to keep Christ's work on the cross before people if people are you know coming to me if they're you know if their interest is on me as a person then I have failed as a pastor I must lead people to the cross lead people to Christ not to myself right it's not about me it's God is using me but oh God is using us but it's not about okay you know I did it but as believers as pastors we must take people and point them to Jesus Christ point them to the cross because that is where we find forgiveness that is where we find redemption and and healing and deliverance so that is a very important responsibility as pastors finally pastors are to grow the members of the congregation and they may carry out the Christian ministry fully right so to grow the members to have them grow in spiritual in a spiritual way now Paul is writing to the Corinthians he's saying I fed you with milk but there's now I'm writing to you after three and a half to four years but I'm still feeding you with milk now is the time you should be having spiritual food but you're still having milk so what is he trying to say when even though you're flowing the gifts of the spirit and there's a we see that there's a flow of the gifts of the spirit but you are still so immature you are to develop yourselves grow in a certain way that you begin to eat the food of the word of God and not just stay on milk right so as pastors very important responsibility is to take people from being spiritual babies to make them children and men and women of God growing them developing them in the things of God now this is not going to happen overnight but as we keep ministering as we keep you know Sunday after Sunday through Bible studies through life group meetings through all the programs and events that we do our focus must be to build people right so it's good to have programs it's good to have events it's good to reach out to people that's wonderful but even as they reach out our focus must be yes we want to see the church growing we want to see many more people coming in but we also want to see this the spiritual lives of people from being spiritual babies becoming spiritual men and women of God so I've just listed down from first second first and second Timothy and Titus few of the responsibilities of the pastor and when it comes to rewards right there's so much that we can talk about but let's read first Corinthians chapter three was 10 to 16 first Corinthians chapter three was 10 to 16 first Corinthians three first Corinthians chapter three was 10 to 16 by the grace God has given me I laid a foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building on it but each one should be careful but each one should be careful how he builds for no one can lay foundation other than the one already laid which is Jesus Christ if any man builds on this foundation using gold silver costly stones wood hay or straw his work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light it will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man's work if what he has built survives he will receive his reward if it is burned up he will suffer loss he himself will be saved but only as one escaping through the flames don't you know that you yourself are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you right thank you Daphina so Paul is writing and he's saying he's talking about the judgment seat of Christ right uh as believers each one of us will stand at the judgment seat of Christ and we will be rewarded now what will be rewarded we'll be rewarded for the works that we have done there will be certain works that we have done done out of the by the anointing with the power of the holy spirit done to please God to build God's kingdom it will be tested by fire and like golden silver that will last right there will be some of the works that we may have done which is done out of selfish ambition jealousy pride and if it is any of that when the fire comes on that work if it'll be like hey once you put fire to that it'll just become ashes so basically our reward is how how we've done the work how we've done the ministry whether we have done it with a pure and a sincere heart wanting to build people to glorify God to glorify and to build his kingdom or whether we've done it for our own selfish ambition and Paul writes and says that each one of us will be rewarded by the Lord now remember this grace is free that's why he goes on to the verse you yourself will we ourselves will be saved from the fire but the works that we have done is which is tested by fire now imagine this what if God tests us tests certain work of ours and it becomes ashes then you say God I thought this is good you know I thought this is something that is good God says no it was it was good people thought good people thought it's good I mean you know everyone else who was there thought it was good but I saw your heart and your heart you felt this is what you know maybe pride or jealousy or anger or or this feeling of I'm the one who's doing this and so it's going to become ashes but there are works that God will put fire to and he'd say I'm pleased with this and we will be rewarded for that work right so it's very important as pastors as ministers as believers of God whatever we do we have to see whether it's pleasing God whether it is in line with God is God being glorified in what we do right many many many times this has happened to me where you know I've led worship right and I felt oh I've got out of that stage and I felt wow I think that was one of the best worship sets I've done but many times I've gone home and I've thought to myself I felt so empty after that you know people have come up and said oh worship was very nice I enjoyed it and all of that that personally I felt so empty there were times when I went back to God and said why am I feeling this thing why am I not feeling a joy or or or this you know the strength of God or this joy of God inside me why am I feeling so troubled in my spirit and I realized many times the Holy Spirit has you know revealed to me and just ministered to me saying you have focused more on what the band should do rather you had two hours of practice for the worship but you've had only half an hour of prayer for the worship two hours of worship practice rehearsals but only half an hour of prayer so musically you're very good but in the spirit I I didn't you know of course God is gracious right but in the spirit there could have been so much more that's done right and I thank God I mean I'm not saying two hours rehearsal is not important it's very important right we we do what is right we do give our best for God but we must also balance it with the spiritual and so over time I learned okay if I'm spending two hours in practice or rehearsals for worship I got to give at least two to three hours in God's presence reading and praying that comes even with preaching so sometimes we what I do is personally I just spend Friday evening Saturdays this whole time just reading the word spending time and prayer because Sunday I want to be prepared I want to be prepared whether it's worship whether it's preaching the word uh that'd be done of the spirit right so our works are going to be judged by fire finally what is our reward 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and verse 6 to 8 let's read that now this is the apostle Paul his last epistle he's in prison he's going to die anytime and here's what he says 2nd Timothy chapter 4 6 to 9 6 to 8 sorry 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verses 6 to 8 for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing be diligent to come to me quickly amen amen thank you Rosalind so Paul is here on his last few moments of his a few moments but his last few days of his life and he's saying I've fought the good fight of faith now there is a crown a crown of righteousness which the Lord has prepared for me the crown of righteousness each one of us if we have fought or if we are fighting the good fight of faith as pastors as ministers of God we have a crown of righteousness and we know the wonderful meaning of righteousness to be in right standing with God we can stand with this crown with a right standing front of God and say God I've done your work I've done the ministry I've done it faithfully I have fought the good it was there just trying to bring me down but I fought the good fight and and there is a crown of righteousness what a joy picture this the Old Testament says you can't come near God you can't come near God because God is so great and so he's your way so holy but now you and I can come because we have a crown of righteousness right this is what a reward that is like nobody can take that crown away from you Paul writes and I think there are many other scriptures and Corinthians again he writes and he says you know when you look at athletes they they struggle all their life and they work for this crown which is perishable but you and I as ministers of God we are fighting this faith good fight and we're working for a crown that is imperishable nobody can moths cannot time will not decay that crown that crown is an eternal crown right and it's so powerful I just want you to read one more verse here uh Philippians Philippians chapter sorry not Philippians um let me just get that verse it's 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 19 this is a powerful verse and I always keep this in my mind when I read this 1st Thessalonians 2 19 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 19 for what is our hope our joy or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he come is it not you yeah thank you Japhina so here's one reward here what is our glory what is our crown Paul is saying to the to the believers he's saying it is you is you the people who we have ministered to they are a crown in the presence of God what a joy it'll be to be in God's presence and God says these are the people who we have ministered to this is your crown these are the people who you have built up let them as a shepherd you've let them let the sheep in the right way here's your crown Paul is saying I glory not in not in the things that I have done not in the missionary journeys not in the challenges not in the difficulties not in the churches that have been established and the leader and and the things that I've done but I glory in you before the throne of God I glory in what the believers and the believers before the kingdom before the throne of God so as pastors our reward is when we are ministering to people God is going to reward us for the work that we are doing we can glory in the people it's very less about the work or the or the things that we are achievements but it's about the people about building people and God says you will be rewarded for that right and then there are the again those regular rewards that we have this worthy of double honor and God begins to pour out his anointing and all of that continues but these are the basic rewards that God has for us so we've come to a close of this chapter we have another after this chapter 12 is the restoration of the ministry of the pastor and chapter 13 again we have our practical keys so we've come almost to the end but what I'll do is I will post this notes on your on the stream on and even on the classwork tab so you can just download it and just read it to help you as well so all right so let's close for today any questions any thoughts any questions I hope this has been helpful hope you all are able to digest what is being taught and I pray that you will each one of us will you know work towards this I that we will truly learn to serve God in an honorable way right so let's pray any one of us can close in prayer let's pray Father God in heaven we thank you Lord for this wonderful class that we had today may you receive all the glory even as we meditated on the responsibilities of the pastors help us with your divine ways that we not only be hearers of the word of God but we do us of the word of God even as we are learning and blowing in the ministry of pastors and teachers as we are preparing we give ourselves we surrender ourselves completely to your will help us serve you to the best of our abilities also God we thank you for at your pastor Paul we bless him we bless his life and pray your grace to multiply upon his life and his family we ask you God that the revelation of the word of God be given unto him as he spent time in your presence he is indeed a blessing God and to the kingdom of God Father we thank you and we bless you in Jesus mighty name amen amen thank you Rosalind all right thank you everyone have a great week ahead we'll catch up next Thursday and continue on this God bless have a great week bye