INTRODUCTION:
A. WHAT MAKES A PASTOR ATTRACTIVE TO PEOPLE?
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 place else.
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. First God heals a woman who is deaf. Everybody
gets excited and expects more of the same!
2. Next time, God heals a man who is blind.
Everybody gets excited and expects more of
the same!
3. The next service, God 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 you raise all the dead and
heal 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.
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 them all
up to 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"