Pastors Are A Gift From God: Don't Refuse The Gift | EP11

Dear God Sister,

Did you know God gave pastors as gifts to His children? You might not have thought about it this way, but choosing not to have a pastor or thinking you don't need one is, in effect, choosing to reject a love gift from God. If you don't allow yourself to be pastored, you are like a sheep with no shepherd. That is a place of danger and vulnerability to harm. The Father knew that, so He provided shepherds (pastors) after His own heart (Jeremiah 3:15). Ask Him who He has chosen to be your pastor. 

In this episode of the Your God Sister podcast, we talk candidly about this topic. There's no sugar coating the truth because this is God's love for you. I want you to live the very best life. The ultimate life can only be lived if we live it God's way. Our plans will always fall short in comparison to His perfect will. I don't know about you, but I want His plan.

If this episode has been a blessing to you, be sure to follow the Your God Sister podcast on any podcast platform of you choice. New episodes are posted every Tuesday. We go deeper in faith. We enjoy real God-centered community. This is a space where Bible truth is applied to everyday life. This podcast is for YOU!

✅ Join the Your God Sister Podcast Listener Hub

📝 Get EP11 Show Notes 

❓ Have a question? Submit it and it may be featured on a future episode

🩷 Join Our Affiliate Program For Dating Guide Mr. Right, Is That You? 

If the Your God Sister podcast has been a blessing to you, please share it with someone. This is not about more listens and downloads. It is us working together to share the Gospel with everyone we can. We can work together to do that!

Until next time...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Do you have a pastor? Did you know it's important to Jesus that you have one? God desires to lead you to the pastor He has chosen for you. Did you know that? Let's talk about it. Today we live in a digital age. It can be beneficial on occasion, but if we're not careful, it can also be very detrimental. Everything is online these days. In today's society, human interaction that was created by God has become the lesser of the two when digital options are introduced. Do you remember when malls were places for excited shoppers? They were places where you could touch the clothing you were interested in purchasing. Now you open your computer, search for what you want, submit your credit card number, and wait for the item to arrive. All of this is done with no human interaction. Then when your item shows up in your mailbox and the quality isn't what you expected, you're disappointed. The problem is you couldn't touch that pair of pants, and the online photo was deceptive. We can't accept the online version of everything. God has given us pastors as gifts, and their care for us must take place in person. Welcome to the Your God Sister Podcast, where we address life's challenges with biblical answers while enjoying our time together. A couple of constants here are what the Bible says and what the Lord speaks to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. My name is Joy Cooper. I'm an associate pastor, I am a youth minister, and through the years I've had the opportunity to mentor young ladies. But on this podcast, I'm here with you. Yes, I said I'm an associate pastor. However, if you don't attend the church where I am an associate pastor, I am not your pastor. I'm not being mean. I'm being truthful according to God's word. This podcast is designed for people who have never received Jesus as Savior at all, or for Christians who are desiring to go deeper in their knowledge of the Lord. I hope it will bless anyone who hears it. However, this podcast cannot and should not take the place of the listener attending a church in person and being shepherded by a pastor. This podcast is a supplement to the main diet that a pastor would provide. Are we clear? Good. Now let's get into today's chat, shall we? It will make even more sense as we go along and get deeper and deeper into the scriptures, and I have lots of good ones today. Let's turn to Mark 6, 34. In the New King James Version, it says, And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. In this verse, the word shepherd can also mean pastor. Sheep with no shepherd, or people with no shepherd wander from here to there and are susceptible to getting hurt. This is the thing. You might have uh people that you enjoy listening to online, and that's wonderful. But sheep with no shepherd cannot distinguish what is truth, what is false doctrine, what's correct, what's wrong. They're just here and there and everywhere, they're chasing the next uh new thing. There's no safety there. And so Jesus saw these, he saw this great multitude of people. And in order for safety to start, he started teaching them something. That's what pastors do, they teach the sheep. And so Jesus started teaching them something because he wanted them to be safe. He didn't want them to wander here and there and to be susceptible to harm. So that's one of the things that we can anticipate and expect as a byproduct of having a pastor. That we're safe. We're not flip-flopping everywhere, we're not chasing the next the next fad. We're not chasing things and not knowing what's right and what's wrong. Their safety. Jesus' heart for his sheep is that they will have pastors. This is why he gave pastors and other ministry gifts as um, well, other ministry offices as gifts. Ephesians 4, 8, and then 11 through 15 in the New King James Version says, therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. There's a lot in these verses, and it's so, so good. So we'll just take it little bit by little bit. One we see that those five ministry offices are gifts to men. If they're gifts from Jesus and we belong to Jesus and He is our Lord, we don't get to say, Well, I don't want that. I don't want that gift. No thanks. He gave us pastors as a gift, then we should accept the gift. It's just that simple. And he knows why he gave these gifts. He knows that we would need them. So it says for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. Well, what's the work of the ministry? The work of the ministry is sharing the gospel. So you need to be pastored so that you're learning the word, so that you're growing, and then you could go out and go share that with somebody else. I was in the um coffee shop yesterday, and there was a young lady, you know, I was overhearing this conversation. There was a young lady, a college-age young lady, talking to another college-age young lady, and this little girl just warmed my heart. She was sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. She wasn't weird, she wasn't, she was just a normal young lady sharing her faith. Well, how could she do that? She could do that because she's being pastored, she's learning the scriptures, she's learning how to do the work of the ministry, she's learning how to share Jesus with somebody else. And that's because she's being pastored. And this is for the edifying of the whole body of Christ. This is how we're strengthened, this is how we stay unified in faith. You have to belong to a church, and then that church has unity with what they're hearing from God, with how they're um living their lives. This is this is so crucial and so important. You know, people are like, oh, yeah, you know, I don't attend church, you know, but um, you know, I love God. God is important to me. Well, he can't be that important to you because he set this up and you're saying, no, thank you. I just I'm being honest from a heart of love. We're looking at this from the scriptures. And then it says this, which is really, really good, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro. So this is kind of what Jesus was seeing in the scripture in Mark that we saw. He said, Oh, I see them. They're like sheep with no shepherd. They're just wandering. And this is what this is saying here: like children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. So it's just like you could just see uh a sheep just being flip-flop here and there, just shaken and turned and twisted and and just just like, oh my gosh, I don't know what's I don't know which way is up, I don't know what's right, I don't know what's going on. And it says by the trickery of men, and this, you know, trickery of men, you think like um just somebody standing up and saying, but this trickery of men is like what you see in the news, trickery of men is uh thoughts and ways that society pushes as correct. You have to know what is right, but you need a pastor to point you to God's word, a shepherd to point you to God's word, and show you what is truth. This is all that's encapsulated in having a pastor, and we just think, oh, going to church is just this, you know, social event, this thing I do once a week. No, this is this has spiritual implications, and that's what God knows, and that's what Jesus knew, and that's why this is set up the way it is, and that is why we don't get to say, no, no, thank you. I don't need a pastor, I'll just watch online. Because here's the other thing in preparation for this episode, this thought came to me. One of the characteristics of a shepherd is that they can touch the sheep. Watching ministers online doesn't mean you have a shepherd. When you watch someone online, you can see them, but they can't see you. Look at Romans 1.11 in the New King James Version. And Paul says this, for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established. So look at that here. The pastor needs to see you so he can give you something from God, and so that you can grow up, so that you can be established, so you can be firm, so that you can be rooted. God set it up so that a pastor can see his sheep and know what they need. That's God's idea. As an associate pastor and a youth minister, sometimes I can literally see somebody in our church and know that they need prayer or know that something's wrong. Or I'm not even gonna say always something wrong. I can see that something's good. I've had that opportunity as well to see, say, you're looking good. Keep doing what you're doing, keep, you know, whatever that might be, studying the Bible, praying more, keep doing that because I see, I see you, and so I see that things are well. Now, if those people in my church only watch online, I can't impart to them anything because I don't see them. It's like seeing triggers knowledge from the Holy Spirit as a pastor. When you see, I remember this another uh situation. I remember arriving at church one Sunday and I saw a young lady and I knew something was wrong. And it wasn't that she gave it off necessarily, and I called her to the side and began to talk to her, and she began to cry and ask, how did you know something was wrong? And I had to tell her it wasn't me, it's God caring for you. But had she not been there, I couldn't see that so that I can impart God's grace and his care for her. I understand. You might miss church, you know, on occasion and catch the sermon online. You may even have a few ministers that you enjoy listening to, and that's fine. But nothing can substitute for you having a pastor who sees you every week. Somebody needs to be able to see you and hold you accountable to God's word. So when we're talking about, you know, this being the digital age, we can't let everything be digital. It doesn't matter what this society is doing and saying, you gotta be sitting somewhere in somebody's church so they can see you. It's God's will. Then we don't get to just change God's will because societal norms. We just don't get to do that. When He when Jesus becomes our Savior, he also becomes our Lord. And we talked about this before. Lord gets to tell you what to do, and we don't like to hear that because we're free, and that's good. We're free, we have freedoms, that's all great, but I want someone, Jesus, to tell me what to do because he has my very best interest at heart. He can totally be trusted because he has never done anything but good for me. So he can tell me what to do, and I need to listen. I love seeing God's heart for us. If we look at uh Jeremiah 3, 15, the New King James Version says, and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. It's so important that we not um reject this. If we seek the Lord and ask him who our pastor should be, we should trust him that he will give us that. And then what is so wonderful about this is we will be fed with knowledge and understanding. And it's so interesting because I I grew up in church. I don't know if I've shared this on this podcast, but my father was a pastor, so I've essentially been in church from from the womb, but I can never um act as if I know it all. I know all there is to know about being a Christian, about faith. I think that's a real problem that I have I have actually seen in many. They think, oh, I know God, I know the word, you know, almost like a pastor can't tell me anything, I'm good. No, a pastor will feed you with knowledge and understanding. You think you're gonna come to the end of knowing about God and his things? That's crazy. So as children of God who have a pastor, there's always something that we can be learning. Always something that can be added to our understanding. You might be thinking, I don't have to have a pastor. They're human just like me. Yes, pastors are human, they're not perfect, but they are called by God to do a job. That's why it's important for you to ask God who he has chosen to be your pastor. Since it was his idea to set up pastors over his flock, if you seek him for his will, you will be protected and kept safe from your pastor's human flaws. You can't get out of this. You cannot explain yourself out of this. This is God's will, and you can trust God perfectly to protect you. Because the truth of the matter is, God has to protect the pastor from you, from me. I won't just leave you out there by yourself. God has to protect pastors from us as well. So it's two-sided, it's two ways. Oh, that's so funny. So, lastly, let's look at another verse in Jeremiah 23, verse 4. New King James Version says, I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord. So, right here are some amazing benefits of having a shepherd, of having a pastor. That pastor is going to feed the sheep. Then those sheep don't have to fear, don't have to be dismayed, and don't have to lack. This is all God's plan. So, for example, if you're thinking, well, I don't have a pastor, well, then if you don't have a pastor, then you're not attending a church, and then they're and it's so good because we're going to get into church attendance next week. This kind of goes together, but it plays together. So if you're not where you should be according to God's will, well, how are you paying tithes? Which is something that the Bible talks about, and we can talk about that. How are you doing some of the other things that spring from having a pastor and attending church? So then you're not doing those things. So then you're not being compliant to God's will, you're not being obedient. So here it's saying, I will set up shepherds over you. This is something God is saying. He's setting up shepherds over us to feed us. And then we don't have to be fearful. I think a lot of times people are fearful is because they don't have enough information from the word of God. You know, people right now, there's a lot of things going on in this world. A lot of things, and a lot of things look crazy. But if you have a pastor, but if you know the word of God, you know that all of these things are laid out in the word of God. And then the word tells us not to fear when these things happen. So you can locate people who are just out of their minds in fear. One of the things you could say is, hmm, I noticed they don't have a pastor. Hmm. I notice they're dismayed, hmm. I notice they're lacking. God always, he always adds blessings to his commands. So he wants us to have pastors, and then he adds blessings to that. So this is so good. This is so good. You can't phone it in. Everything can't be done digitally. You cannot have a pastor who's online only. That pastor, we saw in the word, needs to be able to see you and impart something from the Lord to you. It can't be that you just see them. It has to be two ways they see you, and you see them. So this is good, and this might be something we'll touch on, you know, from time to time because it's important. And there's so many more scriptures I could have used, but I wanted to just really hit. This and hit it hard, you know, because this is an age where people just well, I don't have to attend church, I could just watch it online. Not really, not not that's not the highest and best according to God's word. So pause and think on these things until next time. If you don't have a pastor, seek God and ask Him who He has chosen for you. He has provided a pastor as a gift for you. Don't reject anything God wants you to have. Pastors are an expression of God's love for you. I will have a list of today's scriptures available for you so you can go over them again. The link will be in the description. And our next episode is going to go hand in hand with today. So today was about pastors. Next week is about church. It's going to be so good. We'll talk soon, but until next time, know what the Bible says and treasure what the Lord speaks to your heart.