Leadership in Community

In this message from Hebrews 13:17, David Platt urges the church to view its leadership through the lens of Scripture. 

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You are listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly
podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author,
and teacher David Platt.

SPEAKER_01 (00:08):
And so that's what we're going to dive into.
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17.
And we're going to look at acouple other places here in
Hebrews 13, where we're going tocamp out mostly in this verse
right here.
So follow along, let's read ittogether.
Hebrews 13, 17 says, Obey yourleaders and submit to their

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authority.
They keep watch over you as menwho must give an account.
Obey them so that their workwill be a joy, not a burden, for
that would be of no advantage toyou.
Now, this right here is one ofthree different times that
leaders are mentioned in Hebrewschapter 13.

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You might circle them.
Go back up to Hebrews 13, 7.
Let's read that verse.
First mention of leaders in thebook of Hebrews, and
particularly here in Hebrewschapter 13, remember your
leaders.
You might circle it there.
Leaders who spoke the word ofGod to you.
Consider the outcome of theirway of life and imitate their
faith.
Jesus Christ is the sameyesterday, today, and forever.

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So there's verse 7, rememberyour leaders.
Verse 17, obey your leaders.
Circle it there, and then youget to the end of the chapter,
verse 24, greet all yourleaders.
So you've got this picture ofremembering leaders, greeting
leaders, obeying leaders,submitting to leaders.
These are strong words.
And let's just go ahead and getthis out on the table.
This word submit is probably notthe most comfortable word for

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all of us.
When we hear the word submit,all kinds of images come into
our mind, especially when itcomes to submission to
leadership in the church.
Because the reality is acrossthis room, I know that there are
a variety of differentexperiences that you have had
when it comes to leaders in thechurch.
Some of you have had verypositive experiences with

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leadership in the church.
Some of you have had negativeexperiences.
Some of you have seen churchleadership as an abuse of power,
as a power struggle.
Some of you have seen a lot ofdifferent negative facets of
church leadership.
And our challenge tonight iswith all of our diversity of
experiences represented aroundthis room, to put aside as best
as we can those subjectiveexperiences and to look at the

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objective truth of whatScripture is teaching about
church leadership and thenconsider okay, how does that
affect my life as a follower ofChrist?
How does that affect thischurch?
And how can we put Hebrews 13,17 into practice in this faith
family?
We talked about the two primaryoffices or positions of

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leadership in the church thatare identified in the New
Testament.
First is elders who are servantleaders.
This is Acts chapter 20, reallydifferent places in Acts, but
Acts 20, Titus 1, 1 Timothy 3, 1Peter 5.
All talk about how the church isled or the church is overseen by
elders.
Sometimes the term is pastor,sometimes the term is overseer.

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These are interchangeable termsin the New Testament: elder,
pastor, overseer.
But the picture is in the NewTestament, in the churches that
are being planted, there is adesignated, defined group of men
who have responsibility foroverall leadership in the
church.
Elder, pastor, overseer, who areservant leaders.
And what we have studied beforeis there are four primary

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functions that we see of eldersin the church.
Elders lead under the authorityof Christ.
This is why we talk aboutservant leaders, because elders
are servants of Christ andservants of the church.
Elders care for the body ofChrist.
That's a whole picture of apastor.
A pastor is a shepherd who caresfor the body of Christ.
Elders teach the word of Christ,as we're going to see in a

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minute.
That's the primary function.
One of the primary functions ofan elder is to teach.
One of the primaryqualifications.
If a man is not able to teachthe word, then he cannot be an
elder.
He must be able to teach.
1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 2.
And then elders model thecharacter of Christ.
You look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 1through 7, and you see a picture
of character for qualificationsfor an elder.

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Now, right after that in 1Timothy 3, you see the second
position of leadership, thesecond office in New Testament
church leadership, and that isdeacons.
Elders who are servant leaders,then deacons who are leading
servants.
The difference here is deaconsdo not provide overall
leadership in the church likeelders do.
Instead, deacons, and this isreally pictured for us in Acts

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chapter 6, when the churchappoints leaders to help address
certain needs.
Deacons meet needs according tothe word.
Deacons look at God's word, lookat needs in the church, and fill
in the gaps for how to meetthose needs according to God's
word.
Deacons support the ministry ofthe Word.
The whole picture there in Actschapter 6 is they do this so

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that the elders can devotethemselves to prayer and
ministry of the Word.
So the apostles could do that inActs chapter 6.
And then deacons unite the bodyaround the Word.
Deacons are a unifying body inthe church based on a mission
mindset in them and theChrist-like character that 1
Timothy 3, 8-13 talks about.
So you've got these twopictures, elders and deacons.

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So when you come to Hebrews 13,17, it doesn't say obey your
elders, it doesn't say obey yourdeacons, it says obey your
leaders.
And so the picture is overallchurch leadership.
Now I think the primaryimplication of Hebrews 13, 17 is
for elders, because when it saysthey keep watch over you as men
who must give an account, that'sreally the picture we have of

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elders in Acts 20, 1 Peterchapter 5.
It's men who give an account forthe people that God has
entrusted to them.
And so what I want us to do is Iwant us to dive in and see how
this picture of obedience andsubmission to leaders in the
church, and particularly eldersin the church, what does that
mean?

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We've already said that wordsubmission is uh brings a little
discomfort in us.
And I think there's a variety ofreasons behind that.
I put some in your notes.
When we think about submissionin our culture, all kinds of
thoughts come into our mind.
In some senses, we think aboutsubmission as absolute obedience
to authoritarian leadership.
The key there being absolute.

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You've got an authoritarian,almost totalitarian leader who
says, This is what you do.
Now do it because I said so,because this is the way it is.
So do it.
And that's that's maybe what wehave is a picture of leadership
in the church.
And submission is implied inthat.
It's what I saw in Cuba thislast week.
Obviously, a totalitarian regimethat has said, this is the way

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it is, and you operate underthis, for better or for worse,
and you are you're stuck doingthat.
Sometimes when we think ofsubmission, that might be what
comes to our mind.
We might think of submission asthe result of an abuse in power.
We oftentimes think ofsubmission as a bad thing.
It has negative connotations.
And we think that for goodreason in our culture.

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We have seen abuse of power inand abuse of authority in our
culture.
We've seen abuse of authority inthe church.
It's no surprise that we wouldhave some discomfort when it
comes to submitting to leaders.
Some say the church has taken afatal hit because of all the sex
scandals and financialimpropriety and prideful egotism
that has marked churchleadership.

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One pastor said, preaching onHebrews 13, 17 in this culture
is like standing up the Sundayafter 60 million people have
watched police beat up RodneyKing and preaching on submission
to your law enforcementofficers.
There's a challenge when wethink about submission and
church leadership in our culturetoday.

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So some think abuse of power.
Others, when we think of theword submission, we think of an
acknowledgement of inequality.
The way we think, submissionimplies inequality.
That if you are submitting tosomeone, that means that you're
not on an equal plane with them.
That's why when you come toEphesians 5 and Paul talks about

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wives submit to your husbands.
Many people in our culture walkaway from that and say, well,
the Bible teaches that women andmen are not equal, that women
are subservient to men and lessthan men.
And that's what we thinksometimes.
We think of submission.
We think, well, that means oneperson is inferior, and one
person is superior to theothers.
And so this is yet another placein Scripture where we have our

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thinking that is dictated andaffected in many ways by our
culture.
And we come to Scripture, andScripture challenges us to think
completely differently.
We are self-made men and womenwho live in an individualistic
culture and the thought ofaccountability to others, much
less authority to, but underothers, that seems completely

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foreign to us.
And so when we come to thispicture of submission in
Scripture, we've got to reallythink through how do our minds
need to be reprogrammed by God'sword in the picture we have
here.
Because submission according toChrist, submission in Scripture
is an extremely good thing.
It is a great thing.

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It is not these thoughts thatwe've listed here, submission
according to our culture.
It is completely different.
It's why when you get to thepicture of the family, and we
talked about this last year, thegospel in our families,
Ephesians 5 and 6.
Wives, submit to your husbands.
And the picture is a good thing.
In the same way Ephesians 6says, children, submit to and
obey your parents.

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Parents is submission.
Is a child's submission to youand your authority?
Is that a good thing?
Is that a good thing?
Yes, look, yeah, like I've onlybeen a parent for a couple
years.
I know the answer to that one.
Like, that's a good thing.
Maybe we're maybe we're hesitantto answer that one because maybe
it's not always as common athing as we would like for it to

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be.
But the reality is, a parent wholoves a child and is
disciplining a child, it is goodfor that child to learn to
submit to that parent's love forthem.
So when we come to submission inScripture, it is an extremely
good thing.
And I hope that tonight we willsee an incredible picture of

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submission in the church when itcomes to leadership.
Something that undercuts all ofour false, culturally created
assumptions about submission andjust redefines this word for us
according to Scripture.
What I want us to do is I wantus to see two truths, two
fundamental, basic, simple,incredible truths that come

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together to help us understandsubmission in the church.
And we're gonna we're gonna lookat one truth from the
perspective of leaders in thechurch, and then another truth
from the perspective of membersin the church, of the body of
Christ.
So we'll start with the firstfrom the perspective of leaders.
You've got this in your notes.
Truth number one leaders servethe body.

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Leaders serve the body.
This is submission in the churchaccording to Christ.
Here's the reality.
In the Gospels, Jesus modeledand mandated servant leadership.
He defined leadership byservice.
We don't have time to turn toall these places, but Matthew

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chapter 23, verses 10 through12.
Nor are you to be calledteacher, for there is only one
teacher, the Lord, the Christ,and the greatest among you must
be your what?
Greatest among you must be yourservant.
Mark chapter 9, verse 35.
If anyone wants to be the first,he must be the what?

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Must be the last.
He's redefining this picture.
Mark chapter 10, verses 43through 45.
You know that those who areregarded as rulers of the
Gentiles, lorded over them, andtheir high officials exercise
authority over them, not so withyou.
Instead, whoever wants to begreat among you must be your

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servant.
He says, This is what I came todo.
I came not to be served, but toserve and to give my life as a
ransom for many.
Leadership in the kingdom ofGod.
Authority in the kingdom of Godis a servant authority.
It's why in 1 Peter chapter 5,when leaders and elders in the
church are addressed, Petersays, Do not lord your

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leadership, your authority overthe church.
It does not bring honor toChrist.
It goes against the picture wehave in Christ.
Leaders do not lord themselvesover people, because there is
one Lord, to use Jesus' wordsfrom Matthew 23.
There's one Lord to whomleadership points.
Now, this is key right here.
When it comes to leadership inthe church, I want you to see

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two foundational realities thatmust be present in any leader in
the church, particularly in anelder in the church, a pastor in
the church.
First, and hang with me herebecause this is foundational to
thinking about submission.
First, their authority, aleader's authority, leader's

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authority is conditional.
Their authority is conditional.
This is contrary to absoluteauthority, unconditional
authority.
A leader's authority in thechurch is not absolute.
It is not unconditional.
Jesus' authority, now Jesus'authority in the church is

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absolute.
Jesus' authority in the churchis unconditional.
If we have a problem withsubmission, then we need to
check our relationship withChrist because the Christian
life is entirely aboutsubmission.
To him as Lord and King, and Hehas absolute, determinative
authority over our lives,unconditionally.

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But not so with the pastor,leader in the church.
Instead, the leader in thechurch has authority that is
conditioned on two factors.
Number one, they must teach theword accurately.
This is so key.
Conditioned on two factors.
They must teach the wordaccurately.
Look back up at Hebrews 13, 7.

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Listen to what the author saidthere.
How he started thisintroduction, the picture of
leaders here in Hebrews 13.
He said, Remember your leaderswho spoke the word of God to
you.
Spoke the word of God to you.
And this is what we see allthroughout the New Testament.
This is why an elder must beable to teach, because a leader

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in the church has authority onlyin so much as that leader is
teaching the word of Christ.
If a leader is teaching his ownideas, his own thoughts, his own
opinions, he has no authority tostand on in the church.
None.
A leader's authority in thechurch is tied to the word.

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This is why Paul in Acts chapter20, when he's talking to the
Ephesian elders, told them,There are some that are among
you that will rise from amongyou that will teach other things
and pull people away fromChrist.
He said, guard against them,because the reality is your
leadership in the church isbased completely on teaching the
word of Christ accurately.
So a leader must teach the wordaccurately.

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And second, they must live theword faithfully.
Remember your leaders who spokethe word of God to you, consider
the outcome of their way of lifeand imitate their faith.
Now, this is the same picturelike we hear Paul saying in 1
Corinthians 11 1 when he says,Follow me as I follow Christ.
Imitate me as I am imitatingChrist.

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And the picture is a leader, wemust hear the word from a
leader's mouth, and we must seethe word in a leader's life.
This is why 1 Timothy chapter 3,verse 1 through 7, Titus chapter
1, verses 5 through 9, thecharacter qualifications of a
leader, an elder in the churchare high, and they must be high,
and they must not becompromised.

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Because the church is intendedto look at a leader and see
faith and life that is worthy ofimitation.
This is why when a leader falls,there is a process in scripture.
There's a picture in scriptureof how that leader, an elder, is
to be rebuked publicly.

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Because the picture of Christ inthat leader's life is extremely
important.
This is why the church must beextremely cautious when
restoring a man to leadershipand in the church after he has
fallen, because this is so huge.
Now, I want you to catch this.
You put this picture ofconditional authority, teaching

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the word accurately, living theword faithfully, and think about
how this affects how weunderstand submission.
Submit to leaders, what's thatabout?
Well, here's the deal.

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To Christ.
And so now we begin to see thatsubmission in the church is not
ultimately to a leader, it'sultimately to Christ, and God
has put leaders in the church topoint us to Christ, to point us
to submission to Christ.
In the same way that following aleader, imitating their faith.

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If a man's faith is focused onChrist and his life is pursuing
Christ, then in following thatleader, you are following who?
You're following Christ.
So it's not about the authorityof a man or the life of a man,
it's about the authority ofChrist and the life of Christ
that you're following andsubmitting yourselves to.
That's the picture in thechurch.

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Does that make sense?
Now this starts to come alivehere.
This is the whole point of thebook of Hebrews, up to this
point, has been the authorspends ten chapters telling us
that we don't need somebody elseto get to God.
Christ has already made way forus.
Every follower of Christ in thisroom has direct, unlimited

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access to God through JesusChrist.
We do not need a priest or otherchurch leader to help us get
there.
Christ has taken care of that.
So then why do we need anotherleader?
Well, what God is doing is He'sgiving leaders to the church to
point them to Christ.
Consider your leaders.
Remember them who spoke the wordto you, consider the outcome of
their way of life and imitatetheir faith.

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So authority in the church, inchurch leadership, is
conditioned upon teaching theword and living the word.
Their authority is conditional,and second, their accountability
is serious.
Come back down to verse 17, andit says, They keep watch over
you as men who must give anaccount.

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This is where fear, and I hope,I don't think it's an ungodly
fear, but a reverent, awe andoverwhelming weight in a sense,
rises up in me when I readHebrews 13, 17 as a pastor, as a
leader in the church, becausethe reality is there is coming a
day according to Hebrews 13, 17,when I will stand before the

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judgment seat of Christ and willgive an account.
How did you shepherd the soulsentrusted to you in the church
of your kills?
How did you get you to teachthem my word?
How did you care for them,provide for them, serve them,

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and lead them to my glory?
I and the elders of this churchmust give an account.
Talk about serious business.
They must serve carefully.
Keep.

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And sheep following after ashepherd.
Now, sheep don't follow ashepherd because they read a
document on how they're supposedto submit to shepherds and do
what they say.
Sheep follow a shepherd.
Why?
Because they know that ashepherd loves them and cares
for them and serves them and iswilling to lay down his life for

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them to protect them.
That's what causes sheep tofollow a shepherd.
And the picture here is it's nota blind, absolute, okay,
whatever you say, we will do.

One writer put it this way: sheep do not blindly follow and (20:58):
undefined
check their own minds in theprocess.
If the shepherd decides in amoment of despondency to leap
off from a cliff, the sheep maylook at one another in startled
bewilderment, but they areunlikely to plunge after the
shepherd.
The picture here is there's ashepherd who's looking after

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sheep, and in the way he looksafter the sheep, he leads the
sheep and guides the sheep andcares for the sheep.
They serve must serve carefully,they serve responsibly as men
who will give an account,responsibility for the people
that God has entrusted to them,and they serve joyfully, which

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we'll talk about more in aminute.
But uh I just I want to pausefor a second here, this first
truth, and I want us to thinkabout this.
When I first looked at thepreaching, Hebrews 13, 7, I
thought, how do I preach thatverse?
As a leader in the church, howdo I preach that verse and not

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seem totally self-serving?
Like, obey me.
Submit to my authority.
That's what the Bible says.
Now do it.
Like, it just doesn't seem to gowell.

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It doesn't seem right.
Doesn't so how do you how do youget preached?
That's what I was asking.
How the how will I do this?
And then it didn't take longstudying this verse to realize
that this verse is most humblingand it is most penetrating, not
for members in the church, butfor leaders in the church.

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Because the weight here, so tospeak, by the grace of Christ,
it takes the weight.
But the weight here, so tospeak, is on leaders who have a
conditional authority, who needto be reminded at every moment
that their authority is notbased on anything they bring to
the table, based on the word ofChrist and the life of Christ

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and them.
An accountability that isserious, that has eternal
ramifications.
And and now it makes sense to mewhy verse 18, the author says
very next, after this verse, hesays, pray for us.
And so that's what I would askof you, that you would pray for
me and you'd pray for otherleaders in this church, because
the emphasis here really is onthe responsibility of

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leadership.
Leaders serve the body.
Second truth.
The body submits to leaders.
Now, think about this.
Now it begins to make sense.
When leaders are teaching theword of Christ and living out
the character of Christ, whenthey are accountable and know

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that and treat it withseriousness, that they're
shepherding and caring for andserving and laying their lives
down for people, then submissionis not forced, it's natural, it
makes sense.
In the same way, when we lookedat the gospel in families last
year, and we talked about thisin Ephesians chapter 5.
I have never met a wife whosehusband loved her and served her

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and cared for her and laid downhis life for her on a
moment-by-moment basis.
I've never met a wife whosehusband loved her like that who
was not gladly willing to submitto her husband's leadership.
Just makes sense.
That's not a forced submission.
That's a glad submission.
So, what does that submissionmean?

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It means exactly what we justtalked about then.
Then the body obeys the wordthat leaders teach.
The body submits to leaders inthe church by obeying the word
of Christ.
And here's the reality.
To the extent with which I amspeaking as a pastor in this
church, to the extent with whichI'm speaking the word of Christ,

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you have a responsibility tosubmit to that teaching and to
obey that teaching.
And this is where we realizeyes, there's a huge picture on
the leaders in this church, butthere's also an authority and
accountability picture in thechurch because the body is under
the authority of Christ.
Remind us tonight, as great asdemocracy is in the United

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States of America, the church isnot a democracy.
The church does not operatebased on the will of the people.
The church operates based on thewill of Christ.

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Christ determines the directionof the church, not majority
rule.
This is why Paul said there willbe all kinds of men who want to
hear all kinds of stuff.
What their tickling ears want tohear.
You preach the word.
You give them the word ofChrist.
2 Timothy 4, 1 through 5.
So the body is under theauthority of Christ.

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And then the body is ultimatelyaccountable to Christ.
This is what we've seen over thepast few months.
Remember some of the situationswhere we've seen the
accountability in the church?
We have seen that the church isaccountable to Christ in matters
of dispute.
Acts chapter 6, verse 1 through5, when there was dispute and
disunity in the church, theapostles provided leadership

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there, but it was the churchthat was accountable for
appointing leaders to addressthose needs and to resolve that
dispute.
Matters of dispute and mattersof doctrine.
Galatians chapter 1, verse 8 and9.
When the gospel is not beingpreached in the church, who's
accountable?
Yes, in one sense the leader is,but Galatians chapter 1 says, if

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the gospel's not being preachedin the church, the church is
accountable for not rising upand addressing that.
You are accountable.
If I'm not teaching that whichis the word of Christ, then you
are accountable for addressingthat according to Scripture.
In matters of dispute, doctrine,and in matters of discipline.
That's what we've studied forthree weeks on church
discipline.
Matthew chapter 18, final step.
Tell it to the elders?

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No.
Tell it to a small group ofleaders?
No.
Tell it to the what?
To the church.
1 Corinthians chapter 5.
It is the church that isresponsible for removing that
brother, an unrepentant brother,from membership.
It's the church that isaccountable for all of those
things.
So the body obeys the word thatleaders teach.
That's what submission means inHebrews 13, 17.

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Second, the body imitates thefaith that leaders have.
Imitate their faith.
It's a command there in verse 7.
That's so, again, it's just sohumbling.
I know, I have so far to go.
I want my faith.
And I speak on behalf of otherelders.
I want my faith, my life, myfaith.

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Be worthy of imitation.
But that's the picture.
And then the body maximizes thejoy that leaders experience.
This is the end of Hebrews 13,17.
Obey them so that their workwill be a joy, not a burden, for
that would be of no advantage toyou.
I love this picture.
When you look at some of Paul'sletters, like his letter to the

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Philippians, he says, I thank myGod every time I remember you,
and I all my prayers for youalways pray with joy.
And then you get to Philippians4 1.
He says, You are the ones I loveand I long for.
You are my joy and my crown.
It's the way he writes to theThessalonians.
He says the same thing, you aremy joy.

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And then he says it at one pointin chapter 3, he says, My heart
overflows.
I thank God because my heartoverflows with joy whenever I
think about you.
And this is another one of thoseparts of this verse that I
thought, well, how?
How do I better preach that?

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You are commanded to make mehappy.
If you say anything to me thatdoes not put a smile on my face,
then you are disobedient.
So don't even get close to it.

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Is that what this is saying?
I don't I don't think it is.
I today marks three years uh forme by God's grace as leading um
this church's pastor, and I havegot a lot to learn about about
pastoring, and a long way to go.

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But this I have learned.
I have learned that the pastor'sjoy is found in people's
obedience to Christ.

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Greatest joy as a pastor is notnot really in the kind things
that some would say to me.
Sometimes that just fuels myflesh and my ego, which is not a
good thing.
So but what gives me thegreatest joy as a pastor is when
I see or hear or have aconversation or receive an email

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about how the word is beingcarried out in your lives.
When I when I hear how you haveled someone to Christ work that
joy just rises up.
When I see hunger for the word,joy just rises up when I see
individuals and small groups allacross this faith family who are

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in the inner city and in theirneighborhoods doing all kinds of
different creative ministries tothe glory of God.
When I have a meeting with afamily a couple of weeks ago who
wife and husband with kids whoare packing their bags and
they're moving overseas becausethey want to make the glory of
Christ known in all nations.
When you take radical risks tofollow the word of God to the

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glory of God, this is great joy.
And obviously, obviously, you donot do those things to make me
happy or to increase my joy.
You do these things becauseyou're submissive to Christ, but
that's where joy in thepastorate is found.
And so I want to thank you forthe joy that you bring to me.

(31:35):
Thank you, thank you, thank youfor contributing, maximizing the
joy that I experience by yourobedience to Christ.
Thank you for that.
This is this is a beautifulpicture.
When leaders serve the body andthe body submits to the leaders,

(31:56):
the effect is when Hebrews 13,17 is happening, two things.
The church is edified.
This is what he said at the end.
That would be of no advantage toyou.
Church leadership is designed tobe of advantage.
Think about it.
Is this an advantage?

(32:16):
Is it an advantage for thepeople of God to have leaders
who are speaking the word ofChrist, who are showing what the
life of Christ looks like inaction, while they care for,
provide for, lay their livesdown in service for you.
Is that a good thing in thecommunity of faith?
Absolutely.
It's a great thing.
Obviously, there are potentialabuses along the way.

(32:39):
We have to guard against.
We try to even build in someguards in the context of this
faith family against thoseabuses.
We don't have just one elder,pastor, overseer, leader, that
everything is contingent on.
We've got a plurality ofleadership, multiple elders, and
have a God, I hope, aGod-honoring accountability

(32:59):
built into the very leadershipstructure of a church so that
other men balance one another'sweaknesses and spur one another
on toward Christ.
And the Holy Spirit usesplurality of leadership in that
picture.
We have a rotation picture, evenamong many of our elders, so
that we are constantlyencouraging growth and
leadership and new leadership inthe body of Christ, which is a

(33:22):
great thing.
But the reality is, andScripture talks about it, there
are times when elders fall.
God forbid that it would happenhere.
An elder falls, but the realityis scripture teaches here's what
to do when this happens, and itimplies it may happen.
But the picture is when it doeshappen, Scripture says address

(33:43):
it this way.
But we must be careful.
If that happens, not to throwout the picture of church
leadership altogether.
But to say, we need to addressthis like Scripture does, and
then we need to work to honorthe picture of church leadership
that is here because it is agood thing.
It is for our edification.
And when this happens, I realizethis kind of relationship

(34:04):
between leaders serving the bodyand a body submitting to
leaders, that doesn't happenovernight.
There's a trust that takes timeand doesn't just happen
automatically.
But when that happens, when itdoesn't happen, when it's not
there, a church cannot moveforward.
Because the whole picture we'veseen is a leadership in the
church, submission to leadershipis ultimately submission to

(34:25):
Christ.
And so when there's notsubmission to leadership, this
healthy picture, there's a lackof submission to Christ in the
church.
A church can't move forwardwithout these two truths coming
together.
But when they come together, thesky is the limit.
A church following his authoritythrough leaders who are trusting
and linked with his authority,that kind of church can shake

(34:46):
the nations for the glory ofChrist.
That kind of church is edifiedand Christ is glorified.
And this is the ultimate goal ofleadership in the church.
That submission to leaders wouldbe a picture ultimately of
submission to Christ.

SPEAKER_00 (35:03):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of
David Platt Messages.
For more resources from DavidPlatt, we invite you to visit
radical.net.