Zechariah 11:15-17
¹⁵The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. ¹⁷ “Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.”
Often I hear from youth that they would like to stand in front of the congregation, and preach to them.
● You want to serve God? Well that is great! Go prepare yourself and ask God what He wants you to do, and where He wants you to go. Maybe He needs you to rebuild one of those churches in Sri Lanka that were recently bombed by Muslim terrorists…
○ No, you misunderstood me, I only want to serve in my own assembly, and I only want to preach in the Sunday morning meetings. I think it will give me a great feeling to tell them how blessed they are, and what kind of blessings God still has in store for them.
● What about visiting an old man who is suffering pain, and probably will die this week?
○ Why do you want me to do those kind of things? The church has a pastor for that, don’t they?
● What about preaching about hell and brimstone, to warn them for the danger of eternal punishment on sin?
○ No, as I said, I just want to talk to them about God’s blessings, to give them a good feeling when they go back home.
● Oh… I thought you had ambitions to become a pastor?
○ No, I just want to talk about blessings, and only in the Sunday morning service…!
Often these boys have no idea what it means to be a pastor (to be a shepherd), to be in church leadership.
It is such an awesome and sobering responsibility, it is such a lonely job, and it should be conducted with so much reverential humility. They really have no idea.
Many who seek status or any privilege by becoming a ‘church leader’, really need to realize that the Chief Shepherd, when He comes in His glory,
▪︎ will deal harshly with anyone who has abused God’s people,
▪︎ will deal harshly with anyone who did not preach the whole truth,
▪︎ will deal harshly with anyone who misused this incredibly important trust.
But that He
▪︎ also will generously reward all those who are faithful in their tasks, how menial they may seem in the eyes of others.
Prayer suggestions:
• Ask God that He will bless His followers with qualified shepherds.
• Ask God that He will bless His followers with shepherds who have enough love for them, to also warn them for imminent dangers.
• Ask God that He will bless His followers with shepherds who passionately care for His sheep.
• Ask God that He will give these faithful leaders a sense of His nearness
• Ask God that He will give these faithful leaders a sense of His pleasure in them, as they faithfully carry out their responsibilities to Him and to His sheep.
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