Scripture referenced 20 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Hebrews 13:7 remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you
7 Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.
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Keep this verse
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Hebrews 13:17
the main text: obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.
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Galatians 5:7
you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth
7 You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth?
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James 3:3
if we put bits into the horse's mouth so that they will be persuaded by us
3 Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body.
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Psalm 50
call upon me in the day of trouble and he will rescue you and you will honor him
1 The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.
3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
4 He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.
7 “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.
10 For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16 But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
17 since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
19 “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
21 You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
23 Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
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Ezekiel 3
son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel
1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.
3 He said to me, “Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you.” Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4 He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.
5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6 not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can’t understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.
7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me; for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.
8 Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.
9 I have made your forehead as a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
10 Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, receive in your heart and hear with your ears all my words that I speak to you.
11 Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh;’ whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse.
12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, “Blessed be Yahweh’s glory from his place.”
13 I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.
14 So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and Yahweh’s hand was strong on me.
15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.
16 At the end of seven days, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.
18 When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand.
19 Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”
20 “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he will die. Because you have not given him warning, he will die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but I will require his blood at your hand.
21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.”
22 Yahweh’s hand was there on me; and he said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there.”
23 Then I arose, and went out into the plain, and behold, Yahweh’s glory stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar. Then I fell on my face.
24 Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet. He spoke with me, and said to me, “Go, shut yourself inside your house.
25 But you, son of man, behold, they will put ropes on you, and will bind you with them, and you will not go out among them.
26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you will be mute, and will not be able to correct them; for they are a rebellious house.
27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”
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Ezekiel 33
referenced as a parallel passage to the watchman theme in Ezekiel 3
1 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, ‘When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;
3 if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blows the trumpet, and warns the people;
4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn’t heed the warning, if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn’t take warning. His blood will be on him; whereas if he had heeded the warning, he would have delivered his soul.
6 But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn’t blow the trumpet, and the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes, and takes any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’
7 “So you, son of man: I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warnings from me.
8 When I tell the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you don’t speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man will die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand.
9 Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn’t turn from his way; he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.
10 “You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: ‘You say this, “Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them. How then can we live?”’
11 Tell them, ‘“As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?”’
12 “You, son of man, tell the children of your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him in the day of his disobedience. And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither will he who is righteous be able to live by it in the day that he sins.
13 When I tell the righteous that he will surely live; if he trusts in his righteousness, and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but he will die in his iniquity that he has committed.
14 Again, when I say to the wicked, “You will surely die;” if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right;
15 if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he will surely live. He will not die.
16 None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done that which is lawful and right. He will surely live.
17 “‘Yet the children of your people say, “The way of the Lord is not fair;” but as for them, their way is not fair.
18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he will even die therein.
19 When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he will live thereby.
20 Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is not fair.” House of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his ways.’”
21 In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city has been defeated!”
22 Now Yahweh’s hand had been on me in the evening, before he who had escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.
23 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
24 “Son of man, those who inhabit the waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, ‘Abraham was one, and he inherited the land; but we are many. The land is given us for inheritance.’
25 Therefore tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. So should you possess the land?
26 You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. So should you possess the land?”’
27 “You shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “As I live, surely those who are in the waste places will fall by the sword. I will give he who is in the open field to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die of the pestilence.
28 I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment. The pride of her power will cease. The mountains of Israel will be desolate, so that no one will pass through.
29 Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.”’
30 “As for you, son of man, the children of your people talk about you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak to one another, everyone to his brother, saying, ‘Please come and hear what the word is that comes out from Yahweh.’
31 They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.
32 Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don’t do them.
33 “When this comes to pass—behold, it comes—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”
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Ezekiel 34
referenced as a parallel passage to the watchman theme in Ezekiel 3
1 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep?
3 You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep.
4 You haven’t strengthened the diseased. You haven’t healed that which was sick. You haven’t bound up that which was broken. You haven’t brought back that which was driven away. You haven’t sought that which was lost, but you have ruled over them with force and with rigor.
5 They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought.”
7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear Yahweh’s word:
8 “As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd. My shepherds didn’t search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep.”
9 Therefore, you shepherds, hear Yahweh’s word:
10 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep. The shepherds won’t feed themselves any more. I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.”
11 “‘For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
13 I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 I will feed them with good pasture; and their fold will be on the mountains of the height of Israel. There they will lie down in a good fold. They will feed on fat pasture on the mountains of Israel.
15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down,” says the Lord Yahweh.
16 “I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.”’
17 “As for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats.
18 Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? And to have drunk of the clear waters, but must you foul the residue with your feet?
19 As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.’
20 “Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh to them: ‘Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
21 Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad;
22 therefore will I save my flock, and they will no more be a prey. I will judge between sheep and sheep.
23 I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.
24 I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
25 “‘I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land. They will dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
26 I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing. I will cause the shower to come down in its season. There will be showers of blessing.
27 The tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those who made slaves of them.
28 They will no more be a prey to the nations, neither will the animals of the earth devour them; but they will dwell securely, and no one will make them afraid.
29 I will raise up to them a plantation for renown, and they will no more be consumed with famine in the land, and not bear the shame of the nations any more.
30 They will know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh.
31 You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”
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1 Thessalonians 2:19-20
who is our hope and joy and crown of exaltation, is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?
20 For you are our glory and our joy.
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Philippians 1:3-8
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, he who began a good work in you will perfect it
3 I thank my God whenever I remember you,
4 always in every request of mine on behalf of you all, making my requests with joy,
5 for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;
6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
7 It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace.
8 For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.
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1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord
12 But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you,
13 and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
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1 Timothy 5:17
elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching
17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.
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1 Corinthians 16:15-16
the household of Stephanus devoted themselves to ministry, be in subjection to such men
15 Now I beg you, brothers (you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves to serve the saints),
16 that you also be in subjection to such, and to everyone who helps in the work and labors.
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Philippians 2:16
holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will not have run in vain
16 holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.
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2 Corinthians 11
Paul's list of sufferings: shipwrecked, snake bit, beaten, and his concern for all the churches
1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.
5 For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
6 But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
8 I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they may be found even as we.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
17 That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.
19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
20 For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.
21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
24 Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me.
33 Through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.
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1 Peter 5:1-5
Peter exhorting elders as a fellow elder, shepherd the flock, not lording it over those in your charge
1 Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.
2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;
3 neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.
4 When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away.
5 Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
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James 3:1
let not many of you become teachers, knowing we will incur a stricter judgment
1 Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.
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Psalm 34:8
taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the one who takes refuge in him, used as benediction
8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
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Psalm 34:10
the lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing, used as benediction
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray worked through Hebrews 13:17, a single verse he described as not easy for the congregation and not easy for him. He was careful to explain both sides of what the verse asks, laying out what faithful leadership looks like and what a healthy response to it looks like.
What was said
The verse sits inside a longer section of practical instruction that closes the book of Hebrews. The original readers were Jewish believers being pressured by social and religious forces to walk back toward first-century Judaism. The writer had already told them to remember the leaders who first brought them the word, to imitate their faith, and to hold to the unchanging Christ rather than being carried away by strange teachings. Hebrews 13:17 is the next step in that same argument.
The word translated "obey" comes from a Greek root related to faith and belief. Pastor Ray pointed out that it is a passive imperative, which means the idea is not brute compliance but being persuaded of what is true. The Holy Spirit is active inside a believer, and the preacher is speaking from outside. Both are working in the same direction, toward the same truth.
"Submit" follows immediately, and Pastor Ray traced the word through classical Greek from Homer forward. It carries the sense of a combatant who stops resisting and yields. He was clear that this is yielding to what is demonstrably biblical, not to a personality or an office alone, and he acknowledged that the passage has been misused to keep people in line in dangerous situations. The writer of Hebrews knew these particular leaders and knew they were trustworthy.
The reason the text gives for submitting is that the leaders are keeping watch over souls. Pastor Ray walked through the Greek word behind "keep watch," which literally means not sleeping. He mentioned waking up at 3:14 that morning and said the phrase landed differently at that hour. The watching is not for the purpose of reporting bad behavior to God. God already knows. The watching is soul care, and those doing it will give an account for how faithfully they delivered what God said.
Pastor Ray spent time on Ezekiel 3 to show what that kind of accountability looks like in the Old Testament. God told Ezekiel that if he failed to warn the wicked or the straying righteous, their blood would be required at his hand. If he did warn them and they refused, he had delivered himself. The burden falls on fidelity to the message, not on the result. Pastor Ray said he is grateful for the new covenant because the full weight of that is partly carried by the Holy Spirit working in each believer.
The verse also says that leaders should be allowed to do this work with joy and not with grief. Pastor Ray said the joy comes when people hear the word and respond to it, the way Paul described the Thessalonians and the Philippians. The grief comes when the word is rejected out of hand, as it was repeatedly in the ministry of Jeremiah and the churches of Galatia. He said that grief is not about his feelings. The text calls it unprofitable, a word used once in the New Testament and meaning something that cannot hold together, falling apart from missing what would have completed it.
He closed by distributing the weight of the passage in both directions. Several other letters in the New Testament ask congregations to honor, appreciate, and submit to those who labor among them. Peter's instructions to elders ask them to shepherd willingly, not for money, and never by lording authority over people, but by being examples. James adds that teachers will face a stricter judgment, and that all of us stumble in many ways. Pastor Ray asked the congregation to correct him when they have biblical grounds to do so, and he asked God to let the elders of the church bow the knee first.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray described Hebrews 13:17 as a passage that 'has been used to beat people up and keep them in line.' What do you think makes this verse easy to misuse, and how does understanding the Greek word for 'obey' as 'be persuaded of that which is true' change how you hear it?
- The sermon pointed out that the word translated 'obey' is rooted in persuasion, and that the Holy Spirit is active in persuading the believer toward truth. How have you experienced that kind of inner persuasion in your own walk, and how do you weigh it alongside the teaching you receive from church leadership?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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