My Notes from @churchplantbc #Cadre - Scott Thomas

• Acts 20:28 (ESV)

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Pay careful attention. Don’t just pay attention – PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION.

We can be a good shepherd like Jesus or a hireling who flees when danger comes.

Hireling: Instead of caring for the flock, the hireling is merely raising sheep so that he might steal and eat from the flock.

The careful shepherd: You are both to be watching and to be watched!

We all have blind spots that take us down ---> we need to be rebukable. Are you rebukable. Who knows about your: Finances, weaknesses, family, sin-spots.

We forget who we’re worshipping. Watch yourself carefully! Realize who you’re worshipping, realize what your identity is.
What you do comes out of your identity i Christ. Dead to sin alive in Christ. Taken away from the bondage of flesh and all LIFE has been given in Christ alone.
Pay Attention to yourself vertically and then the flock horizontally.

Pastor: Do you look to the flock for affirmation, confirmation… do you look to the flock for what you should be looking to Jesus for.
Depression, anger, delusion.

What are you preaching out of. If your identity comes out of the strength you have in your flock, not in Christ, it will fail. You will preach cute tweetable sermons, not messy Christ centered, life transforming sermons.

Are you rebukable in your life–vertically? Can your wife address your failures in marriage, can your brother address your pride, can your children speak candidly, can your parents correct you?

Pay attention to your marriage.Don't be like the successful church planter that shot himself in the head in-front of his wife with his elders in the living room the week after baptizing 6 people in a church of 300 people.

Pay attention to your finances.1 Tim 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
- I FAIL AT THIS! Need to ask for help.

Pay attention to your ego."No rogue pastors."Adultery, theft, coming out of a sense of self entitlement.

Pay careful attention to your frustration.Ministry is frustrating, are you self medicating (food, alcohol, pornography). I'm so frustrated I need something to take the pressure off. Over-eating, over-drinking, standing in the pulpit the next sunday trying to point to Jesus as savior.

HELPS

• • Renew your mind with scripture.
  • Pray, pray, pray, pray – seek and rely on God your father who cares more for you than you do.
  • Confess sin!
  • Live in community. Without a community we will listen to our own lies.
  • Find your calling in Christ and sell yourself to it - are you called to thousands? Start with one–YOURSELF.
  • Review the way your managing your whole life. If God has called you to do something you need to manage your life so you can DO IT!(It means you will have to say no to a lot of JUNK so look for the junk so you can clean it out appropriately.)
  • Rest in God's grace. We're troubled and frustrated BECAUSE WE'RE NOT RESTING IN GOD's GRACE! Are you stressing because you need a bigger ministry in your life but not resting in what you've been given.
  
  Widow of self destructive pastor: "PLEASE PLEASE tell pastors to pay careful attention to what's happening in the background"
  

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