Sermon preached on Sunday, February 19, 2012 at Garden Valley Chapel during our morning worship service based on 1 Thessalonians 5:13.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to the fifth chapter of Paul´s first epistle to the Thessalonians where we continue our study on verses 12 & 13.

I invite you to stand for the reading of God´s Word.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13. [You may take a seat.]

Right relationships are paramount for the church.

Here in these two verses, Paul addresses a most crucial relationship in the church - the relationship between the shepherds and the sheep.

People may ask, What is church harmony all about?

Harmony and healthiness in a church occurs when both the sheep and the shepherds are fulfilling their God-given responsibilities.

Here our Lord through His servant, the Apostle Paul, picks up the responsibility of the flock towards their pastors.

Or you could put it this way, how are the sheep to treat their shepherds.

We already looked at the responsibility of the shepherds to their sheep and we noted that they are to labor among the sheep, first of all. Secondly, they are to exercise authority over the sheep. And they are to give instruction for the sheep. We carefully gave attention to those three things, but now I want to look at the sheep´s responsibility.

The teaching in Scripture is pretty basic, but oh so vital if we are going to be a healthy church.

So let´s look at the teaching in Scripture as to the responsibility of the sheep to their shepherds.