Trustworthy Sayings - Part 4

This podcast is the Ministry of Grankway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

If you've got a Bible, I'd invite you to take it.

Open up to 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

First Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible, there's one in your role.

I'm on page 992.

992.

And we'll continue part four in our series entitled Trustworthy Sayings.

Trustworthy Sayings.

Five times in Paul's different epistles, different books of the Bible that the apostle Paul wrote, he used this phrase, This is a trustworthy saying.

And every once in a while he will say, This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.

And so during this season of land, we just want to kind of build our lives around what we know is sure and foundational and true.

And today we find ourselves in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

I'll start reading in verse 1, read the ver first seven verses.

Because he let me give you the context.

Timothy, Paul's writing to Timothy, and he's kind of some false teachers have come into the church there that he's dealing with in Ephesus, and he says, Hey, here's the deal.

You've got to establish some leadership in the church.

The Bible calls them elders or overseers.

As we'll see in just a minute, the Greek word is episcope, but we'll get to that.

But he says, hey, get some men that are qualified to help you kind of establish the church.

The only way I know how to describe it was I don't know how long ago it was, two or three years ago when the hurricane came through.

I got a phone call.

I love pastoring church because I get random phone calls from crazy people like you.

And a lady in our church called and said, Hey, my the barn where I store my horse, the roof got damaged.

Can you get some guys and go over there and fix that?

And I was like, she said, it's a single mom that runs this barn, and that's the way she makes her money, and she's not gonna be able to board horses.

And I said, Absolutely.

Because the thing I love about this church is that we got everything from white-collared people that are presidents and CEOs of their own company to rednecks over here that stand out here by the dumpster and dip skull before they come in in the morning.

Oh yeah, and I love all that.

And so I called a couple of my skull dippers and said, Hey, hey, we got a barn, we got a roof over here, and they're like, hot dog, I'm there, man, let's go.

And so we load up, we go over there, and the roof had collapsed on this thing.

So basically, we had to get in there and kind of brace it up, and you say, Why did I tell you that?

And basically, in about a half a day, there's nothing like rednecks with power tools.

I mean, that you one of them one of the guys rolled out, he's not one of my snuff dippers, but he rolled down and he had a truck and had all these toolboxes on both sides of it, pulled out a compressor, plugged that bad boy in, fired up a nail gun.

Oh, that's like a chainsaw.

The first day you get a chainsaw, you should be limited in the things you can cut down.

Because if I get a chainsaw, I'm just kind of I just go to my neighbor's house and ring the doorbell, ring, ring.

Get anything cut down today?

A nail gun's the same way.

I just found myself shooting it in stuff because just like a tung, tong, tong.

Because I was like, we're gonna get there with hammers.

Oh no.

Pop, pop, pop, pop.

We're done.

I mean, it took us more time to go to Lowe's and get the new 10 and the one before and the two by four and the two by sixes and the one by twelves and all that stuff than it did to actually put it together.

But we got over there and it was kind of sagging.

And that's what Paul's saying to Timothy.

He's saying, hey, you're at a church where the roof is kind of sagging.

You need to get some support to kind of brace that thing back up.

And every once in a while to this day, I'll drive by that horse barn and just kind of look at it.

And guess what?

That roof is still up.

And if my oldest is with me, my eight-year-old still thinks I'm incredible.

My 14-year-old is kind of like rolls her eyes, like, oh dad, I know, I know, you and some men built that roof over there.

I'm like, that's quality American workmanship, you little brat.

Anyway, I don't say brat, I just think it every once in a while.

Uh but I told her, next time something gets torn up, I'll get you to go help me fix it, and maybe you'll appreciate.

I know, quality American workmanship.

I know, can we just go to Old Navy and shop?

Paul's writing to Timothy and he's saying, Hey, you need to find some people.

1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1.

1 Timothy 3:1

He says, the saying is trustworthy.

If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

Therefore, because it's a noble task, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

The husband of one wife, sober minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and to a snare of the devil.

We'll just stop right there.

Basically, I just have three points this morning from the text, and then we'll we'll kind of skip down for the last one.

But the first point in this trustworthy saying is simply this that leadership in the church is plural.

Leadership in the church is plural.

Now, and what I mean by that is that nowhere in the Bible, you don't find any church in the Bible that is led by any one person.

The whole connotation of senior pastor, like one guy in charge, and he gets to do what he wants, that is not biblical.

Now, I've got friends of mine that are the senior pastors of the church that say to me all the time, hey man, you're the pastor, you do what you want.

And I say back to them on the phone, that's not the way the Bible is, and the church is is set up in the Bible.

Well, I'm just telling you, that's the way it is.

You're the pastor, you're in charge.

Let me tell you something, beloved.

You don't want me to be in charge.

And what's even better than that, I don't want to be in charge.

See, when I say that the leadership of the church is plural, I mean by the time when you pulled on the parking lot today, let me tell you what you've already experienced because no one person can lead the church.

What you've already experienced is just the plurality of leadership here at Grand Parkway.

If you pulled in the parking lot, you were met in the foyer by Randy Ramsey or Tim Ramsey or Pat or one of our people on our first impressions team.

People have a little lanyard.

Jim Stevens may have opened the door for you.

Todd Elder may have handed you a bulletin.

If you stopped in the lobby and had coffee, you tasted the fruit of the labor of Rachel Larkins and Virginia G.

How many of you had coffee this morning?

Anyone?

Raise your hand.

See, I don't get here and make coffee in the morning.

They do.

I show up and everything's pretty much done.

I just have to get up and preach.

I don't turn the lights on.

I don't get here and walk around, turn everything on.

Lance does that.

Lance and Wade get here.

Wade goes to bed at 8 45, so it's easier for him because he's like a 90-year-old man.

So he gets here at 7 o'clock, turns everything on.

There's a guy in our church, Scott O'Byrne, that'll come and he gets out here and picks up trash out of the parking lot.

Alton, the guy driving the golf cart shuttle, is part of the leadership community here at Grand Parkway.

Now, when I say leadership is plural, what I mean is it takes all these people.

You don't just show up.

If you just walk in and you sit here, you're kind of like, man, this is no big deal.

It takes hundreds, at least a hundred people for what you see happen on a Sunday morning.

Mark Brooker, the guy that plays guitar back here, he lives probably 40 minutes from here and drives every Sunday over here.

So when some of you that live in new territory tell me, well, it took six minutes.

This is the world's smallest violin, and you know what this is?

Speakers.

Are you kidding me?

And so what I'm saying is leadership is plural.

Now, now Paul's saying, hey, by the way, I'm not talking church wide, I'm saying if anyone desires to be an overseer, or where we get our word elder, when I say leadership in the church is plural, overseer is the Greek word episcope.

And it refers to an overseer, an elder, a presiding officer in the Christian church.

It's the most literal definition.

Never intended to be a one-man show built around one person who has total control of the church.

I don't want that.

It's not biblical.

When the Grand Parkway first approached me about being the pastor, I said, Well, here's one of the things that you need to know.

I think plurality of leadership is the biblical model.

I don't think one person should be in charge.

And they said, Well, we're in the process of moving towards that.

I said, I'm interested.

Here's why.

Because when you have a plurality of leadership, you have other godly men around the table.

This doesn't happen.

Let me ask you this.

How many of you have heard of a church where a pastor got he was a senior pastor or whatever he's called, but he had absolute authority to do whatever he wanted to do, and that didn't end well.

Over and over.

Hold your hand up just for a second if you say.

I just I've known him a situation.

Put your hand down.

Because here's the thing.

Most of these guys, when you find them, you dig through the wreckage of these countless pastors of churches of all sizes, that it just went legs up.

It went berserk.

Either they embezzled money, or they're around for the secretary, or they started doing things that weren't biblical.

If you dig through the wreckage, what you will find on the black box is recorded this message.

I got to the point in my life where I was accountable to nobody.

And that's not the way God designed it to be.

Am I the pastor of the church?

Absolutely.

I have one friend of mine in particular.

I mean, he's like, I am the senior pastor.

I will do what I want, and if they don't like it, they can go elsewhere.

I said, if I was in your church, I'd go elsewhere.

He's like, I thought we were friends.

We are friends, but I don't check what I believe about the Bible when it comes to my friendships.

Well, you need to man up and lead your church.

Believe it or not, I think I do.

With the counsel of some other godly men called elders.

And that's what Paul's talking about.

He says, hey, leadership in the church is always designed by God to be plural.

Secondly, leadership comes with responsibility.

That's verses 2 through 7.

He uses this little word.

He says, therefore, he says, if anyone aspires to the office of overseer or elder, he desires a noble task.

Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

That's kind of the blanket statement that you need to hear.

Above reproach, it's the Greek word anipolamtos.

Anipolamtos.

Why do I tell you that?

Basically, this, because it means that none of this, then there's like a list of 13 things.

And he says, none of these things can stick to this person.

To be above reproach means that when you go through the list, none of that sticks to this person.

Somebody could say, Oh, that person is never mind.

I'm still fascinated by this.

My wife has cookware that's nonstick, and you can cook stuff in it and just kind of slide it around.

And I was watching TV the other day, and some show, some ad came on for the green skillet or something, and it's like to the right of Teflon when it comes to nonstick, and I'm kind of like, wow, it got cooked an omelet and put nuts and bolts in it, didn't stick, didn't scratch.

And I just thought, that's nonstick right there.

The Bible says ani palamtos basically means above reproach means that this person is beyond being accused.

You can be, they might be accused of that, but anybody that knows that person says that's not true of them.

Now I put I'm I printed out the list for you.

I'll put it up here on the screen.

Uh and I got 13 points, so just get comfortable.

No, I don't realize.

I love the guy over here, like, oh man.

Uh, husband of one wife, sober-minded.

Sober-minded means balanced in life and thought.

Not not prone to get off on some tangent.

Uh, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable.

By the way, let me just ask you this question.

They were hospitable because uh that's one of the things that distinguished Christians from non-Christians back in New Testament times.

Christians were some of the most hospitable people that you'd ever meet.

You I mean, you'd be traveling through town.

They didn't have hotels back then, and so they would have the people in their home.

They would just stay in their home.

And elders, leaders of the church are some of the people like, hey, come to our house.

You're more than welcome.

I mean, and my wife's probably, I think I'm hospitable, but my wife loves to have people over so she can get her Paul Dean on.

We're having people over for dinner tonight.

And there's a part of me that kind of thinks this is my home is my castle, okay?

I've been at work all day.

I like to come home, pull up the drawbridge, and say, thank you.

We're not we're not we're not home.

So when people come and solicitors come to the door and ring the doorbell, I just talk to the door, Land Shark, and they never get that.

Candy Graham, anybody?

Saturday Night Live, like 1980.

Finally, an old guy showed up and I said, Land shark, and he said back, Candy Graham, and I on the door and let him in.

I was like, You win, dude.

I'm buying something from you.

I bought$155 worth of red meat from a total stranger.

We could all die this week, but we're gonna go down in the blaze of glory.

He did the old, hey, I I'm I'm trying to meet my my my bonus, and so I'll make a deal for you.

I said, Hey, dude, pull this leg in and plays jingle bells, okay?

How much you want for this red meat?

I'm just gonna hook a brother up.

He's like, Are you serious?

I said, within reason, don't get crazy, okay?

Hospitable, ask yourself this question.

When's the last time you had somebody in your home for dinner?

Because my fear is that we've kind of taken what should be outward, should be community, and we've kind of enclosed it.

You see, in architecture, we used to have big front porches.

Remember that?

Now your front porch is about that big, it's just big enough for someone to stand on, and you tell them no.

Be careful that you don't teach your kids that the world is the five-foot circle that the five of you fit in.

The Christians were hospitable, and the elders in the church were some of the most hospitable people, able to teach.

Uh, not a drunkard.

That's why Lance's not.

No, I'm just kidding.

That's a joke.

That clicking sound is Lance's mom reaching for her pistol.

Uh no, not a drunkard.

Gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

You gotta have money to love money, so we're good there, okay?

Not a lover of money.

No, actually, what it was, some of the false teachers in Ephesus, they were teaching the word of God for profit.

They were telling people what they wanted to hear, and people were giving them money for it.

It's on TV right now.

Just turn on your TV.

Not a lover of money.

Uh 11 manages his household well.

Basically, that means that his children are sub are so are submissive to him.

He's not submissive to his children.

Now, that does not mean you've got to realize back then your kids weren't around you know as long as they are nowadays.

They were back then, they were out, they were 14, 15, they're out.

A lot of times they were married already.

And so, but it's just that they're submissive.

Even if your kids go off the deep end and you say, Hey, I have standards if you're gonna do that, when they get to be 19 or 20, if you're gonna do that, you can't live in this home.

You're not responsible for your kids' behavior, but you have a standard that you don't back down from that they submit to.

Uh, number 12, not a recent convert.

And last one's well thought of by outsiders.

That's not that's people outside of the church, that's unbelievers.

That's that you ought to be able to, leaders in your church ought to be able to get along with people outside of the church that they're affable, that they're laid back.

They're not these self-righteous Pharisees that go around counting their robes and tithing of their mint and cumin and deal and just all make a hundred on the Jesus pop quiz.

But as my dad used to say, they can't go to the barbershop on Tuesday morning and drink coffee with the barbers.

Because I grew up in a small town and Tuesday morning at the barbershop from six to seven, it didn't open till seven.

They didn't start cutting hair until seven, but it opened at six.

And anybody that was anybody in my small town, all the men would be, there'd be like 20 men, Cranmith's barbershop, drinking coffee, talking religion, politics.

I remember one time there was a preacher in town that ran off of his secretary.

That was like that, woo! We thought CNN was gonna land helicopters on the front lawn.

That was the news of the day.

And I remember as a little kid sitting in there and those men talking about that.

It was the funniest thing in the world.

I remember Doyle McClung, who had a naked Hawaiian woman tattooed on his forearm, and he'd make his, he'd make a fist, and she would wiggle her hips.

Magic right there, dude.

I wasn't even in the first grade, and I was just like, he got power.

But I remember he said, at least he could have picked a pretty one, that old gal ain't, but she ain't much to look at.

That won't last long.

And I remember thinking, these men are crazy in a delightful kind of way.

He said, Why am I telling you that?

Because there was also a few preachers that were very well respected by those men.

And the Bible says, well thought of by outsiders, and an elder is someone that when their name comes up.

People that don't go to church don't go, yeah, that's self-righteous weasel thinks he's better than us.

No, they go, you know what?

That guy's always been a friend to me and has always been available to me.

That's what he's talking about.

He says, above reproach.

Now then he he mentions this phrase down at the bottom, verse 7.

He says, Moreover, he must be a well thought about outsider so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

When he's talking about a snare of the devil, see what people think about the leadership of your church, they think about your church.

You realize that, don't you?

What people think about the leadership of a church, they think about the church.

And so I got an email yesterday from one of the members of our church, great guide, and he just said, Hey, I'm I just want you to know that I pray for you.

I pray for you all the time.

The greatest thing you can do for me is pray for me.

The greatest thing you can do for the staff and elders of this church is pray for us.

Because we have a sobering responsibility, and I try to graciously communicate that to my wife and kids and not put unnecessary pressure on my kids that, hey, the enemy loves to come after the family of people in ministry.

You gotta realize that.

We're not we don't walk around like, oh, we're we're nervous, what are we gonna do?

He the devil might get us.

No, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

Okay?

So you don't live with fear, live with understanding that if the devil can get a preacher to trip up and screw up, that everybody that's ever heard him kind of says, See, no, now what do we believe?

I just give up on that.

That's why the Bible says, hey, there's these requirements.

See, elder leadership comes with responsibility.

Now, one of the things I want to speak to, and I want to basically focus on the first one on the list, it says a husband of one wife.

We've recently made a change to our church's policy because when uh we first got started, and I was not a part of this process, but we had an elder selection team, and they said, Hey, we're going to look at it on the basis of the person's life.

If this person has been divorced, how their life, how they've lived since their divorce will determine if they can be a candidate for being an elder.

Well, the problem with that, beloved, is it makes the person's life the standard and not the Bible.

Does that make sense?

And so, and it's not to be punitive, it's not how we feel about a person, it's not how we feel about divorced people, it's not how we feel about even the qualifications for an elder.

Ultimately, for us as elders of your church, it comes down to what do we believe about the Bible?

And what we believe about the Bible is it's just a simple reading.

When it says husband of one wife, it means husband of one wife.

Now, there's four traditional views on how people interpret what it means when it says that.

Let me just give them to you.

I think they'll come up on the screen.

Traditionally, people say, here's four possibilities of what this could mean.

Now, beloved, let me tell you this: you cannot step over what the Bible clearly says in pursuit of what you want it to say.

Do you hear the difference in that?

You can't say, well, I but anyway, here's four traditional uh uh responses to what does it mean when the Bible says a husband and one wife?

The first one they say, well, it requires that an overseer be married.

That an overseer be married.

The problem with that, that an elder be married, is that Paul wasn't married and Timothy wasn't married.

Neither one of them were married.

Second view is simply this.

They say, well, it's a prohibition against polygamy about having multiple wives.

Now, I don't want to sound bad, ladies.

If this sounds bad, you'll get on to me after the service, okay?

How many of you men in here would like to have more than one wife?

I know that there's some single man that are kind of like, I'll do you what, I like to have four or five wives.

And it's not a bad, it's not a bad thing.

I like having one wife.

I do.

Most of the time.

And I'm I'm a better person because not only do I marry, but I'm married to the woman I'm married to because she's she doesn't take any guff.

She's like, you are picking these clothes up today.

You're not watching the golf tournament until this is picked up.

Now that you put it that way, okay.

Uh but see, my point is that polygamy wasn't as prominent as we make it out to be back then.

They didn't value women so much that they would have multiple wives, they would just have mistresses.

It was a horrible culture as far as morality in marriage was concerned.

The third uh uh uh traditional uh interpretation is it prohibits second marriages.

That if you've been married once, regardless of what happened, if you get married again, you're not qualified.

Well, the problem with that is two things.

Number one, what if you're married and your spouse dies?

And then secondly, what do you do with Matthew chapter 19?

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

So there's a biblical cause for divorce, and Jesus said in Matthew 19, as he's talking to his followers, he says, Except for the cause of unfaithfulness.

If your spouse is unfaithful and your marriage ends because they were unfaithful, you are released from that marriage and you're free to get remarried.

You can be an elder in this church if your if your divorce falls in what's called the exception clause.

If it's a biblical grounds for divorce.

So we don't punish people.

We don't think, oh, if you're divorced, you're a second-class citizen.

Not at all.

The fourth one, and this is the one that your church, the elders of your church, and the leadership of your church believes that requires marital fidelity to one wife.

That a husband of one wife requires marital fidelity to one wife.

So if you'd ask my wife, hey, have you ever thought about divorcing your husband?

She'll say, Divorce, no.

Murder, yes.

Because it's just not a word, one of the best things we ever did when we were dating and got engaged, we just said, Hey, we are never, ever, ever going to.

Mention divorce.

It's just not an option.

And I mean, there's been days she's like, oh, is it manslaughter or what is it?

If you and I'm like, don't look at me like that.

Because it's just hard.

Marriage is hard work.

That's another thing you say to single people, like, what's so hard about it?

Oh, you just get married and wait.

It's good.

We love it.

We love it.

Don't we love it, man?

Love it.

But sometimes you're just like, well, I can't.

I said the other day, why can't you just think more like me?

I said.

Rumba.

And because I'm somebody out there, I'm just um, hey, I'm naked.

I might as well skinny this.

I might as well just get my money's worth.

I'm after I'm gonna send it down, I'm gonna send it this.

Because your life would be so much better if you don't like me.

Swing, madam! And my wife just smiles and she goes, This may surprise you, but I don't want to think like you.

And that's when I realized, stop talking.

Well, I'm just saying.

Been married 19 years, been with her for almost 21.

I would think she would want to be more like me by now, but I think I'm giving up.

I think I'm convinced that she does not want to be like me.

Though I think her life would be better.

If she chooses to suffer, that's her choice.

I'm not going anywhere.

She's not in the service.

Let's keep this to ourselves.

Third thing.

And we'll be done this morning.

Third thing is this there's a reason.

Look at me, beloved.

There's a reason for what the Bible says.

Okay?

Skip down, if you would, to verse 14.

Remember, I told you a couple weeks ago when the Bible was written, it was written like a letter.

And the chapters and the numbers and the breaks were not in there.

And so this is all one flow of thought because he gives qualifications for overseers or elders, and then he gives qualifications for deacons.

And then in verse 14, he tells you why.

He says, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things.

These things appear in the first eight verses of chapter three.

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and a buttress of truth.

When I say there's a reason for what the Bible says, Paul gives three of them there, and I want to finish with those this morning.

He says, Hey, here's the three reasons for these instructions.

Number one, there's expected behavior in the church.

That's what he means when he says, if I delay, I want you to know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

There's a sense of oughtness to my life and your life if you claim to be a Christian.

See, there's an expected behavior in the church.

It's always been that way.

Don't turn there, but in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus said, when you pray and when you fast, and when you give alms.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He doesn't say if.

There's this expected behavior.

When you do this, this is how you do it.

It's always been this sense of expectation.

And by the way, here's how I know that I know God.

That doesn't, that doesn't make me sad.

That doesn't go, oh man, we gotta fast.

Are you kidding me?

Hey, the Muslims fast her in Ramadan.

Lady that cuts my hair.

She won't eat or drink anything while the sun's up.

If I'm gonna talk to her about my faith that I believe to be the truth, I might not be willing to do what it just expects me to do.

See, there's this expected behavior, and Paul says, hey, here's why, so you know how to conduct yourselves.

I remember when I when we hired Wade as our youth pastor, I told him, hey, by the way, when our kids go on a trip, they're not gonna be those helgans you see destroying the McDonald's.

I used to be a youth pastor.

I'm not anymore.

I took my kids skiing in Colorado one time and went to McDonald's and they just trashed the place.

I went in the bathroom and I came out, and they were throwing salt shakers and their food and french fries were everywhere, and I was like, and half of them were already on the bus.

Went out on that bus like Rambo.

Get off my bus right now.

I marched them in there and made them clean the entire McDonald's.

I had them go over to people.

Can I take your tray or you done?

And then I had the manager come out and I made them all apologize.

Forty-seven apologies from a bunch of teenagers.

And he said, Why are you doing this?

I said, Because this is not the way the church acts, okay?

And I don't want when a church bus rolls up in front of this place.

He goes, Every time we see a church bus, all of my staff cringes.

Not on my watch.

I'll take my belt off, whip all these fools, turn this bus around, we'll go home.

They'll get a refund.

He said, I appreciate you.

And I said, This is not okay.

See, there's expected behavior.

Always has been.

Secondly, Paul says this little phrase.

See, I love this.

He says, Hey, uh, so you'll know how to behave in the household of God.

Then he says this, which is the church of the living God.

See, there's a reason what the Bible says.

The first one is that there's expected behavior.

Secondly, our God is alive.

You say, Well, yeah, we we know that.

It's coming up on Easter.

No, no, I don't think you understand.

Turn, keep your finger in 1 Timothy, turn to the left to Psalm 115.

I read this this week and I just giggled out loud.

I just thought, man, I've never thought about that.

You see, what do you mean our God is alive?

Basically, he can and will do something when these expectations are not met in our behavior.

Psalm 115 says this.

He says, Not to us, verse 1, not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory.

For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

Why should the nations say, Where is their God?

Our God is in the heavens.

He does all that he pleases.

Now stop just for a second and look at me.

These other nations, they wanted a God that they could see, they could fixate on, so they made these idols.

They carved them out of wood, they overlaid them with gold and silver, and they bedazzled them with the bedazzle or they got on Ronco, they ordered late at night.

I mean, it was these elaborate things, and the Christians were like, hey, our God's in heaven.

And so there's kind of this comparison, is what you're going to read here.

He says in verse 3, our God is in the heavens, and he does all that he pleases.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have mouths but do not speak.

Eyes but do not see.

They have ears but do not hear.

Noses but do not smell.

They have hands but do not feel, feet, but they do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat.

Those who make them become like them.

So do all who trust in them, O Israel, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield.

O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield.

You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield.

Don't miss that.

He says, Hey, those who make them will become like them.

The point that the psalmist is making is that you and I will become like that which we have the greatest trust in.

And the writer of the Psalms is saying, hey, your God has a nose, but he can't smell.

Your God has eyes, but he can't see.

Our God is in the heaven, but he can see and he can smell and he can hear.

Those who make them become like them because they trust in that.

The more you, here's the beauty of trusting in God, the more you trust in God, the more you become like God.

You begin to think like God.

You see the world the way God sees the world.

Not out of labor, but just out of reflex.

It's not effort.

It's just, this is what happens when you expose yourself.

Thirdly and finally, there's a reason the Bible says what it says.

And Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14, he says the third reason is he says, hey, first of all, you may know how to how you ought to behave in the household of God.

1 Timothy 3:14

Secondly, which is a church of the living God.

And thirdly, he says, a pillar and a buttress of truth.

Third reason is that we're the stewards of the truth.

He says, a pillar and a buttress.

That's not a you get pillar, but a buttress.

If you look up that word, it'll tell you.

One of the ways it defines it is a stay.

A stay.

A stationary place where the truth resides.

It's a Greek word Alothea.

Alotheo, and it says truth.

Truth is not circumstantial, it's not personal, it's not situational.

Truth is objective, which means it's not dependent on the mind for existence.

Truth is objective.

It's not dependent on the mind for acceptance.

In other words, you don't have to agree with it for it to be the truth.

It stands outside of your mind and it's the truth.

Whether you agree or not, whether I agree or not, whether anybody agrees or not, whether your kids agree or not, the truth is the truth.

That's why God says in Amos chapter 7, don't turn there.

Amos 7 · chapter mention

But about 7 to 9, verses 7 to 9 of Amos 7, there's chaos in bedlam going on.

And God says, My word will be like a plumb line among my people.

A plumb line.

It looks like a tripod has a string with a weight on it hanging down.

And that's how they could tell if the corners of the building were square, if they were straight, because this plumb line doesn't lie.

And God says, My word, this truth is objective.

It stands outside of you, and you don't have to agree with it for it to be true.

It is just true.

It's Alathea.

What is that?

It's what is true in any matter under construction or consideration.

The truth of God is true, beloved, in any matter, under construction or consideration.

Your life and my life is under construction.

And don't you want to build it on the truth?

See, God's not saying, hey, come be religious, let me make you miserable.

Not at all.

God is saying, I want you to build your life on that which is absolutely true.

It's true back then, it's true today, it'll be true if Jesus tarries and is coming, it'll be true a thousand years from now, it'll be true next week.

See, here's the other thing that I want you to think about, and we'll be done.

Unless the church holds on to the truth.

When people repent, what are they going to come back to?

You ever thought about that?

Unless the church holds on to the truth and just says, Hey, this is the Alathea of God.

This is this is that which is true in any matter, under construction or consideration.

This is the truth.

Paul's writing to Timothy.

He's writing to a church that's kind of collapsed.

And he's saying, you need to get some people around you, a plural leadership to help you hold the roof up and help you do all that needs to get done.

And here's the kind of people you need to look for.

They need to meet these qualifications.

Why?

Because there's a reason for everything God says.

And he says, hey, because there's this expected behavior.

You're supposed to live a certain way if you profess to be a Christian.

He says, hey, our God's not like their God.

Our God's alive.

Our God can smell.

That was my meditation one day this week.

Thomas says, hey, they have noses, but they can't smell.

And he's contradicting their idols with their God.

If they have noses and can't smell, what does that mean about our God?

Hmm.

I can't wait to go in my kid's bedroom this week and open the door and go, hey, God says your bedroom stinks.

It smells like puberty and Fritos in here.

Do something about this.

And that's what it smells like, by the way.

I'm like, you bathed lately?

Smells like a bag of squirrels in here.

And then I got to talk to my wife.

Hey, you can't talk to girls that way.

That hurts their feelings.

Oh, and she said, shut up, dad, and threw a tennis shoe at the door.

That hurt her feelings?

I was just like, man, did you like run over an armadella in here or something?

Their idols have noses but can't smell.

Eyes, but can't see.

Mouths, but can't speak.

And what the psalmists say we need to hear today is that our God's not like that.

He can hear and see and speak and smell.

He's omnipotent, omnipresent.

He's everywhere.

He's there's nothing, nothing that I do is outside the scope of his knowledge.

See, unless we hold on to this truth, when people repent, what do they come back to?

Or think of it like this, and I'll be done.

Remember the story of the prodigal son?

Comes to his dad, says, Give me my share of the estate.

Give me my inheritance, because as far as I'm concerned, your dad, he gets it, he goes off, he goes to the rodeo, and he spends it on Jason Aldean tickets, and he just gets hammered drunk, and he winds up in the back of a tour bus with Kid Rock at Albuquerque, which by the way, I got that text from one of your members that last week.

One of the men in our church went to the kid rock concert, texted me the next day, said, I just woke up in the back of the bus.

Kid says we're in Albuquerque, and I've got a tattoo in the small of my back.

I was like, You're going to hell on a slipping slide.

Not gonna say who it was, but it was one of the band members.

That's all I'm gonna say.

Obviously, he was kidding, and I was just jealous because he got to go.

Roger Haynes got to go to the kid rock concert.

I'm like, are you kidding me?

You're an accountant for Chevron.

What are you doing there?

I should have been there.

Praying for Bobby, of course.

Remember the story of the prodigal son?

The prodigal son gets all his money, he goes off, he squanders it.

And then he, the Bible says when he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired men have more than enough food to spare?

I will get up and go back to my father.

Go back to the buttress and the pillar of truth, to the man that I hated, but he always told me the truth.

Can you imagine the prodigal son getting up out of the pig pen, going back, and there's no house there?

Because it was built on the sand?

See, when your kids and my kids and your friends and my friends and this church and every other church, if we don't stand for the truth, what are people going to come home to when they come to their senses?

You see, the Bible says that we're the pillar and the buttress, we're the staying place of truth.

Let's pray together.

And the Holy Spirit, we just want to be men and women of the truth.

We want to be a church of the truth.

We believe what the Bible says, that it is a plurality of leadership.

That no one person gets to dictate what happens at a church.

And you've given us in your word qualifications for elders, for for the for for those overseers.

We take that seriously.

We want to be above reproach.

We don't want any of that to stick to us.

Because we understand that the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion.

And if he can get people in ministry and elders and staff and other ministers to fall, he can discredit everything they've said and done.

But we also know that greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world.

So we don't live in fear.

We live in faith and obedience to your word, your truth, your Alithea, your word that is true about anything, any matter under consideration or construction, anything we're doing or thinking about doing, God's word speaks a relevant word of truth to it.

And you tell us in your word, God, that if we just build, dig down deep and build our life on that, that it wouldn't collapse.

How much more loving could you be?

Thank you that you can smell and speak and also that you hear that every prayer whispered and offered and even thought of in this in this time this morning, you've heard.

You're like, I got it.

I got it.

And I want to come and bring all of my resources to bear on that.

God rescue us just from being religious weasels.

Let us be men and women of the truth.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said.

Amen.

Stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out if you would.

Your God not only expects behavior, he equips you to live what he expects.

And that's mercy.

And that's presence.

He's not the principal.

He's not the cop that when you see him, you have to get off the gas.

He's your father.

And he's in heaven.

And he sees and he hears and he smells and all that stuff.

Your God is your father.

Depart now and enjoy your father.

In his name.

Amen.