Qualifications for Leadership - 1 Timothy 3:1-7

We're going through a book in the Bible called First Timothy.

It's the Apostle Paul writing a letter to Timothy as he is

charged to put a church in order.

So we're calling the series Trustworthy or Trustworthy

church so that we can study this as a way to say, you know, God

has a beautiful design for, for his people and how they gather.

And we, we want to follow that design.

And we especially want to do that well for the day and the

age that God has put us in. Because oftentimes, and some of

you have probably experienced this, the church and the church

leadership and the church gathering is sometimes less than

trustworthy. So our hope is to study this

letter that is timeless, but it's very timely in a way to

become trustworthy followers of God and a trustworthy church,

which is really just the people of God gathered.

And so we're going to start a new chapter, but we'll continue

a, a, a theme we've already looked at the last couple of

weeks. We've been looking at Paul

exhorting Timothy on how to put the church in order, the

instructions for the gathering and the different roles for men

and women in the gathering. 2 weeks ago, Paul was exhorting

Timothy in in chapter 2 to have the men pray and stop fighting.

And so that was our instruction, instructions for men.

It's like, let's not quarrel. It's not doubt God, Let's not

doubt one another. Let's lift up holy hands and

pray. And then that transitioned into

instructions that were specifically for women about how

they're brought into the gathering to learn and to be

peaceable. And and now we're going to

continue a instructions for the church in a way that is maybe

the most critical. And I have to say last week, as

we talked about First Timothy, chapter 2 and many of you read

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

ahead and knew that we were going to cover a passage of the

Bible that talked about women learning and submission and

being quiet. And I, I probably never had more

feedback going into a sermon as people were excited to hear what

we had to say. And, and, and, and I also

probably never had feedback on that scale after a sermon.

It was just a very many of you found that verse to be so

interesting and and kind of waited to see how it was going

to unfold. I have to say, sadly, I haven't

had anywhere near. In fact, I've had no discussions

from any of you about First Timothy chapter 3, which is this

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

week's sermon. No one has come up to me and

said, you know, I can't wait to see you, how you handle

qualifications for leadership. And as I read this and consider

the church age we live in and what it means to be a

trustworthy church, I'm convinced that the problem with

the church is not the role of women and the role of men in the

gathering. It is much more crucial that we

get this right, that the problem and the way to correct and to to

be a city on a hill shining the light to the glory of God is not

just the parishioners, but the pastors.

There's so many reasons to preach a sermon series on

becoming a trustworthy church. And most of the reasons that

people aren't here to listen to them is not because of worship

style or liturgy or different denominational struggles.

It's because in every version of church that people have tried,

there have been leaders that failed people.

And there are people that aren't with us now because they they

experienced a pastor or a church oversight committee or or some

church leadership that utterly let them down and hurt them and

left them, as it says in First Timothy, shipwrecked.

And so as we consider what we're about to read, I actually made a

list of names that just top of mind from my youth to now that

you'd probably recognize that what was the headline news for

the Kingdom of God when when this particular pastor fell?

And I don't even think I need to read it.

I don't think I need to share with you specific names because

you all have a touch point to the the moment where you heard

of a pastor that fell because of a sex scandal.

Or the pastor that was actually using his position as leader to

to line his pockets and become wealthy at the expense of of

widows and poor people. Or or the the pastor who was so

overbearing and domineering that he did great things to grow a

church and there was a path of destruction behind him.

So fill in the blank. We all have a a outsider's view

of why it's so important to understand that God does not

just simply say, if you're a man, come lead.

And if you, if you, if you think you have a gift, you know, if

you have experience in the real world, the church could really

use your help. There is a narrow gate for

leadership. And the New Testament is very

clear that men who lead the church must be qualified to lead

the church to God's glory. And they can also be

disqualified to not lead it. And that's what we're going to

look at today. I think this is one of the most

important sermon topics of our trustworthy series because this

is one of the most important things to get right.

So read along with me. That is the introduction to

chapter 3. We'll look this week at

qualifications of overseers and next week qualifications of what

sometimes it's called deacons or servants.

So it starts in verse one. This is a faithful saying.

This is actually that faithful saying phrases where we get the

title of our series trustworthy. It's a faithful saying or a

trustworthy saying. If a man desires the position of

a Bishop, he desires a good work.

A Bishop then, must be blameless, the husband of one

wife, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior, hospitable,

able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy

for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous.

One who rules his own household well, having his children in

submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how

to rule his own house, how will he take care of the Church of

God? He's not a novice, less being

puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as

the devil. Moreover, he must have a good

testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into

reproach and the snare of the devil.

So if you were following along point by point, you can find 15

qualifications that Paul just gave Timothy on what to look out

for and how to raise up men of the church.

And so one of them is able to teach.

Pray for me as I, I'm going to be trying to teach a 15 point

sermon. This will be a record for me.

So we, we have to move fairly, pretty quickly.

But if we're looking for just a little road map, a little matrix

for how to look at these qualifications, it's not

perfect, but there's essentially 3 categories for who this leader

is and what to look out for that these qualities and, and

qualifications fall into. It's basically his character,

his conduct and his credibility. And, and, and we'll look at each

one of those categories as we go through the list, but we start

with Paul's encouragement to Timothy.

Why this is a worthy sermon, why this is a worthy examination of

the people and the men of the church, because it says in verse

one, this is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of

a Bishop, he desires a good work.

And so before we get into Paul's encouragement, this is a good

work. We just have to define the terms

very quickly because he says in new King James, which is our my

kind of preaching version of the Bible, he says Bishop, which is

not a title you're going to hear at our gathering or in the

structure of our church. So we don't just get to pass and

say, well, that doesn't apply to us, but good luck to churches

that have bishops. He's actually just describing

what the Greek word is getting at an overseer.

And we're going to see Paul writing and the New Testament

describing the overseers with somewhat of interchangeable

titles. And to to get an example of

that, you can actually study Acts chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

We won't look at the whole chapter, but we've referenced it

a couple times in this sermon series because Acts chapter 20

Acts 20 · chapter mention

describes Paul's missionary journeys.

And he was actually in Ephesus for a number of years.

And when it was time for him to leave Ephesus and he's getting

ready to verbally kind of give them some instructions on how to

do well as a church, he calls the leadership of the church to

to pray with them and give them encouragement.

And when he calls them, it says that he called the elders.

So that's a term for overseer. Now, the same group of men in

Acts 20 that he called as elders, he'll encourage them and

say, the Holy Spirit made you overseers of this church or this

city. And so he calls elders and he

says you guys are overseers. And then his encouragement to

them is to shepherd the flock well or to shepherd means

pastor. So same group of men are called

elders, overseers, pastors and shepherds.

Because and the the main emphasis is not necessarily if

those roles are are distinct enough to to carve up and make

separate. The main emphasis is every

church community and gathering. And then the sub gatherings of

the church have men that are qualified to oversee it.

And those men can be called elders, pastors, bishops or

overseers interchangeably. And so just to give some insight

to our church, we don't use the word Bishop, but we have the

same concept in the terms elders and pastors and our function,

the way we use those terms of the church.

Elders are overseers of, of kind of the direction and the, the

well-being, the health of our church, the finances of our

church, making sure that our church is in a good place and

even overseeing some of the overseers.

And typically our elders across the board are people that are

not everyday boots on the ground salary, full time ministry

workers. And one of the reasons for that

is our elders are also asked to set forth the, the money and the

budgeting and make sure that there's no implicit bias for the

people that need to make final calls about money because

they're on staff and the money could eventually be funneled to

them. So our elders have an overseen

kind of in a general sense. And then in the same way we have

overseers that we call pastors. So I oversee kind of the, the

overall vision mission of our church.

And then we have overseers in different categories of, of

house, church, home, home groups.

And, and what you would see in the New Testament we see in our

church, there's, there's subgroups that meet in homes.

We have overseers of our youth, we have overseers of our kids.

Those are all our pastors. So I say all of that because

what we're going to read should qualify or disqualify those who

are trying to serve our church in this way.

Now there there's a couple questions that we could ask that

don't get answered and that is OK.

How long should an elder be overseen?

Is there a certain time frame they should serve and then move

on for propriety's sake? Or, or how many people should an

elder oversee? What's, what's a good balance

between number of elders and number of of people in the

church? What is an A?

Is age part of the qualification?

Because elder does mean older. And for all of those questions,

good questions to think through and try to discern for our

church, but they're not clearly answered in the Bible.

And we could, we could take that a step further when looking for,

you know, how the structure and governance of church is supposed

to work. Our church answers it one way

and there's a number of different denominational

answers. The reason we're not going to

get in the weeds on that is because the Bible does not make

that clear. And I think it's worth pointing

out that what the Bible does make clear is not structure but

character. And if we're looking for a way

to be a God honoring church, it's good to have structure that

we adhere by. But it's much better to have

high character people. Structure will not save a

church. There's there's wolves and

sheeps. Clothing can invade any

structure and take it down and there's amazing high character

men of God that can work with any structure.

So the emphasis that we read in First Timothy and Titus and in

the New Testament is if you find the right leaders with heart

after God's heart and conduct that is respectable and

credibility to their life, then the church is going to be well

cared for. And I would say the same thing

as as you listen to this, it's worth listening with ears and

not just eyes. And sometimes we listen to this,

it's like, OK, I'm going to, I'm going to examine every person,

which is part of this project. We want to examine our leaders

to qualify and disqualify. But you also want to listen to

ears. Everything that we're about to

go through point by point, everything we just read.

Amazing measurements for Christian discipleship, amazing

measurements for how you have an influence in the offices of your

life. And all of it is, is meant to be

done in a way that is God honoring in, in different

structures that you might find yourself in.

So that's the first part of this.

And now we're going to get into a 15 point sermon.

Now I have put in some supplemental reading into your

bulletins this week because I'm going to say a lot of things.

I, I stated more clearly point by point, just so you have as a

reference point for, for what we're aiming for as the

leadership kind of measurement of our church.

And also, I know as I was studying this and reading it, I

thought I should just memorize every single one of these

qualities so that when I find myself in, in real time game

time decision mode, I'll have in my mind, in my heart, the word

of God giving me filters on how I'm supposed to live and how I'm

supposed not into. That's a challenge for all of

you parents, bosses, managers, coaches, teachers, neighbors,

anyone who has someone that could look to you and say, give

me advice. These are amazing lists to to

store in your heart for how you can conduct yourself.

And we start after all of that verse 2A Bishop then must be

blameless. So blameless is a word for a, a,

a, a person that if you were to make a blame, nothing would

necessarily be credible. It does not mean perfect.

In fact, I, I, I do like the ESV version that says above

reproach. There is a line by which you

live above that if scrutiny or accusation came against you, you

would you'd pass the test. In other words, a leader cannot

have a giant scandal just living in the shadows of his life a a

giant secret saying that when exposed, would actually

disqualify him from another number of these other qualities

on the list. Above reproach does not mean

above approach. So one thing I think we get

wrong about leadership sometimes is that leaderships, you know,

we stand on a platform from behind a pulpit and and they're

the guys that are righteous and they're the ones that have to

learn. Leaders should be examined.

That's the whole point of this list.

You should be able to look at your leaders life and say, Hey,

I've got a question about this or can we talk about this?

And accusations aren't necessarily in themselves wrong.

Now to be accused and found guilty is what we're careful of.

But being accused doesn't mean anything's happened.

Jesus was accused of being a wine bibber, a glutton and a

friend of sinners. And he got through that by

showing himself loving, caring and actually a a beautiful

picture of the heart of God in every one of those categories.

So this only means the charges aren't going to stick.

We're not being led by people who have scandals hiding in the

shadows. And that's really a headline of

all the other qualities because they all live under live above

the the the reproach line. And now we'll get into a number

of qualifications that have to do with the actual character of

the leader. And we'll start with one that I

think is a great test of a man's character.

And that is how does a man who has committed his life to one

woman pass the test? It says a husband of one wife.

Simply put, this means he is a one woman man, which would be

counter cultural for the day that Paul was writing.

I think it's actually sadly very counter cultural for the day

that I'm preaching that it is not uncommon for men that are

viewed as successful in the world or talented or a man of

influence to have all sorts of pleasures on the side.

And Paul says, you know, polygamy might happen in the in

this culture, but not in the church.

And he says to this church, to our church, one of the worst

headlines you're going to read. It's sometimes the headlines

that unleash all of the other failures is that there was a

pastor caught in a sexual scandal.

That is from the new the New Testament church to now that

that's one you can start with. I think there's a couple reasons

for it. One the the marriage covenant is

held as one of the great metaphors of the gospel that men

we are to love our wives like Christ loved the church with a

covenant love that loved until death.

That is a great measurement of whether or not you're willing to

love the church unto death. And so if men can't stay

faithful to one person, they're not going to stay faithful to

the all of the different temptations that that seep into

a leadership role. And while we're here, we can

also say what we alluded to last week.

This is one of the ways that I think it is within reason.

And I think it's good study of Scripture to say that Paul is

being gender specific here. When he's giving a list of

qualifications for leaders, he is saying it's a man of one

wife. It is gender specific and I can

say that because later he's going to speak to women, first

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 5 and he's going to say to the widows to qualify

for the widow program, you needed to be a woman of one

husband while he was alive. Did you honor the covenant you

had to him? And he says to widows in chapter

5, you need to be a woman of one man.

SO2 commandments given specifically one gender at the

time. And we'll see later that leader

of the the the marriage, leader of the household, leader of the

church are all used as qualifications to help us

understand how you can be a, a qualified leader.

So this is the main point. That is an assumption, but the

main point is marital fidelity and sexual purity.

And I hope that if you've been around our church long enough,

you know why this is so serious. You get this one wrong, and you

have an inevitable shipwreck of the soul.

The only other point to be made here is sometimes a question

that comes up in looking for qualified men and wondering,

does this mean that they have to be married?

And I think that we can, with good reason, say that Paul is

making an exhortation for those who are married, not that it's

necessary. Meaning those who are single,

those who have gone through the tragedy of a biblical divorce,

even those who are widowed can still lead.

But he's speaking to men who have a a marriage, an active

marriage, that this is how they must conduct themselves.

I think you can see that in the language and I can, I think you

can also see that just by inference.

I'm happy to say that with that conviction, the Apostle Paul

could be an elder at our church. The Apostle Paul himself who's

writing this was not married. We could also include our Lord

and Savior Jesus, if he was willing to help, you know, get

into the fine tooth combing of our budget.

He could be an elder of our church.

He was never married. And then also, if you ever come

to midweek, Wednesday nights, you should.

It's amazing one of our elders teaches that.

And he happens to be single and without children.

I don't think he's disqualified because he's never broken the

covenant of marriage that he's committed to.

So man of one wife. And then it goes on to say

temperate temperance means you're showing moderation, self

restraint, a leader who is stable.

You know, we, we have to lead the church through often times

the ups and downs of the world and culture and headline news

and, and crazy things that are happening all around us.

And what we don't want is to be so reactionary that every time

something happens, we have to take a Sunday to do a special

service to talk about the special news item.

We're just people that trust that for the last 2000 years God

has been faithful to His church. We read the word verse by verse.

We present it as something that's honoring to God and

something we submit ourselves to.

And we just go week by week, day by day, LED without whiplash of

every new idea of ministry or every new thing that we could be

talking about. We want people that are steady,

someone who doesn't lose his cool and that goes into the

continuation of that which is to be sober minded.

Now combine that you'll see it in the insert sober minded also

considerate self-control. You know, to be in leadership,

you have to battle all the time, the racing comments section and

criticism or overly encouraged and, and you have to think about

the future and you have to think about, you know, what you're

what you, what we have is resources and there's all sorts

of ideas and there's all sorts of pushback.

And, and, and what we have to have in people who are willing

to serve in this way is people that have a clear mind.

They're not laying in bed at night with anxiety or worry or,

or what if this happens or what if that happens?

This is one of those categories that is for all of us.

Parents need to have that that renewed clear mind that they're

not leading their household with a bunch of anxiety, but with the

peace of God that surpasses understanding.

In your marriages, you don't want to be racing thoughts.

Where were you? Where have you been?

You just want to have a a clear and sober mind with

self-control. And self-control, simply stated,

is the ability to consistently say no to what is harmful and

yes to what is good. So a leader should exhibit the

discipline of self-control, the habits of how he treats his

physical body, how he treats his finances, how he treats his

relationships continually in his best effort.

No one's perfect, but saying yes to what is good in life and the

will of God and rejecting saying no to what is harmful.

And if you can exhibit discipline in your own life,

you're going to need self-control to lead anything,

let alone the church. You're going to need to say yes

to the will of God stepping out in faith and no to the opinion

of men and all of the the the wayward things that can take a

church off the rail. So sober minded self-control.

And then it goes on to say good behavior.

And that I think that translation's simple enough.

We if you've been around kids, you know what it's like to say

like mind your manners being good behavior.

It's good for a pastor to be well mannered.

I think, I think that's why the ESV again, is, is kind of

helpful here. It says to be respectable, to be

courteous, to be someone who has manners, who is kind, and it'll

go so far as to say is presentable.

It's not someone who, you know, looks like they they had a rough

couple of months. It's like they, they look nice.

And as I was preparing this evening, I thought through this

is an area for your prayers. I want to be a more respectable

person. In fact, my, my mother-in-law

for Christmas this year gave me deodorant, soap and, and

Cologne. And I thought this is kind, but

this seems like a, a message, a deeper message.

And I won't say who, but even as I came here today, someone

handed me a bar soap and I and I and I'm like, what is that?

What is the message for that? So we all, we all need to be

respectful leaders, respectable, good behavior, polite, courteous

and kind, hospitable. An overseer, if you'll notice

the thread or the theme, an overseer has to be an embodiment

of the church culture. So being hospitable is one of

the constant reminders of the New Testament church that we

need to hear all the time because ancient culture got this

point a lot faster than we do. Ancient culture was lived in a

time where people were travelling and there weren't

just like, you know, hotels and Airbnbs that the church was

often times a refuge for, for those who were coming in hungry

and needed a place to stay. And Paul is saying, hey, pastor,

you better represent that. And I would take that a step

further. It's not just hospitable with

the ability to welcome someone in, make sure that if they're

hungry, they're fed and if they're thirsty, they have

water. It's hospitable with your life.

A leader should not be as selfish over his time and his

his resources and even his own heart.

A leader should welcome people in and make them know that the

church is a place that wants to welcome the stranger, that wants

those who are hurting to come get healed, those who are hungry

to come get fed, and those who are on the outside aside to find

Jesus in a presentable and kind way.

And so to be hospitable is to not just open up your home but

is to open up your life. Also in verse 2.7, if you're

counting able to teach, this is a requirement of the leaders of

the church because as we studied in the very beginning of this

epistle, Paul writing to Timothy, said one of the major

problems of the church is unsound doctrine is when

teachers claiming to be teachers come in, they don't know what

they affirm or they deny. They're preaching legalism.

They're they're talking endless genealogies and disputes about

myths. And, and Paul had the right to

say those teachers need to be dealt with and you need to fight

the good fight of sound doctrine.

And I would say the same is true in our day.

We need men who are able to teach, not just able to inspire

or able to captivate an audience or give a Ted talk or a word of

encouragement, but able to walk the church through sound

doctrine. And I, I'm grateful that it just

says Abel. I think one of the the ways that

we can overemphasize some of these qualities is that in the

church age we live in where everything can be broken down

into a little shareable clip that could go viral or

everything can, you know, you got to keep everyone's

attention. Otherwise they're going to get

bored and find a new church. We've elevated the role of

teacher. We've, we've made it seem as

though if someone has eloquence and they can, you know, make an

alliteration sermon with three points that you never forget,

make you laugh, make you cry, make you inspired to live for

Jesus, They get a pass on all of the other disqualifications.

And so we have many, many, many teachers that are great with

words but not great with wisdom. And because of that, we live in

a church age that is happy to just get a 20 minute view of God

on a Sunday, but there's no actual growth or depth.

So it's not just that they're able to talk, but they're able

to teach sound doctrine. And you know, I'll just point

out again, 15 qualifications we're covering today.

This is one. If you add Titus, there's 12

more. So 1 of 27 is able to teach and

it does not give you a pass on all of the other ways that you

might not be a qualified leader. Another question that sometimes

come up, is every elder overseer supposed to, to teach and preach

in this manner? And I think clearly, no, I, I

don't think that the, the gift of teaching and the, the, the

operation of, of the Sunday morning gathering has to be

every overseer. But I think every person who's

going to give oversight to the church needs to have sound

doctrine that they can guide people in by principle, that

they can meet with people, understand what's going on in a

marriage or between a, a father and a, a son, or understand

what's happening in church conflict.

And, and, and have a lens of God's word to be the lamp into

our feet as we're led. And that can happen one-on-one.

It can happen at coffee. It can happen randomly in a

lobby. It can happen through formal

meetings. An elder and overseer, a pastor

needs to know the word well enough to allow it to guide

their leadership. So that's the character of an

elder. Now we go into the conduct.

So read with me First Timothy, chapter 3, verse 3.

1 Timothy 3:3

Not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but

gentle, not quarrelsome and not covetous.

So we'll, we'll put money and covetous together.

We'll save it for the end. But you'll notice this is just a

list of what a good and healthy overseer is to avoid or not do.

And he starts by saying that he's not given to wine.

Again, other translations, will, will will say it more plainly.

ESP says he's not a drunkard. He's not someone that is so

overtaken by alcohol that it affects his daily life.

And you know, you're going to, at this point in the sermon,

you're going to find probably 2 extremes.

Some people will deny the fact that the Bible is actually not a

book that prohibits alcohol consumption for all its people.

The Psalms say, you know that that wine makes the heart glad

and it it rejoices at the thought of of merriment because

of a glass of wine in, in, in praising the Lord.

And later we'll hear that Paul will say to Timothy, have some

wine for your belly. It it might help your ailment.

So it's not a total prohibition and, and yet it's not something

that we, we should look at and say, OK, well, the, the, the,

the goal is just to not get drunk.

And, and the line is this many beers.

And the, the idea is that a leader represents sober mind,

sound thinking, clear thought, and ultimately is an example to

the flock of God. And this is one of those areas

where I think leaders have to be very aware of their example to

the flock of God. It would be unhelpful if our

leaders and pastors didn't have control over this area of their

life and and you had to read that they got a DUI or they were

stumbling out of shorties at midnight or that you saw them

with a grocery cart at Albertson's full of, you know, a

discount beer. I don't.

I mean, it's just not what you want to see as an example to the

flock. So leaders are called to a

standard that is different than how how you guys enjoy the

liberty because there's no prohibition against alcohol.

There's absolutely a prohibition against drunkenness.

Don't go near the line and leaders even farther from the

line. I think we also have to be

respectful and mindful of how we gather in consideration to where

people are at with their struggle with all sorts of

things. Think that's one of the reasons

we want to dress modestly and we don't want to cause any undue

temptation as far as we can help it.

And the same reason is that we're not going to be a church

that has anything to do in our gathering with alcohol.

So you'll never come to church in the park and be like, hey,

this year we're just going to we going to have a couple kegs in

the park. Drink it if you can can don't

drink it. You know who you are.

Don't drink it. We aren't going to glorify

Christian liberty on social media and and hope that you know

only the people that have control over it can can can view

the post and comment and we're net and one of the examples is

we still don't use real wine for our communion.

That's just in replacement of real wine as to not cause any

confusion about the the gathering here is a place of the

Holy Spirit influence and not alcohol.

We use the grape juice substitute.

So the leaders be mindful of all of those things and don't go

near the line and then it says not violent but gentle.

First Timothy chapter 3 verse three.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

I've heard it said a pastor should feed the sheep, not beat

the sheep. And I think what Paul is getting

at is more of a metaphor than than a real life example.

Obviously no one should be violent, let alone leaders.

A theme of our study in First Timothy, if a, if a leader,

pastor, elder is violent with you, call security on them just

like you would anyone else and we will have them removed and

we'll call the cops. There's no, there's no violence

in leadership, but I think it's more than physical.

I think that often times what can happen is people in a place

of authority use that authority to get what they want no matter

what. And so preachers, teachers,

people in authority can guilt trip in a way that is

aggressive, and they can scripture trip in a way that is

aggressive. They can have a vision or a

mission that is so that is LED with such zeal from their heart

and even have an aim for God that is so passionate that

they're willing to have a path of destruction in the wake of

their leadership. And that is wrong.

No one should be a victim of good leadership The the church

is is supposed to be led the way that Christ embodied the love of

God and showed us the visible image of the invisible God.

He came as a Good Shepherd. He came as the the Psalm 23

here's green pastures Stillwater, I will comfort you.

I will guide you through the valley of the shadow of death,

and I will not harm you. And I think that it that Paul

says it clearly in the second letter to Timothy, when he says

a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all,

able to teach, patient and humility, correcting those who

are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them

repentance, so that they may know the truth.

Be gentle in the correction. And this is one of those areas

where listen as parents, but also understand this as people

who have ever overseen, if you've ever been a Bishop or an

overseer of children, you know that that you're doing them harm

if you're pushing them in a way that is so aggressive that even

if they get there, they're not going to listen to you anymore.

Sadly, there are so many kids that grow up with well intending

parents and they're like, as soon as I'm 18, I'm turn 18, I'm

never listening to you again because you were so aggressive,

you were so violent, you were so harsh with your words that even

if you had good advice, it didn't land anywhere near my

heart. And and often times that is a

picture of a domineering pastor or leaders.

So I think it's worth a double emphasis.

It says in James chapter 1. So that my beloved brethren, let

James 1 · chapter mention

every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of

God. If you, if someone is giving you

righteousness and an angry cup, it will not produce the fruit

that he thinks it will. And please pass from the drink.

And I, I, I, I will point out how James starts that

exportation. He says be quick to listen.

So leaders have to be able to teach and they also have to be

able to listen. It's not enough just to stand up

and talk and, and tell people to, to, to do what's said and

get out of the way. The leader should be quick to

listen, quick to understand the state of the people that they're

leading. Says #10 and verse 3, not

quarrelsome. It's been said it's possible to

win an argument and lose the soul.

And that is essentially one of the core issues that Paul was

dealing with. Some of these bad teachers were

coming in unsound doctrine, pointless discussions and it and

and and the the fruit of it was endless disputing just fighting

with each other all the time. So I Paul will say stop fighting

and start praying because leaders should not be people who

have to fight in order to get their way.

And Paul says the Timothy fight the good fight with his sound

doctrine and don't engage in endless disputes and a

quarrelsome or angry or always ready to fight leader is not a

wise leader. That's an insecure leader.

That's a leader who's actually worried that something that

you've pointed out is, is going to cause them to be somehow less

of a leader over you because and they're willing to die on every

single hill. So Paul says to Timothy, the,

the people you raise up make sure they're not one of the, the

quarreling, fighting men of your church.

And then it says, put them together, not greedy for money

or covetous. So they go together.

They're the same heart issue. A sadly, we, we already looked

at the headline of, of pastor sex scandal.

And what that does just demoralize a church and cause

the name of the Lord to be blasphemed in the Gentiles.

And same thing with the money scandal.

The the the pastor who is exposed as using the pulpit in

the place of influence, not only to be an overseer of the

congregation, but an overseer of the money purse.

And the vision is actually a a vision to grow so large that the

budget can actually sustain a lifestyle that God never

intended a pastor to live. So we don't have to look far to

look for the anti example, the television, the televangelist

pastor who's who's asking you to to sow the seeds of faith so

that they can get one more private jet to fly him from his

mansion to his next amazing crusade to his private villa

where he can do a respite and and retreat in his before his

next shopping spree. It's like that is just horrible.

We, we don't the the name of God is blasphemed when lovers of

money stand behind pulpits and use the congregation as a way to

raise cash. And so that informs a little bit

of our liturgy, the just liturgy, meaning the structure

of our gathering, why we do what we do.

And one of the things we don't do and some churches do it and,

and then this is definitely no condemnation for those who do,

but as a way to not ever give the false assumption that money

is more important than souls. We don't pass a basket.

I just too many times sat back, saw visitors, saw someone who is

coming to our church and the the basket comes.

They're like, I feel bad and they just start obligatory

giving because they know that that Christians love money in

their mind. And I just that's not why we're

here. We are not here to pressure

anyone to give and still probably my, you know, least

favorite, although I love everything that we do when we

gather, but when we have to do the four ways to give and you

know, you can send your check or you can listen.

We have 4 little boxes right over there.

God loves a cheerful giver. Give according to the grace and

the favor that God gives you in the way that you want to worship

him and praise him and, and by God's grace, we are a well

sustained church. So we, we have nothing to

complain about, which really points us to the other part of

this, which is that not only should a leader not be greedy

for the money, they shouldn't be a leader that has a heart of

coveting, meaning they, they look out and they see what they

don't have. And they're like, that's what I

want. And it can creep into a leader's

heart. You know, pastors talk and they

look around and you know, you're driving and you see the, the,

the latest, greatest stadium church and pastors in the

valley. It's like, well, I wish we had

a, a, a gymnasium with a playset inside.

And I wish we could do like satellite campuses and all of

the the bells and whistles of the modern church.

There's a temptation that Satan will use against the heart of a

pastor to say, don't you wish you had a different church?

Don't you wish your church gave more?

Don't you wish you had more money?

It's like, listen, one of the great secrets to life according

to Apostle Paul is the heart of contentment.

And and I want to be part of this church with you.

That's just content in everything we do.

When I look around and I think about the state of the world and

just underground churches and churches in Africa that meet

under a mango tree, I'm like, we must have one of the nicest

churches in the world. We have nothing but to complain

about. We should just be saying thank

you every Sunday. Like look what we have as a

church and the one of the best cures for a greedy heart and a

covetous heart is just generosity, just learning to to

bless others and to give it away.

So I know that if, if we lead, if elders and overseers lead

with generosity, then then we're sowing generosity, we'll reap

generosity. So if you want to give, give

according to the the abundance of your heart.

OK, so we've got, we've got his character, his conduct.

And now quickly, we look at his credibility, which is so

beautiful that. The, the Lord has, has given us

this measurement for how to raise up leaders.

And some of this is it isn't just guesswork.

It's like, listen, a good leader isn't just going to lead the

household of God. Well, he's going to lead his

house well. And, and a better measurement of

a leader is not the stage. It's actually how he's a servant

in his private life. It's his home.

And so it says in first Timothy chapter 3, verse four, look for

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

one who rules his house well, having his children in

submission with all reverence for if a man does not know how

to rule his own house, how we take care of the Church of God.

So Paul's saying, Timothy, you know, get a get a get a read on

how they're already living their life.

Are they someone that you can get a measurement of how are

they faithful and little so that we know they can be faithful and

much. And there's a couple of things.

One is, does he rule his household well?

And one of the qualifications that sometimes gets

overemphasized, but it shouldn't be under emphasized, is finding

a leader that is a good steward. And so sometimes in the modern

church, you'll find leaders who have had success in business or

they've gained a little bit of wealth and they've been generous

with it and, and they get qualified to be leaders.

And I think if that's the only emphasis or the only

qualification, that's not good. But if it's in line with this

person's done well with his household, and that's kind of

what Paul is getting at. According to ancient culture,

the household was not just husband, wife, nuclear family.

Many of these men had small estates with servants and

multiple family members. And they had an enterprise of

making money with clients and resources and, and, and that was

a big job to manage that well. And Paul says, how, how are they

doing with all of that household stewardship?

If they're doing well there household that is, is your

family can work well with a household that is your God and

that is God's. And so he, he goes on to say,

here's another fruit of that. And he he talks about the

children. He says having children in

submission with all reverence for if a man does not know how

to rule his house, how will he take care of the church.

And so now we see not only just this household stewardship, but

the fruit of his leadership actually is his little disciple

making factory that is his children and that that this is a

this is a part of the the word that is very helpful.

You don't have to take a guesswork.

Is the leader that is overseen? Is his family healthy?

Are they loving the Lord? Are they following his lead?

Or, which is all too common, has his family died at the altar of

his ministry? And we have to get that in order

and at least approach it. Look at it.

And I don't think this means, just like a blameless man

doesn't mean a perfect man, I don't think this means that his

children are perfect. I think this means that his

children are on a trajectory of God honoring discipleship.

And the two marks that Paul will give Timothy is do the children

submit? And do they have reverence?

Other words would say, do they trust and obey is is his

leadership over his household producing in his family children

that when he speaks, they listen and they're willing to go with

his lead. And I think this should give us

some answers for maybe another question that would come up.

It's some of you are listening to these qualities and

qualifications and you love the Lord and you're you're doing

well by this list and you think, but I've got this prodigal child

and I and what does that mean? What how does that reflect on

me? And, and I think big picture,

even using the term prodigal child points us to one of the

most amazing love stories in all of history, which is the

prodigal father Luke chapter 15. There is a son that essentially

Luke 15 · chapter mention

says to his father, you're dead to me, give me my estate.

He goes and he lives outside of the grace and the goodness of

the the will of God for his life.

And I think that if you're in that moment and you study that

story, you should be encouraged. Not necessarily that the fruit

of all of your parenting is going to turn into missionaries

and pastors and elders of churches, but there is a way to

be qualified just as you wait and just as you pray and just as

you love the child that isn't necessarily fully loving you

back. There is faithful parents that

do not have faithful children. And so I go back to those two

marks that Paul says. He says obedience and trust.

I think those are two good categories for me in my life

right now. If you were judging my children,

it would be less about trust and more about obedience.

My, my, my kids have to trust me.

I'm like, get in the car. We're going.

They're not like, I don't know, should I go with you?

They, they have to, they live with me.

But they can show you a measure of obedience.

Do they listen? Are they are they following my

lead? And so for for the leaders that

have younger kids, I would measure the obedience of your

children. For leaders that have older

children, I would measure the reverence and trust because

there comes a time when your children are no longer in good

health supposed to just obey you.

There comes a time when you have to commit them to the Lord.

You say I've done my best to disciple them.

Lord, I trust that everything I've implanted to them.

You have the grace to take care of the rest and, and if you're

over a certain age and you're still asking for your parents to

give you all of the, the yeses and Nos of life and you're just

going to obey them. You're probably not a great

version of what this is looking for, but you can always trust

your parents. Even if you're not coming to

church every Sunday, even if you're old enough to make your

own decisions, your parents can always have a role in your life.

Your dad can always be someone in your life that has your ear

and when he says something, you know he has your best interest

in mind because he loves you more than his own life.

And that is a great measure. If you have grown children, no

matter where they are in their participation of church, if you

have grown children that trust you in that way, that's a great

measure of a man. And then it says not a novice

less being puffed up with pride. You fall into the same

condemnation of the devil. Novice just means beginner.

ESV says not a recent convert, that the direction is very

clear. You give someone leadership too

early, they get saved at a crusade or on a Sunday morning

and they say, hey, I was rocketed in the world and now I

want to rocket in church. I'm a really skilled and gifted

person in this way. Put me to work.

If you put the the leadership mantle on them too quickly that

there's not a character that's built in them and that could

lead to pride. You see it all the time.

Someone just comes and they think they're going to be the

savior of the church rather than the church being their disciple.

And that's what Paul says, if you give leadership to a

beginner or an early convert, convert, you might be actually

sowing seeds of pride in their life.

So how early is too early? I would say there's no, there's

no, there's an unclear answer. Don't wait too long, don't go

too soon. It's always, a lot of times the

answer is medium. So medium here.

Don't just be patient and also be step out in faith to not

despise anyone's youth. And then finally it says that

they in verse 7. Moreover, he must have a good

testimony among those who are on the outside leaders.

You bear the name of Christ, we all do.

But leaders stand before the church, they open the word of

God and they speak with authority.

And that's why they are double judged because they have to not

only teach and they also have to be judged by the way they live

from the outsiders. Let no leader go out and

blasphemy the name of God to the outside world because one of

these qualifications is utterly overlooked when we lay hands on

him. So having a good reputation from

outsiders now we have very little time.

And so I want to just give 3 basic reasons why this is such

an important, important message to to to hold in your heart and

to have as the guide for sitting under the authority of an

overseer of a church. 1 You need to qualify and disqualify your

leaders. So many people talk about church

shopping and whether or not they like the facility or the kid

care. That's all fine.

One thing that has to be on your list is when you're getting

close to the oversight relationship to the church are

are you being led by men who exhibit these qualities in a God

honoring way? Not perfectly. 2 Not only a

measure of the leaders, but a measure of your leadership.

This message is not for a select few of men that are going to be

called into some oversight meetings of our church.

This message is for believers to know that there is a real way

that God is maturing you to reflect His character in

whatever capacity you have. One person who would look to you

for advice or wisdom or guidance or or answers on the word.

You should be looking at this and saying, am I representing

quality and qualification, bearing the name of God and

offering someone my leadership? And finally, what we're going to

do right now, One, you measure your leaders, 2.

You measure your leadership and three trustworthy church get

this one right and everything will fall in place.

This is all meant to magnify Christ.

This is meant to utterly humble leadership that is anyone but

Jesus. This is this is to save us from

any one of you saying you know, I really like this church

because that guy preaches or that guy sings.

Those are all fine. We want to serve you well, but

no one in any area of church history, church leadership, is

going to perfectly reflect the beauty of these qualifications

except one. This is all a way to once again

realize that God uses very flawed people who are willing to

submit themselves to being built up to serve others.

And it all points to the only one that will never, ever, ever

have a scandal other than the scandal of grace.

He will never, ever, ever, ever let you down.

There is no church leader that should ever be your ultimate

leader. And that is why every time we

gather in forming the liturgy, we sing His praises, we proclaim

His goodness. We put Him at the center of our

worship and the aim of our desires.

And at the very end of everything we ever do, we take

the body and the Blood in remembrance of Him.

If we forget Him, we're losing the whole plot.

The only trustworthy leader is Jesus.

We remember that we are all standing under the banner of His

grace as we pass out the communion to remember that He is

the leader that gave His life so that we could find ours.

When the Chief Shepherd appears, we'll be rewarded with the crown

of glory. Until then, we just keep looking

to Jesus and give each other grace.

Amen.