Sunday Sermon: Qualifications for Overseers (1 Timothy 3:1-7)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. I'll be reading from the

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English Standard Version, 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 -7. The Apostle Paul writing to his servant

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Timothy, hear the word of the Lord. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we consider this passage this morning, as we come to the close of one year and we're looking into the next, we consider these instructions that have been placed for the one who oversees the care of God's church.

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And these are instructions that certainly are immediately applicable to those persons that would be appointed to these positions, who are the overseers.

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But the elders, the pastors, the teachers that would be placed in that position of overseeing the teaching for a body, for the gathered assembly of the saints.

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But there is still even within these instructions, applications for all of us.

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For we see in the characteristics that an elder must exhibit. He sets an example for the entire body to follow.

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And so may there be in each and every one of us a desire that we should aspire to maturity in the faith.

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We follow the examples of those who have been placed over us, and we would desire to emulate their behavior.

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As a man who has been placed in that position to emulate Christ. So Lord, in honor of Christ our

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King, may we submit to your instructions that you would have for your body, the church.

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It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Amen. So last week we looked at the close, or sorry, this was two weeks ago now, since last week we had a

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Christmas message. But two weeks ago we looked at the close of chapter two, where Paul had an instruction for women in the church.

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And in those instructions for women, Paul said, let a woman learn quietly with all submission.

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I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet.

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And Paul grounded this in the very created order, going back to the law, back to the book of Genesis.

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For Adam was formed first, and then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

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So because of the created order, the way in which God had established all things from the beginning, because Adam was formed first, and because Eve was the first one deceived, she is not permitted to be the one to hold the office of overseer, to pastor, or to lead the teaching in the church.

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Now as we had considered a couple of weeks ago, there is a role for women to teach in the church. We'll come back to that again when we get into Titus chapter two.

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For as the instructions are there for a older woman to teach a younger woman. So there is a teaching role that women are to have, but not to lead in that position of preaching and teaching in the church.

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That is a designation that God has given specifically for a man to fill. Now when we had considered these things a couple of weeks ago,

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I said that of those churches that ordain women as pastors or put a woman in the position of pastor, this was actually a very telling sin.

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And I said that this was telling in a couple of ways that I said I would get into later. Well, when I went back and reviewed the sermon,

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I actually never told you in what ways this is a telling sin. So let me come back to that, refreshing our memory as we come into these instructions that God has for the overseers of the church.

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A few years ago, a doctrinal student at a Baptist seminary said to me, some churches won't have women as pastors and some will.

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And frankly, I don't care. This was a doctrinal student at a

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Baptist seminary. And that's a big problem because many people don't care, like this is no big deal.

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But appointing women pastors or putting women to serve in the function of a pastor is a big deal.

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First of all, it is a sin against God. It is disobeying a clear command from Christ through his apostle to his church, and it is rebelling against the order that God has established for men and women from the beginning of creation.

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Eve listened to Satan rather than God, and Adam listened to his wife rather than God.

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And this led to the fall. There is simply no question that putting women in teaching positions over men in the church is motivated by the flesh, not by the

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Spirit of God. Second, to put a woman in the position of pastor is a sin against women.

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It is spiritual abuse to let a woman believe she can pastor or preach when the

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Bible says that she cannot. It is not abusive, nor is it oppressive to tell women not to preach but to fulfill the role that God has given to women in the church.

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A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised, Proverbs 31 30, and she will delight to obey his word.

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Third, as I said earlier, women pastoring is also a very telling sin.

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It tells us where a church currently stands and where it is headed if it does not repent.

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Paul said that this letter is about how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

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God, a pillar and buttress of the truth, 1 Timothy 3 15. After further instructions, he will then come to say in 1

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Timothy 6 2 to 4, teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

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Can you name one church or denomination that has accepted the ordination of women as pastors and flourished in doctrinal faithfulness?

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Consider the trajectory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the ELCA. They began ordaining women in 1970.

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Then 40 years later in 2010, the ELCA decided to ordain practicing homosexuals in sodomite and lesbian relationships to the ministry.

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Then in 2021, as reported May 9th of that year by the

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Religion News Service, the ELCA appointed as bishop the

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Reverend Megan Rohr, a man who claimed to be a woman. In five decades, that denomination went from the ordination of women to the ordination of men committing sexual acts with men to the ordination of a man who thinks he's a woman.

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Not even Sodom and Gomorrah were that blasphemous. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is the flagship institution of the

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Southern Baptist Convention, is a solid seminary. It began at First Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina before moving to Louisville, Kentucky, which is its current location.

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According to that church's website, First Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, they hired, ordained women to staff in 1989 and began ordaining women in 1991.

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They disaffiliated themselves from the Southern Baptist Convention in 1999. Fifteen years later, in 2014, they issued a statement allowing for the ordination of anyone identifying as LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

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So in less than 25 years, a historic Baptist church went from ordaining women to ordaining

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Sodomites, lesbians, and transvestites. When a church looks at what

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God has said about the distinctive roles between men and women and says, frankly,

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I don't care, that church falls. And great will be the fall of it.

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I remind you of a quote that I gave you two weeks ago from Charles Spurgeon. The pulpit is the thermopoly of Christendom.

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There, the fight will be won or lost. Who stands in the pulpit and what is preached from the pulpit are of critical importance to the life and the vitality of that church body.

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As goes the pulpit, so goes the church. And that's why

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I find it incredibly providential that we are concluding the year coming to read the qualifications for an overseer of the church.

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It is this very year that this very church appointed a new pastor. And what are we looking toward as we head into 2024, considering the preaching and the teaching of this church and where it is headed?

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So we come to this passage considering the qualifications for overseers of the church.

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Now that's very simply the title of this sermon. You can see it right there, requirements for overseers.

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I'm going to add a subtitle. So we understand the requirements for overseers, and here's the subtitle, that we should desire to see in our elders and in ourselves in the care for God's church.

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These requirements for overseers, we should desire to see in our elders and in ourselves in the care for God's church.

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Now our outline of the passage today lays out like this. Number one,

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Paul gives a noble task, or he mentions the desire for the position of overseer to be a noble task.

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That's just very simply the statement that he makes in verse one. And then after that, we have four musts.

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There are four musts in this passage. So number two, he must be above reproach, that's verses two through three.

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Number three, he must manage his household, that's verses four through five. Number four, he must not be a recent convert, that's in verse six.

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And then number five, he must be well thought of by outsiders, verse seven.

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So there's your outline for this particular passage. Let's come back to number one, where Paul says in chapter three, verse one, the saying is trustworthy.

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

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So this is a saying. And as we had considered previously with some of these sayings that Paul lays out in these pastoral letters in 1 and 2

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Timothy and Titus, these were like creedal statements that the church had affixed themselves to.

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Just like we read from our confession of faith together as a congregation this morning. So there were certain creeds and confessions that the church even in the first century, even during the time of the apostles, they had settled upon and recited as matters of faith and practice in the church.

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And so this is a saying, this would have been one of their creedal confessions as the church in Ephesus where Timothy was a pastor.

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Paul says the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires, in other words, has ambition for, desires this position, would work toward it, would want to hold the office of overseer, then he desires a noble task.

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Now, notice that Paul designates this as an office. But as I had quoted to you a couple of weeks ago from Albert Moeller, the office is the function and the function is the office.

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So to be a pastor is not only an office, but it's a function. It is leading in the preaching and teaching of the church.

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It is also shepherding the church as we considered this morning with the reading that Chris gave from 1

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Peter 5, verses 1 through 5. Now, this word overseer in the

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Greek is episkopos. You might notice that word as being the root word for words like Episcopalian.

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And in fact, that particular denomination is not just a word that is chosen for that denomination, but it's even a word that applies to a certain polity of the church or a certain politic of the church, an

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Episcopalian sort of a structure for the church. Episkopos is an overseer, an elder, a pastor, a bishop.

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All of those words are synonymous with overseer. So when we're talking about the word overseer, you don't often see the word pastor come up, depending on the translation that you use.

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That's a word that is more a modern application to the word overseer.

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It's not foreign to Scripture because where the Apostle Peter, as we read this morning, says to the elders or the overseers of the church, to shepherd the flock of God that is among you.

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That very word shepherd means pastor. The word pastor we get from shepherd.

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So a pastor shepherds the flock of God. All of that being synonymous with that word overseer.

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Every once in a while, I'll run into somebody that says, well, pastor is not really a genuine office. You don't even find that word in the

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New Testament. You will, depending on the translation that you read. But some will try to say that pastor is a made -up office, that you don't actually find any qualifications for it in Scripture, and that's simply not the case.

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It may be a word that we use with greater regularity in our present day, but it is a word that is nonetheless synonymous with overseer.

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Now, I believe that in addition to a position of overseer that a church should have, I think that that position should also be plural, in the sense that there would be a plurality of overseers or elders in the church.

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Now, we'll consider this further when we get to Titus, because it's there where Paul is instructing

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Titus to appoint elders in every church there in the island of Crete, that we see that application more applied in the sense of plural.

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Here, we're just looking at a single overseer and what his qualifications must be in filling that office in the church.

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So, the saying is trustworthy. Again, you have this creedal confession that someone aspires to the office of overseer and he aspires a noble task.

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And by the way, that word noble is synonymous with beautiful. He desires a beautiful thing.

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He desires something that is praiseworthy and notable.

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Now, the most common passages that we will come to, when we look at what the qualifications of a pastor must be, this is the first one, 1

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Timothy 3, 1 through 7. The second most common is in Titus 1, verses 5 through 9.

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And later on in 2024, God willing, we'll come to that passage as well. But there are other relevant texts that tell us about pastors and overseers.

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And I want us to go to some of them. If you have your Bible open, let's go ahead and look at them together. First, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 to 16.

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Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 to 16. This is a very meaningful passage for me and I'll explain to you why here in just a moment.

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So, let's look at Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 11. Ephesians 4, 11 says that he, meaning

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God, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, that's the word synonymous with pastor, and the teachers, verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

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Now, let me stop there for just a moment. So, notice that we have these various offices that have been given, apostles and prophets.

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Now, as I had said to you at the beginning of our study of 1 Timothy, the office of apostle is closed.

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Thanks for applying, but we don't need any more. The apostles that Christ appointed are the apostles that laid the foundation of the church.

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That's explained in the book of Ephesians, that's talked about in other passages as well, that the apostles are the foundation of the church.

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Those are the apostles that Christ had appointed. Paul said in 1 Timothy 15, 8, that he was the last apostle appointed.

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So, there would be no other apostles appointed after him. When John died at the end of the first century, that was the end of the apostolic ministry, at least in the lifetime of the apostles.

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We still submit to the authority of the apostles. Every time we open the New Testament, we're submitting to their authority.

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And so, as it's laid down here in Ephesians 4, 11, that he gave the apostles and the prophets, those

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New Testament prophets that complemented the apostles' ministry, those are offices that are no longer being filled in the sense that no new people are being applied to those offices.

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But these next offices, we are still finding people for.

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Evangelists, which would be synonymous with missionary, and the shepherds, which would be synonymous with the pastor or overseer, and the teachers, which may include an overseer, but any other teachers that would be in the church as well.

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God gave these persons. So, notice that, I know this is kind of self -serving for me to say this, but God gave you your pastor.

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He is appointed to this position for a particular task. Now, church is not a spectator sport.

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So, you don't come to church to sit there and watch me do something. You didn't hire me to handle all of the administrative purposes of the church, and now, hey, we've got a guy now running the church, there's nothing for me to do.

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Because notice that the position of the overseer is to do what?

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Verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

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So, in other words, your pastor has been put here to tell you what to do. Again, that might be self -serving to say, but I'm just telling you what the passage says.

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So, it's to equip the saints. Every one of us has a role in the household of God.

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We all have a role of ministry to fill to a certain degree. It's not just your pastors, it's not just the deacons.

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We'll consider the qualifications for the deacons next week. But these roles have been designated to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for building up the body of Christ.

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Going on to verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the

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Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

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So do you catch there, the pastor or the overseer may lead the course, but every single person in the church has the responsibility of growing up and growing each other up in love so that we may all hold fast to Christ.

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Now, as I said, this is a particularly meaningful passage to me in this way.

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It was over 10 years ago that the senior pastor who hired me to be an associate pastor under him, very suddenly had told me that he was planning to resign.

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And it was less than two months after he told me that, that he left that position and went to go plant a church in another state.

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The church was already ready to make me the next pastor. And I didn't know that I was ready for that yet.

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I didn't know that that's what I was supposed to do, was just to jump right into his position and now take over that role in leading the church.

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And I was sitting in my office, and I was praying and asking God, what am

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I supposed to do? How do I do this? What even is my next step?

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What am I supposed to do next? The pastor that had just left had been preaching through Ephesians, and he ended at the end of chapter 3.

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Got through half the book, left to go plant a church, and now he left me to finish up the rest of the book.

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And so as I'm praying these things to God, I'm looking down at the passage that I'm going to be preaching that next week, and I see in Ephesians 4, 11, and 12, that God gave apostles and prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ.

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And I'm sitting there, and I'm looking at that, and I'm going, that's what I'm supposed to do.

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And every single one of us has an obligation, as we've seen here in this particular passage, for building one another up in love, building each other into Christ.

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So this passage is another one of those passages that we can come to, to see qualifications for overseers.

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Let's look at another one. Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. So turning to the right a little bit further, not too much further.

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If you get to 2 Thessalonians, you went too far. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and right after Paul tells the church about the coming day of the

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Lord in verses 1 through 11, we get to these instructions in verse 12.

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So this is 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 12. He says to the church there in Thessalonica, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

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Lord. So what are we talking about? Talk about overseers, right? The overseers in the church, those who have been appointed to this position to work among you, who are over you in the

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Lord, and admonish you, which means to correct with goodwill. Verse 13, esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

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Be at peace among yourselves. Now, let me add into this verse 14. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

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So with regards to verses 12 and 13, you have instructions given to the body and to how they submit to the person who is over them to admonish them in the

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Lord and raise them up in the word. And then notice in verse 14, really, that work of shepherding that's given to the overseers is now even handed to members of the body.

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You also have a certain responsibility among one another in verse 14 to admonish the idle.

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Just as it was said earlier that the overseer admonishes you, so you must admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, helping the weak, and being patient with them all.

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So you see, a certain responsibility that a pastor has in shepherding appears to be handed to everybody in the body, that we would look out for one another.

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Sometimes you may identify a need with your brother and sister in the Lord that one of us elders does not immediately spot.

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And what a blessing that we can be to one another in helping to build each other up in Christ.

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Let's look at another one. This is in Hebrews 13, verses 7 and 17.

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So look over at Hebrews. Hebrews 13, verses 7 and 17.

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Paul says the following. Well, Paul, the preacher, wherever you stand on who the author of Hebrews is.

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Hebrews 13, 7, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

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Look down at verse 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

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So there are other passages that we can go to regarding qualifications, the roles of overseer, and even the church's responsibility in regards to their relationship with the overseer.

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Let's come back to 1 Timothy 3. Now, there's one other passage that we didn't look at together, but I can quote it for you from 2

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Timothy 2. There's another one there where Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 .24 that the Lord's servant, and when he refers to the

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Lord's servant, as he's giving instructions to Timothy, he's talking specifically about the overseer or the elder in the church.

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The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness.

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God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

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So we have qualifications there even regarding an overseer and the work that he does, some characteristics that he should be exhibiting in his office.

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And that's what we come to next in the verses that follow in 1 Timothy 3.

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So we have, first of all, that trustworthy saying that if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

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And then what we have next are those four musts. So he must be above reproach, he must manage his household well, he must not be a recent convert, and he must be well thought of by outsiders.

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Let's look at that first one in verses 2 through 3. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

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And all of the rest of the instructions that follow, or rather the qualifications that are given here in verses 2 and 3, these things flow out of that first qualification that he must be above reproach.

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So what does it mean that he must be above reproach? What is reproach? Reproach is blame.

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So he must be above blame. And above blame in the sense that not that he's done something wrong, but he's able to hide it, and so, therefore, he's above blame.

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But rather that if somebody is going to bring an accusation against this man, it won't stick.

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Not just because he's able to prove or provide some sort of an alibi, I didn't do this and here's why, but because he has developed such a reputation that when somebody says something about that man, everybody who knows him is able to go,

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I don't think so. I doubt it. And I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because I know this man's character and what you are saying of him,

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I just don't think can be true. Now, that doesn't mean you don't test a man against such accusations.

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Certain things do need to be taken very seriously. But nonetheless, this man has such a reputation that he is above blame or above board might be another way that we say it.

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He is able to stand before a body and represent a mature man of God.

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And when you look at the elder, not just talking about the pastor that stands in the pulpit, but any of these men that would be qualified for this position, including

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Chris or Alan or anyone else that might be appointed to the position of overseer, this is a person who is worthy of imitation.

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I see a man of God and somebody whom I would want to emulate and pattern myself after knowing that I would grow in my maturity in Christ by following after them.

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Just like the instruction we saw in Hebrews 13, 7, and 17, imitate their faith.

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And so that should be the quality that we see in an overseer as well. He is above reproach.

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He is the husband of one wife, sober -minded, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.

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So coming back to each one of those one by one, he is the husband of one wife.

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It literally translates as he must be a one -woman man.

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So this is a man who is married to one woman and he has no other women. Not just any other wives, but he's not being flirtatious on the side.

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He doesn't have a mistress in some other place. This is a man who is devoted to one wife.

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And what is the picture that this one -woman man demonstrates by that commitment to his wife?

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Of course, he is obedient to the word. He demonstrates what God intended marriage to be from the very beginning, a man and his wife, and the two become one flesh.

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What God has joined together, let no man separate, as Jesus said in Matthew 19. Certainly, he is in obedience to all of those instructions.

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He even gives a picture of what a godly marriage is supposed to be. But even more than this, a pastor who is a one -woman man demonstrates a

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Christ who is married to his church and there is no other bride, but Christ and his church.

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So a pastor who is married to his wife, who loves his wife and cares for her, follows those instructions like we would see in Ephesians chapter 5.

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He lays his life down for his wife as Christ did for the church. He images

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Christ in the way that he loves his bride. And it's very interesting that right after we have that full instruction of he must be above reproach, what's the very next qualification he must have?

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He's the husband of one wife. Not he must be a great teacher.

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That's not the next one. It's that he's the husband of one wife.

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He's a one -woman man. And then we have these other qualifications that follow, must be sober -minded.

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Meaning that he doesn't let himself be taken by every wild and fanciful teaching that is out there.

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He's sensible. He's focused on God's word. And his mind has been trained by this word.

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So that you're not hearing what comes off the top of this guy's head or what crazy opinion he's following this week.

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He's going to tell you what God's word says. He's sober -minded. He is self -controlled.

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He doesn't let passions of his flesh rule him or get pulled in every which direction by those things that he might desire apart from God.

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He is a self -controlled man. As the apostle Paul shares with Timothy in...well,

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he shares with the Corinthians, I beat my body and I discipline it, lest I be found to be unqualified.

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So this is a man who is disciplined in his behavior, in his appetites.

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He's sober -minded in his mind. He's self -controlled in his body.

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He is respectable. In other words, he behaves in such a way that is worthy of respect.

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It's not just saying here that you have to respect your pastor. You have to respect the overseer.

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Paul presents this in a way as he exhibits behavior that is worthy of respect. So it's not that the position is inherently worthy of respect, but he is even a respectable person, conducts himself in a way that you would want to show respect to him.

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He is also hospitable, it says. Hospitable, meaning that he is willing to share, be generous with that which the

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Lord has given to him. And this has been very important for me as a pastor, that I would even manage my home in such a way that I'm ready and willing to welcome anybody into my home.

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We can sit at my table and have a chat, or I'm ready to have my living room open to a small group, which we're going to talk about coming up in this next semester, with the meeting that's on Wednesday, in case you missed that from Chris.

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So being able to welcome people into my home, you can see how I live. You can see the way that I love my wife and love my kids.

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You can see that I don't squander the money that I have on crazy, frivolous things.

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You're able to see a person whom God has blessed, and I want to use what

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God has blessed me with to bless you with it. That must be one of the qualifications of a pastor.

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Now of all the things that we list here, and we're going to go on to read, he must not be drunk, he must not be violent but gentle, he must not be quarrelsome, he must not be a lover of money.

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Of all the things that we have listed here, right in the middle, we have the one skill that a pastor must have.

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And what is that skill? He must be able to teach.

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In other words, he must know how to handle God's word well. As Paul would instruct

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Timothy, be able to rightly divide the word of truth. And that's what a pastor must be able to do.

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Not just telling you or explaining to you the passage, but even how it applies. How you are to live according to these things.

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As Alan had said this morning in Sunday school, he was talking about contentment, and he said,

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I know what God wants you to have. It's kind of quiet, there were a few chuckles because I think some people knew where Alan was going with this.

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Then he said, what God wants you to have is what you currently have. And that reminded me of advice that I got from a pastor years ago.

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The best counsel that you need and you can give is often the simplest counsel in the world.

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It's the stuff that we know we need to do and maybe we just don't want to hear it, right?

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But a pastor must be able to handle God's word in such a way that he can give that counsel when that counsel is needed.

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And he's not afraid to say those hard things, even if the other person doesn't want to hear it.

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Must be able to teach is even beyond what he can do in a pulpit. He might be a great public speaker, but can he sit down with you one -on -one and listen to your hurts, trials, concerns, whatever else it might be regarding your future and be able to speak into your life the word of God, here's what

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God's word says and how it should apply to your current circumstance. That is also an ability that a pastor, a shepherd of the flock of God must have.

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He must be able to teach. I've heard a lot of great orators, a lot of great men that can stand in the pulpit and deliver a good speech, but they are terrible in the application.

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They might sound good. I've got a good radio voice, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm a good teacher.

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Can a person teach someone God's word in a way that their lives are being shaped and morphed by it?

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And that is a responsibility that a pastor has, pouring God's word into God's people.

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And notice again, as I said, that sits right in the middle of these qualifications under he must be above reproach, because then we go on from there in verse three, he must not be a drunkard or not be intoxicated, given over to things that control his mind and dull his wits.

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He must not be violent, but gentle. I think that's pretty self -explanatory. He must not be quarrelsome.

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He must not be the kind of guy that just loves to be combative, loves to get down with people and stir up trouble.

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And I've known pastors that like to do that. You don't have to go very far to find them. You can find them all over social media.

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They love to quarrel, and it seems like they're not alive unless they're stirring up drama with somebody.

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But this must not be the nature of a pastor. Rather, a pastor, if I could add the contrast to this, instead of quarrelsome, he must be a peacekeeper.

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So consider in the Beatitudes, blessed are the peacekeepers, the peacemakers.

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And so that must be even the quality of a pastor. And he must not be a lover of money.

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And we're going to come back to this one again in 1 Timothy chapter six, because Paul will give a couple more instructions there regarding money at the end of the chapter.

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I said to you at the beginning of our study in 1 Timothy, when you hear that verse, that popular verse from 1

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Timothy 6 .10, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. The context to that specifically, and we'll see it when we get there, but the context to that is regarding false teachers.

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Because if a false teacher loves money, he's willing to twist the word of God in order to get money.

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And so if this pastor is a lover of money, then he would be willing to compromise the word for personal gain.

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So we must not be a lover of those things that are of the world.

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Rather, verse four, this is where we have the next must. So in verses four through five, he must manage his own household well.

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And these, under this must, verses four and five have to do with how he domestically handles his own house.

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

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For if one does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? So Paul gives the instructions of what he must be able to do, and then says, if he can't do this, here's the problem.

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If he cannot manage his own household, how does he care for God's church? In the instructions that we read in Titus chapter one, we see this way that he, in verse, this is

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Titus 1 .6, if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

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So you could say of this pastor's children that they're disciplined. And you can tell because his kids behave that he must discipline his kids.

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And I've been in situations before where a pastor had let one of his children become unruly, usually a teenager, and because that child was in such rebellion, and it was even known in the community and people, among people outside the church, how this

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PK, preacher's kid, was behaving, that we had to confront this pastor and say, you need to resign.

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It doesn't have to be permanent, it can be for a time, but you have to get your household in order.

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Because if you can't care for your own household, how do you care for God's church? My friends, the

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Lord could bless me with a huge congregation. Let's say that this church is blessed to people just start pouring in.

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We can't hold the number of people anymore in these walls, we gotta build another building. We build a building, we become a megachurch in Casa Grande, Casa Grand, sorry

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Chris. We become a megachurch here. The blessings are clear, people from the outside looking in, look at how

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God is blessing that church. But if in my home over the course of that entire process

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I've neglected my wife and my children, I've gained the whole world and lost my soul.

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My first ministry is to my wife and to my children. And if I'm not fulfilling that ministry, then it will not be to my benefit, no matter how

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God does reward or bless this church with growth. And God help me, if such a day would ever come, that I would neglect my own family to see more people fawn over me.

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If he cannot manage his own household, he cannot care for God's church. That's leading us up to when we get to verses 15 and 16, that we know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

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God, a pillar and a buttress of the truth. The pastor must exhibit that call for the entire church by even demonstrating how he cares for his own household.

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The next must we have in verse six, he must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

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Don't appoint a young man to that position too early. Now I've been in a position before,

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I don't think that I was appointed to a position of pastor too early, but I've been in roles before, younger in my life.

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I was appointed to a position where a lot of people were looking at me, I had a lot of notoriety, or I did have some sort of leadership position,

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I was given it too young. And I look back on those situations, I see how foolish it was, how foolish

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I was, and how poorly that I handled those particular situations. And I'm glad that the

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Lord disciplined me through that because then preparing me to be a pastor and be much more humble in that particular role.

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But you get a guy that's too young and he becomes puffed up. And you gotta be careful that a guy who's a great orator or even a guy that knows a lot, like maybe he can spout off all the reformed quotes from all the reformed teachers and the

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Puritans and church fathers and stuff like that, and you're hearing it from this guy, man, he is a man of God, listen to how many reformers he can quote.

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But can he take all that knowledge and apply it? You take somebody that's filled up with that much knowledge, remember what

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Paul said to the Corinthians, that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. You have somebody that's full of that kind of knowledge, but he has not rightly tempered it.

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He has not rightly figured out how to apply it. Wisdom is what we call that. Then you have a man that you're appointing to a position that he's not yet ready for, and he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

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Then you have this young man that may have made a great preacher, but now he's made shipwreck of his faith and he's no longer above reproach, and he can't fulfill that role.

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He's no longer qualified for that role that he may have been able to do well had you just waited, had you been patient with that man and continued to grow him for that particular role, that task.

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So we must not be a recent convert. Lastly, number five and the fourth must we have in verse seven, moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into a snare of the devil.

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Again, you have that condemnation of the devil in verse six, a snare of the devil that's mentioned in verse seven.

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And this is somewhat a bookend from the way that these instructions began. The first must in verse two was that he must be above reproach.

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Verse seven, he must be well thought of by outsiders. You see how those two go together? So even outsiders who are not

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Christians, who are on the outside looking in at this strange group of people that praise

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God and they believe in this carpenter who was crucified and rose again from the dead, what is this all about?

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When they see the man that is leading that group, what do they see in that man? Do they see a man who's puffed up, quarrelsome, likes to fight with people?

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Maybe he loves his church, but oh, he's going to fight with everybody else. What kind of appeal is that going to have to those who are outsiders?

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So even among outsiders, he must have a good reputation. Now we know that the world is going to mock us.

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And Jesus said to his own disciples, when the world hates you, they hated me first. Peter says, because Christ was hated, we're going to be hated.

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So of course, we're expecting that. Of course, we know that's going to take place. But nonetheless, we still should exhibit ourselves in such a way that is respectable and honorable among those people that are outside the church.

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And the pastor, especially, must be leading in that kind of example. In Colossians 4, verse 5, we read, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

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Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

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And in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5, Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

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A city on a hill cannot be hidden. No one takes a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but puts it on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house.

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So let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and give glory to your

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Father who is in heaven. A pastor can't just hide in his office all the time.

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He actually must have some interaction with unbelievers and outsiders within the community so that they may see his light, the light of Christ that shines in his heart, and they may come to know the one who saves, the one who gave his life, who rose again from the dead, who ascended into heaven, who is seated at the right hand of God, who is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

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This pastor, this overseer believes in this Christ so much that it has changed and transformed his entire life.

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And just as Jesus came to those who hated him, so a pastor, an overseer must be willing to go to a world that hates him and stand even in the face of danger, of ridicule, of being ostracized by that world and say to them, the wrath of God is coming.

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Flee from the judgment that is to come. Turn to Christ and you will be saved.

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And so as we have considered these instructions for overseers, the saying that is trustworthy and deserving of acceptance that a person who desires, a man who desires this office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

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Number two, he must be above reproach. Number three, he must manage his own household well.

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Number four, he must not be a recent convert, but somebody who is mature, who has been tested and shows himself worthy.

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And then number five, he must even be thought of well by outsiders, having a good reputation and demonstrating that for the church that he represents.

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Several years ago, I had attended a conference in which Mark Dever was one of the speakers. And Mark Dever went through these qualifications for an overseer.

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He just read straight through them. And he got done with reading them and he just said to the gathering, which was mostly pastors, but he said, can we all just stop and admit that this list is really not anything all that spectacular?

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And what he meant by that was any single person should want to aspire to these things.

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The pastor just shows himself as one who is mature in this, who has been doing this for a long time, who has been shaped by God's word and desires to teach

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God's word. And the things that he teaches, you can see it exhibited in his life.

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That's simply what we summarize these things and understand these things as when we read the qualifications for an overseer.

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But just as I've gone through this list and we've seen how this applies to the overseer,

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I hope that as we've been doing this, you also see how it applies to you, that you would also aspire to these things.

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You want to have a good reputation among outsiders. You want to have a household that exhibits

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Christ is here. You want to show in your life,

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I was once a sinner and I've been transformed by Christ and people can see that you live in a way that is unlike the way the rest of the world is living.

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And just as the pastor must exhibit that, so we must all be willing to demonstrate holy and godly character, reflecting the

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Christ whom we serve. So once again, as we have considered the title of the sermon today, that this is requirements for overseers.

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But they are requirements that we should desire to see in our elders and even in ourselves, in the care for God's church and the representation of Christ to this world.

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Jesus gave himself for us, that we would be redeemed from all lawlessness, purifying for himself a people who are zealous for good works,

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Titus 2 .14. And we remember that as we come to this table today. And strongly grew in my place the dead, sealed my garden, spotless man of God was he.

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No atonement caused me to die, in his exalted heart, all his ransomed home to bring.

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Then a song we'll sing, alleluia, what a

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Savior. This is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend. And join us again Monday for more

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Bible study, when we understand the text. Thank you.