Titus Chapter 1:5-9

Faith Bible Church

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October 3, 2024

Titus Chapter 2:1-5

00:00: Just wait a little bit. All right, we're live. Good evening from Sacramento.
00:07: We will be continuing our study in Titus. Thank you all for coming.
00:15: For those of you who made it in person. Even though it's really, really hot in October.
00:26: It's Yeah. So let's I'll pray for us and then we'll get started.
00:34: It's going to be Titus chapter one, verse five, and we'll get through nine, because we're going to go through qualifications for elders.
00:45: Let me pray for us. And then we will start. Father, we're grateful that you always provide for us in every way.
00:55: Thank you that you love us. Thank you that Jesus takes care of us. Thank you that Jesus shed his blood for this church.
01:03: Thank you that because of him, we're alive. And we pray that you would help us to be faithful to Jesus until the very end.
01:11: In Jesus name. Amen. All right, let's all turn to Titus.
01:21: Titus chapter one. Titus chapter one, because it's an epistle, we get to go slower.
01:40: Wayne's here online. Wayne says, Hi, folks, Wayne here. I'm glad everyone's saying hi to Wayne.
01:53: So Titus chapter one. So we'll get
01:59: I think we'll get through five through nine. Now, who can read verse five?
02:12: Go ahead, Jim. All right.
02:25: So here, what is Paul's occasion for writing this letter to Titus according to verse five?
02:38: That's right. He wanted Titus to appoint elders in Crete, right?
02:47: Every city in Crete, right? So let me do some geography background for Crete.
02:57: I know I wish Cassandra were here because she's actually lived in Crete.
03:04: Crete is actually Crete is a it's an island.
03:12: It's a Mediterranean island. Yeah. And it is right.
03:19: It's near Greece. And it is actually composed of many cities.
03:28: In fact, if you read like commentaries on Crete, people actually say that Crete was known for having many cities, many towns.
03:46: Right. It's about 3 ,219 square miles.
03:53: It's mountainous, which means there are mountains in the middle, which makes traveling much, much harder.
04:03: There are multiple number of cities. We wouldn't know how many back then specifically, but it's it's well known for having multiple cities.
04:18: It was a well -developed city in the Mediterranean. Paul passed by Crete in Acts 27.
04:28: Yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's the island right there. Diane's showing me a picture of it. Yeah.
04:35: And by the second century B .C., it is.
04:42: I mean, it's it's well developed well before second century B .C., but the coastlines had many towns.
04:57: And the point, the occasion that Paul is writing to Crete is so that he would appoint what?
05:04: Elders. Elders, right. Elders in every town. So there are actually numerous towns.
05:10: So this is not just one local church that Titus is dealing with. He is dealing with multiple towns along the coastlines of Crete.
05:20: Right. Let's talk about elders. Some translations might have overseers.
05:27: Does anyone have that? Mine has elders, actually. Yours is elders, too.
05:35: OK, I guess. What is it? OK, we all have elders.
05:40: Some translations might have overseers. Some have elders. What are elders?
05:48: How would you describe them? They kind of run the church or something.
05:59: There's Dexter. Dexter, here's some bread. It's a bit dense, but it has rye and flour and raisins.
06:10: Church. Jorge says church spiritual leaders. Right. That makes sense.
06:16: Right. Elders are church based. We just read Titus 1 .5.
06:22: We just got started. Yeah. They're church spiritual leaders. They are to lead the church, shepherd the church.
06:32: Another way of calling them would be shepherds, not like literal shepherds because they're not literal sheep in the church, but shepherding the church.
06:45: They're tasked with correcting the church. Right. They serve the church.
06:53: So that's what the elders are. Now, you might have heard of bishops.
07:00: Has anyone heard of bishops? Right. That's not just the chess piece. Right. Bishops, there are two words really used for elder in the office of elders.
07:17: So there's elder presbyteros, which is that's where we get the word presbyterian.
07:24: Presbyter. And then there's episkopos. That's where we get the word episkopalian. Episkopos means bishop.
07:35: Presbyteros means elder. They're used interchangeably. What do
07:41: I mean? In Titus 1 .7, I'm going to just jump there. Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, the traditional word for it is bishop.
07:51: So it would not make sense for Paul to suddenly jump to a different office unannounced in the section that he talks about elders.
08:01: Because of that, I believe that there are there's there's no distinction between elders and bishops.
08:07: They're talking about the same office, same same leaders of the church.
08:17: And other places in which you can compare bishops is First Timothy 3 .2.
08:23: That's the parallel qualifications for elders. First Timothy 3 .2,
08:29: Acts 20 .28, and Titus 1 .7 here. So I believe overseers, elders, presbyters, those are all the same word.
08:43: Right. So I really don't think there needs to be a distinction there.
08:49: Our church, we have elders. Right. We have we have Harold and Victor.
08:56: I would consider the pastor to be elder, too. They have the same function.
09:02: Right. OK, now let's actually go over the qualifications of the elders.
09:10: And when we think about this, why do you think it's important for churches to have elders?
09:22: Maintain order. Maintain order. OK. What is it? Carry on the work.
09:29: Sure. Shepherd.
09:37: Yeah. Shepherd the flock. Right. Elders shepherd the flock. They do maintain order in a good way, not in a controlling, manipulative way.
09:47: Right. And then they do have specific tasks to do. And we're going to go over some of that now.
09:54: All right. Who can read verse six? Oh, yeah.
10:03: Either one of you is fine. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of this this dissipation or in subordination.
10:23: Yeah. All right. Jorge says ability to teach as elders are unique in a sense that they have to be able to teach.
10:33: That is a requirement for the elders, according to First Timothy three. And we'll also get to the doctrinal aspect of it in verse nine.
10:44: But let's talk about verse six. The qualification list for elders in Titus one is very similar to the qualification list in First Timothy three.
10:57: Now, the missing part is Paul doesn't warn Titus against appointing new believers as elders.
11:06: And this would be a speculation. Because Paul doesn't really say the speculation might be that the church in Crete is new.
11:19: The churches in Crete, they're new, which means all the elders that Titus would have to appoint are probably new believers compared to Timothy, which is written around the 60s as well.
11:37: Timothy was actually pastoring in Ephesus, and that's a big popular city.
11:45: Right. There probably were older saints who are not new believers.
11:51: And obviously, you don't really ideally you don't want you actually don't want new believers to be elders.
11:57: Right. But that's just the speculation. Why Paul wouldn't
12:03: Paul wouldn't mention that or how urgent the need might have been to get the elders going, because Crete was such a mess.
12:12: So that that's that's that might be one context, but we wouldn't know for sure.
12:19: Ideally, you want the elders to be mature believers who have shown to be faithful and are able to teach right above reproach.
12:28: Now, let's talk about these qualifications. Carolyn just read to us a couple.
12:36: So what are the qualifications from verse six? Uh huh. And children who believe.
12:45: Yeah. Faithful children. Okay. Faithful children. Right. So what do these elder qualifications focus on right from the beginning?
12:56: Family. Family. Yeah. The elders family, the order of the family.
13:03: Right. And his character. Yeah. Blameless.
13:09: Now, what does it mean to be blameless or some translation might have above reproach?
13:17: What does that mean? You can't say people can't accuse them of anything.
13:25: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People can't accuse them of anything. This does not mean perfection because there's then we wouldn't have any elders.
13:37: Right. This is not sinlessness. Yeah. Two other times this word is used other than other than in First Timothy three.
13:47: Right. Which is a parallel qualification verse chapter rather. First Corinthians one eight and Colossians one twenty two.
13:55: The word blameless or above reproach. Both of these churches were not perfect.
14:02: Both of these churches had flaws. Yet Paul tells them they need to be blameless in Christ.
14:11: Right. So obviously it cannot mean perfection or no church would have elders.
14:18: Yet he is a man of integrity. What does that mean? Integrity.
14:24: Honest, fair and good. Honest, fair and good. I like that. She had this. These answers ready to go.
14:31: All right. Honest, fair and good. Anyone else when you hear integrity. Be true to his word.
14:40: Good. I like that. The other definition is all this. Yeah. Well, yeah.
14:49: What you do when no one else is looking. Right. I think we have hit the spot.
14:54: Right. First, there's no public contempt or public accusation. Right.
15:00: This person is not known for a public sin.
15:09: Right. But right. Or sins in the closet.
15:15: No skeletons in this closet. Right. So he's not he's not only publicly pure as in there's nothing to accuse him of, but his inner life also.
15:29: Right. So his inner life and outer life show no contradictions. He is faithfully living the new life that he has graciously received from Christ.
15:41: Right. That was graciously given to him by Christ. That's that's what blameless means by no means perfection, but faithful in the gift of new life in Christ.
15:53: And that person is living in. So that's what it means. Blameless. Now, what does it mean by husband of one wife?
16:00: Why is that important? Because even
16:05: Jesus said he made one man and one woman together.
16:16: Sure. At the least. Right. It's that this guy is faithful to one woman.
16:24: Right. At the least. Right. What else?
16:29: Why do you think it's important that this husband had two wives? They could start fighting over him.
16:35: OK. Yeah. The household matters. The household of the believing elder matters.
16:44: Right. Were you going to say something, Carolyn? OK. What it also shows us is that how a man treats his wife, how a man shows his commitment to the
16:57: Lord. Matters to the Lord, because there's one
17:03: God. So, yeah, no. Go on. What were you going to say?
17:09: Well, I kind of. Right. Then think about this.
17:14: If a man is not actually committed to the one that he is covenantally married to, covenantally bonded.
17:23: How can you be sure that he would be committed to the bride of Christ?
17:31: Right. If he's not covenantally faithful, not to become all
17:36: Presbyterian here, if he's not covenantally faithful to the physical bride, his own physical bride, how can we be sure he's going to be faithful to the bride of Christ?
17:50: Right. After all, human marriage is supposed to reflect the relationship that Christ has with his church, the bride.
18:00: Ephesians 5. Yeah. What is it? Or even he might be not faithful to Christ, to God.
18:10: Sure. If he's not faithful. Right. To show that he can be faithful to the one wife, because there's one
18:18: God, one wife. Right. How he treats his wife will naturally translate to how he is committed to the church.
18:34: Does that make sense? Yeah. That is important. Now, I'm going to throw a curveball here.
18:42: Like, would a man who is not married be disqualified from being a shepherd of the church, overseer, elder?
18:52: Would a man, unmarried man, would an unmarried man be disqualified? Think about that, from being an elder.
19:13: Yeah. What do you think? Verse six starts with if.
19:18: Oh, is that right? Yes. Good.
19:24: Okay. Yeah. If it's conditional, right? Okay. I like that.
19:30: So, Dexter's argument is based upon grammar and, you know, grammar matters.
19:37: He's sticking with the text. Good. Anyone else says, no, the elder has to be married.
19:46: Anyone? Well, it doesn't always say that. No. I'll give another reason why an elder does not have to be married.
19:55: Because guess who wasn't a married man? Paul. Paul and Jesus. Right.
20:03: Well, I thought that Paul was married because he had to be, because he was a, um.
20:11: There's actually a record against it, which is 1st Corinthians. Because Paul, Paul actually says that he was called to celibacy.
20:22: Right. Well, then later, but I think he died or something.
20:27: There's no record of that. Yeah. So, Peter was married, but Paul was not.
20:36: So, it wouldn't make sense for someone like Paul who would, one would argue greater than the elders because he's the one appointing elders.
20:45: Right. He, he himself would have been disqualified by this, but obviously he wasn't.
20:53: He was shepherding the church, many churches. Paul was in the, a long time ago, before he was,
20:59: Paul, he was in the, um, what is, I forgot what it is. The, the, the, the, it's something in the, the, the
21:09: Jewish guys. Synagogue? No, it's, it's, ah. I don't know.
21:14: That's when I think about that. As far as I know. You had to be married to be in it.
21:20: I don't think so. As far as I know, Paul remained celibate. That was a long time ago.
21:25: So, I think he must have died. I don't think so. Yeah.
21:31: I, to my knowledge, Paul remained unmarried, remained celibate because he does talk about that in 1st
21:38: Corinthians. Now, so yeah, because of that,
21:44: I, I don't, I don't think this is an utmost requirement. But I, I think
21:49: Dexter makes a good point. There is that conditional clause, right? If, if he's married, he better be committed to that one spouse, right?
22:00: Now let's talk about children. What, why do you think it's important that the elder's children are faithful?
22:15: Believe or, or faithful in other translation, right? What do you think?
22:25: Why is that important? Okay. Yeah. They can throw the elder off.
22:31: Okay. Sure. It's kind of like you were saying earlier, though, but like, I know it's not always.
22:40: Yeah. Because as far as children except in Christ, that is a choice on their own. Right. But in terms of if the man's house is in order.
22:50: Yeah. How can men be expected to shun the flock? Right. That's right.
22:57: Yeah. Dexter brings up a good point. If the man's house is not in order, how is he expected to take care of God's house?
23:06: Right. So, yeah, the key part here, believing children, it is kind of beyond the elder's control, whether the children turn out to be believers or not.
23:20: It's kind of between God and that child. And obviously,
23:27: I mean, like, for example, like my own son's not a believer, you know, so, yeah, it's not like I have to resign.
23:39: Right. I think the key here is faithful in terms of not actively living, living in rebellion and in subordination.
23:50: Right. Those two are used here, rebellion and insubordination.
23:57: Right. That the word for rebellion is used in First Timothy one, nine, and that's where Paul says the law is intended for the lawless and rebellious people.
24:09: What that means is they make a habit of going against God.
24:17: Right. Dissipation would be rebellion or insubordination.
24:27: Yeah. The same word for insubordinate is actually used to describe a type of people in Crete in Titus one.
24:38: I believe Titus one, ten. Got to check for there are many rebellious people.
24:45: Yeah. Right. Same word is used. What that means is if your own household looks like the very worldly type of people in Crete, in which the elders are necessary to be appointed quickly, what makes you think these elders would be effective if your own household look like, if your own children look like the people of Crete, right?
25:15: Right. Yeah. How are you going to disciple them if you're not going to decide if you're discipling your own kids?
25:24: Right. If the children on the other hand, right, if the children of the elders household looks just like the world, what assurance do we have the elder candidate can keep the church in order?
25:37: Right. That's the thing. The goal here is not a superficial picture perfect household, but a faithful household in which the father is actively involved in the children's discipleship.
25:52: And I guarantee you whenever the father is actively involved, the children's behavior naturally changes.
26:04: And yeah, there is a correlation between ADHD diagnosis and lack of active father figure in the child's life.
26:16: Yeah. Yeah. In fact, in France, when a kid acts out, the school actually reports it to the children's services and they visit the home of the parents to see.
26:34: And let me tell you, their ADHD diagnosis is low because somehow the
26:41: French knew that it starts from the home. Order and structure has to come from.
26:49: I'm not I'm not I'm not arguing that's the way to go. I, you know, as you know, like I'm I'm more of a hands off government.
26:56: It's not probably not always that way. Right. Right. A lot of times. Right. That's important.
27:03: Now, we just looked at the first couple of elder qualification.
27:11: What do these elder qualifications focus on? Character and I was just thinking character and family.
27:28: Faithful. It actually focuses on what is more internal and what is often more private.
27:41: Now, I'm going to throw this application question. What do many church job postings focus on?
27:51: Experience. Yeah. Experience. Sure. What else? I don't know. I think you would hope so.
27:59: I know. I do not expect most of you to have looked at church job postings.
28:05: Right. That's not a normal thing. Salary. Salary. Yeah.
28:11: When when I was looking before faith, Bible, church. Right. I haven't really looked recently because I've been here.
28:19: I've seen church job postings asking for higher degrees than master's like doctorate,
28:27: PhD, D -Min, doctorate of ministry. I know it's oddly named
28:34: D -Min. Five years of experience.
28:42: MBA. I've seen that too. Yeah. Master of business administration. Vision casting.
28:51: Yeah. Yeah. Be able to have a vision. Be able to manage people.
28:58: And you kind of look and then if you just cover the title, it would seem like a
29:04: CEO position. Right. But is that Paul's list?
29:12: Not at all. In fact, what consequences do we see from having those differences?
29:28: What would happen if we hire or bring up elders or pastors who fit the mold of the modern church, modern
29:40: Western church listing? I think it would go pretty much the opposite of what scripture would be requiring.
29:49: So like in the sense of the scripture saying, have faithful children. Right. We're going to spend our own life.
29:56: You probably wouldn't see that because the churches of which that are supposed to be looking for actual biblical qualified people aren't seeing that.
30:05: Right. Right. Right. Yeah. They yeah.
30:13: When they hire people that looks like the world, then there's no surprise when the fruit it looks like the world.
30:22: Right. The sheep want what the world wants. The sheep want entertainment, doctrines that tickle their ears.
30:33: They want a company. They want a business. They don't want deep discipleship.
30:41: Right. That's what happens. But they want money. Sure. And then oftentimes these shepherds aren't really even truly saved themselves.
30:52: Right. So they actually. You know, defraud the church and then run away to a bigger church.
31:04: I think it's personal or internal.
31:10: Yeah, for sure. It starts with personal and internal. And that's what it's prioritizing.
31:18: Right. All right. Now we're going to go over verse seven. And these are the knots we're going to see.
31:28: All the traits in which the elders are not to show. So who can read verse seven?
31:36: Go ahead. For a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self -willed, not quick tempered, not given to one, not violent, not greedy for money.
31:52: OK, we're going to go over each one. Not all of them. We can go over in much detail because either they're self -explanatory or they are like parallel.
32:06: Right. So first, the steward or servant.
32:13: Right. Overseer. Right. Of God's house. That's the purpose.
32:20: What's the purpose of the steward or servant? Same as the elder of every church.
32:26: Right. Well, it's the same person, right? Oh, so it's the same. Yeah. Yeah.
32:32: Just another word. Overseer are the same. Yep. So they're entrusted with God's work.
32:41: What that means is they're a steward. Do we know what a steward means? Yes. Yeah. Cares for.
32:49: That's right. Yeah. Cares for on behalf of the owner or the master of a great.
32:56: I mean, the example is like from the Bible, Luke 16. Remember the parable of the dishonest steward?
33:04: And he's just like, oh, you owe my master this like scratch that 50 percent off.
33:10: Right. That's a steward. So the key here is an elder, overseer, bishop, whatever word you have in your
33:19: Bible must not be the owner. OK, if the elder is a steward, then he must not act like the owner.
33:31: The owner is who? God. What would happen if an elder or pastor or overseer act like the owner of the house?
33:45: Exactly. They tried to become God. That's what Satan tried to do.
33:53: Right. Yeah. This is important.
33:59: You must not. And we go over this not because like I'm thinking like, oh, all of you need to need to pursue eldership.
34:11: No. Right. That's not the point. The point is you will all have a say when we do need or eldest.
34:21: Yeah. When we know when we when we do need to choose elders and you'll have to speak up if something is off with the qualifications you see.
34:34: Right. The elder, the pastor, overseer must not be the owner.
34:40: And when that happens, we have spiritual abuse. Right. He creates his own regulations and laws that people have to carry that burden.
34:53: Right. Steward on a ship or plane is not the same. Well, it's the same idea.
34:59: Right. They're serving. Right. They're taking care of the plane and the ship. Right.
35:05: But although they themselves are not the owners. OK, let's go over each one.
35:11: The blameless part. We went over that. So we'll go to the next one. Not overbearing.
35:17: Some people have not arrogant, not self -willed, not self -willed and anything else.
35:24: Not not not. Yeah. So let's write.
35:33: Let's go over. Let's go over the not arrogant one. Arrogant is willful.
35:42: Right. You don't accidentally get arrogant. Literally, arrogance means self -pleasing.
35:50: It's self -focused. Now, why would this and why would this be an important trait for an elder to not be arrogant?
36:02: Because if they're arrogant, they're thinking of themselves. That's right. Yeah. Eldership is naturally a service.
36:11: It's a serving title, not a self -serving position.
36:18: Right. And in fact, Jesus view of leadership is exactly the reverse of what the world says.
36:27: It's not self -serving. It is actually serving others because he himself came to serve.
36:35: Right. And we see that in his death on the cross. Right. That's his ultimate service.
36:42: Not hot tempered or right. Quick tempered. Not quick tempered.
36:48: Question is, what is the elder candidate ruled by if he is hot or quick tempered?
36:55: His emotions. Right. And then what is he not ruled by? Word of God.
37:03: Right. The spirit. You don't want someone leading the church, serving the church who is ruled by something else than God himself.
37:16: Right. Right. And that's the same same idea. Not a drunkard.
37:21: Right. Because otherwise they're ruled by the wine. That's right. And the question is, where is his discernment if he is habitually drunk?
37:31: Right. Can you discern well when your mind is under the influence?
37:37: No, we're not even told to drive under the influence. You want to lead the church under the influence.
37:45: Right. These are people's souls. Right. This is more than just the car you're ruining.
37:51: Right. It's more than DUI. Right. You're going to ruin people's souls if you're going to lead and serve under the influence.
37:59: And then we'll go over that. Yeah. Where is his devotion if he's habitually drunk?
38:10: To himself. To himself. Pleasure. Right. To alcohol. Right. That's that's why you don't have a drunkard.
38:18: Someone who lives with it, lives with drinking. Right. That's his habit.
38:25: Next one is pugnacious. Right. Not pugnacious. Pugnacious means kind of like being violent, like a bully, bully, violent.
38:39: Yeah, sure. Yeah. That's important. An elder must not be violent or a bully because there's a way to be leading in a bully like manner, isn't there?
38:54: What does that look like? Forcing someone. Forcing someone.
39:00: Yeah. Right. Forcing someone. What else? Threatening someone.
39:07: Manipulation. Right. That's violent and that's bullying. That's pugnacious.
39:15: Right. Threatening using fear tactics, using threats like we're going to kick you out if you don't follow this.
39:25: Right. Right. Right. That's what cults do.
39:31: Something like you're not going to be able to see your family or talk to your family if you do this.
39:38: That's what cults do. Right. That's not the elder's role because how would he how does
39:47: Jesus treat his flock? Lovingly, lovingly, not not pugnaciously.
39:55: Right. Not violently. Jesus does not abuse his sheep. Jesus doesn't beat his sheep.
40:03: Actually, the staff. Oftentimes people think staff is like for beating. No, no, no. The staff is for leading.
40:10: It's the sheep follow. He he uses the staff to get the sheep to go the right way.
40:16: Right. It's shepherds don't beat their sheep. Oh, those are hired men.
40:27: Right. And again, how does violence represent Jesus? Well, it doesn't. Right. The only other place this word is used is first Timothy three, three, which would be the parallel qualification verse for the elders.
40:41: Not greedy for money is the next one. What do other people have? Not pursuing dishonest gain is not fond of sordid gain.
40:54: Not fond of sordid gain. OK. Yeah. No, no greed for money, really.
41:00: Now, why would why would this be an important trait for elders? Because you're going to make money, you're
41:09: God. Yeah. The devotion changes, doesn't it? What else?
41:20: Yeah. Love of money is the root of all evil.
41:25: Sure. Yeah. It's idolatry. Yeah.
41:33: Yeah. Judas betrayed Jesus over money. Right. Yeah. Oh, I recently read
41:44: I get like these emails about like what's happening in other churches on my on the church email.
41:49: Right. Because it's like subscribe to that. And there was like there was one church pastor who secretly sold the church building without the congregants knowing.
42:04: And then. Yeah. And then he like resigned. And it's just like that's what happens if you're greedy for gain because it wasn't even his building to sell that doesn't belong to him.
42:17: It belongs to the church. Right. It's if I did that. Right. Like this this building does not belong to me.
42:26: Right. This building belongs to the church. This building ultimately belongs to Jesus Christ.
42:35: So whenever the leadership is greedy for gain, financial gain, their service and leadership are compromised.
42:50: Choices will be made to fulfill their desires over obeying
42:57: Christ and serving the church. That's what happens if there is if there is a separation of devotion.
43:08: All right. Good. Verse eight actually gives us the same number of qualifications, but now positive while verse seven was negative of what not to do.
43:21: Verse eight is what to do. Okay. Go ahead, Diane. But hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just about self -control.
43:33: That's it. All right. That's verse eight. Hospitable.
43:38: Why do you think hospitable is a good trait for an elder? To like other people.
43:49: Yeah. That's right. They represent what
43:55: Christ did for the church. Hospitable, if you like directly translate it means friendly to stranger.
44:04: That's what hospitable means. You're friendly to people that you may not get anything in return.
44:14: Right. That doesn't count the name that our hospitals are misnamed.
44:21: Yeah. They like money more than people. Oh, man.
44:29: First Peter four, nine says we got to be hospitable without grumbling, which means, you know, you're not complaining when you're serving other people.
44:39: And I mean, it's hard to imagine an elder who does not like being around others.
44:44: Right. If you take a look at our elders like Harold and Victor, they like meeting new people.
44:51: You don't have to tell them, hey, Victor, or like, hey, Harold, go talk to that.
44:57: Like, you don't have to tell them they're already talking to them. Right. They're already introducing themselves. Wayne is a deacon.
45:07: Oh, yeah. I mean, like hospitability is also applicable for Wayne to deacons.
45:14: Are you a deacon? We have two two elders right now. Harold. Yeah. The other ones are deacons.
45:22: Yeah. Brendan, Wayne and Dexter. Yeah. So, yeah, that's that makes sense why an elder has to be hospitable.
45:30: You're working with people. Right. What's really sad is like a lot of seminary students.
45:37: They're like, I'm going to get my Ph .D. and become a professor because I don't want to deal with people.
45:43: And it's like it's like, first of all, hopefully the professors of theology schools actually enjoy being around people because ultimately they have to serve the church and the church is the people of God, not the building.
46:01: You're not meant to just write books. You're meant to disciple people.
46:06: Right. Or fame. But again, hospitability is important for elders.
46:16: Again, these are character traits. They're not MBA degrees. They're not all sorts of degrees.
46:23: Right. They are character traits of their internal heart.
46:32: Loving what is good. That means his desires. What is good?
46:38: Like he desires to do good. He's not forced to do good. He's not threatened to do good.
46:44: He's not bribed to do good. He's doing it because he loves it. Now, why would this be important?
46:52: Yeah, it represents God because God loves doing good. He always does. Yeah, we get good from God.
46:59: What else? In the end, we all live our lives based upon our highest desires.
47:14: Do you know how to get the best obedience? Change the heart to love obedience.
47:22: There's no other way. The best way for transformation of people's lives to live according to God's word is not threats or shame or beating or incentives like money.
47:40: It's the change of one's desire. The point is an elder must love what is good if we want to count on him to do what is good.
48:07: I think that's brilliant that Paul and, of course, God made that a qualification.
48:15: We see the opposite, too, in politicians. All they do is just put more laws in.
48:23: The laws themselves don't really do much. People's hearts aren't changed. Yeah, I mean, like, respect the politicians, right?
48:33: But let's not think that people's hearts will change with more laws. Let's not think that more regulations will change the culture, right?
48:51: But in the end, an elder candidate who loves to do good will do good when it is costly.
49:01: And we need elders who will do good no matter the cost, because that is
49:08: God's trait. God will always do good when it costs him so much, even if it costs him so much, because that's his character in nature.
49:20: And the elders of the church must reflect that. And you know what?
49:27: Frankly, I don't know how a church listing can bring that kind of people together.
49:35: Ideally, I think the next pastor, next elder must be homegrown.
49:42: Like, that's how you're going to know, right? Like, how are you going to know if this person who just graduated from seminary loves to do what is good?
49:51: He might have the right answers to all the theological questions, but how are you going to know unless you grew up with him, unless you saw him grow up, right?
50:02: And I think a lot of tears would be saved if the churches actually discipled the next generation so that they serve the church, so that they do become deacons and elders, rather than putting it on the church listing site.
50:20: We're looking for a new pastor, right? Because which seminary student is going to say, oh,
50:28: I don't actually love doing good, or I'm not really that hospitable, or, you know, I'm not that blameless, right?
50:34: They're not going to say that. All right. Next, sensible.
50:43: Sensible is about the mind, right? It's sound mind.
50:51: Paul tells older men to pursue sound mind in Titus 2 .2
50:59: and women in Titus 2 .5. They're supposed to be prudent, wise, right?
51:07: Cautious and sensible. Right. Cautious and sensible. Not driven by emotions and not driven by hypes and trends.
51:20: Very important. Next is righteous. Righteous means right with God, according to God's way, not our way, right?
51:31: Is that just? Just. Yeah, just or righteous. Yeah. Holy means set apart.
51:37: They don't look like the world. Devout. Yeah. Yeah. And then lastly, discipline means, oh, yes.
51:45: Self -controlled means discipline. He is not swayed by things. He's not driven by the desires of his heart.
51:54: Right. He is self -controlled. Right. Yeah. Now, before I go over nine, when we take a look at these qualifications, how do they relate to the characteristics of other
52:12: Christians? Are these qualifications extraordinary that no, right?
52:19: Well, that's what it should be. Is that right? When we take a look at the list, that's what all the
52:27: Christians ought to be. Aren't they called to be hospitable? Aren't they called to love what's good?
52:34: Aren't they called to be sound mind? Self -controlled, righteous, holy, right?
52:40: Wouldn't we say they're told to not be greedy, not to be violent or bully, not to be hot tempered or arrogant, right?
52:48: Like I'm sure if we had enough time tonight, we could each find a verse that commands
52:55: Christians, not just the elders to be like that. So what does that mean?
53:02: These traits are not exceptional to the elders, but for everyone, in one sense, you're choosing elders who are not above and beyond like Nobel laureates.
53:16: Right. But people who are just faithful when you're choosing elders, you're just choosing men who have been and have shown to be faithful.
53:26: Right. Good obedience. That's why you're choosing. You don't have to go far for a
53:33: Ph .D. degree. You don't even need a master's degree. Hey, you don't even need a college degree for to be an elder in the church.
53:41: Right. I don't even know why that needs to be on the listing site. Just find a faithful man of God who has shown it for years.
53:53: That's what eldership is. People make it way more confusing, confusing than it is. Now, I will read nine because this is different.
54:04: He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
54:15: Not everyone may be called to that. In the end, the role of the church, what makes them distinct from deacons or everyone else is a doctrinal requirement.
54:28: An elder must not just be a faithful good man, but he must be doctrinally sound and he needs to be willing to encourage and correct those who are wayward.
54:43: That's that's that's the function of the elders. They are like the liver of the body.
54:50: They remove the toxins. They kind of have to deal with the messy, gooey stuff. They have to deal with the hard stuff.
54:59: And that can look like teaching from the pulpit that can look like teaching in an informal setting that can look like teaching kids.
55:11: I just hate this idea that like if you're ministering to the youth, you're like a lesser pastor.
55:17: Not so. I think that's one of the most important thing. I think what the Huffins are doing right, like Harold teaching the teenage boys, like that's very important.
55:29: That's an elder thing to do. Right. And teaching doesn't have to be from the pulpit.
55:38: It can be one to one talk over a meal. You can teach them if you can teach, correct a believer what they hold to be wrong, what they believe, but you show them it's wrong.
55:55: That's an elder's role. Right. That's what makes them different from the deacons.
56:01: That's what makes them different from the rest. They have to hold the doctrines of the church.
56:07: They have to protect it. Now, not to say that, OK, if you're not elder, you hear false teaching, just go on.
56:16: Right. Report it to the elders. No, but rather it's the elder's job that they are able to teach.
56:22: I think Jorge said it much earlier. Right. That's what it is. All right.
56:29: That's what we have tonight. Hopefully, us who are here and who are watching and even people in the future who may watch later, we next time we choose church leaders, we are a congregation, congregational church where although the leadership have a say and on recommending.
56:56: Right. We do recommend what what the church does. But in the end, the congregants, they choose.
57:04: We do have we do hear from the sheep. So the best thing for us to do is teach and train and show the knowledge in Scripture to the rest of the sheep so that they choose the right shepherd next.
57:25: Right. And hopefully, this is what they're looking for, not another degree, not another, not a five year experience at a church with the size of five hundred.
57:39: Hopefully, that is not a sentence we put in our listing.
57:47: All right. Any last thoughts? All right. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for the gifts of the elders and deacons at this church.
57:57: We're grateful for the faithful men who serve you. We're grateful for their hearts and they have shown that they are transformed, saved brothers in Christ, continue to protect them, continue to sanctify them and continue to raise up the next generation of leaders here.
58:19: May we have the next pastors and elders who are homegrown that we don't have to guess and hope for a seminary student who happens to be faithful in Jesus name.
58:33: Amen. All right. Thank you all for joining online. I will see you on Sunday.