Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- Faithful in the Way You Treat People pt 2- Leadership - I Timothy 5:
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Organized into readable paragraphs from the preserved Whisper transcript. Non-speech markers are removed.
All right. Good morning, church family. It's good to see you guys. I'm glad you all are here. I invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.
But Lord, God, we thank you for the day. Just thank you for another opportunity, Lord, to be in your house, Lord, to worship you, Lord, to spend some time in your word. Lord, I know that there's a lot of things going on in our lives and a lot of distractions and worries and struggles, Lord. I just pray that we sit those all aside and focus upon you this morning, God. Focus upon you, our salvation, our hope for a new life,
Lord Jesus. Lord, I ask your blessing upon this time. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord God, I just want to take a moment and I just want to say thank you, Lord, for how great you are, for how kind, how awesome and faithful you are, Lord God. That's transforming our lives, Lord. That's changing our hearts, Lord. That's giving us a new life. There's hope for salvation.
Lord God, we just thank you for that. Lord God, we just thank you for how great you are, Lord. Thank you again for just who you are, for how great you are. There is hope for salvation. Lord, I just thank you that you are changing our lives, changing our hearts, Lord God. Lord, I just ask your blessing upon this time now. As pastor, as pastor Ryan comes, Lord, just overflow him with your Holy Spirit. Speak directly to our hearts,
Lord. Change our hearts this morning, God. Mold us into your image, Lord God. Make us look more like you today. Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's take some time and greet one another. If you could begin to locate your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.
Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you are here this morning. Handful of things to take note of. As always, over on the left-hand side are different spots that you can get plugged into during the week. So find yourself a spot to get plugged into, and that way you can continue to grow in your walk. Also in the middle section of your bulletin, one thing to pay
attention to that's a little bit new there is there's still time to sign up for the Experiencing God Ladies Study. That sign-up is out there in the lobby. If you're interested in that. Hey, I bet I'm getting a phone call about my roof being done, because that's the eleventy billionth one I've got. Golly, man, my desire to answer this on stage right now is so strong. I'm not going to do it.
I'm not. I'm not going to do it. Okay. Forgot to go do not disturb on that thing. That's the second one I've gotten. That's amazing. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, the Experiencing God Ladies Study. Sorry. I looked at my little call list the other day, and out of, like, the entire, like, first swipe of my screen, three of them were people that I actually
talked to, and all of the rest of them were missed calls from people that would really, really like to roof my house. So listen, if they're willing to come do that for free, I will let anybody up on my roof that wants to be up there to roof it for free. But other than that, I've got a guy. So, all right. Now, the last thing is that that's not in your bulletin is that next week for Sunday school, they are
going to be having Promotion and Mission Sunday. It'll be a little bit of organized chaos, but so if you've got some little ones that are moving on to the next grade level, I have no idea what the grade levels are that we have back there, but potentially your kid could be in a different class after next week. So you should ask Sandra and Glenn about that, because I don't know anything about it. But that's happening next week. So those are the things that are going on, at least as far as I can tell. And if you would, make sure that your
mobile device is silenced. And for our response, we're going to be having a little bit of a promotion and mission Sunday. So if you've got some questions, let me know in the comments. So for the next three weeks, we're going to be having a little bit of a promotion and mission Sunday. So if you've got some questions, let me know in the comments. And if you've got some questions, let me know in the comments. So if you've got some questions, let me know in the comments.
And as you are turning to Psalm 112, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 112. Praise the Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord. His descendants will be mighty on earth. The generations of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light arises in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. It is well with the man who is gracious and lends. He will maintain his cause and judgment. For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings.
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries. He has given freely to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor. The wicked will see it and be vexed. He will gnash his teeth and melt away. The wicked will see it and be vexed. The wicked will see it and be vexed.
The wicked will perish. Father, we come to you now, and Lord, we want to be those believers. Lord, the ones whose trust is in you, the ones who fear you, but Lord, the ones who are loved by you. And so, Father, make us the men and women of God that you have created for us to be. And so I pray that as we spend time in your word now, that your Holy Spirit would minister to our hearts.
Father, that you would instruct us, that you would encourage us, that you would exhort us and convict us. Lord, just do your work in us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 5. 1 Timothy, chapter 5. Last week we were looking at, or we did part one of this. The title is, Faithful in the Way that You Treat Others.
We said that every chapter in 1 Timothy was going to deal with faithfulness. And as we came to this chapter, we said that he talked to him just about the faithfulness of the way that you treat people. And so we said there were three. There were three different groups of people he was going to deal with. He dealt, first of all, with the congregation in general.
He told him how he could respectfully deal with the older men and the younger men, the older women and the younger women, how he could faithfully handle those relationships. And then the second part that we talked about was how to faithfully treat the vulnerable in the church, and in particular the widows in the church. But we really dealt with it with the vulnerable in general, those who just have needs that need to be met by the church. And so today we come to the last part, and he's going to talk about, being faithful in the way that you treat leadership.
And so picking up in verse 17 of chapter 5, it says this, The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his chosen angels to maintain these principles without bias. Do nothing in a spirit of partiality. Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others. Keep yourself free from sin. No longer drink. Drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment. For others, their sins follow after. Likewise, also deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. And so he deals with the treatment of leaders within the church. And there's three things he's going to tell us about the treatment of leaders, that it should be done so with honor, with accountability, and with purity.
And so we'll take each of these three things. The first one we'll look at is to treat them with honor. Notice what it says. The elders who rule well, verse 17, are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. Now, as he begins this, we realize that the elders that he's talking about, there are those church leaders,
those men in the church that God has called. And a few chapters ago, we looked at what it looks like, what the qualifications are for an elder, who would rule in the church. And so those who would fit those qualifications, they are worthy of double honor. Now, as we get ready to talk about what that means, I want to point out something about these elders that he's talking about.
He describes them three ways. He describes them, first of all, as those who rule well. He describes them as those who work hard in their teaching. And he describes them as those who work hard in their preaching. And so as we look at this, I want to make a couple of little statements about the ministry. Because he makes it very distinct that those who minister should be hard workers.
And so I want to make a couple of statements here. Number one is that the ministry is hard work. The ministry is very hard work. Whether you are a Sunday school teacher or whether you are a pastor, ministry is very hard work. And God intends it to be hard work. I had a conversation with a guy one time who was thinking about going into ministry and wanted to just counsel with me about it.
Hey, is this something that I should do? Is this something that I'm called to? And he said something very interesting to me. I love this guy with all of my heart. But he said, I just want to make sure I'm not taking the easy way. And I said, well, let me just tell you something at the offset right now. Anybody that chooses to go into ministry has not chosen the easy way.
What you've actually chosen is an incredibly hard job. And so I don't want you to think ministry is the easy way. But I do think a lot of people view it that way. After all, pastors work two hours a week, right? Or in the case of myself with two services, four hours a week, right? And some people view it that way. But and unfortunately, some pastors view it that way.
And that's not the way it's ever intended to be. Ministry is hard work and it requires every part of your being. It requires every every fiber of your being, because ministry, if done properly, is intended to be a full time, 24 hour a day job. Because whether you are actually on call 24 hours a day or whether you just simply bear the burdens of the people 24 hours a day, you're always on.
Because no matter what, I go to bed thinking about some of the issues that you all deal with. I wake up thinking about some of the issues that you all deal with. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night thinking of some of the issues that you all deal with because the ministry is hard work. And that's what God intends it to be, is that he intends it to be hard, hard work.
And the work of preaching, the second thing I'll say is that the work of preaching and teaching isn't is intended to be hard work. Too many times people want to phone it in there. Well, I'll just put something together at the last minute. And listen, you can usually tell when somebody puts something together at the last minute because they they've not done a good job and they're not perfect.
They're not prepared for it. And one of the lessons I had to learn early on is that preaching and teaching is hard work. There's hours of preparation that go into a message. And I'm not just talking about mine, talking about anybody that gives a true message of teaching God's work. There are hours of preparation that go into it. You know, for me, it starts Thursday morning and it goes really honestly all the way up until I get here on Sundays.
Not necessarily consecutively, but it's but it's a constant preparation process and it's intended to be hard work. And I'm going to be real honest. I spent most of the time in my twenties doing either groundwork. I'm going to be real honest with you, going home on a Sunday morning after teaching two services, I'm every bit as worn out as any day that I ever spent in construction because it's hard work.
And so when he says this, he says, you need to understand that that these men that rule, they work hard in preaching and teaching. But on top of all of that, I'm just being honest with you. This is just this is just honesty to to the body that I minister to. There's an incredible amount of pressure for those that minister. And I'm talking every you should have a great deal of respect for every pastor that that takes on the mantle of of shepherding a flock because there's there's an intense amount of pressure.
It's pressure that has great joy that goes with it. It's pressure. I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. And any pastor would tell you that exact same thing. There's a great deal of pressure. And so as he presents this, he says, those those elders who rule well and who work hard in preaching and teaching, they are worthy of double honor. They're worthy of double honor.
What does he mean by that? What does he mean by by double honor? Well, the idea of double honor is that first of all, there is respect. But second of all, when allowable, when afforded to the church, there is compensation. You see, the first aspect of it is is respect is that an individual that's willing to take that role again. I don't care if it's the Sunday school teacher who's teaching all the kids down there at the other end of the hallway or whether it's me up here.
Anybody that takes on a role of ministry. Anyone that takes on a role of. Leadership is worthy of respect because they have they have chosen a hard job and they've chosen a task that requires an incredible amount of work that require that deals with an incredible amount of pressure and they should be respected. And I'm here to tell you right now, and I say this with every with every ounce of sincerity in me, I am so blessed with the body of Christ that I have here at Calvary Chapel of Arc City because you all show love and respect to me that that that I could have never even imagined.
And and where I have really witnessed this the most is is as my dad has gone through the process. That he's gone through because what I have seen is respect for me and I've seen respect for my dad and I've seen that through love that you all have shown. And and I know that my mom, you know, I put something out on Facebook last night. I know that my mom would want this said to that that we are so thankful as a family for the amount of love and respect that's been shown to us through this entire process.
And so I'm blessed with this. And so so he says they're worthy of double honor. And the first aspect of that is respect. But the other aspect is is to be able to provide for the physical needs of the minister. To be able to provide for the physical needs of the minister. To be able to to provide for that. And it's interesting because Paul has a lot to say about this in Scripture.
And and he kind of takes it from two different ways because his idea is that whatever will best spread the gospel is what he wanted done with finances as far as a minister of the gospel was concerned. If the best way for the ministry to be done is for a pastor to support himself with a secular job or for a minister to support themselves with a secular job so that there's no burden on the church. And so that nobody looks at the pastor and thinks. He only cares about the money and not about the people then the best thing he can do is work a secular job and and allow that to provide for his finances while he still ministers to the church.
But if the best way as is often the case is for the minister to be supported by the church to take care of his financial needs so that he can focus 100 percent on the ministry of the gospel then that's what needs to take place. He says a minister is worthy a faithful servant a faithful leader is worthy of double honor. And it's interesting because he gives. Two Old Testament examples of of why this is true.
Look at verse 18 is this for the scripture says you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing the grain. Interestingly enough that's taken out of Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 4 you might just write that in the margin of your Bible because as God was laying out the law he made a law that first of all dealt with the animals but it really had a far reaching impact. And the far reaching impact is that those that minister the gospel were to be were to live from the gospel.
The Levites did it the priesthood did it the pastors in the New Testament did it and then the second thing that he says is that the labor is worthy of his wages and that comes out of Luke chapter 10 verse 7 Jesus was addressing his disciples he was about to send them on a short term missions trip and as he sent them on the short term missions trip he said listen show up to house and eat what's put in front of you because a laborer is worthy of his wages it's okay to live off of the gospel. Now as an aside a little bit.
Of a sidebar here I want to point something out Paul just quoted from the Old Testament and what we now call the New Testament at that point in time it was just called the writings of Luke and it's interesting because he referred to both of them as scripture so Paul in some of his later writings was quoting from what we call the New Testament and calling it scripture which gives pretty good authority to what we call the New Testament today kind of an interesting aside there but he tells him a minister is worthy of double honor so the first thing he says is that you are worthy of double honor. You should treat your leadership with honor but the second thing he says is that you should have accountability for the leadership.
Notice what he says in verse 19 he says do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. And so he gives this instruction. Of what they're supposed to do in the first part of the instruction is this he says you need to make sure that if an accusation comes against an elder that there's at least two or three witnesses to back it up.
Now I believe that because some of these principles have not been followed in the church today we've seen some of the issues that we've seen within the church today in particular with pastors and leaders that have to keep stepping down in very public dramatic horrific sort of ways. Because. These principles aren't followed but the first thing that you have to pay attention to is that if you are going to bring an accusation against somebody that the accusation is true and has some sort of supporting evidence against it because as dangerous as it is to not deal with sin in the church it's every bit as dangerous to allow leaders to have their character attacked by people who either don't have all the facts or are simply biased against that individual.
We actually just saw a case here recently and I should have looked his name up I didn't. But but but he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and he just won a defamation lawsuit against a woman who brought a charge against him of sexual assault and this charge that was brought against him of sexual assault was proven to be false and so and so because this one person brought this charge against him he then countersued and want just want a big defamation lawsuit against her why because she didn't come with the right evidence and you know what the unfortunate thing about that is actually the horrific thing about that is is that now every other woman who does.
Have a legitimate case against somebody that has abused them has to deal now with the fact that somebody lied about it and now it's that much harder for somebody who is truly a victim of abuse to have their abuser dealt with that's why it's so important to follow biblical principles and everything that you do and so Paul says listen if you're going to bring an accusation against an elder you need to have two or three witnesses interestingly enough he once again quotes from the book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 5 is or excuse me verse
15 is where this principle is given it says that on the authority of two or three witnesses every fact shall be established and so if there's going to be an accusation it can't just be oh well you know I have this issue with this person and and and I think that they need to be dealt with so I go okay well let's well let's get all of the facts together well I'm not interested in the facts I just want it dealt with no we have to get all of the facts together now if there really is sin I want you to notice what it says those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning there's it's this is not a situation where we just sweep things under the rug it's not a
situation where we just don't deal with sin once the facts have been established the sin has to be dealt with and unfortunately for a leader it has to be dealt with very publicly and there's two reasons why one one heart of the reason and that's that all will fear but there's two reasons why all will fear number one if you're another ruling elder and you see what happened with an individual that lives in sin it brings about a great deal of purity in your life because you say I don't want that to be me I don't want that to to be where I am in my life I want to make sure I stay free from sin so that that doesn't happen but there's also a purity that falls upon the entire
congregation because of it because everybody says whoa we take sin seriously here because God takes sin seriously we take holiness seriously here because God takes holiness seriously and there's a purity that falls upon the entire congregation I'm in the book of Acts right now in my reading which if you're although I'm a little behind I wonder how far behind I am I'm in the book of Acts right now in my reading no not too bad and and I read in Acts this week about Ananias and Sapphira who lied about their offering remember they sold a piece of property and and they they brought the proceeds and they said we've given all of this money to the church and Peter said all of this money to the church and and and
Ananias says yes and he falls dead because he lied he lied to the Holy Spirit and then Sapphira comes in later and he says how much was the offering and she says this and he says why have you lied to the Holy Spirit she dies and you know what it brought on all the church purity because God dealt with sin very harshly and that's what that's what happens when we deal with things when you deal with things in really public ways it brings about a great deal of purity amongst the church well I got to thinking about this and I thought okay so if so if we're dealing with an elder and we need to make sure that there's two people in the church and we need to make sure that
there's two or three witnesses and but sin still needs to be dealt with what's the proper way to go about dealing with issues in the church what is the proper way to go about dealing with sin when it shows up in the church and of course the Bible's so good because it tells us exactly what we need to do go over with me real quick hold your finger here and go over to Matthew chapter 18.
Matthew chapter 18 I want you to look at verse 15. this is Jesus speaking to his disciples and this is what he says starting in verse 15 of Matthew chapter 18. if your brother sins go and show him his fault in private if he listens to you you have won your brother but if he does not listen to you take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed Deuteronomy 1915 if he refuses listen to them or if he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector truly I say to you whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on Earth shall be loosed in
Heaven again I say to you that if two of you agree on Earth about anything they may ask it shall be done for them by my father for where two or three have gathered together in my name I am there in their midst so what's the what's the policy that you follow what's the procedure that you follow when someone has fallen into sin or you know I don't know I don't know I don't know you just you see an issue in someone's life. Well, whether it's a leader or whether it's just anybody else within the church, the first thing that you do when you identify sin in the life of someone else is you go and you talk to all of your friends and you build yourself a following of people that,
that's not what it says, but that's what we do, right? What's the first thing that happens when you see somebody fall into sin in our culture today? Don't lie about it. You go find your friends and you go and you say, have you heard? Have you heard about so-and-so and what they're doing? Can you believe they did this? Can you believe they're doing this? And pretty soon you
have your little circle. You've got your little group that's ready to either go attack or ready to ostracize that individual. That's not what the Bible says. What's the Bible say? When a brother is sinning, go to them privately. You know what happens a lot of times? Somebody comes and says, I want to tell you what so-and-so did. And I'm like, wait, have you talked to so-and-so about
what they did? And they're like, no. I'm like, well, then don't tell me yet. Go tell them. Listen, don't get me wrong. You should seek out some godly counsel. And I would then counsel that person. You should go and confront that individual or visit with them about this situation. But we have a tendency to want to gather all the people on our side and just spread the rumor everywhere that's around us. And pretty soon
the rumor gets really big. That's why Jesus says, listen, first step, step one, go to that individual and talk to them and present to them the issue that you see. Present to them the sin that you see. One of two things is going to happen. Either one, they're going to go, man, I had no idea. Or I didn't realize that that was a sin. Or I didn't realize I was even doing that.
Or yeah, you're right. I'm really struggling with that right now. I could really use some help with that. Either one, there's going to be some form of acknowledgement of what's going on. Some sort of an acknowledgement of the issue in their life. Even if it's a, I had no idea I had this issue in my life. Or that what I was doing was wrong. Or that I was hurting you in this way. But the other
thing that can happen is they'll say, no, I don't care what you say. I'm going to keep doing what I want to do. Either by saying that or by living that. So if that's what happens, the second thing happens and they refuse to acknowledge the sin, then the next thing that you do is you say, now I'm going to find two or three trusted people who I've not started the rumor circle with, but who I am, who I am going to, uh, who I'm going to know that I can carry alongside with me. And I'm going
to bring alongside with me and say, this is the issue that we all see in your life. This is what we see going on right now. And so this is the problem. That way there can be witnesses there who can hear the story. Someone besides you, someone besides just your own knowledge. Here's what's going on. And then at that point in time, again, one of two things is going to happen.
They're either going to admit to it or they're going to continue to live in their sin. And if they continue to live in their sin, then it has to be dealt with in a very, public way, either ostracized from the church or dealt with, with the church. And Jesus says, because where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm right there in their midst. Now I know that we always use that for God answering our prayers verse, right? But that's not
the context of that verse. Yes. God is with you in the midst when two or three people are praying together. But what he really means by that verse in its context is that when two or three are gathered together, they carry with them the authority to live in their sin. And so that's authority of the scripture and the Holy Spirit and that confrontation that needs to take place.
And brothers and sisters, if we would put these things into practice, we would have much fewer issues in our culture today. We would have much fewer issues in our church today, but no one's putting these things into practice. Instead, what we're doing is we're just allowing sin to take place, or we're allowing accusations to take place that have no backing behind them. But we, we again have seen a really unfortunate thing take, place within the Christian community again. And that's that, that there's been a, um, a Christian
musician, a Christian artist who has, who has owned up to some very grotesque sins in his life. The guy that was the lead singer of the Newsboys and also of DC Talk, his name's Michael Tate. And, um, and it's come out that there's been some really ugly sin in his life for a really long time. And I understand that that happens in people's lives. And I'll be honest, he put out a letter
that it was incredibly humble. And, and incredibly repentant. And I, I do hope that, that God eventually does a work in him to, to truly bring him back to where he's supposed to be in his faith. But what really got me is a, a snippet of an article. I didn't read enough of it to confirm it, so I'll just reference it without giving names. A snippet of an article of another Christian singer
who has now come out and said everybody knew about it for a long time. And I go, why? Why did everybody know about it for a long time and nobody dealt with it? Why did everybody know about it for a long time and nobody confronted him? Why did everybody know it for a long time and nobody told him you either stop or you get out? Because that's what's got to happen in those situations. Because I'm here to tell you right now,
when somebody who has an influence, especially over young people, gets in that sort of a situation where the sin that they're living in is so grotesque that it's not only going to bring about probably legal issues for him, but counseling for everybody that he was involved with, somebody's got to step up and say either stop or get out. Because if we won't do that, then we don't hold holiness the way that it's supposed to be held. And I can completely understand why the rest of the world goes, why do I want anything to do with the church? They're just as bad as the world is. And I can sleep in on Sundays.
We've got to start putting the Bible into practice in our lives. We've got to start putting the Bible into practice in church. And listen, it's not easy, but it's what we have to do. And so, back to 1 Timothy. So he tells him, an accusation better have two to three witnesses, but if they're sin, it needs to be dealt with, even in a very public sort of a way. But then he gives Timothy an interesting exhortation after he gives him this instruction.
He says,
Do nothing in a spirit of partiality. This is the second time in this letter. that Paul has had to exhort Timothy to do the hard thing that he told him to do, if not maybe the third time. Do the hard thing that he told him to do. Why does he have to exhort Timothy to do this? Again, I'm gonna project a little bit of myself on Timothy right now because every time I read the pastoral epistles
or anything about Timothy, I think of myself because I'm a timid person too. I don't like confrontation. I don't like dealing with things like that. And I think that that's the way that Timothy was. And Timothy was a pretty young guy dealing with maybe more seasoned saints. And so he had to tell him, Timothy, you have to do the hard thing. I know you don't wanna do the hard thing.
I know it's not fun to do the hard thing, but you have to do the hard thing because if you don't do the hard thing now, it'll get worse later. If you don't do the hard thing right now, then you'll have to deal with even worse things later, which is what we're seeing in the church right now. No one dealt with the hard thing early. And so now we're dealing with detrimentally hard things now, right?
He says, you have to do the hard thing. And as he gives him this exhortation, he says, I call God to do the hard thing. I call God into account and all of the saints and all of the chosen angels, I solemnly charge you, do this, don't let it slide. Put these things into practice. And he tells him two ways to put them into practice, without bias and without partiality.
The word bias could also be translated prejudice, without prejudice and without partiality. What does he mean by that? Well, it means you can't enforce them on people you don't like and not enforce them on people that you do. You have to do all things without partiality. It's easy to exercise church discipline on somebody you don't like, right? But just remember, being obnoxious
doesn't mean that you're living in sin. It just means that you're obnoxious, right? We can't exercise church discipline on you because you're annoying. Otherwise, I'd have had it exercised on me a lot when I was a teenager. But he says it has to be without bias and it has to be without partiality. But the other aspect of it is you can't not deal with people
just because you like them. You can't not deal with people just because they're the nice guy. You can't not deal with people just because they do something for your church. Just because they're the biggest giver in your church or things like that. You can't show partiality. The Bible speaks clearly and often about the problem of partiality. That sometimes we want to show
the people that can do something for us all of this kindness and the people that can't do something for us we want to completely ignore. James says, isn't it terrible to think that one would come into your assembly who was in the church in need and destitute of daily food and you tell them to go sit at the back while the person with all of the money you tell them to come sit towards the front. These things ought not to be. He says it has to be done without partiality.
And so he tells them, he says, number one, leaders are to be shown honor. Number two, they're to be held with accountability. But the third thing that he tells them is that we are to deal with life with purity. Notice what he says in verse 22. He says, Don't lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others. Keep yourself free from sin.
No longer drink water exclusively but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and for your frequent ailments. The sins of some men are evident going before them to judgment. For others their sins follow after and likewise also deeds that are good are quite evident and those which are otherwise can't be conceived. As he addresses this issue of purity, he's going to give him four commands.
The first thing he's going to tell him is, don't be hasty. Don't be hasty. He says, Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily for in doing so you will be a partaker of their sin. What does he mean by that? Well, I think there's two things that he means by that. The first thing he means by that is, don't appoint leaders too quickly. Take time to make sure you know who they are.
One of the lessons I learned very early on after becoming the pastor here is that it was okay to take my time to do things. You know, people tell you, well, you need to do this. You need to do this. You need to make this happen. And I started thinking about all these things that I needed to do and people that need to be put in places and stuff that needed to happen
and I started getting myself really stressed out. And I'll never forget the Lord telling me, Ryan, you have all the time in the world. Just slow down. And so from that moment on, I've not gotten in a hurry about things to the best of my ability. Sometimes I fail and I jump the gun a little bit, but I've tried really hard not to get in a hurry about things because I've learned that if I will just relax
and let God do things, if I will just sit back and prayerfully pursue things and watch God do things, that he's a lot better at it than I am. Because one of the things that you learn is it's a whole lot easier to wait and make the right decision than to make the wrong decision and have to undo it later. That's one of the things that you learn is that if you make the wrong decision early, you got to go back and deal with it later. And so he says, don't be hasty about those things.
And so one of the things that I do is I watch people and I watch people with the way they live their lives and with the way they handle their families and with the way they handle their business and their jobs and things like that. And that not being hasty means take your time to make sure that you know people before you put them in a ministry. But the second part of that don't be hasty is don't be hasty to restore those. Don't be hasty to restore those who have fallen into sin.
Don't be hasty to restore them back into ministry. Now, I'm going to be really honest with you and say that I think one of the greatest, one of the neatest things about what God does is that God takes broken people and he does amazing things with their lives. God takes broken people who have fallen as far as you possibly can and he heals them and he restores them and he puts them in positions where they are able to use their story to minister to all kinds of people. I think one of the greatest examples of this is Peter, right?
Peter found himself in the place where he denied that he even knew Jesus three times. And so Jesus, remember we went through this chapter not long after Easter. And Jesus went through this process where he restored Peter and he brought him back. And he brought him back into ministry and he told him go and feed my sheep, tend my lambs, feed my flock. And he sent him out and Peter would go on
to become a pillar of God. And he would become a pillar of God. And he would become a pillar of God. And he would become a pillar of God. And he would become a pillar of God. And he would become a pillar of the early church. He would go on to give the first message after the day of Pentecost where 3,000 people get saved. He will go on to be the first one to deliver
the message of the gospel to the Gentiles. And he would be the one who would be the pillar that they would all look to in that early church. But in order for him to be in that place, he first of all had to be restored from that brokenness. And listen, God is so good at this because what he does is he takes people that have fallen into sin and he restores them and he heals them.
And it's such a cool thing to see because when someone is restored from falling into sin, every bit of their ministry, every bit of their life, every bit of who they are now operates from a place of humility that it would have never operated from before. I've watched God do this with people. And it's so neat to see what God's able to do, that God is able to take the most broken, fallen people who have fallen into things that you and I go, well, that's pretty bad. God takes them.
He heals them. He restores them. And then he uses them. And that story, that process becomes the place of humility that they minister from. And God uses them so effectively in so many powerful ways. And that's what God does. But one of the things that we're really bad about as the church in general is that we're really bad about seeing someone reach a point
where God does a work in their life and then we immediately shove them back into ministry. We're really good at this when celebrities get saved. Have you ever noticed that? Like we see a celebrity get saved and we're like, hot dog, put that guy in ministry, right? And pretty soon we want them out there because they can be the face of the church and everybody gets excited.
And it's like, dude, their life literally just got healed from garbage. You need to give them some time, some time to restore, some time to heal, some time to recover so that they can handle. Remember what we said ministry is? Ministry is pressure. What happens when you put somebody back into ministry too soon? The pressure becomes great. And what do they do?
They default to. They default back to what I call their comfort sin. The thing that they fall back to all the time because it's terrible comfort, but we have that emotional support comfort sin that we like to go back to. And if we put them in that place too soon, they'll default back to that. One of the great examples of this is the guy that was the lead guitar player for Korn.
His name's Brian Head Welch. Man, I even looked up the name of the book in between the service and I totally forgot what it was again. Oh, I can see the picture on the cover. It's him doing this. He's got the tattoos on his fingers and the long hair and can't think of the words right now. Anyway, I wrote a great book about it. Just look up Brian Head Welch.
It's not the one about when he gets saved. It's the one about after he got saved. And everybody told him, well, now you need to be a Christian artist and you need to go into Christian music and you need to start writing Christian music now. After all, you're saved. And he began to be so overwhelmed with the pressure that everyone was putting onto him that he almost relapsed
and went back into all of the same garbage. And he realized he just had to shut it all down for a little while because he wasn't really doing it. He wasn't ready yet. He wasn't ready to be in that position to have that kind of pressure to be in that place because it takes time. And we have to give people time. Brothers and sisters, I love the way God heals people
and he restores people and he uses people. But we do have to give them the time necessary. We don't want to lay hands on too hastily. Why? Because if they fall back into that sin, we become partakers with that sin. And so he says, first of all, don't be hasty. Number two, he says, keep yourself free from sin. End of verse 22. Keep yourself free from sin. That word keep is a pretty interesting word.
It means to exercise a careful watch. To exercise a careful watch. Why do we need to exercise a careful watch over ourselves? Well, there's a couple of reasons why. First of all, if you're just, man, you're just a believer in Jesus Christ. You have no position in leadership, ministry, nothing else. You're just a believer in Jesus Christ. You just need to know Satan hates every bit of you.
And he would love more than anything to destroy you. And the way that he would love to destroy you is through sin. So that when your life falls into sin, all of the rest of the world can blaspheme against God because your life fell into sin. And he's after you every single day. He's looking for chinks in your armor. He's looking for weak spots. He's looking for areas where he can destroy you,
where he can get into your life, get a foothold in your life, and absolutely destroy you. That's just because he's looking for you. That's just because he's looking for you. because you love Jesus. Now, put yourself in a position where you're now a leader. And it's not just your life and the handful of lives around you that are affected by it. It's a whole church
that's affected by it, potentially an entire community that's affected by it. And in Paul's case, a whole world is affected by it. He says, you have to exercise careful watch over yourself, because if you can take down a pastor, you can take down a church, and you can take down a community, and lives will be destroyed, and the gospel will be marred because of what takes place. And so he says, you have to exercise a careful watch over yourself. Again, it's interesting
because this is the second time he's told Timothy to keep a watch over himself. It's almost like it's a really important thing for him to pay attention to. There's a fantastic book. It's called Lectures to My Students by C.H. Spurgeon. And the very first chapter of Lectures to My Students is called The Minister's Self-Watch. And the entire chapter, or as the case is, lecture
that he gave to his seminary students was based upon this, that you have to keep a careful watch over yourself. And so he says, you have to exercise a careful watch over yourself. Because the enemy is coming after you in every way possible. And if the enemy is going to come after you in every way possible, then you have to watch for all of the potential pitfalls around you.
How do you keep a careful watch over yourself? You keep a careful watch over yourself, first of all, by being in God's word consistently, so that your mind is constantly being purified, so that the picture of holiness is put before you, not just the picture of sin. So be in God's word constantly. But also you keep a careful watch over yourself by paying attention to the other things that come in, and constantly running them through the filter of God's word. Does this meet the test? Does this
stand up to the test of the filter of God's word? But the last way that you keep a watch over yourself is you'd better surround yourself with people. People who will help you. People who will mentor you. People who will disciple you. People who will ask you the questions that nobody else will. I praise God for the friends that I have in my life that ask me the questions I don't like to
get asked. Yes, I'm struggling with that right now. Thank you for reminding me of that. Will you pray with me? Yes, this is the answer. I'm struggling with that right now. Thank you for reminding me of the area I'm struggling with. Yes, this is the discouragement, the depression, whatever it is that I'm battling right now. Can you pray with me? Because we need those people in our lives
keeping watch over us. There's pro athletes, celebrities. They hire these people in their lives. They're called lifestyle managers. Do you know that? That's an entire job that you can have. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to be a lifestyle manager for a celebrity where they get to tell them, no, you can't buy that pair of shoes. No, you can't do that because that looks bad for
your image. But they hire these people. And the reason they hire these people is because somebody has to watch out for them because they don't know how to watch out for themselves. That's the idea that Paul says here. Keep a careful watch over yourself. And what is he supposed to keep himself from? He's supposed to keep himself from sin. Let me read this to you in a couple of other translations. He says,
keep yourself pure. Keep yourself upright. Keep yourself honorable. That's the idea that he gives us here. Keep yourself pure, upright, and honorable by keeping yourself from sin. That means that that emotional support sin that you always like to fall back on, it's time to put it to death. That secret area that you have in your life that you don't let anybody else in on, let somebody else in on it
and then put it to death. Those areas of your life that are your constant default, they're your coping mechanisms that aren't very godly. It's time to cut those off. Oh, you don't know how to do that. You don't understand. I just have to do this a little bit every now and then because it's how I cope with the pressure. It's how I cope with the stress. That's not a good way to cope with the
stress. It's not a good way to cope with the pressure. You better find a different way because that's sin. Keep yourself pure. So he says, don't be hasty. Keep yourself pure. Number three, he says, don't be legalistic. He says, no longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. We put this in the category,
verses that have been abused over the years. I don't know how many people have come to me like, like, you know, Paul told Timothy to drink wine. Yeah, well, you know, Timothy had an amoeba in his stomach. I think that's what was going on right there, right? Like there was an issue that Timothy had with his stomach. We have to understand Paul already dealt with the alcohol thing, so I'm not
going to deal with that again. You can go back and listen to that if you want to. Most of you know where I stand on that, but I'm going to present it to you the way that I think Paul intends for it to be presented here at this point in time. Again, I'm going to project just a little bit on Timothy because I think he and I share a pretty similar temperament and personality. I think Timothy was
a decently legalistic sort of guy, not because he felt like he needed to do things to earn God's favor, but because he wanted so badly to do everything right that sometimes he was a little too hard on himself. I think that's probably how Timothy was, and so he was a complete abstainer from alcohol because he knew it wouldn't help him in his ministry, and he thought it would stumble other people, but he lived in a culture where the water was really bad, and there was parasites in the water, and it would cause stomach issues for people, right? Like if you've ever been on a missions trip down to Mexico, you know the first thing they tell you is don't drink the water, right? And that's
why is because there's those kinds of things that go on down there as well. I remember when I lived in Southern California, and we'd have groups come back from missions trips. They would always affectionately refer to it as monosumma's revenge. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that from the pulpit or not, but that's what happens when you get that whole thing situation going on with the parasite in your stomach, and so because of that, oftentimes what doctors would tell them at that point in time is you should drink water. You should drink water. You should drink water. You should drink
a little bit of wine. That was never full-strength wine. According to everybody that I've ever read, secular and Christian, they always say that only barbarians at that point in time drank full-strength wine. Everybody else drank a wine that was mixed three parts wine, two parts water. It was always watered down just a little bit, and so that wine would have a medicinal
effect upon his stomach, but because Timothy was a little bit legalistic, because he struggled with not wanting to do something that would stumble somebody else, he was having constant stomach issues. He was always sick, and Paul said, Timothy, quit being so legalistic. Listen to what the doctor says and take a little bit of wine for your stomach. It's a medicinal thing at this point in time. I actually think what this speaks to more than anything is
those of you that struggle with wanting to take your prescription medications because you think, but I thought God was supposed to heal me. I thought God was supposed to be the one that did that. Some of y'all battle anxiety, and you are on legitimate anti-anxiety medications, and you feel condemned about it. You're not supposed to be the one that did that. You're supposed to be the one that did that.
Because you think, well, God's supposed to be the one that heals me of the anxiety. Why am I having to take these medicines? Listen, there's no condemnation in that, okay? Don't be legalistic. Listen to what the doctor has to say. Some of you have to take antidepressants, and you feel condemned about it, because you genuinely have an issue that is a chemical issue in your body,
and you have to take these antidepressants, and because you're legalistic, you always live feeling condemned about it, because after all, if the joy of the Lord is my strength, why do I have to take antidepressants? Take a little wine for your stomach. Take the antidepressants. In our culture today, unfortunately, what's happened is we've now swung the opposite direction, or we're swinging the opposite direction, and now nobody wants to listen to a doctor. Doctors are
all dumb, right? Like, this is the general tenor I feel in the world right now. Doctors don't know anything. They just prescribe medicines. Don't listen to your doctor. All you need is essential oils and sourdough bread, right? As long as you have those two things, you can live your life and be healthy. Just take your vitamins, right? And listen, somewhere in the middle of that's a
good balance. You can take your vitamins, right? And listen, somewhere in the middle of that's a good balance. Right? Like, yeah, we don't want to just over-medicate everybody in the world, but also, every now and then, it's okay, right? Like, don't be so legalistic about things. Listen to your doctors. They did go to school. Sometimes they know what they're talking about. And so he tells
them, don't be so legalistic with things. If it's going to help you, use it. And so he says, don't be hasty. Keep yourself from sin. Don't be legalistic. And then number four, be discerning. So the sins of some men are quite evident. And they go before them to judgment. For others, the sins follow after. Likewise, also, deeds that are good are quite evident. Some people,
you have no problem saying the areas of sin in their life because they almost wear it like a badge of honor. And it just goes before them. And you go, yep, that person has issues. I can see it all over them and the way that they live their life. And then other people are really good at hiding it. They're really good at being something that they're not. Until that one moment happens that who they really are comes out. He says, you need to use
discernment in the way that you handle people. And you need to use discernment in the way that you handle leaders. Because some people are going to forecast for you all of the areas of sin that they have in their life. And you can spot them from a mile away. But more often than not, the sins of other people appear later. And I've watched this happen. Where somebody starts off and they're
gung-ho and they're excited. And you're like, wow, that person's so gifted and great. And then you see the sin show up. And you're like, oh, that person's so good. And then you're like, oh, that that's too bad. But the same is true with good deeds. You can't hide good deeds. You can't hide the good part of who you are either. As a matter of fact, I summed it all up with this. It's hard
to hide who you really are. It's hard to hide who you really are. And so it takes discernment in order to see those things. And he says, be discerning. Allow that Holy Spirit of discernment to do its work in your heart. And so he tells them, if you want to handle leadership faithfully, do it with honor, do it with accountability, and do it with purity. Amen?
I want to share one last thing. Hey, I almost wrapped up the exact same time. I want to share one last thing with you. And I saved it for the end with both services because I wanted to make sure that I had the time for it. But the world keeps going a little bit crazy on us. And I'm sure most of you know because probably most of you got alerts on your phones and things
like that. But last night, the United States of America sent planes over and they bombed three different spots in Iran. I think they dropped six different bunker-busting bombs on them. And listen, I'm in full support. I'm just going to be honest with you because we have to support Israel. And we have to support whether you eschatologically, however you feel, we have
to defend our one ally in that region. But eschatologically, I feel like, that means end times, by the way. Israel is God's chosen people based on everything that I read in Scripture. And God says, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. But I know what happens in situations like this. After what happened with Israel last week and now after what's happened with Iran this
week, I know what we do. And I mentioned it last week too, but I'm just going to keep warning you is now all of the people are starting to pull out all of their, well, this is probably when the rapture is going to happen. And this is probably this battle. This might be this battle. Maybe. I mean, you know, know your word, know the Bible, know what prophecy has to say, but maintain your focus.
I mean, I will beat this drum until the day that I go home to be with Jesus, which hopefully is sooner than later with all of you at the same time. But we have to maintain the focus. I was just reading in Acts in chapter one. I love that portion of Acts chapter one, when Jesus is just about to ascend into heaven. He's standing there with his disciples, who, by the way, also saw
massive amounts of prophecy fulfilled right in front of their eyes. And they're going, this must be it. This is going to establish the kingdom. And if anybody thought that should have happened, it should have been them because so many of those prophecies run so closely together. So they look at Jesus right before he ascends into heaven. And they're like, are you going to, at this time, restore the kingdom? Jesus looks at his disciples and he says,
it's not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the father has put into motion. You go and you tarry in Jerusalem, wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then you go and look around.
Jesus, whether Jesus is coming today or a thousand years, from now, we still have to point people to Jesus because that's the point of all of it. And so what you need to do is you need to ask for that power of the Holy Spirit to be on you, just like the disciples were supposed to. And then you need to be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the other most parts of the earth and your job and your home and our city and Cali County and the other most parts of the earth, right? Be witnesses in all of those places because we have to understand some things. Living in Iran right now is an incredible number of Christians.
The church in Iran is strong. It may be small, but it's strong. And they have nothing to do with building nuclear bombs, right? They have nothing to do with any of that stuff. And we need to pray for them because they're caught in the middle of a war they don't want any part of. There are believers in Jesus Christ living in Israel that are probably a little freaked out right now
about what's going on. There are believers in Jesus Christ living in Ukraine and Russia that are a little freaked out about what's going on right now. There are believers in Jesus Christ living in the United States of America. They're a little freaked out about what's going on right now. And we need to pray for those people. We need to pray because God wants to pour out his spirit in revival again. I still believe it.
God wants to do a work and he wants to use us to do it. But if we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off about prophecy and not keeping the focus of prophecy, which is Jesus, then we'll just turn people away. So maintain your focus on Jesus and keep pointing everybody else to Jesus because we are called to be witnesses. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I thank you
and I praise you for your word. Lord, I thank you as always for practical instructions. But Lord, I also thank you for the grace of God that not only brings salvation, but brings sanctification, restoration, and everything else that we need in our lives. And so Lord, may we focus on that grace now. Lord, may we continue to turn our eyes upon Jesus and turn the eyes of those that are
around us on Jesus. And may we continue, Lord, to know you more and more. And we just pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.
I was lost. I was running. Sin separated far too wide. From the farce of divide. Left behind. For the first time I took my place. Just thank you for the, thank you for the, just thank you for the work the Holy Spirit's doing for us. Just ask that as we leave here today, Lord, God, that you just, your Holy Spirit go with us and continue to minister to us. Father, we love you and we praise you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.