Faithful Leadership Pt 1

Yeah, where they're doing everything and the harmonica.

How'd you put that all together? I think they're AI.

All right. Good morning. I'm glad you all are here. Good to see everybody. I just want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started. And Father, we just thank you for another day, Lord. Thank you for allowing us to be here in your house this morning, Lord. And Lord, may we just lift a joyful noise to you, God, because you're worthy of all of our praise, Lord.

Lord, your word says that even if we don't, even the rocks would cry out, Lord God. Lord, you're worthy of all of our praise, Lord. So just help us to use the breath that you've given us this morning to give you that praise. And Father, we ask your blessing upon this time. May your word go out with power in Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen. Make straight a highway.

The sinner, wake up the saints.

We anxiously await your return, Lord. You want to have a seat if you'd like.

I see it. You see my victory.

All I see, you see. The shadow that surrounds me.

And you say. Before we sing this next song, I just want to come to you this morning. I just want to thank you, Lord, for the blood that you spilled out on the cross. Lord, it's because of that blood, Lord, that we're able to have redemption. Be declared right. That our sins are wiped away, God. And that we have new life. So, God, we just thank you for willingly spilling your blood.

May Jesus be the saviors of your mind. God, we just thank you for the promise that we have in you. A promise for forgiveness and for redemption, Lord. A promise for an eternity with you, Lord. God, we just thank you and we praise you. We shout our praises to you this morning, God. And as Pastor Ryan comes this morning, Lord, I just pray that you would overflow.

Him with your Holy Spirit, God. Give him the words to speak and give us ears to hear. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning.

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 have joined us this morning. A couple of things to take note of in your bulletin. As always, on the left-hand side, the things that are going on throughout the week. Middle section, not much new going on there. I guess there's really not much to talk about this morning. I do have a new memory verse in there for you.

Titus chapter 2, verses 11 and 12 kind of encompasses, I feel like, the theme of Titus. So, but those are the things that are going on. It's almost school time. Well, for some of you, it is school time. And then this week is school time. So, we figure everybody's getting in the swing of things. So, those are the things that are happening. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced.

And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 47. Psalm 47, as usual, looking at the New American Standard for this. If you need a copy, should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 47, 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 47, for the choir director, a psalm of the sons of Korah. Oh, clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with the voice of joy. For the Lord Most High is to be feared. For the Lord Most High is to be feared. For the Lord Most High is to be feared. For the Lord Most High is to be feared. A great King over all the earth. He subdues people under us and nations under our feet.

He chooses our inheritance for us. The glory of Jacob, whom He loves. Selah. God has ascended with a shout. The Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises. For God is King of all the earth. Sing praises with a skillful psalm. God reigns over the nations. God sits on His holy throne. And read verse 9 with me.

The prince of the people have assembled themselves as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is highly exalted. And, Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we've had this morning to sing your praises. And, Lord, as we continue to worship you through the study of your word, I just ask that your Holy Spirit would be a work in here this morning.

Lord, work in our hearts. lord giving us understanding father ministering to us the things that we need to learn from you and i pray god that you would give us a heart that could take in everything that your spirit has for us this morning in jesus name amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your bibles to the book of titus chapter one titus chapter one well last week we uh went over just an introduction to titus we were introduced not only to paul once again but we were introduced to titus uh as one who had been left there on the island of crete to do uh to do some work there and so so today we start into the first of of some series that we'll have on faithfulness and and

titus very much mirrors timothy in a lot of ways as far as the book is concerned so this is again going to be a little bit of a repeat for us but that's okay it's always good to be reminded of these things and so as we as we look at chapter one we're going to entitle chapter one faithful faithful leadership and we'll cover the first part of it today and so so what i'd like to do is just read through the rest of the chapter and then we'll go through and start talking about it it says in verse 5 of titus chapter 1 for this reason i left you in crete that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as i directed you namely if any man is above

reproach the husband of one wife having children who believe and not accused of dissipation or rebellion for the overseer must be above reproach as god's steward not self-willed not quick-tempered not addicted to wine not pugnacious not fond of sordid gain but hospitable loving what is good sensible just devout self-controlled holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refuse those who contradict for there are many rebellious men empty talkers and deceivers especially those of the circumcision who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families teaching things

that they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain one of themselves a prophet of their own said cretans are always liars evil beasts and lazy gluttons this testimony is true for this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in faith not paying attention to their nature and their religion this testimony should only be a testimony of the first and last time i've thought about my life here i think it was the worst of all my erودism is that i have an ulterior motive that's being built upon me that i have to keep thinking about what's going on in life and that i've been confused with in the past and i've been thinking too much about my life that's what's going on in my life

i've been thinking about how i've been trapped in my mind that i've been wronged by the laws of life and i've been told they're making me see them as someone who is not human and i'm just going to keep my faith as whatever that is but it's my faith that i'm not going to keep things he's going to teach him in this chapter. He's going to tell Titus what his purpose there is. He's going to talk about the qualifications for good leaders. And then the third thing, which we will not get to this morning, is he is going to discuss the necessity of good leadership.

But the first thing that he does is he tells Titus his purpose. He's given this introduction to this letter and said, you know, God's grace and God's peace be with you. And then he goes into this purpose. Look at verse 5. It says, for this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Now, we discussed

last week that the founding of the churches in Crete probably took place sometime after Paul's Roman imprisonment, which you see at the very end of the book of Acts. Because this particular ministry is not referenced in the book of Acts, so we think it had to have taken place in the book of Acts. So, we think it had to have taken place in the book of Acts. And Titus was probably alongside him in this ministry. After all, Paul had referred to him as

a faithful brother, one who had a like mind and a like heart in ministry like him. So, probably Titus accompanied him in his time there in Crete as they preached the gospel and established churches. But because Paul was a visionary missionary, I just came up with that just now. I felt really good about that. I felt good when it came out of my mouth, a visionary missionary.

Somebody write that down. Write that down and remind me of it later. Because he was that type of a person, he was always on the move looking for the next place where God would have him to be used. After all, his philosophy in ministry, according to the book of Romans, is that he would build on no other man's foundation other than what the Holy Spirit had done for him. So, he was a pioneer when it came to this

sort of work. And so, he moves on. And what he does is he leaves Titus. And now he writes him this instructional letter and he says, this is the reason why I left you behind. He said, I left you behind so that you could set in order the churches that are there. Set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city. That phrase, set in order, is kind of an interesting phrase. Some

translations say that it means to set right. But Warren Wiersbe in his commentary said this, the phrase set in order is a medical term that is often used for the setting of a broken limb. In other words, something is broken and it needs to be restored. You need to set in, order that which has been broken so that it can operate and function properly. You see, Crete was a

little bit of a rough place to be. That island was a rough place to be. After all, once again, we read at the end of this chapter that these are some rough individuals that he had been sent to. Some rough people that had been established as a church. And while they were believers, they still were having issues and they needed to be set right. And so, Titus was given this

difficult job and a difficult place to be the one who would set in order the churches that are there. Titus was given this difficult job and a difficult place to be the one who would set in order that which was out of order. That he would set right that which had been kind of wrong. That he would set the broken limb so that it could be as strong as possible in order to be a true place of the gospel on the island of Crete.

I think it was David Guzik in his commentary that said this. He said, there are some people that say, if that's all we've got to send, I don't know if we want to send him. And then there's other people that you say, if that's all we've got to send, then he's the right guy to send. And that's what it was with Titus. He was the sort of man that is like, he's the

only guy for the job, and he's the right guy for the job. But he told him, he said, you need to set right the things that are there. Set in order what remains. And then he told him, appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Appoint elders in every city. In other words, he was supposed to establish a system of leadership in all of the churches and all of the cities throughout the

island of Crete. And listen, this is important. It would be wonderful if we could just say, we just want to be a little small home group, and one person is going to lead it, and everything's going to be great. But the problem is, as a church grows, as people grow, there has to be leadership in place. Because where there is no leadership, everybody does what they want to do. After all,

what's the theme of the book of Judges? In those days, there was no king in the land, and everyone did that which was right in their own eyes. Because when left to ourselves, we have a tendency to default to the easiest things. We have a tendency to get away from the things that we want to do. We have a tendency to get away from the baseline, to get away from the standard, and start to do kind

of whatever we want to do. And so he was supposed to establish faithful leadership in these churches so that they would stick as closely to the Word of God as they possibly could and continue to do the work that needed to be done. And so what he does is, just like in 1 Timothy, he lays out these qualifications of what it looks like to be a leader. Now, before we get into this, I want to make a couple of comments. Again, I stole this out of David Guzik. I thought it was really good. He

said,

And then I added this last part because according to all of the commentaries that I read in quite a bit of time in ministry now, I've understood that this is not a list that demands perfection, but it is a list of qualifications that demands perfection. attention. And you may be sitting here thinking to yourself right now, I'm never going to be an elder in a church. I don't want to be an elder in a church. That's okay. These are still really good

godly characteristics to pay attention to. They are godly characteristics that we should be able to hold leadership accountable to. And they are godly characteristics that if you are to be any sort of a leader, should be in your life and in your character. So we look at these, and there's 16 of them. I told Nick not to make 16 different slides because I figured that would make him a

lot happier. So you're just going to have to follow along in your Bible with this list. I promise I'm not going to borrow too many other words from my own thinking. So if you go, what was that last one again? You can just look down at the Bible and go, oh, that's right. It's that one. So hang with me. Everybody with me? We good so far? All right. 16 characteristics of a good

elder. He starts off by saying, namely, if any man is, number one, above reproach. Above reproach. That word above reproach could also be translated blameless. Blameless. And the idea of the word is this. The idea of the word blameless or above reproach is nothing that which can be taken a hold of. Nothing that which can be held on to. In other words, it doesn't mean that you're a perfect

individual. It means that you have kept all of your accounts short. That there is no accusation that can be made against you that can have any sort of a standing. Because either A, you have already dealt with the issue in your life. Or B, you have already dealt with the issue in your life. Or C, you have already dealt with the issue in your life. Or D, you have already dealt with the

issue in your life. Or B, it's a false accusation. Someone who is above reproach. Someone who is beyond the ability to be able to be blamed for lots of things in life. And quite frankly, as believers in Jesus Christ, while before coming to Christ, we were known for all sorts of sins in our lives. After we come to Christ, those should begin to become part of our past life, not a part of our

current life. And so there should be a blamelessness or an above reproach aspect to our lives. And it's a good reminder for all of us that you have to keep your accounts with people short. That you have to keep your accounts with God short. That if there are issues that arise in your life, you own up to them, you deal with them, and then you move on. In every great hero movie, usually there's somebody

who knows some deep, dark secret about the hero, right? We've all kind of seen this happen. And they hold this secret kind of over their head the entire time. And they're like, oh, if anybody finds out this about your past, you're going to be in trouble. And they're like, oh, if anybody finds out this about your past, you're going to be in really big trouble. And you know the time when

they find the most freedom, when the hero finally finds freedom, is when he owns up to his past, confesses what he's done, and then all of a sudden now, no one can hold anything against him. And the power that that individual had over him, he no longer has, because now he's living a life that is above reproach. Does that kind of make sense? That's the idea of a leader. Namely, number one,

he is to be above reproach. Number two, he is to be the husband of one wife. He is to be the husband of one wife. Now, this has often been misinterpreted. Usually, these are the misinterpretations that are given. Number one, if you're not married, you can't be an elder. Well, that would have automatically disqualified Paul and Jesus, right? Because they weren't married. Therefore, they probably should not have been able to be

elders. And we don't think that that's the case. And so it doesn't mean that you have to be married to be an elder. The second thing that a lot of people say is that, well, if you've ever been divorced, you can never be an elder. And that's not the case. And that's not the case. And that's in a church and and that's not necessarily true either because if it was a biblical divorce or

even something that has now been dealt with the issue has been dealt with and it's been confessed it's been uh repented of and moved on i don't believe that that according to scripture holds you back from being able to hold the position of an elder so so if those aren't the two misinterpretations what's the correct interpretation well the correct interpretation is that he is a one woman man in other words he has his wife and he is dedicated to his wife and that means a couple of different things as far as our thinking in paul's culture remember that he's writing to polygamy was very much common at that point in time having more than one wife was not an uncommon

thing and if one came to christ and now they've got multiple marriages they've got issues that they've got to deal with at that point in time but probably shouldn't be an elder in a church because because they are living in polygamy which is not god's plan and so paul was writing to a culture that was just a one-woman man and he was dedicated to his wife and he is dedicated to his wife and he is dedicated to his wife and he is dedicated to his wife and he is dedicated to his wife used to that this is a pretty groundbreaking statement for an elder to have to be a one-woman man at this point because they're like whoa that's a pretty serious situation in a culture that glorified polygamy but the second thing that's true for us because while polygamy is

not allowed in our culture not even in the state of utah as far as i'm concerned um while polygamy is not actually allowed in the culture there can be those who aren't a one-woman man whether because you're keeping someone on the side or because your eyes are always for someone else that's disqualification for being an elder the idea is someone who is devoted to their wife wholeheartedly devoted to their wife and can i just say men can i address all of us in this room right now that are men for just a moment we should all be a one-woman man we we live in in a culture where everything that your eyes could want to see are available constantly and as men we need to make sure that our eyes are only for our wives and if you're in this room

this morning and you're not married, then your eyes need to be on no one else's wife. Then your eyes need to not be for anyone else's woman because that's not what God would call you to be. Purity is what God desires for us. Purity in the inward parts, not just what we do on the outside, but even the condition of our heart. And in the culture that we live in today that

seems to glorify sex to a level that I didn't even know was possible. I remember being a teenager and thinking, wow, we live in a pretty corrupt culture. And now I look back to the 90s and go, wow, we call that an innocent time now because of the way that culture is now, right? And it's just the way that it is in the world that we live in. And there is a calling for us as men. And the

calling for us as men is to be above reproach in this area, that we would be those whose eyes would only be for the one that God has given to us. That our eyes and our hearts and our desires would only be for the woman that God has given to us. And that's what we're doing. And that's what we're doing. And that's what God has provided for us and not on all of the others. Because I'm here

to tell you right now, if we could address this issue in the church, then we could begin to address this issue in the culture. But until we address this issue in the church, we should not try to address the issue in the culture, because otherwise that makes us hypocrites. And that's what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. And so he says, if you are to be a leader, if you're to be an elder, then you are to be God. And if you're to be an elder, then you are to be

be a husband of one wife, a one-woman man. The next thing he says is that they are to have children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. Not accused of dissipation or rebellion. Can I put this in just a really plain language? You need to have a household that's under control. You need to have a household that's under control. Does that mean your kids are going to be perfect?

Absolutely not. I have two kids, and I love them dearly. They are not perfect, right? And the one that's sitting in here right now is probably like, well, right back at you, Dad. So anyway, it's just all there is to it. You're never going to have perfect kids. Are your kids going to sometimes go against the things of God? Yeah, just like you. But the idea behind this is that you be someone who keeps their

house under control. Listen, it's really hard to put somebody in leadership in a church who can't control their kids in the hallways. It's really hard to put somebody in leadership in a church whose kids are always running wild and seem to never listen to anything. I watch it happen, and I go, it's really hard for me to want to put you in a position of leadership when I'm the one that has to correct your kids.

Because that just can't take place, right? Like, that's not what God has intended. And so there needs to be that place of being under control for a leader. And so he says this is what needs to take place. The next one that he brings up is kind of interesting because he repeats himself, but he adds something to it. Look at verse 7. Verse 7. For an overseer must be above reproach as God's steward.

He repeats the line again. So number 4 is above reproach as God's steward. Now, he not only repeats the idea of being above reproach because it's important, because it is, which, by the way, any time the Bible repeats something, it's a really important thing for us to pay attention to. And so this is the fourth time that the phrase above reproach is repeated for any form of leadership.

Once for elders in the book of 1 Corinthians. Once for deacons in the book of 1 Timothy. The first time for elders in the book of Titus. And now the second time for elders in the book of Titus. Are you getting the idea that being above reproach is a really important thing for us as leaders? That if you want to be in that position, that needs to be who you are.

Someone whose life is exemplary, both on the outside and on the inside. But he adds a caveat to it. Above reproach as a steward. As a steward of God's house. The word steward. Means a household manager. A household manager. It was actually a term for the slave that was the household manager within a home of a wealthy individual at that point in time. And that means something.

I think we have to pay attention to this. Because a household manager never sought to build his own kingdom. A household manager never sought to build his own house. He only implemented the instructions and the order of the owner of the house. And I think that that's where it talks about being above the above reproach this second time is that if you are to be a leader

in a church, you have to realize something. You have to realize that it is God's house that you are building as pastors. We are never supposed to build our own kingdom as elders. We are never supposed to build our own kingdom as church leaders. We are never supposed to build our own kingdom and dad's. I'm going to address you one more time here. Okay, you're not building your own kingdom in your home.

Your job is to build the kingdom of God. You are a steward of God. You are a steward of God's house. Therefore, it's not your job to try to come up with what you think the rules should be. It's not your job to come up with what you think the vision should be. It's your job to hear from God what the vision should be. It's your job to hear from the Lord what the instructions and

the rules are supposed to be. And then implement those within the home. Listen, it takes a whole lot of pressure off of us as leaders. Because at some point in time, you just say, listen, I'm just telling you what God says. If you don't like it, talk to my boss. Because he's the one that gave me the instructions. And we have to remember that. Because it takes all of the pressure off of me.

Listen, I'm not a confrontational person. I don't like to have to tell people that what they're doing is wrong. I don't like to have to even tell people what to do. It's very foreign to me. But I have to in the position that I'm in. And sometimes it's a scary thing and people kind of look at me like, how dare you do that? And all I can say is, talk to my boss.

If you don't like the instructions, talk to God. Because they came out of his book. So you have to take it up with him. But we have to remember that as leaders. That our job is to be a steward of God. And our job is to build the household of God. Not the household of ourselves. Therefore we must be above reproach. As a steward of God's house. Number five. He says that they are to not be self-willed.

Not self-willed. That word self-willed is again kind of interesting. The idea is to be self-centered. Or determined to have your own way. You can't be self-centered or determined to have your own way. Okay. Now those of you who are self-centered. Those two things are kind of fascinating to me. Because if you're going to be a servant of Jesus Christ. He gave us a definition of what that's supposed to be.

Right? If anyone would follow me. He must do what? He must deny himself. He must take up his cross. And he must follow me. Now if I deny myself. Take up my cross and follow Jesus. That gets all of my self-centeredness out of the way. And that gets all of my self-determination out of the way. Because I have completely abandoned. My own desires. I have completely abandoned my own way.

And I am now following Jesus. Which is why if you're going to be a leader. You can't be self-willed. Because the two don't go together. They are very different things. You see. One of the hardest things to understand about being a leader. That God wants us to be. As opposed to a leader that the world says we should be. Is the world says. You're a leader. Take control.

The Bible says. You're a leader. Give up control. You see. As a leader that God wants us to be. We must first learn to be led. And the person that we must first learn to be led by. Is Jesus Christ. And then we learn to be led by other aspects of authority. Other aspects of authority in our lives. Before I became the pastor here. I served under two other pastors.

I served under Pastor Rick Jardine. Who is home with Jesus now. And I served under Pastor Mark Fry here. Who is home with Jesus now. And I knew that my job. In serving in those situations was two-fold. Number one. Submit myself to God. Number two. Submit myself to what those pastors wanted. It was never my job. To come in and assert my own will. At any point in time in the church.

Because that's not what I was called to do. In that position. I was called to submit myself to authority. And the first part of that. Was to not be self-willed in my relationship with God. And then it was to not be self-willed in my relationship. With my pastor. And so if you're going to be a leader. You can't be self-willed. And you must first learn to be led.

And again. I don't care if you want to be a church leader. Or if you just want to be a human being living life. You need to learn to be led by Jesus. Because if you can't learn to be led by Jesus. Then you will never be able to be. Who God has called for you to be. I read a lot of things about coaches and athletes right now. And you know what the number one thing.

Coaches don't like in an athlete. They don't care how good at a sport you are. They are looking for one thing. Are you coachable? Because you can be the greatest athlete in the world. But if you aren't coachable. If you don't know how to be led by a coach. Then you can't be a part of a team. Because you'll always be useless to a team. Because your self-will.

Will destroy the rest of the team. Because that has a tendency to trickle down. But when you find someone who is coachable. And knows how to be led. They become a leader of others. Because they've learned to submit themselves to authority. And they understand it. He says not self-willed. Number six. He says they are not to be quick-tempered. Not to be quick-tempered.

Of course that's just easily angered. You can't have somebody that's going to fly off the handle. Every single little thing that turns around. You can't have Ray Liotta out there. Who is just constantly flying off the handle at everything. So not quick-tempered. I feel like that one kind of explains itself. Number seven. Not addicted to wine. Now you all know my thoughts on this.

I give them every now and then. Just to make people angry. But the Bible absolutely gives freedom. If you're of age. Because you also have to obey the laws of the land. The Bible absolutely gives freedom for those who want to partake in alcohol. In some sort. The Bible does not give freedom to get drunk. The Bible says don't be drunk with wine. But the Bible also says all things are lawful for me.

But not all things are profitable for me. Now the exact verbiage here. Is not. Given to wine. The idea is not an alcoholic. Not somebody who is getting drunk all the time. And that's the idea. But I would say this. And we had this discussion in men's breakfast yesterday. Which by the way. If you missed men's breakfast yesterday. You missed out on a fantastic time.

We had a great time of fellowship together. But we talked about the fact that our past experiences. Affect our present reality. And one of the things that we talked about. Is alcohol. For me. My past experience of seeing. People that are alcoholics. Just makes me want to stay as far away from it. As I possibly can. Because I've never seen anybody use it in a positive way.

I've only ever seen people falling down drunk. Myself included. And so it's like there's just no good. No good that comes out of it. As far as I'm concerned. I can't be legalistic and tell you that. You're going to go to hell if you drink alcohol. But I can tell you that I don't know that you're going to help your relationship with Jesus Christ. And so he says.

Not given to much wine. Again I know that not everybody agrees with me on that. And that's okay. People are entitled to be wrong. And I'm fine with that. I'm glad you still laugh at that. The next thing it says is not pugnacious. Not pugnacious. Okay can I just take you down Ryan's thought process for just a minute. Listen if you say no I'm going to do it anyway.

So I hope you're okay with this. But every time I hear the word. First of all this is the second time. I've actually used this word. In any sort of sentence right. The first time was in 1 Timothy when it came up a few months ago. But when I hear the word pugnacious. All I can think of is a little. Pug dog right. I just see a little smashed nose. You're welcome.

I'm glad everyone. I'm glad we're all on the same page here. Like I just picture a pugnacious dog. That just looks angry right. Because pugnacious kind of carries the idea of violence with it. Did you know that? The word pugnacious actually means a bruiser or quarrelsome. Doesn't that add a lot of color to a pug right. This pug is just like. Right like come at me.

Anyway you can't be like a pug dog in this particular situation. You can quote that. Don't write that one down. I don't want to hear it later. But the idea is this. Not violent in action. But also listen. Not violent in speech. And I thought that that was kind of interesting. Because apparently when the Greeks used this word. They carried it even to that extent.

Someone who was not violent in their speech. And I bring that up because we live in a culture where church abuse continues to be exposed. Where abusive speech amongst church leaders continues to be exposed. I think one of the first big ones of course. Was the guy at Mars Hill. I can't think of his name right now. Mark Driscoll. Was one of the first ones that that really came out about.

Where he was being kind of violent in his speech. Man I hope they accuse him of pugnaciousness. Because that would be awesome. It would add a little bit of humor to something that was very tragic in nature. But more and more of that's come out. And listen. We just can't be those people. Are there going to be days where things come out of your mouth that you don't intend?

Absolutely. We can't help that. You got to deal with it. You got to immediately go and deal with that. Especially as a leader. Because your words carry weight. And one of the things I've learned. And I'm in the process of learning. I'm a very sarcastic person. And I've learned that sometimes my sarcasm hurts people's feelings. And that's on me. And I do feel bad about that.

I'd like to say I'm going to stop using sarcasm. But it's so much a part of my nature that I'm not sure that's ever fully going to stop. But I will apologize to you if I've done something or said something that has hurt you. But we have to be careful with our speech. Because that old adage. Like sticks and stones can break my bones. But words can never hurt me.

Like that's the point. That's the most wrong adage. I guarantee you each of us can remember something from a point in time in our life. Probably very early in our life. Something hurtful that someone said to us. That has absolutely altered the way that we think today. And listen. Even you boomers who don't think that that's a thing. Right? Like speech just can't hurt me.

I guarantee there's something that you can look back on. And you can go, yep. That one dinged me. And it has affected the way I've thought about things to this day. And so we have to be careful about the way we handle those things. So he says not pugnacious. Not somebody who is violent in their action or their speech. Or really scary like a pug dog. Number nine.

Not fond of sordid gain. Not fond of sordid gain. Again another thing that has absolutely destroyed pastors. Absolutely destroyed church leaders. And that is the desire to get rich even if it's in a dishonest way. The desire to get rich even if it's in a dishonest way. More and more documentaries come out. I don't always watch all of them. Because some of them kind of throw all Christians in with some of these things.

But that's the unfortunate truth about what happens when church leaders use their platform to make money in a dishonest sort of way. Is it does throw all of us under the bus at that point in time. It's kind of like what Nathan said to David. Like God forgives you but your sins have caused the enemies of God. A reason to blaspheme. And that's what happens in the church with this.

And listen. Billy Graham developed this saying. Amongst all of his guys. Amongst anybody that worked on his ministry. It was the philosophy that he lived by. He said if we are going to be above reproach. And we have to remain above reproach. Because he saw what the ministry was doing. And how the ministry was growing. And how God was going to use it. And he saw someone else fall.

And so he developed this philosophy. Never touch the women. Never touch the money. And never touch the glory. And because of that you never read about a scandal of Billy Graham. Because he remained above reproach in these ways. Because I guarantee as a man. As a human being. All of those temptations came his way. Those temptations to take the glory. To take the money.

And to touch the ladies. All those things came his way. And yet he remained strong. And he had a philosophy that he lived by. And a philosophy that everybody else held him accountable to. And so he says. You can't be fond of sordid gain. You can't be someone who constantly wants to get rich. But you also can't be somebody who wants to get rich. Even if it means being dishonest.

And if you paid attention to us. Reading through the rest of the chapter. You notice that he is going to call out false teachers. Who did what they did for. He uses the exact same phrase. For sordid gain. For getting rich by a dishonest means. And so. He tells them. Beware of that. You can't be somebody who does that. And is in ministry. And is in leadership.

Well now he goes from the negative. And he moves into the positive. Down in verse 8. Because number 10 is that they are to be hospitable. They are to be hospitable. The word hospitable literally means a lover of strangers. A lover of strangers. And I actually just sort of simplified this. I feel like this is okay to do. I don't think I am taking this outside of the bounds.

Of what this word intends. If you are going to be in ministry. You have to love people. If you are going to be in ministry. You have to love people. If you are going to be in leadership. You have to love people. There is this famous saying. And I have heard it since I was a tiny, tiny kid. Because I have been a part of a family in church leadership. As long as I can remember.

And this is the saying that always goes around. Ministry would be great if it weren't for the people. There is no ministry. It is just a podcast then. I mean that is all that there is to it. Because ministry is people. And listen. Believe it or not. We are all called to ministry. You may not think that you are. But we have all been given a commission. And the commission is to go out and make disciples.

And some of you fulfill a very different role in that. Than I do. And that is okay. But you are still in ministry. And ministry is people. You are still in a family. And the family that you are in is the family of God. And in the family of God. The family is full of people. Right? And sometimes we are a weird tribe. Sometimes like my good friend Jerry Horton used to always tell me.

You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose. But you can't pick your family. Right? And I bet some of you are all looking around right now going. I didn't pick them as my family. You know what? They didn't pick you either. Okay? And we need to be hospitable as people. We need to love each other. One of the worst things that happened to us. One of the 295,000 bad things that happened to us.

Through COVID. Is that we stopped loving people. We really started separating ourselves out. And just kind of being away from people. And for some of us. It was like. I want to get back to being around people. And for some of us you were like. I am living my best life right now. I never want to be around people again. And that's not how God wants for us to be.

Right? God has put us in a body of Christ. So that we can love each other. So that we can be there for each other. And we need to be hospitable towards each other. You need to love people. Because people. While they can be messy. They bring a great deal of joy into your lives. Amen. And so he says they need to be hospitable. The next thing he tells us. Number 11.

Loving what is good. Loving what is good. And I thought about that. And I was like. Isn't that just what we are all supposed to do. And you know what. It is what we are all supposed to do. These guys at men's breakfast yesterday. There I am giving it a plug again. At men's breakfast yesterday. We went over this verse. I didn't have them put it up there. So you have to use your listening ears.

And your writing hand. In the margin of your Bible. Number 11. 9. Romans 12.9 Because you know what Romans 12.9 says. It says. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. The idea is to love it. But you know what the word cling there actually means. It means to adhere to like glue. To adhere to like glue. To be fastened together.

And that's what he means by love what is good. Listen. leader in your family, if you want to lead other people to Christ, you have to love the things that are good. In other words, all of the good things of God, all of the good things that He has created for us, you should love those things. There should be a joy in the things that God has given to us. There should be a clinging to the things that are good. You say, Ryan, Christianity is so cheesy

sometimes. It is 100%. Isn't it great? Cling to it, right? Cling to those things that are good. He says, so not only do you need to be hospitable, but you need to love what is good. Now, this next one always gets me. You need to be sensible. Number 12, sensible. The word means sober-minded, able to think clearly and with clarity. I'm here to tell you right now, over the last four months,

I might have been disqualified on this one a few times. I'm just being completely honest because with everything that went on, it was hard to think with clarity and clearly in life. But that's what you need to be if you're going to be a leader. But the... The idea behind sober-mindedness or sensibleness is this. You need to have a mind that can identify the situation and handle it properly. You need to be able to discern the situation and handle

it properly. Let me give you an idea of what I'm talking about here. When I used to teach over at Ark City Christian Academy with high school and even some junior high kids, which by the way, that's the real battle. Sidebar, school starts this week. And I was driving up to... My wife and I went to Derby yesterday and I drove by Derby High School and it just looks awesome and beautiful and it's a really cool high school. Then you drive to the

middle school. And why is it that every middle school looks like a prison? You ever notice that? Every middle school, you're just like, oh, I just look... Why is it so depressing when you drive by there? You know why it's so depressing? Because that's a battlefield, okay? These junior high teachers, man, they are going to war every day. I saw this thing on the Instagram

machine. And it shows somebody dressed up in like flowery hats and everything. It says elementary school teachers. And it shows somebody dressed as a professor and it's like high school teachers. And it shows the guy from Jurassic World with the whip in his hand and everything. And it's like middle school teachers. I'm like, that is 100% right. Pray for those people this week, okay?

They have your kids. So, but when I taught junior high and high school, you had to learn to discern something. Which class can handle humor and which ones can't, right? There's some classes that you can joke with them and immediately bring them back. Like you can tell a joke, they can get off topic for a second, boom, we're back. And then there's other classes where you tell a joke and they are gone for the week, right? You are never getting

them back. And you have to be sensible and be able to identify this class can handle it, this class can't. I apologize now if you were in one of the classes that couldn't handle it because a lot of former students go to this church now. But you know who you are. Anyway, but you have to be sensible about those things. You can discern the difference. This is what I wrote, okay?

I don't know what this says about me, but this is actually, I'm quoting my notes. Can discern the difference between fun time and serious time, right? Like that's being sensible. You know how to discern the times. Listen, when things are serious, you got to get serious. I love to joke, but I know exactly when it's time to get serious and show some compassion. And sometimes you got

to do a little humor in there too, but you got to know the difference between the two. And you got to be sensible in the way that you handle things because there's big decisions that you face all the time. Number 13, you have to be just. A leader is to be just. The word just is upright and virtuous. Upright and virtuous. A life that is right with your fellow man. A life that is right with your

fellow man. In other words, you live justly. You live a life that is just in the way that you handle yourselves with the people that are around you. You are right toward man. Number 14, they are to be devout. The word devout, in some of your translations, is a word that means to be devout. It's probably holy. I actually had that originally written in my notes because I was studying in the

New King James for a little while. But the word is holy, but the idea is to be undefiled by sin. Undefiled by sin. And so if just is being right in your relationship towards man, then devout or holy is being right in your relationship towards God. And then number 15 is self-controlled. Self-controlled. And can I just say that in the society that we live in today,

this one is my favorite. It's self-controlled. It's self-controlled. It's self-controlled. It's maybe the hardest one to come across, is people that are self-controlled. Because everything in the world says, don't be self-controlled. Do what you want to do. The word self-controlled can also be self-discipline. And I love the way, I think it was the Wiest translation that put it this way.

No, no, excuse me. It was the Amplified Bible. It said, above reproach in both public and private. I'm going to read that again. To be self-controlled is to be self-disciplined. To be above reproach in both public and in private. In other words, the life that you live behind closed doors looks just like the life that you live when everyone else is watching. You see, it becomes

easy as believers in Jesus Christ to live a life that when everybody else is watching, we do all of the right things, right? Like if you brought little kids to church today, you were smacking them with the brush on the way here, and then you got to church, and everybody put a smile on their face, right? Like that's, those are not the two things that you're going to do. You're not going to do the same things. We've all been there. No judgment here, but they're not the same things.

And to live a life behind closed doors that matches the life that you live when everyone is watching. To be self-controlled, to be self-disciplined. He says that's what you need to be. And so if just is being right towards man, if devout is being right towards God, then self-control is being right with yourself. It's being right with yourself. And then there's

a picture of Jesus. He's like this, you got to listen to this, I'm going to read this to you, you're going to get out of verse 9, because this is important. He says,

Okay, so this is what Jesus gives to us here. Number 16, able to handle the Word. Able to handle the Word. I'm going to read this to you again out of verse 9 because this is important. He says, He says, First, to hold fast to the Word. In other words, you take it in yourself, and you hold tight to it. You don't let all of the winds of doctrine, all of the different teachings,

all of the next new book that just came out, to affect the way that you really handle doctrine. But you hold fast to the Word. But the next part of that is that you are able to exhort. In other words, you are able to teach someone else, not always necessarily in a situation like we're in right now, but you can explain to someone else what the Word of God has to say.

You are able to teach that to someone else. And as a matter of fact, I would tell you this. If you want to learn to be able to teach the Word of God, if you want to really know that you are holding fast to it yourself, and you can explain it to someone else, you should teach Sunday school. You know why? Because I believe it was Albert Einstein, I think it was Albert Einstein that said,

if you can explain it to a five-year-old, you'll understand it yourself. I'm here to tell you right now, after raising two girls, that I'm still in the process of doing, they still come at me with the hardest questions that anybody's ever come at me with. I will never forget four-year-old Violet asking me, Daddy, how is God Jesus? God is God, and God is the Holy Spirit.

And I was like, how do I say this? Well, sweetie, and I had to try to attempt to explain that to her. She still comes at me with the same question. She's still like, Dad, I still don't fully understand that one. And I'm like, well, welcome to the theological club, because we're all there with you. Okay, kid? That's just the way that it is. And so you have to be able to explain it to other people.

But what a beautiful thing to explain it to a kid and make God's Word understandable to them. That's why I think what's always ministered to me the most is kids' books about Jesus, because it puts it on a level I can understand. Like, I get that now. Sometimes we think we've got to be so smart. We've got to use all these big words. You ever been around somebody that thinks they've got to use

big words for everything that they do, and you're like, I got it. Hold on, let me Google that one. I got it. Chat G-T-B-T, figure out what you just said. And then you talk to somebody who can just explain it simply. I came across this little clip of Chuck Smith the other day. Gosh, I miss that guy. And he was talking about that phrase when Jesus says, Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. And as he explained it, he said, Come to Jesus. That's the beginning of your spiritual journey. He said, Take my yoke upon you. That's surrendering your life to him. And learn of me. That's just getting into God's Word and finding out what he has to say. And I'm like, Why can't everybody just put it that simply? Like, that's the most simple presentation of that verse I've ever heard.

Why can't we just do that? Well, that's being able to exhort. It's to be able to put God's Word in such a way that everybody can understand it. But not only are we to be able to exhort or teach, but the next thing is that you need to be able to correct those who contradict. Let me read it to you. And be able to refute those who contradict. That word refute means to correct them. And I love this quote that I read.

I have no idea who I read it from, but I liked it. It said, a pastor or an elder needs to be both a soldier and a shepherd, able to nourish, to teach, and to defend. And that's the hard thing about being a leader, is sometimes you got to be a shepherd. Sometimes you got to come along somebody and you got to just love on them because they're hurting and they need someone to be patient with them and to teach them and to guide them along the way. And you need to take care of them. Sometimes

you need to be a shepherd. And then sometimes you got to go to war. Sometimes it's time to be a soldier. And you got to be able to identify the two because sometimes someone either A, doesn't want to obey. And then you got to quit coddling and you got to start calling it out and saying it like it is. Like, look, you're either going to obey God or you're not, but you got to make a

decision. And then you got to be able to call it out. And then you got to be able to call it out. And then you got to call out the people who are opposing God's word. And sometimes you got to get a little bit harsh with it because sometimes a soldier has to be harsh, even though they can be loving with their kids, they are harsh with the enemy. And it takes a lot of discernment to know

the difference between the two, because to know the difference between the two, you need to be able to properly handle God's word, to properly handle God's word. And so he lays out this list of all of the qualifications of the elder. And I want to close with three little statements. Number one, these should be the qualifications for a leader in any church. We should be able to hold

up a leader. And while maybe they aren't perfect in all of these things, they are at least desiring these things. They are present in their life and they are growing in their life. So we should be able to look at a leader and say, this is what they exemplify in their lives. But do you know what else? These are the qualifications for the leader in a home. Man, again, I'm going to talk

to you here. Do you see these things in your life? Do you need to start growing in some of these areas of your life? Because you're a leader in your home. Ladies, you need to hold your husbands accountable to this. But not only that, ladies, you need to empower your husbands to do this. Because I see one of two things take place in the culture when it comes to this. I didn't intend to talk about this, but here we are killing

it. I see one of two things take place. Either one, I see a wife that will not hold their husband accountable and lets him do whatever he wants to do. Or two, I see wives emasculate their husbands and say, I'm going to take over. I'm going to take over. I'm going to take over. I'm going to take over. And I watch it happen in both directions all the time. And I don't know which one is worse.

Because it's awful to see a husband whose wife always tells him what to do. A husband whose wife is the spiritual leader in the home, not because he doesn't want to be, but because she won't let him. But it's also unfortunate when a wife won't hold their husband accountable and say, look, this is what I want to see take place in your life. Because I want you to be the leader of the home. So let's start praying through these things

together. So number two, these should be qualifications for a leader in a home. But the third thing I want to say is these are characteristics that all of us as believers in Jesus Christ should be desiring to grow, to have grow in our lives as we submit ourselves to the Lord and as he does his work in our lives. Amen. Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me.

Father, we come before you now. And Lord, I just thank you for the time that we have in your word. And Lord, I thank you for what your word has to say. Father, as always, I just want to ask, I pray that anything that was of me would fall by the wayside and that only the things of your word and of your spirit would stand true and ring true in the lives of each person that's here this morning. But Lord, as we have been

challenged from your word, I pray that we would, Father, that we would dig into our relationship with you. Lord, as we have been challenged by your word, I pray that we would, Father, that we would confess areas of failure and sin in our lives, that we would trust that you are the God who heals and restores. Father, that as we submit ourselves to you, we would surrender to allowing you to produce these things in our lives because we want to be men and women who exemplify godly character. And so, Lord, do your work as you see fit in us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

God, I just thank you for another day, Lord. And I just thank you that you are the same God then as you are now. God, I thank you that you never change. You always stay the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Father, as we leave here today, I just pray that your Holy Spirit just continue to minister to us. Lord, we love you and we praise you. And in Jesus' name,

amen. Guys, have a wonderful week. God bless you.