Good morning. We are going to be back in 1 Timothy chapter 3 this morning. We are going to be in verses 1 through 7. 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 7. And the title of the message this morning is The Qualities of a Leader. The Qualities of a Leader. Before I get into our text and 1 Timothy, I want to read a couple of verses from Matthew chapter five, and then we will read our text in 1 Timothy. From Matthew chapter five, I'm gonna read verses 14 through 16. Jesus is talking to his disciples. He's talking to this crowd that's gathered around to hear him preach at the Sermon on the Mount. And he tells them, he says, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Now let's read our text from 1 Timothy 3. It is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money, He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Father, we thank you for this word that you've given us to look into today. We just thank you for teaching us. And we thank you for overseers and shepherds that you raise up to serve in your church. Lord, we just ask that you be with us this morning as we look at these words, as we consider the context, and as we strive to grow and draw near to you, that you build us up in Christ, that you help us to see what your design is, not just for leaders, but for all of your people. Lord, we just pray for your grace this morning as we look into this text, and we thank you for every good thing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So we are going through the letter of 1 Timothy. You know, on one hand, I know that most of you have probably got my introduction to 1 Timothy and Titus memorized by now because I tend to go through some of the same points every week whenever we have another message, but you know, Paul did say this in Philippians 3.1, he said, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again, again, is no trouble for me, and it is a safeguard for you. And Peter made a similar statement in 2 Peter 1.12, so I figure I'm in pretty good company when I review, so. And the reason that I probably will begin every message in 1 Timothy with a quick review, a quick recap of what the context of the letter is and the overarching issues that Paul is addressing, the reason for that is the same reason that Paul gave in Philippians 3.1. It's a safeguard for you, for me to do that. And actually it's a safeguard for me as well. When I begin each message with a reminder to you guys and to myself about what the context of the letter is, it reminds me that whatever we understand a particular text to be saying must be supported by the context. We don't just insert things. And we don't pull things out of their context and say, oh, well, this works for me. It has to work in the context. It helps us to be good Bereans as we study the scriptures. So, to quickly review, Timothy is in Ephesus, and he's been left in Ephesus by Paul to deal with some problems that they discovered in the church when they came through town. They'd already left Titus on the island of Crete, and Titus was overseeing the establishment of some new churches that they had planted on Crete. And so he's been left there. And then Paul and Timothy passed through Ephesus on their way up to Macedonia. And while at Ephesus, they discovered that the church was a mess. There were some elders who were teaching strange doctrines. They were teaching from the Old Testament scriptures, but these doctrines didn't have anything to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. and they didn't have anything to do with his new covenant kingdom. Some of the people had gotten caught up in this teaching, and they were following these guys, and this had aroused a lot of disunity and strife in the church, and it took the focus off of Christ. In response to this situation, Paul actually excommunicated a couple of the elders who were teaching these things. And then he left Timothy there to finish the work of steering the church back onto the straight path. So whenever Paul got to Macedonia, likely Philippi, although we're not told for sure, he wrote first Timothy and Titus and then sent them back to Timothy and Titus respectively. And the letters were to be read out loud in the churches, and their purpose was both to establish the authority of Paul's representatives, but also give instruction to them both, but mostly to the churches. Because Timothy and Titus already knew what they were there for, and they were trained by Paul. But not only was Paul validating their ministry and putting his stamp of approval on them through these letters, but he was also speaking through the letters to the churches. He's telling Timothy, this is what I want you to focus on, and he's telling the church, this is what Timothy's gonna be focusing on. Listen to him. And this is how I want you to proceed. So, in 1 Timothy, Paul began by addressing the issue of the strange doctrines as opposed to what the focus of the church should be on, which was that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And that is the point and purpose of the law, meaning the Old Testament scriptures. Paul highlighted that truth with his own testimony. And then he jumped right into corporate worship. And he started describing what that should look like because of what God has done in Christ. And he's done it for people from every nation, tribe, and people group, as opposed to what these false teachers had been saying. And then the next thing that Paul addressed, and what we looked at last week, was the need for order and authority in the context of public worship. And also he addressed what that looked like according to gender. And it seems that there was a reason that he felt to address this need, and there was a reason present in Ephesus why he needed to address what order and authority should look like in worship according to gender. And the reason was because some young widows had been stirred up by some of the false teachers and they were speaking out in some of the congregations and they were causing disorder and strife. So Paul began and he ended the exhortation to what worship should look like according to gender with a clear mandate that there is an order of authority based on gender. And he expects and he commands men to lead, period. It's not just a, it's not like, okay guys, we're gonna give you this, you get to do this. It's no, I'm commanding you, lead and do it this way. And I wanna make sure that that is clear and that I didn't stir up too much confusion through my handling of this text last week because my purpose was that we would learn good, consistent hermeneutical principles with which we would approach all of these issues that can sometimes be controversial and that people may challenge us on. And in doing so, I want us to be able to wrestle with what the Bible is really teaching in any given passage and how it applies to us so that when we are challenged on what we believe, we aren't just holding to tradition. We can say this is what the scripture teaches and this is why. And with that in mind, Paul began what he said about prayer with an exhortation for men to lead in the matter of prayer. He said, therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath or decision. So he's calling men to lead in the matter of prayer and also in the matters of faith. He wants them to lift up holy hands Hands that have been made righteous through faith in Christ. And he wants them to lead in peace and unity in the church. And then he ended with a call for godly women to submit to that leadership in the context of corporate worship, along with a biblical explanation from the Old Testament, from Genesis to be specific, as to why he was calling for that. Now that doesn't necessitate inequality, and it doesn't even imply it. And it also doesn't mean that women have no God-ordained roles to play in the church. But the leadership role is assigned to men. And that's gonna be even further established in our text today, so now we're gonna get into our text today. And before we get into this, I wanna talk about, so this is, you guys get to evaluate me today. So this is a dangerous text for a preacher to be preaching on, but y'all get to evaluate me today. We use this. I've been on search committees before. I actually sat on a search committee that called a pastor at a church that we were at when Charlie and I were serving as house parents, and we used this list. As we were thinking about pastoral candidates, we went through it and we considered candidates according to this list. But for our context, we didn't understand there's already elders at Ephesus. So this list is not specifically given as a a bunch of boxes to check on a resume. It's not necessarily given as, okay, if you have a candidate come in, this is the way you determine whether they're, it's not just for that. Yes, it's good for that, because they should have these qualities, but it's not just for that. Timothy's already got elders he's dealing with. Paul is saying this is where they should live. This is what they should look like. This is what you need to teach them, these guys that are already serving as elders. So this is not just for new elder candidates, this is for us, this is for me to evaluate myself with, to wrestle with. This is for everyone serving in that position to evaluate themselves with and to look at these things as things to aspire to in ourselves to ask the Lord to help us with and to grow in. So let's go ahead and get started with it. Verse one. It is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. In the context of worship in the local church, there is an office of leadership. Actually, there's two. There are two offices that the Lord has given us that we've been given for the church, and they are elders and deacons. Elders, overseers, pastors, bishops, they're all the same thing. But there's two offices. We're gonna just talk about this one office today. and that's the office of elder or overseer or bishop or pastor. This office, Paul refers to as episkopos. Episkopos translates into English as overseer or bishop. And it's the exact same office, although it's not the same word as presbyteros, presbyteros. Presbyteros is elder. We know that they're the same office because in Acts 20, 17, Paul called for the Ephesian elders to come to him at Miletus. And then when he's addressing them in Acts 20, 28, he refers to them as overseers. And so, well, how does that work? Why are there two titles for the same office? Presbyteros, or elder, was used by the Jews to refer to the senior leaders in the synagogue. That's where that word comes from. Episkopos, or overseer, was a Greek term, and it was used to describe city officials or supervisors, public servants. So the best way to understand it is that elder refers to the dignity of the office, A pastor, an overseer refers to the function of the office of pastor. So the pastor is a public servant. He's a servant of the church. And Paul begins verse one with this. It is a trustworthy statement. Remember, he's already done that. We pointed that out back in chapter one, verse 15. Let's just read it. He said, it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. And he made that statement. He's calling attention to that particular thing that he wants people to remember. He's saying this is a trustworthy statement, worthy of full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So he doesn't use that phrase about everything he says, but the things that he really wants to hammer and he wants us to remember He's adding that on there to say, hey, listen, don't forget this. This is a trustworthy statement, worthy of you remembering and repeating. And in the same way as the gospel, should be remembered and repeated. He's saying it's also a glorious truth, just the same way that it's a glorious truth that Jesus Christ came into the world and he created the church by giving himself to save sinners, it's also glorious when that gospel truth inspires a man to aspire to lead and serve in that church. So this brings up a question. Is becoming a pastor a matter of human aspiration? Or is it a matter of divine calling? So to put that in contemporary terms, our terms, is becoming a pastor simply a matter of deciding that that's what you want to do for a career choice and then go to seminary and graduate and start sending out resumes? Or in the context of either Ephesus or Lake Charles today, we could ask, is becoming a pastor a matter of owning a house big enough to host a church? Because these were house churches where the people were meeting and the owners were, in a lot of cases, probably the guy that owned the house. So is that a qualification or Should a pastor or overseer just be a person who knows the scriptures and is a really good speaker? You know, I can remember when I was younger, I can remember when I was sitting on that search committee. One of the first things we tend to look at is can the guy preach? Are we gonna be able to listen? Is he a good expositor? Well, is that the main qualification? Are either of those qualifications? Well, the truth is, being a pastor is a divine call. It's not simply a career decision or a matter of pragmatism. Now, you know, you can look around in today's evangelical culture out there in the world, there are mega churches And there are preachers and evangelists that make a lot of money. And there are people on television that are trying to prove that they can buy a jet, or do this or that. And I've actually heard one TV evangelist that I'm not gonna name, but he actually had the audacity to make the statement. He said his name, he referred to himself in the third person, and he said, so-and-so does a fly commercial. He said, I need a jet so I can further the kingdom of God. And I'm thinking, my goodness, how dare you say that? But anyway, so is that a career choice? People look at it that way, but it's not. It's not. God appoints pastors to shepherd his flock. He says that in Acts 20, 28 that I just referred to a while ago. Acts 20, 28, Paul is talking to the elders and he says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. So the Holy Spirit appointed the overseers. But within that calling, if it is a true calling from God, there will be an equipping. And there will be a qualifying of the one called to perform the work that he's called to do. So yes, it's the Holy Spirit that appoints and calls people to be shepherds of the flock. But the Holy Spirit who calls also equips. And as we were talking about Cyrus in the book of Ezra today in Sunday school, it's the spirit of God that stirs up a person to do what God intends them to do. So yes, it's also a matter of human aspiration because the spirit calls, but the spirit stirs as well. So the first quality of a pastor is that he wants to be one. The first quality of a overseer is they desire that work. They desire to serve the people of God. And there's a big difference between desiring to serve the people of God and desiring to be famous, or desiring to stand in front of people and talk. I know that my calling come from the Lord because I never wanted to stand in front of people and talk. My kids and my wife can testify to that. That was not part of my, I was not an extrovert. That didn't come natural to me. There's a difference between that calling. So you have to zero in on these things. But a person who loves God and loves his people and loves the truth, and wants to share that truth that he sees with God's people and with people who are outside who don't yet know the Lord. That's the first quality of a shepherd, the first calling. They aspire to it. So I'm gonna give you a list of qualifying statements before we look in to these qualities that the Lord, through Paul, has laid out that an overseer should have, someone who aspires to lead and shepherd the people of God. And the first thing I want us to, I want to give a couple of qualifying statements. First, this is not a list of characteristics that stretch back from the day of a person's birth until now. Because that person wasn't born a Christian. I don't care how wonderful of a pastor a person is, I don't care how godly a human being is that's out there, they weren't born a Christian. They were born a sinner, and they're still a sinner. They're still not perfect, but they were definitely not born a Christian. They were born with a heart that was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And they lived that way. And so this is not a list that stretches back from birth until now. This list is talking about who they are now. Who is this person? And second, This list is not talking about perfection in these qualities. If it were, no one would be acceptable. No one would be acceptable. And anybody that says they are perfect in all of these qualities, in my opinion, is disqualified right there because they're lying. They're lying. And they're self-righteous. So, What this list is referring to is the presence of these qualities in the character of the pastor. And that's the way we need to understand them. If a man is truly called to be an overseer, then this list is a description of what his character should look like. Now let's look at verse two. It says, an overseer then must be Above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. The man who desires to be an overseer must be above reproach. What does that mean? Well, different people would probably give you a definition, but here's how I would define it. I'd define it just by asking some questions. Is he honest? When he tells you something, do you question it or do you think it's true just because he told you? Or at least he thinks it's true. Is he moral? Is he a moral guy? Does he have integrity? Is he somebody you'd worry about cheating you or somebody else? Or would you be hesitant in recommending him to go into business with somebody or something to that? Thing is, is he moral? Does he have a reputation for flirting with other women when his wife isn't around? I'm not saying that he's done anything wrong. I'm just saying, does he have a reputation for being someone that might cause a question there? Now, I'm not saying, does everyone like him? And I'm not saying has anyone ever said anything bad about him. If he faithfully preaches the word, there probably are people that don't like him. And there's probably people that have said bad things about him. But what is he known for? It should be integrity. That's what it means to be above reproach, to be someone who's known for integrity. The next phrase, the next phrase in this verse is translated, the husband of one wife. It says he must be above reproach, the husband above of one wife. Well, you don't know how much trouble that that phrase has caused. how many arguments and how many different interpretations there are of that phrase, of what it means, and how many laws have been made, and rules that people think are hard and fast based on that phrase. Well, I'm going to, that phrase, the husband of one wife, is actually three Greek words. It's three Greek words, and they're written in this order. Hais, gune, On air. Heis, gune, on air. Heis means one. Gune means woman. On air is man. That is literally all that Paul is saying. He must be a one woman man. If married, an overseer must be faithful to his wife. And there are people who believe that this is a Hard and fast law that a pastor must be married. Paul wasn't married. To me, that's just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But anyway, the point is, he's not making a law. He's not making a rule. Of course, there are others that say, well, he can't be a widower because he has to be married. And there's others that say he can't be divorced. because that means he's got more than one wife. And there are other people that interpret that all different sorts of ways, but it's not making a law or a rule. It's talking about his character. And it's saying he must be a faithful man. He must exhibit the quality of being a one-woman man. He couldn't have a mistress or visit, you know, in that culture, in Roman and Greek culture, Most men had a wife, and they also had a girlfriend on the side, and they also went to the Temple of Artemis and visited the prostitutes there that we talked about. That was the reason for the, the reason Paul gave instructions on how godly women should dress and adorn themselves was because he wanted them to be distinct from these temple prostitutes. And that's evident in the way that he described it. So this elder, this pastor, can't be like those other guys. He's gotta be faithful. The quality of his character must be faithfulness. So literally, that phrase is three words. One woman man. But the way it's been translated has caused all sorts of arguments and strife and stuff that the false teachers were actually causing there in Ephesus with the things that they were doing. But let's just get past that. Paul was simply saying that an elder must be a faithful man who practices a Christian ethic when it comes to sexuality. He could be single, he could be married, but if he is married, he's gotta be faithful. And if he's not married, he needs to be faithful. It's talking about his character. One thing I do want to point out about this phrase, though, before we move on, is that the elder will be a man, on air. Honor is not one of those gender neutral terms that could be a person. It's not talking about a person. It's not saying that an elder or an overseer will be a faithful person. It's saying that the elder will be a one woman man. The next word that we come to that describes The character of a pastor is temperate. The husband of one wife, temperate. The King James Version translates it as sober. So temperate or sober. Both words fit. They're basically the same word. Temperate, sober. So what does the word mean? Well, it means not intoxicated, it means clear-minded, and it means free from life-dominating influences. Look it up in Strong's, that's what it means. Not intoxicated, clear-minded, and free from life-dominating influences. So an elder shouldn't be addicted to alcohol, and he shouldn't be a drunk, as we will see later in this list. But also, he shouldn't be overly caught up in politics, or hobbies, or sports, or entertainment either. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. That doesn't mean that he should have nothing to do with anything outside of study and ministry. That's not what it's saying. It does mean that his life shouldn't be dominated by things that aren't directly related to the kingdom of Christ. That's what it's saying. This right here may be the most important point in this message because this doesn't just apply to overseers. All Christians are called to be sober-minded. One example of that is 1 Corinthians 15, 34, but when I looked it up, there's a whole list of, I mean, there's a long list of verses. If you got a search engine on your Bible app on your phone and you put in be sober-minded, there'll be a lot of verses come up about being sober, being sober-minded, having a sober spirit, being temperate, And they all mean the same thing. That means being not intoxicated, clear-minded, and free from life-dominating influences. All Christians are called to that. That's what it means. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy things. But it does mean that we can't allow ourselves to get caught up in and intoxicated by life-dominating things. Anything apart from Christ. I'm gonna tell a little story. I know I probably shouldn't take a rabbit trail, but I'm going to. To be honest, and I'm going to use him as an example, my son sitting here, he got a baseball scholarship when he got out of high school and he went to play baseball. And he stayed one semester and he was several hours away from home and he didn't want to be that far away. And he got into college baseball, wasn't anything like high school, they wanted him to call up everybody he knew and get them to donate money to the baseball program and just so much nonsense. And he just didn't like it at all. And they were up way before daylight. I mean, it's a lot of work, too. And then classes and everything else. So he called me and he said, Dad, I want to come home because I don't want to do it. And we talked about it for a little bit, and he said, well, he said, I don't want to give this much of my life to anything if it's not the Lord. So what could I say? I said, come home. Now, I think he just told me that because he knew that's what Gideon wanted at the time. But it worked. I mean, I couldn't give another response. But that's what he's talking about here. That's what Paul is talking about. We shouldn't give that much of our life to anything. if it's not the Lord. If we're not serving the Lord in it. The next quality is self-control. Self-control. Well, self-control is the inward fruit of the Spirit, remember? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The word is sophron, sophron. It means sound, it means safe. An elder should be safe. Sound in mind and moderate as to passion and opinion. That's kind of opposite of what we like fiery preachers, don't we? We like to hear loud, wake you up messages by people who just really have tons of conviction. But this word says that an elder and overseer should not be driven by passion and conviction. He should be moderate. It doesn't mean he doesn't have passion and conviction, but he's not ruled by it. He's not ruled by his feelings or his passions or his opinions. He's calm and he's reasonable and he exhibits self-control and the only way that he can do that is the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and producing this bread. This is a stark contrast to the false teachers that Paul has been, that Paul is talking to Timothy about correcting who have been teaching these strange doctrines and they've been causing arguments and debates and strife and stirring up all of this stuff in the church. He's saying that's not what an elder should be. That's not what overseers should be. They should be moderate, self-controlled, safe, and sound of mind. The next quality of an elder is that he's to be respectable. The Greek word is kosmios, kosmios. It means proper, orderly, modest behavior. So Cosmios is the outward expression, the external expression of self-control. Inwardly, he should be self-controlled and moderate and calm and rational and reasonable, and that expresses itself outwardly in that he's proper and he's orderly and he's modest in his behavior. And the next quality of an elder is that he should be hospitable. The word translated hospitable is phyloxenos, phyloxenos. Phylo means love and xenos means strangers. It's not talking about fond feelings or sentiment. To be hospitable means that an overseer is to demonstrate love and hospitality to strangers. people we don't know, people who aren't like us, people that may not agree with us. It's still my job to love them, to be hospitable to them, kind to them. And a person who just can't bring themselves to do that probably isn't called to be a pastor. Even if they know all sorts of scripture and doctrine and if they can preach and teach it till the cows come home, If they don't love people, especially strangers, and especially people that are lost, what good are they? 1 Corinthians 13, Paul addresses this in the first couple of verses, and he says, if I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains that do not have love, I'm nothing. The overseer must be hospitable. And that brings us to, speaking of teaching, the next qualification. The overseer must be able to teach. Now, there are several things that are included in this. This assumes knowledge of the scriptures, because you've got to have something to teach. It assumes sound doctrine, and it assumes speaking ability, able to teach, able to speak. An overseer must have these qualities. is truth, it's history. It is a message of what God has done in time and space to redeem his people and renew his creation. You've got to be able to teach, and we are called to proclaim this message that God has revealed to us, this truth. So, An overseer must be able to teach. He must possess these qualities. But isn't it interesting that that's not the first qualification? It was the first one that I thought of when I was sitting on a search committee. I think Paul sandwiched this here in the middle of the list just to let us know that as important as knowledge and speaking ability is, Just like he just said there in 1 Corinthians 13, if I know all mysteries and have all knowledge and I speak with the tongues of men and angels, I don't have all these other qualities, I'm not a pastor. Then I wouldn't be an overseer, I wouldn't be qualified. Love and character and faithfulness are equally important. You must have those, you must be able to teach. You must know the word, and you must understand it, and you must know the truth, and you must believe it. You must have conviction, and you must be able to express it. But you have to be able to express it with love and grace. It's truth and love, not just truth. Let's move on, verse three. Not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money, not addicted to wine. So the commentary I was reading, Dr. Stock pointed out that it's interesting where this is placed. It's right in between teaching and pugnacious. Paul doesn't prohibit an elder from drinking, but he does say that an elder shouldn't be addicted to wine or a drunk. Well, that really only stands to reason because an elder's called to be temperate and sober-minded and free from life-dominating influences. And what happens, how well can you teach if your mind is clouded with an intoxicating substance? How well are you going to represent the Lord when you're speaking if you are under the influence of something that's dominating you, whether it's alcohol or anything else? Something that is taking your focus away from the gospel of Christ as God has revealed it to us. So there's a problem with it from that direction and there's also a problem with it on the side of being pugnacious because one of the effects of drinking too much alcohol is that with some people it can contribute to them becoming pugnacious. And that's our next quality. An overseer is not to be pugnacious. The Greek word is plektes. It means smiter, quarrelsome, a bully. This is a guy who's always looking for an argument or a fight. He just throws things out there just to see if he can get somebody to bite on it so he can fight and argue about it. Or he may go out and just look for somebody who he might disagree with on something and call him a heretic and try to beat him into the ground, you know. This is the type of person, anybody who just feels really strong to a polemic ministry, I've got concerns about. Because the overseer must not be pugnacious. He must not be a smiter. He must not be quailsome. That was one of the qualities of these false teachers that Paul is addressing here in Ephesus. They were debating and arguing about all these doctrines that they were coming up with, and they were stirring up strife in the church. He said, that's not the way an elder should be. It doesn't mean a pastor doesn't challenge people. I mean, I say things that I know are going to challenge people. But the purpose of a pastor is to challenge and stir his people up to love and good works. I challenge people because I want them to grow. and I want them to learn. And if I challenge you, I'm doing it with love. I don't like to fight. I don't like to... That's another thing you can go to my wife for testimony on. Actually, I'm one of those guys that I have to be prodded a little bit or I'd be two-piece loving, because I want to get along with everybody. And I can't do that. I'm called to challenge. But when I challenge, It has to be done with the goal of love and growth and good works, not to win arguments. So the next two qualities of gentleness and peacefulness, that's our next two qualities, they're both fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. Peace and gentleness are both fruits of the Spirit, and they're the opposite of pugnacious and quarrelsome. They're the opposite. These are qualities that the Spirit produces in all Christians. In Matthew 5, 9, Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. But these qualities are particularly necessary for overseers. 2 Timothy. In 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 and 25, Paul tells Timothy, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth. So I'm not to go out and argue with people for the sake of winning an argument. My goal, if I am challenging someone, is that I'm doing it gently and lovingly and kindly with the goal that they come to see the truth and look to Christ. And that's the only reason that I should be challenging someone. Also, And that's really it, our purpose. My purpose is not to win arguments, it's to win people to the truth with kindness and gentleness and love. And then of course next, an overseer must be free from the love of money. I was thinking about that from our church history the other day. not this last one, but a few nights ago, a couple of three Wednesdays ago, I think it was Justin Martyr and an apology that he had written. He was talking about the order of service for the local church. We actually know what a church service looked like in the late first and early second century because Justin Martyr wrote it down, what their church service looked like in an apology which is just basically explanation of the Christian faith, that he wrote to try to get the Romans to stop persecuting the church. And so he talked about what it looked like, and it also talked about, there was instructions in there on how a church should evaluate preachers and evangelists, and they were supposed to support, financially, ministers of the gospel. But it also said if a guy came through asking for money, that you were to, to mark him as a false prophet and not listen to him. So this is not something new. An overseer must be free from the love of money, and this is just like being not addicted to wine. It really goes back to temperate. An elder is to be free from life-dominating influences. He can't be driven by greed. He doesn't say that an elder is to be free of money. It says he's to be free of the love of money. And actually, if he's going to minister, if he's gonna practice hospitality, he's gonna have to buy food and he's gonna have to provide shelter. He's gonna have to pay for things that he's providing for people. If he's going to do evangelism, that requires expense. And anything that he does in ministry, he's going to probably have to use money. but he's to be free from the love of it. An overseer should love the Lord and love people and use money to do both of those things, to serve them. Now let's look at verses four and five. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? You know, the first place that you can look to see if all these other qualities that Paul has been listing here are on display is in a man's home, in his life with his wife and with his family. Does his wife respect him? Does he love her and treat her with honor and dignity? Does he provoke his children to anger or does he guide them patiently with the nurture and admonition of the Lord? See, if you try to take this and you wanna look at it and you wanna inspect every guy's children and see if they don't behave perfectly, then he's disqualified, then you're probably gonna disqualify every pastor there is. But if you look at the way that he relates with him and the way they relate with him, and you see this as a guide to character and not a list of rules, then you can tell something there. Because how he relates with his family That's gonna be how he relates in the church, which is what Paul's saying. He's saying if he can't manage his own household, if he doesn't practice these things with his wife and his children, then how do you think he's going to behave in the household of God, in the church? The way he serves the Lord and his wife and his children in his own home is a good indicator of how he's going to conduct himself in the church. It's not about perfection. It's not about the absence of any flaws or failures. It's about consistency. It's about character. In verse six, and not a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. An overseer should not be a new convert so that he doesn't get puffed up with pride. You know, the devil fell into sin because he was puffed up with pride. And there's a danger that someone who has not had time to mature spiritually by walking through life, if they're put into a position of authority, And they're, especially if they're a good speaker, and they haven't had time to fail miserably, you know, that's really why they have to wait. Because if they haven't failed miserably and fell on their face, they haven't been through the fire, they may become arrogant. They may become prideful. And it even happened to apostles. You know, Peter, Jesus didn't have to let Satan sift Peter like weeds. He could have said, no, no, that's not happening. He's my apostle. He's gonna be the leader of the apostles whenever I complete the gospel. He's gonna be the leader of the church here in Jerusalem and go out and take the gospel to the nations. So you can't have him, no. No, he said, yeah, I want to let you sift him because he's going to be the leader. He needs maturity. He's arrogant. He's self-centered. He's impulsive. He needs to fall on his face. He needs to be broken so that he can lead, so that he can serve. So no, an overseer probably shouldn't be a new convert who's never experienced struggle or life, who's never failed, so that they don't fall into that same condemning pride that caused Satan to fall. Now let's look at verse seven. And you must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he would not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. You know, this one is not so much a quality as it is a result of all the other qualities. And this is really, Paul is telling us here why he gave this list. The church has fallen into, there are, the church is not being a good witness in Ephesus right now. When this letter is written, outsiders have room to say negative things about the Christian church. They can point out and say, these guys are fighting amongst themselves. They don't love people. They don't practice what they preach. There's shame. The overseer, the elder, the pastor is the representative of the church. And by extension, he's the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who are outside the church. You know, how we represent the Lord is important. Now, I'm not a legalist. And I don't require somebody that's gonna preach here to wear a coat and tie, but I do. And it's not because I believe that it's a law that I need to do that. but it just is important to me. It's important to me for myself because, probably because of reverence for the fact that I'm given this privilege of standing up here and proclaiming this word. And so, and different people express that differently, and I'm not trying to make any kind of law or say anything, so don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm just using that as an example. An elder and overseer is representing the church and they're representing Christ. And they're representing them to those outside the church. And that's the focus of what Paul is saying here. The aim of the devil is that we not represent the Lord well. In Romans 2, 24, Paul's talking to Jewish people who believe they keep the law. They believe they keep the law of Moses, they believe they're God's chosen people, and they believe that they're the representatives of God to the world. Look at us. We eat kosher. Look at us. We're not like those uncircumcised Philistines. You know, we don't work on the Sabbath. We're not like those Gentile dogs. We don't do this and we don't do that. We're above everybody else. And Paul's talking to them, and the reality is that even though they believe these things about themselves, they don't follow the law. They follow some rules, but they don't love God, and they certainly don't love people. And Paul tells them, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, just as it is written. See, that's the devil's goal for us. That's the devil's goal for me as a pastor. He wants me to stumble. He wants me to bring shame on the name of Christ. He wants the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles, and not just me, us, the church. And he sets traps, he sets snares to catch us being pugnacious, arguing with each other on the internet, overindulging in wine or food, getting sidetracked by sports or politics, behaving toward people that we disagree with the same way unsaved people do. And when we take the bait and we fall into that snare, the world is watching. I'm not talking about a pragmatic, man-centered way of trying to get people to become a Christian. I know that it's the Spirit of God. We could all behave perfectly, and we could all proclaim the gospel perfectly, and people won't be saved unless the Spirit of God changes their heart. But it glorifies God when we don't give the devil an opportunity to slander Christ, when we represent him well. When we show that we are really different because of Christ in us, the hope of glory. When we show that we've been changed by what we believe, it brings glory to God. And the devil is laying traps to try to keep us from doing that and cause us to fall. But when we walk in the Spirit and that fruit of the Spirit is produced in our lives and these qualities come out, The world sees that also. Listen to this that the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2.12. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles. so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation. So you probably realize by now that this list of qualities that Paul is putting forward here for overseers, they aren't just for overseers. They're for every Christian, all of them. But the position of overseer is the position of leadership. Leadership doesn't mean that I get up here and tell you guys what to do and how to live and then now you go do it. My mom used to, if she'd catch my dad, doing something that he told us not to do, she would give him a hard time about it. She'd say, you tell the kids, do this, do what I say, not what I do. That's not the way it works. That's not the way it works. The overseer's called to lead by example. And Paul compares the church to a family, to a household. The overseer, is compared to the father of the household. And I'm reminded of the Spurgeon quote. I think Dexter used it the other day. Train up a child in the way that you should go, but make sure you go that way yourself. That's what Paul is telling the overseers here. Teach the church. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. I get mixed up and start quoting King James sometimes because that's what I learned those memory verses with. But anyway, yeah, elders teach and they preach, but they also lead, and that's why this list is here. That's what it means to be a pastor. I'm supposed to teach you the truth, and I'm supposed to exhort you to walk in it. That's true. It's not gonna have much effect if I don't walk in it myself. So this list is for me, it's for you, and it's for all of us. Our prayer is that we examine ourselves by this list of qualities, that we see them in ourselves, and that we pray for the Lord to give us grace to grow in them even more. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word, and we thank you for your goodness and mercy And Lord, we do ask that you apply these things to our hearts, that you teach us through them, that you do make us new creatures that it shows. Let us shine that light of your goodness in your gospel. You know, you didn't bring us out of this world and put your light in us for us to put it under a basket. We just pray that you cause these qualities to come out in each of us so that we do shine your light into this world and so that when people see it, they wanna ask us what our reason is for this hope that lies within us because there's an evident change, there's an evident difference in us because we know you. Lord, we just thank you for all of this. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.