Well, I wonder if you've ever noticed that things in the world just naturally seem to drift toward chaos. They go from order to disorder. If you leave a garden untended, it becomes weeds filled with weeds. You leave a heart unguarded, it becomes proud. You leave a church unled, it becomes confused, disordered, sometimes even dangerous. We are, the world is not naturally inclined to order. We're naturally bent toward disorder. And the truth is that it's a massive problem and it's a theological problem. It goes all the way back to the garden. We start there so often as we think about the Bible, but it's really key to understand these things. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And what did he do? He brought order. He created, and there was actually disorder. And then he ordered things. He separated light from darkness. He created boundaries, sky, land, sea. He formed man and woman. He planted a garden and he called it all good. But when sin entered the world, it didn't just bring guilt. It brought chaos. It brought disorder, confusion, rebellion. And ever since that time, ever since that moment when sin entered the world, human history has been marked by a tendency to spiral, to spiral downward, to spiral inward, and to spiral away from the God of order. And yet there's good news, always good news. God hasn't left us to ourselves, to our spiraling. He has restored. He is restoring his world. He's establishing a new creation and he's doing it through the gospel by the power of his spirit and the life of his people. And the place that we most visibly see this taking place is in the church of Jesus Christ. God brings order to his church. I was thinking of Titus 1.5, the other pastoral epistle, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, these pastoral epistles where he says, Paul to Titus, put things in order. And he says, appoint elders. And that's really kind of the point that we're getting out at here tonight. It's not through charismatic leaders. It's not through, cultural popularity. It's not through personalities or platforms. It's through a structure, through offices, and specifically through qualified elders who reflect the heart of Christ by the grace of God. And so that's what Paul's talking about here tonight, writing to Timothy, his friend, his confidant, his disciple. And he's saying, if the church is going to flourish, We've talked about the various things. If the church is going to flourish, you're going to need to confront false teaching with the truth. If the church is going to flourish, you're going to need to pray. If the church is going to flourish, you're going to need to talk about Jesus. If the church is going to flourish, you're going to front load the gospel. And if the church is going to flourish, you're going to have to have good and godly elders. There's just no way around that. It needs faithful men. The church needs faithful men to lead. And here's what these men must be. Here's what these men must look like. And so we'll look at three things tonight. The honor of the office, the qualifications of the elder, and then the reputation of the elder in the community. The honor of the office, verse one, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. And so this is a trustworthy saying, it's reliable, it's something that can be believed and banked on. And if you long for, if someone, a man desires, longs for the office of overseer, or, and it's a similar word, it's a synonym to The word in other places that speaks of an elder, very same thing. Bishop and elder are the same thing. So we could just say, if someone aspires to the office of elder, he desires a noble task. It's an admirable, it's a beautiful thing. It's an excellent thing to be a leader, an elder in God's church. And I think it's worth pointing out here that There are in our in our thinking and different churches think about things differently. But in our church, we think about elders and deacons. These are the offices. And then among the elders, there are ruling elders and there are teaching elders. And there are different views that we could go down and talk about two office or three office or two and a half office even. We could go down and talk about all these things. We don't want to get caught up in those categories. The distinction is made for tonight's sake in First Timothy 5.17. We'll get there in a few weeks and talk about this still further. But Paul says to Timothy there, let the elders who rule well. Right now he's talking about overseers here. He'll talk about elders there. These are complimentary words. They speak of the same office. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and in teaching. And so the idea here, and it's worth understanding, the difference is in function, not in authority. So all elders have an equal say. And I don't know if everybody knows that. I mean, sometimes you go through seminary and you learn all these things and you, You sit on a session and you're like, you just think everybody must know this. But the guy standing in the pulpit Sunday mornings and Sunday nights has no extra votes over ruling elders that work full time jobs selling insurance or being dentists or doctors or whatever the case may be. As the men sit together on a session, they have equal authority in the church of Jesus Christ. And so that's worth pointing out. That's worth noticing. We could spend a lot of time. I'm sure I wrote a paper on how many offices there were in seminary. Please don't ask me to read it. It's terrible. But I mean, you could spend a lot of time thinking about how many offices. The fact is that there are those that lead in the church and to desire that office is a noble thing. Well, why is why is it noble? Well, because, first of all, God calls people to the task. It's noble that God puts a call on somebody's life and says, I want you to do this for me. It's noble because the elders, the overseers have oversight of God's people and God's church. John Calvin said, it's no light matter to represent God's son in such a great task as erecting and extending God's kingdom in caring for the salvation of souls whom the Lord himself has designed deigned to purchase with his own blood and in ruling the church, which is God's inheritance. Like that's a big deal. It's a noble task because it demands character, love and sacrifice. It's a noble thing because it's what it looks like to be Christ-like. And so sometimes the question arises, you know, Why do you want the office? Why would somebody want the office? And it's important to think about motives, to think about why people would want to be leaders. Unfortunately, sometimes want to be leaders. People want to be leaders so they can have authority, so they can control people, so they can boss people around. And sometimes people have these ungodly motives and it gets the church into all sorts of problems. We see it on a regular basis. And so as this church moves forward, and I hope that we will move from a mission work at our very beginning stage to becoming a new and separate congregation of the OPC, a particular congregation where we're freestanding in all these areas, God will raise up men from the congregation to be elders. Listen, I can't think of greater overseeing provisional elders to have than Andres and Skip right now. This is an amazing thing. If you don't know these guys, get to know them. Both over 20 years of ministry as elders, both having been involved in church plants, but their time here is going to be short in some sense. I hope it's, I mean, the shorter, the better in some sense, don't get me wrong. I love you being here, but that would mean that we particularize faster and God raises up men to be elders. more quickly. And so one of the things that we want to be looking at as we look at this vision of godliness here is, you know, this is as we identify wherever we may be, maybe we're at other churches and we're here for just a one-time thing tonight. This is the description of what you should be looking for in elders as God raises more elders up in your church. This is the description of what you should be looking for as God raises up elders here in this church plant to become elders. It's not so much a job description as a vision of godliness. It's not so much about gifts and talent as it is about living a godly life before those in the church and in the world. And it takes a long time. It takes time to become a godly person. We live in an instant age and everybody wants everything right now. But it takes time for God to develop men to become leaders. in his church. And so as we move on to the qualifications here, again, it's about who these elders are, not simply what they do. It's about their character more than their gifts or even their knowledge. And so verses two to six, you have these qualifications. Begins with in verse two, therefore an overseer must be above reproach. This phrase above reproach is really the umbrella under which everything else in the list fits. Philip Riken says, this first qualification encompasses all the others. So in all of these areas, it's to be blameless, not sinless. And let me have a gospel moment here. Let me just take a step back and say, it doesn't mean the man has never stumbled. If so, no one would ever qualify. Jesus Christ alone is perfect. It's a good reminder that we're all sinners saved by grace, a good reminder that we're all in process and in progress. But it's to have here a blameless reputation, irreproachable, observable conduct, free from scandal is the idea, free from scandalous sin. It means if they sin, they repent. It speaks of making things right if you do wrong. And, um, Somebody said, you can't throw something at him and have it stick. And so no man perfectly qualifies. But I think it's important to say here, what Paul doesn't say, he doesn't say nobody measures up to the standard, so nobody's qualified. Neither does he say nobody is perfect, so everybody's qualified. He says, these are the standards and you should seek men that meet these standards. So there's a sense in which, right? We're all imperfect. We're all sinners being changed and transformed by the Lord. But there's this growth and maturity that happens where these things kind of align with one's life. And he starts, notice where he starts. As he thinks about consistency, integrity, humility, spiritual maturity, he starts in the home. He starts with the marriage. He must be the elder, I mean, the husband of one wife. And so again, we could spend a lot of time talking about what this phrase means, how to break this down. But if you boil it down, elders must be morally accountable for their sexuality. Again, Ryken says, the Greeks and the Romans of the day generally tolerated gross sexual sin. Polygamy was practiced by both Greeks and Jews. Marriage was undermined by frequent divorce, widespread adultery, and rampant homosexuality. So literally, it's a one-woman man. And somebody else pointed out that this is a quantitative, it's not quantitative, I'm sorry, but qualitative, because a man could be married to a woman and not be a one woman man. Could be having his eye wander. He could be having his heart chase after others. But the idea here is that his affections are fixed. His heart, mind, and body belong to his wife, if he has one. He's focused on her. And so this is where leadership, Christian leadership starts. It starts in the home. Go down to verse four, kind of tie the family vibe together here. He must manage his own household well. To manage speaks of one who supervises, but it also speaks of one who nurtures or shows concern. The other place that this word is used is in the parable of the good Samaritan. And so Luke 10, Jesus says these words in verses 33 and 34. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. And he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn, and he took care of him. Same word, he took care of them. So these, both of these have the idea of sacrifice. The idea of the good Samaritan, the idea of an elder in his home with his children is to live sacrificially, is to put his family, his wife, his kids in front of his own desires. Parenting is hard and being an elder is hard. And so with all dignity, dignity can speak of respect or reverence. This may speak of how the children see their father, but it also may speak of the way the father treats his children with dignity, because they're created in the image of God, therefore worthy of honor and respect as image bearers. So it's a mutual respect between a father who is an elder and his children, and he keeps his children submissive. They should show respect and teachability and obedience. I think it's important that a question that arises sometimes, well, what if children, you know, don't profess faith? You know, does that disqualify a leader? And again, someone said, it's not a call to judge a man by the salvation of his kids, but the tone, the order, the moral structure of his household. I know a lot of good men that have wayward children, unfortunately, and I pray for them and their hearts break and my hearts break with them. But it's the way that we set up our homes is the idea to manage well the household, the home. And the question, rhetorical, but I mean, it punches right in the nose, right? If someone doesn't know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? That makes perfect sense, doesn't it? You can't. So before you build the church, before you seek the office, before you go after that role, that position in the church, start in your home. As we think about men to be leaders, we want to think about the home. And I think it's also important and whoever listens to this and however far this may go, one of the things that I've thought about a really long time. And as I think about it, it's interesting for me tonight because, You know, one of my children is leaving tomorrow, leaving the home tomorrow for the, you know, first time and permanently. But I thought about this since I've had kids. It's important that an elder's wife, it's important that an elder's family never plays second fiddle to the church. The first ministry is in the home. The first ministry is to a wife and children. You never want your wife to say as a leader in the church, my husband's married to the church. You never want your children to say he loved them more than he loves us. And so whether that be a pastor or that be an elder, whoever needs to hear that, that's a really important word. All the ministry in the world, all the fruit in the world, all the conversions in the world, all the churches being planted in the world can never make up for a neglected family. Never. And so your home is your first congregation as a leader. Shepherd them first. Seek to shepherd them well. And so as God grows his church, he will raise up elders. And these elders that he will raise up will have good homes, good households that are healthy and whole and marked by grace. That's what we're praying for. That's what we're expecting because that is how God works through faithful men, leading faithful homes. And so next to the elder's character and conduct, as we go back to verse two and three, and we'll quickly go through these sober minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. There's a lot of them here, right? But these are really important things. And I think it's important, just kind of big picture. These are not flashy. These are not, you know, Instagrammable. These aren't things that you're going to look at a person and be like, wow, he is, he's really, he's really something. But these are, according to God's standards, these are really important. These are the things that God says, these are the things that I want to see in the leaders of my church. And so quiet, consistent, godly habits, they're sober-minded, they're sensible, level-headed, not reactionary, not up and down all the time. Not caught up in every controversy or chasing down every rabbit trail on YouTube, but just kind of staying the course. Self-controlled, right? Disciplined. Knows how to say no. Knows how to make decisions. Elders need to make big decisions, don't they? Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it takes place rapidly. But the elder needs to be a good decision maker. That's really important. Also speaks of his appetites. His appetites being under control. If he can't rule himself, how can he rule others? I think it's so important as you think about these lists. I've been really fortunate as I serve on, I mean, I honestly would have to write it down to see how many sessions I've served on, with how many different groups of men and different church plants I've served on, and even how many I'm on right now. I'm not even quite sure how many I'm on right now. But I'm so blessed that the men that I've served with and do serve with, we've never had problems. These men know how to disagree well. They know how to have good discussions. They know how to make decisions in a way that, you know, sometimes it's hard. If you have a really strong opinion on something and there's three other guys that have an opposite view and you lose, It's hard to lose well, right? Like you're passionate about something and then the session decides something different. And then you have to go represent the view of the session before the church or before elders. That can be hard. It takes maturity. It takes self-control. It takes discipline, doesn't it? But these are the things that are important to think about. So sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable. Think about being respectable. the outward manifestation of the inner self-controlled life. There's a dignity. Hospitable. This makes sense because it's to be self-giving. It flows from the others. It speaks ultimately of a love for strangers. It speaks of opening up homes, but lives even, to those that you don't necessarily know. To welcome them in to your sphere. and to love them in the name of Jesus and hope to see them come to faith and grow in their faith. And then he just sneaks this one out of kind of nowhere, able to teach, apt to teach, suddenly in the middle of a series of moral qualities, a professional qualification. And really this is kind of the one that we see in the whole list. An elder has to be able to teach. Now, I've seen really good elders that weren't great teachers or preachers. They were still qualified. So, so what does it mean to be able to teach? And this is again, another thing that's discussed widely, but you don't have to be a pulpit preacher or a great Sunday school teacher to be an elder. But as again, John Calvin said, it's about knowing how to apply God's word to the prophet of God's people. Now you can do that in a coffee shop. You can do that in someone's living room. When you visit them in their home, you can do that in just one-on-one conversation after church. You don't have to be eloquent to be a good teacher. Again, he goes on and there's this list of negatives, not a drunkard, not ruled by alcohol or strong drink, not violent, but gentle. He doesn't bully. He doesn't dominate. Again, going back to the session meetings, this is really important. strength wrapped in kindness and I'm not quarrelsome, not looking for a fight, you know, not looking to get into theological quarrels all of the time. Some people like that. Some smart people that actually do know Jesus love to fight. That's not what elders are meant to do. Not a lover of money. And we'll talk about this in chapter six, but for now we can say that he's not driven by the paycheck or chasing financial status. He's content and he's free. And as Hebrews 13 says, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. So that's what a leader should be. And so this sounds like Jesus. This list sounds like Jesus. This is leadership in the church is not about skill, but character. And so If you say, well, you know, I'm not going to be an elder. If you say, I have no desire to do that. If you say that's not for me, don't think this list doesn't apply because Hebrews 13 also says in verse 7, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. So learn from them is the idea, learn from their lives, follow their example. The elders are not just decision makers, they are examples. They show us where Christ is leading us. While we certainly don't walk on water, we do walk ahead. Elders walk ahead, a couple steps ahead of the congregation, and they invite the congregation to follow. And finally, the other negative is not a recent convert. It's not about physical age, but spiritual age. growth and maturity in Christ. The new believer is more likely to give into certain sins, like being puffed up with conceit, to give into sins like pride. Pride is such a dangerous sin in the church. The propensity to look down on others, to think that you're better, less than they are less than not so far along when the objective of the leaders in the church is to lift other people up, to humbly serve, to come beneath and to lift them up. And so that was the devil's problem. And he was judged for that. Paul doesn't want people to end up in the same boat. And then quickly the reputation of the elder verse seven, moreover, he must be well thought of noticed by the outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. This might be a little bit surprising, but it makes sense. Paul's saying it's not enough for a man to be godly within the church, the four walls. amongst the people of God. He also needs to be respected outside of it. He needs to have a good name among unbelievers, coworkers, neighbors, and people who don't worship with him on Sunday. Why? Because elders don't just represent the congregation, they represent Christ to a watching world. What a good reminder for us. We represent the Lord, we serve the Lord both inside these four walls and outside as well. We don't want to have an attitude of us against them. This mentality that says, you know, we are the people of God and those are the bad people out there. And we build a bridge, we build a moat, we build a wall between us and them. We don't want to have that kind of tribal mentality. but we want to look to those. Even we talked about before, God desires all people to be saved. And so we're praying for all these people to be saved. And we're looking for opportunity to love those people outside the walls. So the call is for an elder to have public integrity because when an elder falls into scandal, the gospel is mocked and Satan rejoices. That's why Paul says so that he might not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. This isn't just a PR problem, it's spiritual warfare. Satan is always looking for a scandal. He is always looking for hypocrisy. And if he can trap a leader, he'll try to take down the whole church. And we continue to see, don't we? It's mostly pastors, and it's mostly pastors with big platforms and important names, but there keep being these scandals in our land. And they keep getting on the news. And the word goes far and wide about the hypocrisy in the church. And so reputation matters, not because we're simply trying to please men, but because we want to honor Christ and we want to protect the gospel. And so let's finish with these thoughts, these words, kind of a recap. This is what Jesus looks like. Everything we just walked through, faithfulness in marriage, Self-control, hospitality, gentleness, doctrinal soundness. It's a description ultimately of our Savior. Jesus is the only one who is truly above reproach, perfectly so. He is the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep and gave himself up in sacrificial service for others. He is the faithful bridegroom. He is the gentle and lowly king. He is the righteous overseer of our souls. So as we think through this list, yes, we're looking for elders, but more than that, we're looking to Jesus. We're again, seeing his beauty. We're bearing, being drawn to his character. And so again, I just invite you to let your heart be moved by him today, toward him today. Let your eyes see the kind of leader your soul truly needs. It's not a celebrity pastor, not a powerful voice. Not a brilliant strategist, but a humble, holy, sacrificial shepherd named Jesus. The shepherd bled for you. He bore your shame. He took your sin. And he is right now interceding for you as your great high priest. This is what Jesus looks like. This is what elders must reflect. If you're a man who feels the internal pull towards being a elder, a teaching elder, a ruling elder, let the passage shape your aspirations. We don't need to be perfect. You don't need to be perfect, but you must be repentant. You must be growing. You must be known. You must be shepherding and being shepherded. Don't aspire to the title, aspire to the character. And for the rest of us, pray for your elders, encourage them, hold them. accountable even, expect godliness, don't demand perfection, but don't ignore compromise either. We want to be a church that joyfully submits to shepherds who are worthy of our trust and even more so worthy of imitation. And this is what all Christians are becoming. No one's left out here. These qualifications aren't just for a few. They're the goal of the many. This is what we're being conformed into, whether we're 15 or 55, somewhere in between. male or female, elder, whatever the case is, this is the shape of maturity. This is the fruit of the Spirit. This is the outworking of grace. So we don't want to say, it's not for me, again. Say, that's who I am becoming by God's grace. That's what I will look like. That's what sanctification looks like. If you have been justified, positionally given right standing, you are being sanctified, changed and transformed to look more like your savior before you will be ultimately glorified and be with your Lord forever. And when we have a church that's filled with people like this, people marked by humility, gentleness, hospitality, holiness, the world will take notice, not of us, but of our savior, most importantly. And so God is forming us here. We're not just planting a church, we're building a gospel ecosystem, one that must be led by men who are sober minded, word saturated, spirit filled, and full of love for God and for others. And we're looking to the Lord, we're looking for the men, praying for the men that he's raising up, leaning forward in faith. We believe he will provide. We believe he is calling, we believe he is sanctifying us through his holy word. And so we say with hope and hunger, Lord, give us elders who reflect your son and give us hearts that do the same. Let's pray.