And we pray that you'll be with us here this morning as we meet together to worship you and that everything that we do this morning glorifies your name. We love you and give you praise in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So we are going through the book of Titus and this is not my doing. It's just by God's sovereignty that we come to the passage that we come to today on today. Today we are recognizing pastor appreciation. And so today in Titus, I'm actually going to be covering the qualifications of a pastor, or the qualifications of an elder. And so that's an interesting thing that we tend to be covering. I did not do that on purpose. I sat down this week to study this, and I thought, oh, this is lining up on the same day. So this is interesting here. Let me say a couple of remarks about this passage. Number one, this is the letter to Titus. Of course, I mentioned this, that 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are known as the pastoral epistles, meaning they were given to two pastors and they have, the bulk of them, have to do with the pastor's ministry and job and calling. So, as we come to Titus, it's important to remember that. Now, you may sit there and you may be thinking this morning, okay, he's going to cover a passage that has absolutely nothing to do with me, so I can sit back and relax. And you will not be that far off, but I will make an application towards the end that will be helpful for everybody listening to this. But yes, for the most part, I'm preaching to myself, well preaching, this is Sunday school, I'm supposed to be teaching, right? I'm teaching to myself and Pastor Steve, but I was very encouraged as I studied this to go through these qualifications of an elder to recognize that we have a pastor that hits it on the head, every single one of them. And it was very contemplative, it was very self-introspective for myself. You know, as I went through these, am I living by this? Let me also say this, this is not your list. I've been in ministry long enough to realize that church members have their own list on what a pastor should be. This is not your list. This is God's list. Please, this list is high enough. Do not add to it. I don't think I could live up to that. So, let's jump into this. First of all, let's start reading in verse number 1, and we'll review a little bit of what we've covered. thus far. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. This whole first four verses is one sentence and Paul recognizes himself that he's the author of this letter. He calls himself a slave of God. This is the word for slave, not servant. He calls himself a slave of God. He gives the purpose of his mission, of his calling, and that is to spread the gospel to the elect of God. We don't know who the elect is. Charles Spurgeon said until God starts putting the yellow streak down the elect's back, he said, I'm going to treat it like everybody's an elect. And that's proper because we don't know who they are. We know that God has an elect, but we don't know who they are. So we treat evangelism, we approach evangelism to all. Verse 2, "...in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior." Can I say this? God did not give the mission of pastors or elders to show videos. He did not give them the mission to sing songs. It was through the preaching of God's Word. Now you may say, that's out of step with today's times. And probably it is. But that isn't what God told us to do. God told us to preach the Word. He told, that is His divinely chosen method. And regardless of whether it fills a building or not, that's what we are to do. Verse number four, he then gets to who he's writing to, to Titus, my own son after the common faith, which leads us to believe that Paul personally led Titus to Christ. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. So that's the greeting. Now he starts to get into the purpose of the letter. God's standard for leadership in the church is high. That's something I want, if we go away understanding that, I want you to understand that God's standard for leadership in the church is high. We don't need to make a practice of trying to lower God's standard. A basic and extremely crucial truth that many evangelical churches today either deny or ignore. No trend in the church is more damaging to Christ's work than that of failing to discipline and permanently disqualify pastors who have committed gross moral sins. I think if we took a poll in here of anybody that's had contact or been around a situation where a pastor was in sin. We probably have 100% of people that have been around that. But I wonder if I asked you, okay, in that specific situation, how many of those pastors that sinned and it became open are still in the ministry? And I think that's the crying shame of the church today. Now listen, I'm not saying that God does not have grace towards those that fall, towards those that sin. And that pastors are beyond restoration. No, Galatians 6 is very clear. Those that fall need to be restored. But not to the position of leadership. They have disqualified themselves from a position of leadership. Okay? Showing love, grace, and mercy and restoring a fallen pastor by no means obligates us to put them back into the position that they were once in. There is a book that I used to read every year. Loved it. There are some things as my theology has grown that I disagree with in the book now, but still it has quite a bit of good things that I would even still today probably recommend it. It's called Ordering Your Private World by Gordon McDonald. Fantastic book. The interesting thing though is after I read the book the second time, I started to do some research on the author. I wanted to see if he wrote anything else. Come to find out The author, Gordon McDonald, who writes an entire book on ordering your private world so you don't find yourself falling into sin and mess up, actually had an affair with a lady in his church. Took a five-year sabbatical. Actually, the church refused to let him resign. He came before the church, confessed his sin, they refused to let him resign. He took like a two-year, five-year sabbatical. Wrote a book on, this is the title of the book, Rebuilding Your Broken World. and then is today pastoring still. Now I guarantee you if you picked up the book, Rebuilding Your Broken World, you're probably going to find some very good wisdom, some very good things that would be encouraging, some things that would probably line up scripturally. And no doubt he has a place in God's church, even after that kind of a public sin. But according to the Bible, he has no grounds to step back into a pastorate. The qualifications and the standard for leadership in God's church is high and we need to uphold that. And I say this with fear and trepidation, understanding that I'm talking about my job. I understand, we're going to get to talking about the pastor's home. I understand my kids are young and quite confidently I understand that there could come a couple of years in the future and one of my kids could do something by the lack of my parenting that could cause me to have to resign. Don't think that I'm saying these things without counting the cost. I did that this week. I went there in my mind. Am I going to stand on this? Do I believe this?" God offers forgiveness and spiritual restoration to all believers. But the Word also makes clear that the Lord does not accept such a person, no matter how gifted, popular, formally effective, or repentant, back into a position of leadership, nor should the church. So, we approach these verses in Titus. Paul's writing a letter to Titus. The island of Crete has many churches, and the churches are in disarray. They're in disorder. So Paul writes to Titus, who he sent there to watch over these churches. And what is the first thing he tells them to do to get these churches back on serving God, back in the right position? He tells Titus, appoint godly elders. Appoint godly elders. Paul's central theme in Titus 1, 5-9 is that only a man whose character meets divine standards should be allowed to enter or remain in the ministry. So, let's read verses 5-9 and then we'll begin to do a deep dive. And we are going to do a deep dive. I just want to warn you. I know it's Sunday morning. I know it's rainy. But this is good because some of these things are so sensitive to my position as an elder, Pastor Steve's position as an elder. And I want to get it right for us to understand it right. We are going to do a little bit of a deep dive this morning. So let's begin reading in verse five. For this cause. left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able to by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. One of the things that we see as a difficulty, especially approaching this passage in 2019, is some of the language of the King James Version that we will battle through. Now, some of it is right on, and some of it we have to do some explanation. So, first of all, in verse 5, we see the purpose given. Paul explains to him why he was writing the letter. He says, this reason, for this cause, this reason, I left you in Crete." Why? That you should set in order the things that are wanting. Let me say this, God is a God of order. God is not pleased nor is He honored by coming to church and just saying, well, let's just do whatever we want to do this morning. I don't believe God's honored in that. God is a God of order and He wants Titus to set things in order because apparently one of the problems was is the churches were in disorder. Because the word behind set in order has the idea of restoring something that is broken. It's a medical term. The prefix of it is ortho, where we get the word that we use today in our English language, orthodontics, orthopedic. It means setting things that are out, that are not straight. And so he tells them that you need to set those things. Now he says this, set in order the things that are wanting. this term, that are wanting. And the New American Standard says, set in order what remains. New King James says, dates that are lacking. The ESV says, put that which remained in order. And basically what he's saying is, put in what is lacking, what is there, and that is in disorder, in proper place. So he wants proper church order. The second part is proper church leadership. He says, and ordain or appoint elders in every city as I had appointed thee. Now, two years ago, a year ago, a couple years ago, I did a long Sunday school study on the church. And we broke down the things of the church. I did two lessons on elders. I'm trying not to go as deep as I did in those two things where I examined all of the biblical passages on that. If you want to get some clarification on something that I might say this morning, you can go back and listen to those. They are on the website or our SoundCloud page or I can get you a CD of them. So, there are three Greek words that are used in the Bible to describe this office that we're talking about. One is called Presbyterus. The other is episkopos. Of course, you recognize right off the bat we have the Presbyterian Church, they get that from that word. The Episcopalian Church, they get that from that word episkopos. And then there's the word poimen, which is translated shepherd or pastor. Doing an understanding and studying all of the passages these are used in context, we understand that these are all talking about the exact same office. So when we see the word presbyteros episkopos or poimen, we're talking about the pastor of the church, which is the language we use today. I do like the biblical language, which is elder. That is the elders in the church. So he comes there and he says, I want you to ordain or appoint elders. Now I'm not talking about deacons this morning. Let me just go ahead and explain that. Titus doesn't deal with deacons. Now we do have passages in 1st and 2nd Timothy that deal with deacons. We're not going there this morning. We're dealing primarily with elders. We're gonna stay in the text this morning, okay? So we're talking about the elders, the pastors. He says, appoint them in every city. Two things that we deduce. Remember what I said about doing Bible study. It's like Sherlock Holmes. You're pulling everything out that you can from examining the passage. Observation. Number one, elders is in plural. He didn't say go set up a pastor, a senior pastor. This idea of pastoral authority in churches today where a lone pastor takes over the church and he is the dictator of the church is unbiblical. And it is a scary... I understand some churches are just small. And if something happens with... I mean, before I came, Brother Steve was the lone elder here. I understand situations like that. They're uncomfortable and one of the goals that needs to be is trying to get another elder in there. But the idea that is set up in Scripture is a plurality of elders. Now, I do believe that as you see in God's hand of using leadership in His church, even from the disciples, that there is a hierarchy with the elders. There is one guy who's going to be the senior lead pastor. I don't think this is some kind of boardroom table, but there's a plurality of elders. Again, I don't want to get too sidetracked on that because I explained it in those messages before. So there's a plurality of elders. He says, I want you to appoint more than one in these churches. Second thing is in every city. So he's talking about more churches than just one. as I had appointed thee." So therefore Titus is an elder. So this is proper church order, proper church leadership. Okay, I've explained those. Now let's move to verses 6 through 9. The purpose explained. He set out the purpose of verse 5. Now he explains what he means by what he said. First, in verse 6, they are to be blameless at home. They're to be blameless at home. Okay, so let's look at verse 6. In your King James Version, it says, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. First of all, let's deal with the word blameless, because here's the thing. When we start talking about all these other issues that he mentions, we talk about where's the line that we cut here where we deal with grace. The idea of setting up all of these qualifications, say, well, if he does this, this, and this, and we can get into all the minutia of that if we want to, but here's the deal. The idea is blameless, a blameless. So let's explain what blameless is. Blameless is from the Greek word anakletos, and it means unaccused, by implication irreproachable, blameless. It is used three times, Titus 1.6 and 7, 1 Timothy 3.10, two other times it is used in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 1.8, it says, So the same word that's describing how a pastor should be in his conduct is also used with how Christ presents us before God after we've been washed by the blood. Okay? Blameless. Irreproachable. Newt Larson says, the standard for leadership remains high because the overseer is entrusted with God's work. He also goes on and says this, blameless refers not to perfection. That's sort of the idea we get after we explain what the word means and how it's used in the Bible, right? Does that mean that me and Pastor Steve have to be perfect all the time? Newton Larson explains it this way, not to perfection, but to a pattern of life against which no charge of wrong can be brought. Sinful behavior and a blameless person is recognized as an aberration, not a normalcy. There must be nothing in their lives to disqualify them as models of moral and spiritual character for believers under their care to emulate. They not only must teach and preach rightly, but also must live rightly." Paul charged Timothy that in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, he was to show himself as an example of those who believe. God does not call all elders to be entrepreneurs, men who begin ministries and build them. We are not empire builders. but so many are trained to do that when they come out of Bible College Seminary. Nor does he call elders to be producers, men who accomplish a great amount of work in the church, although those are worthy things. Neither does he call all of them to be managers, adept at mobilizing others in the Lord's service, although that too is a worthy thing. The Lord does, however, call all elders to be godly leaders, men who by their exemplary lives as well as by their sound teaching and preaching set a pattern of virtue and devotion to the Lord for other believers to follow. Mistakenly, many church leaders view their roles as that of promoter, businessman, executive, psychologist, entertainer, or president, but those roles contrast sharply with those specified in the New Testament. That's not what we're supposed to be. Can God gift pastors or leaders with those things? But that is not our primary role. It's interesting to see what churches look for in pastors when they're trying to hire a pastor these days. What the country tried to vote in as president of the United States, a billionaire businessman, is what a lot of churches are wanting as their pastor. Somebody who can give them some kind of massive ministry. Who can build and grow an enterprise. Because that's what we've labeled as success. But God doesn't govern the church by man's measure of success, but by His measure of success. That is an idea of being blameless, being above reproach. Now, let's break this down as far as being blameless in the home. First of all, I have this written down. He talks about faithful impurity, faithful impurity. Titus 6, if any be blameless, 1 6, the husband of one wife. So let's look at this. Many have taught this. I've heard these interpretations of this right here growing up. That this means that there was a big problem during that time of many men being married to like three or four wives at a time. So this is actually talking about husband of one wife means that he's only supposed to have one wife at a time because that's what it meant then. And of course, many who say that's the interpretation of it have been divorced. Quite honestly, that's why they say that, because they're trying to find a way to excuse themselves so they can still remain pastor. Listen, I'm not trying to... Just stay with me here, okay? Others say that this means that he cannot be a divorced man at all. That he can only be a husband of one wife. But taking that interpretation so rigidly, What do you do with a pastor whose wife passes away? Let's say a pastor's 35, his wife passes away in childbirth. Is he not allowed to marry again while he remains in the pastor? But if you take this rigid of an approach, husband of one wife, then you're bound to that. And I don't think that's what it means either. But I think when we approach the original language and we break it down, we get the proper understanding of what Paul is conveying to Titus in this passage that will deal with both of those, I believe, faulty interpretations right off the bat. So the Greek renders this right here where it says, husband of one wife in English. This is where they're looking at that. They're pulling that straight from these three Greek words. What does this translate to, literally, on air? Man. Mia, one. Gune, woman. Man, one, woman. Now they translate that, husband of one wife. Quite literally, this is the understanding. A one woman man. a one-woman man. He is supposed to have absolute fidelity to the woman in his life. This is sexual purity. This is not dealing per se with the ideas of divorce. But let me say this. The idea of having more than one wife at a time is not just something for an elder. That's for every man in the church. Okay? Why would Paul put that in there and say, okay, the pastors can only have one wife, but you guys sitting in the church, it's okay. You know, if you want to have like four, which I don't understand that at all. That's like suicide right there. I'm just joking. That was a joke. Okay? That's a joke. We love the women here. Well, he says actually the opposite in Timothy where he says anybody that's forbidden to marry is false teaching. But the thought he's conveying here is sexual purity. At the most basic level, Chuck Swindoll says this, at the most basic level, the phrase refers to a man who is married to one woman and living in harmony with her. It implies sexual purity and a reputation for devotion to his mate. MacArthur says this, being married to only one spouse at a time applies to all believers, not just church leaders, nor is the reference to a widower who is remarried, a practice that is perfectly permissible. This refers to the singularity of a man's faithfulness to the woman who is his wife and applies inner as well as outward sexual purity. When a church brings morally corrupted man, a morally corrupted man into his leadership or brings him back into leadership after serious moral sin, it does so in serious contradiction to God's standards and will. Okay, so if you're saying, well, the interpretation of this is that he is supposed to have sexual purity and sexual devotion, are you saying that a divorced person could be an elder? I know that's the question on your mind, so let's deal with it as quickly as we can and move on. Because we always have the what-if situations, right? What if it was not his fault and she just went nuts and left? Okay, for instance, a Charles Stanley. Many of you know who Charles Stanley is. He's a well-known preacher, writes books, has a TV program, radio program. His wife, after many years of marriage, had some mental breakdowns and she divorced him. And even from testimony of his own son, Andy, which I've read his whole account about it, his dad really, he did not see fault in his dad with the whole thing. He tried and tried and tried for years. What about that? And this is where I stand on that issue. You go back to how he started with it. What does it say? Blameless. Blameless. Now, I'm not going to lay down a hard and fast rule and be legalistic about the issue. I don't want to do that. And I think there are certain situations... Let me say this. I think before you are saved, if there's an issue before you came to Christ, that's in the past. But as we get into 1 Timothy, we're talking... He also mentions not a novice. So I don't think if somebody's had a divorce in their past, gets saved, and then like six months after he gets saved wants to become a pastor, I think that's foolish. He needs to grow in the faith, okay? He's not supposed to be a novice, okay? But this idea of what if divorce situations, you have to take it with the details, you have to look at the situation. Also, I think that really depends on a lot of the individual church congregation. However, I would just say this as far as governing those situations. Does he remain blameless? can he still remain blameless after that situation? And if you believe he can, then I think that, but I'm not gonna be legalistic about that issue, okay? If it was me, Mary's talked to me about this, like what happens if you were in that situation, I would resign. I would feel like I should, that's me personally, I would just feel like I should resign, okay? Because let me say this, and you all know this, I mean, I do what I can do here because of my wife. She is awesome, okay? I mean, she is fantastic, okay? Even if she was to, God forbid, pass away, I don't know what I would do, okay? I'm able to do what I do because of my wife, okay? So if something were to happen like that, I don't know if I could continue on as far as if I was even in the right and all those things, okay? But remember that qualification, blameless. Now, I've spent way too much time on that. Let me move on to the next thing about blameless in the home. Okay, so faithful in purity. Next is faithful in parenting. Now, here's where I was referring to that we were going to do a deep dive, and I know I can't get through four verses. Okay, so it says in your King James Version, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. Now, when I approached this and studying this passage, the King James Version, we just read it, the New King James Version says, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. The New American Standard says, having children who believe not accused of dissipation or rebellion. And many other newer translations say that, children who believe. So this led to an understanding of this verse by a very respected, trustworthy commentator who believed that one of the requirements for an elder is that his children are to be saved. That's what this is saying. And he held to it. And so his explanation, I thought, was very good. Now listen, I study the Bible as hard as I can, but I am limited. I don't know the Greek and the Hebrew like a second language. There are other guys who do. So when we break this down in the Greek, the two words that we need to understand is, number one, the word believing or faithful in your King James is pistos. The word children is technon. Now technon, for children, has no distinguishing of age in it. It could be little children, it could be teenagers, it could be adult children. There's no distinguishing in the age with technon. So that leaves a little bit of ambiguity there with the understanding of the text. But pistos, let me read you the definition of it. It means trusting, believing, full of faith, confiding, trustworthy. So it could be believing or believer or it could be faithful and trustworthy. You would agree that those are two wildly different understandings. Me and Brother Steve actually got into a little bit of a heated argument Wednesday night before we left church because I was trying to get his idea on this. And I was pushing back and he was pushing back and we both ended and said, we need to do a little bit more study on this verse. And so I came across someone who really breaks this down and deals with this argument. And I think the understanding comes as two important items help us to define the meaning of this word in this passage. Number one, the modifying clause. faithful children not accused of riot or unruly," that part of the verse, and the parallel passage in 1 Timothy 3, 4-5. The 1 Timothy 3, 4-5 says this, having... that's 2 Timothy, sorry. I was like, that's not right. 3, 4 through 5 says, "...one that ruleth well his own household, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For a man know not how to rule his own house. If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?" Interesting thing about this is how this word pistos is used. Whenever it's used in that case, in that way, this is some examples. Matthew 25, 21. His master said to him, well done, that good and faithful servant or faithful slave. 1 Corinthians 4, 2. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. There are several more. Colossians 4, 7. As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord." I have a whole list here, but for time I'm not going to read through all these. When you look at these, they're all describing the idea of pistos not necessarily as somebody being a believer, but somebody being faithful, trustworthy to something. When we see the 1 Timothy 3, 4-5 passage, I think that that context helps us understand where Paul is giving the same qualifications over here and then comes to Timothy. I think that the King James has translated it accurately by saying that the qualification for an elder in his household is not that his children necessarily be believers. Let's break that down. Let's say that is what it's saying. Brother Steve brought this point out. Let's say a guy raised his children, because things like this happen, not necessarily in this context, but people who've been raised in a church and then went in there in their 30s or 40s didn't say, I forsake it all, I'm a believer. And what does that mean? They were never a believer to begin with. Okay, so what if a guy's been pastoring in the ministry for 40 years, raised his children in the home, thought that all of them were saved, and then has a daughter that whenever she gets to be 40 says, I don't believe it at all. Is he supposed to resign? I mean, he didn't have a believing child the entire time. It raises all kinds of issues like that. Okay, what about me and my situation? Am I withheld from being a pastor until all of my kids become Christians? Then I can be an elder? But if we understand it like this, that it is about the children's behavior in the home. And I think that's what he's saying here. So let's look at it. husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly." Titus is to look for men who manage their households well and who have children who are obedient and under his control. A man whose children are wild in their behavior is not managing his own household well. Hence, he is not fit for the office of elder where he would have to exercise oversight of the household of God. Why would God... This is a strong qualification. Would you agree? This is probably the hardest one. And I thought to myself, why? Why would God lay this qualification down on men, that this could disqualify them from being an elder? And I got to thinking of examples in the Old Testament of men that we would qualify as fantastic leaders, but look at their home life. Eli, the priest, his children were terrible, committing immoral sexual acts at the door of the temple. It cost him his life and his son's life, and they lost the ark because of it. Samuel, even though Samuel, the great Samuel the prophet, who anointed David and Saul, still had a problem raising his own children. They did not have confidence in his children becoming priests, so they wanted a king. And then you have David. Every problem with David's kingdom, after he becomes king, every problem David faced, every great sin except for one, and that was the numbering of the kingdom, became because he was a terrible father and husband. Jacob was a... I mean, all of these guys seemingly have great things to brag about, but their home life was a mess. And so God gets to the church and says, listen, if you're going to run, if I'm going to put you in charge of the flock of God, your home life needs to come first. But think about this. And then I thought about it this way. How many pastors have I seen personally who get so into running this place that their home is neglected and they end up just like a David's household? I've seen it firsthand so many times. It's a huge issue with God. I heard somebody say this, sort of play on the Bible's words. It says, what is the profit of man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? He said, what is the profit of a pastor if he gains all of the ministry adulations but loses his own home? And one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever received or heard came from John MacArthur. No surprise there, right? Somebody was asking him at his 50th anniversary. He'd been a pastor for 50 years. His children have all been faithful to God, all serve in the church, grandkids raising up in the church. They asked him, how did he do it when he was younger raising children? And he said this, planned neglect. And they said, what do you mean planned neglect? He said, planned neglect. He said, I looked at the two things that I was most responsible for at that time, preaching the word of God and raising my children and having a good relationship with my wife. He said, those came first. If I didn't get anything else done, it didn't get done. I planned to neglect other things to make sure those two things got done. And it's hard. Can I just testify for a second? It's hard. Because when you're raised with an idea of work ethic and these things that you make excuses to sacrifice home to make sure that everybody around you says, oh, he's a hard worker, he's always there. But what is that? That's man's praise, not God's. That's hard. Warren Weersbe said, the children in an elder's home must be good examples of obedience and dedication. To be accused of riot or while living or disobedience would disqualify their father from eldership. Chuck Swindoll said, a man who cannot spiritually and morally lead his own family is not qualified to lead an entire congregation. Not accused of riot calls for people whose lives are are not known to be chaotic, disorderly, wasteful, or otherwise filled with drama." Now, you understand what I said when I don't need... we don't need you to add on to these lists. This is hard enough, okay? But can I say something? From my perspective, looking at our pastor, I'm encouraged. I'm encouraged because I see now the result of his home. And I'm encouraged that that can be done in my home with lots of prayer. Lots of prayer over McKenzie. It's a joke. It's a joke. I hope she never listens to this message. Okay. So let me with the 30 seconds. I seriously did not want to go this slow, guys. This is going to mess up my schedule. I'm out of time, and we have two more verses to go. So, we'll stop there, and we'll talk about the church. So, we covered blamelessness in the home. What we didn't get to was blamelessness in the church, and we'll cover that But I felt like I needed to spend that time to help us understand correctly. Because if we don't get it right, what does it matter? We have to get the interpretation right. We have to get the understanding of the Bible correct. There we can go forward with other things. So, we'll talk about blamelessness in the church next week, I guess. So, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us. You are a wonderful God, a sovereign God, and a gracious and loving God. And we pray that everything that we do here this morning will lift up and glorify your name. We love you and give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.