God's Called Men

Well, if this is your first time with us, today is a bit of a different sermon. As according to our conviction, we'll be walking through a text, but we've been in Exodus. We're taking a bit of a break because there's a new transition in our life here together at Jefferson Park. We have a new constitution which now calls for there to be lay elders, according to Scripture. And so this morning we're going to be walking through 1st Timothy 3 for the purpose of meditating and thinking about who meets these qualifications. Who is it that God has equipped and called and prepared for the service? This week we'll be thinking about it together from Scripture. I pray you'll be praying about it and medicating about it throughout the week, and then next week we'll be taking a formal recommendation from you in the service, and then you'll have until the 14th to give a recommendation to the office. My goal is for us to think about these qualifications from First Timothy with as much clarity as possible. Here's the key. We're looking for men who already have these qualifications and already doing the work of elders. We're looking for men who are already caring and overseeing and teaching. We're not looking for potential elders today. We're trying to identify those who God has already called, equipped and is already practicing that gift that God has given them. This is a very important rule. We're not looking for potential. We're looking for those already practicing. Now, many of you may be tempted to check out. Well, this is a sermon on pastoral care. This is a sermon on leadership. And well, I'm happy just where I am. I don't have it as utterly. No, this is a sermon for us all. First, we as a church are looking for elders and we want to make sure we are recommending the right men. And I want to make sure you're as involved in that process as possible. So I need you to be praying from this text and other texts like it. First Peter five Titus praying for me to be wise, praying for us to be wise and making wise recommendations. So this sermon is for us because this is our body. We are together seeking who would God have Over us, who would God be calling out elders? Secondly, as we walk through this list of qualifications, most of these qualifications for elders are really character expectations for all Christians at all times. If you look at this list, it's remarkably unremarkable. These men aren't the greatest leaders in the worldly standards. These men are men who have committed themselves to obey Christ. The only thing really different in this list is that they're able to teach. All Christians are expected to be gentle. All Christians are expected to not be drunkards. All Christians are expected to love and be patient and be sober minded. So, if you look at many of these expectations, all but one, really, we're looking at ourselves. This is an opportunity for self-examination. How am I following Christ? What does my walk with Christ look like? So, really, it's for everyone. So, you should be listening to the sermon, first, for how can I grow in grace and obedience, and secondly, Who do I see excelling in these areas? Who do I see as a model up ahead who I want to follow and emulate? Our message summary, the big idea is this. God calls us to himself to serve him. Or we could say God calls us to himself to obey, and we're looking at the obedience that we are all called to in Scripture. Let me read our passage from 1 Timothy 3. As we begin, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, silver minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Now, before we begin looking at this. If you're not a Christian this morning, we're going to be talking about character and qualities that I think most people in our culture would say, yeah, this is a good person if we were to describe somebody this way. I want you to hear this first and foremost, we're not Christians because we're good people. It's actually the exact opposite of that. The reason we're Christians is because we realize we are sinners. We realize we're not good. We realize we've fallen so far short of the glory and the goodness of God that God's wrath is against us and that we need a savior. We're Christians because we trust Christ. We're Christians because we recognize without someone to come and die in our place to take upon God's wrath in our place. We're condemned. We're not good people. So if you're here, we're looking at who we're supposed to be because Christ has died for us. We're looking at who we're wanting to become because Christ has risen again. And we cannot do this on our own. We do this because we see Christ, his forgiveness, the power of his resurrection. And we trust in the power of his spirit that indwells us to help us obey. So I know what you want to do here. This is Christians and we want to walk through this list and say, well, well, everyone's just a hypocrite because no one really lives up to all these standards. Yeah, we're all sinners. It just reminds us more of the grace we need, reminds us more to worship the one who died in our place, the chief shepherd, the one who lived the righteous life. If you're not a Christian, I would love to talk to you about that afterwards. As we think about who these elders would be. The first thing we need to see is that elders must be called by Christ. Elders must be called by Christ. First, they need to be called to Christ. Elders need to have clear evidence of grace abounding in their life. Elders need to be clear that they are sinners in need of the gospel, in need of salvation. They should not be a recent convert, as we just read, because they need to grow. They need to mature, they need to be tested. So the first thing, when we look at the calling, is that they need to be called to Christ, they need to be converted, they need to be changed, there need to be a clear, obvious change in their life because they are new creations in Christ. Secondly, there is a call to be a pastor. This is really captured in verse one, if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. That's chapter three, verse one. And the aspiring is sensing a calling. One aspires to the office properly when they have a sense of calling from God. And what are you called to? You're called to Be like Christ. You're called to serve. You're called to be poured out, you're called to help others, you're called to direct all attention from yourself and you're called to direct all the attention to Christ. You're called to be an elder, you're called to be an under shepherd, you serve under his headship and under his authority, and all you're doing is pointing back to his glory. You're not called to be a leader as the world wants you to be a leader to flex authority, to flex power. This is where Israel gets it wrong. It's not that God did not want them to have a king. They didn't want to. God did not want Israel to have a king like the world. They chose Saul because he was mightier and bigger and taller like the world's kings. No, God wants a king, a leader, a servant who is after his own heart, who has character, who has been developed and called and equipped by God. There's two different folks who would be thinking about this overseeing and this aspiring. One, folks who are eager to be an elder. They hear this call and they see the opportunity and they say, I'm eager to be an elder. I would love to be an elder. I want you to have Paul's, if that's you. I want you to hear the warning from James three, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers. For, you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Becoming an elder, I don't want you to think about having more authority, I want you to think about having more responsibility. There's a key difference in how you approach the position that way. It's not having more authority, it's having more responsibility. It's a high call to serve. It's a high responsibility, it's noble work. But it also comes with that warning from James. So there's one type of person, somebody who longs for it, who's eager for it, and have pause, brother, have pause in counting the cost of what you are asking for. The second, those who are afraid of it. There's a second type of man who is afraid of this task. They're afraid of the responsibility. They realize how heavy the burden is, and they feel completely inadequate. It reminds us of Moses a few chapters ago. When Moses says, who am I? Well, it's fantastic. God doesn't say, well, Moses, you're great. He doesn't say anything about Moses. He says, Moses, it doesn't matter. I'm with you. So you should feel inadequate. You should feel completely inadequate to do the work of Christ, to be an under shepherd caring for his flock. You should ask, who am I? And the answer is not, well, you have the gifts, you have the talents, you have the ability. The answer is I'm with you. I'll empower what you say, even when you say it poorly. If you feel inadequate, you're joining the party. Every Sunday morning right here during the offertory, I'm accused. You have nothing to say. Nothing you can say will really bring out what this text says, nothing you will say will really help anyone. You're ill prepared, you're not suited. And the thing about those accusations is they're typically true. I can never begin to tell you the glories that are in this book. And they're full of depth. Because I hear those accusations. It's not, oh no, you are prepared. You're very gifted. No, I'm with you. The Holy Spirit is with you. The Holy Spirit will empower you. There's a constant feeling of inadequacy. And that's why you trust in the constant presence of God. We're looking for this man, we're looking for the one who is called by God, the one who aspires to the office in the proper way. He's present. And he's practicing. That's pretty simple, they're present here, they're they're regularly in attendance because they love the body, they love worshiping with the saints, they love being here because the only way to help others is by being with others. Doesn't mean they're extroverts. Could be they're introverts. They love being here waiting for the opportunity to care. Church. Look for those men who serve joyfully and effectively. Look for those men who serve joyfully and effectively. It doesn't appear to be a burden to be with the body and to care for the body. And whenever they do serve, whenever they teach, whenever they they care, there's an effectiveness about it. Look for the men who demonstrate a burden. For others, well-being. Look for those who are burdened for others, not those who want to to do what's convenient for them, but for those who go out of their comfort zone and are burdened for others, well-being. Look for those who have been and are laboring in love for your well-being. Those who have sacrificed for the church. Elder candidates. Is your calling demonstrated by service as needed or as convenient? Have you served the church where the church needs service or are you serving the church where it's convenient for you and what you like to do? Is your calling demonstrated by a life committed to prayer? That's essential. Is that where you know you feel inadequate? It's by evaluating your prayer life. Do you pray for me because you know I'm inadequate? Do you pray for others who are teaching and leading because you know they're inadequate? Is your life marked by prayer because we're an absolute dependence and trust upon God alone who can save? Is your leadership life marked by a sense of inadequacy that leads you to your knees? And secondly, because you're praying, do you expect God to show up? When I'm preaching the gospel, do you expect him to save sinners? Do you have an expectation that God is active? That God is here, that God is speaking, that God wants to do something here in this body that will glorify him. We need men who feel inadequate. That inadequacy leads them to their knees and the prayer leads them to expectation. Secondly, elders must be committed to the truth. We see this one marker. This is where the elders are set apart. They're able to teach. We could go to Titus 1.9. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradicted. So you see there, the able to teach is setting forth what is true and also making sure he's protecting you from what is wrong. In order to recognize someone who is able to teach, First, he must be a student of the word. He must be a student of God's word, he must seek to know that he must love this. He loves the law of God. It's his delight to know it. St. Bernard in the 12th century gave a great exhortation to us who study. He says, if you study. For the fame, because people will come to you and want to sit at your feet, then you You study in a shameful way. If you study because it's going to get you profit and wealth, you study in a shameful way. If you study because it's going to help you gain more knowledge and build up your own ego, then you study in a shameful way. If you study. God's word so that you can help others understand it. And you study. In a way that worships God. If you study for the purpose of being edified and edifying others, then this is a noble and wise and praiseworthy task. So as we seek to study God's word, we need to make sure we're studying it so that we are edified, not puffed up. We are edified and so that we can help others be edified. So he's someone who studies and then he's someone who teaches. There's a sense in which we're all teachers. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. We believe that we are all called to be watching over one another, loving one another. As that song we sang, the servant song, we're all called to be teaching and loving and caring for one another. But these men are set apart because they have a clear, unique gifting to teach. This doesn't mean he's just a good student, doesn't mean he's just a good communicator. It means he is effective. He's effective that when he opens God's word, he takes complicated and hard truths and he helps you understand them better. He doesn't simplify them. He doesn't pretend that there are not hard, there are hard truths. He does not oversimplify them. He takes them and he helps you glorify God because of them. When he teaches, you understand God's word more, you obey and have a desire to obey more and you glorify God. Let me be clear, all preaching is teaching, but not all teaching is preaching. I am preaching and I hope that you are learning because it is teaching, but there are ways to teach that is not preaching. You teach when you sit down with someone and counsel them one on one. You're teaching when you're in a social class and you're leading a discussion through God's word. You're teaching when you're in a home group. There are many ways to teach what we're looking for, those that when they teach, when they open God's word, you understand it more. You see more of your sin because God's using them to convict you. You see more of the gospel because they give you assurance of grace. They encourage you and give you a greater desire to love God. and love one another. Teaching is a skill of knowing God's Word and helping others know it, appreciate it, and obey it. Church. So as you're looking at these possible elder candidates, here's a key question you ask. Who do I go to when I have a question with the Bible? The ability to teach is someone who, when they open it up, they help you understand. When you have a question about something in scripture, who do you go to? Who do you ask questions to? Who is it that you look around and you say, I would trust him to give me a clear biblical answer. I trust him to help me understand the difficult and hard truths of scripture. A second way of knowing who God is equipped and called to be elders. Who has taught or spoken or preached or prayed that has truly helped you meet with God during that time? And when men are praying up here, they're teaching at some level. When men are praying, they're leading you into Godliness. Who is it that when they pray or when they open God's word, you feel like you leave there having met with God? These are the men God has equipped and called to be elders. Candidates, why do you study God's Word? Are you studying it for your own edification and for others or for something else? The third thing we see about elders from our text, elders must be committed to their own families. Elders must be committed to their own families. the clear mark there, a husband of one wife. Now, this is a formula we find throughout the ancient Near East, and especially Greek, a one woman man. It's a way of saying he's monogamous. It's a simple formula for monogamy. He's married to one woman. It means he's not divorced. It also means that he is only loving one woman. Now, polygamy is not It's something that our culture accepts. It's something that they should not accept. But, polygamy isn't a problem in our culture. It's a problem in the culture that Paul is writing to. So, I look around and most men, well, all the men that I see that I know of, they're married to one woman. But, we have to also realize that it goes much deeper than just who you're married to. It means you love one woman. You're not given to flirting with other women. You're not given to lusting after other women. You're not given over to pornography, which is loving other women. An example of this is the wedding day. Typically, in our ceremonies, the groom stands here and the bridesmaids, they all walk down the aisle and the groom should be looking dead ahead and he sees every woman pass and he's not paying attention or as soon as he recognizes, that's not my wife. She keeps going. I'm not paying attention. Next one coming. That's not her. She keeps coming. Next one comes. That's not her. Then she appears. That's her. His eyes are focused. He watches her come down, hoping that her dad will give her over. That's what the wedding day is like. That's what every day is supposed to be like. You let them pass by. No matter how attractive or beautiful they may be, you let them pass by because your eyes are set on the one woman God has entrusted you with. Paul says more about the family. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? We also can see Titus 1.3, children are faithful and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Verse five, there's an argument from faithful to the immediate area of influence to the greater area. So you cannot be faithful. You cannot be called to love God and God love the larger church if you're not being faithful in that immediate area. It's from lesser to greater, not in terms of importance. But an influence. If you cannot care for the immediate people that God has put around you and influencing them to godliness, how can you take on more? responsibility. How can you think that you can care for the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, if you cannot care for your own immediate family? He manages his own home. Well, he is the leader. He takes responsibility for his home. Titus one, three, the children are faithful. I don't believe this is teaching that the children of an elder have that they have to be believers. I don't think an elder actually has authority over that area of the child's life. An elder, no father has the authority to convert his own children. We believe in the sovereignty of God and the sovereignty that God alone gives new life to the dead, no matter who their parents are. So here, the demand is that the children are believers, but the children are faithful. And we see this in how it's qualified. They're not insubordinate. They're faithful, they're respectful, they're obedient. So here we can see that an elder can be judged based on how he would care for the body based upon how he cares for his family. But notice, a man is never qualified to lead the body. of Christ because he's leading his family well. Having a well-ordered and a well manicured and a respectful home, that doesn't qualify you. Really, all that can happen here is having a disorderly home that can disqualify you. If you look at your family, you don't look and say, well, this means I'm qualified because I'm caring for my family so well. No, having a disrespectful home and unorderly home, it can disqualify you. So how do we ask questions about elders in terms of the family? First, does his wife demonstrate joy because of his care? I'm a firm believer that women should grow in their beauty as they get older. And the way a woman grows in their beauty as they get older is that they're well cared for by their husbands. A woman should only grow in beauty. You see folks who have a rough life, they age quickly. Sin does that to people. You look tired. You look beaten. A wife of a godly man, she doesn't look tired. She has a glow of godliness because of the way he cares for her. Secondly, do his children respond with respect? Does he take responsibility for his children? Is he aware of how his children are acting? Is he proactively seeking to correct and train and care for them? Is he oblivious to how the children are running around? Or is he actively pursuing to train and correct them? As I said before, having a disorderly home can disqualify you from being an elder. There's also a way in which we'll examine the home, not to disqualify, but to say it's just not wise for you today to be an elder. We may look around and see men who have a full family, a full plate at work, a full life, and they just don't have the time to take on extra responsibilities. That doesn't mean they're disqualified. It means it would not be wise. Because it would be an extra burden on him, his wife and his children. We don't want to be a detriment. We don't want being an elder to be a detriment to the family. We want it to be a delight. Fourthly, and lastly, in terms of the kinds of qualifications, an elder must be called. He must be committed to the truth. He must be committed to his family. He must be committed to Christ and Christ's commandments. This is really what we're looking at, and we can see these are all true for all Christians. These are expectations for all Christians. What we're looking for are men who haven't mastered these because every man we nominate is going to be a sinner. We need to constantly remember that. They're inadequate. We're not looking for men who have absolutely mastered every spiritual discipline. No, we're looking for men who have a clear mark of godliness about their life. They have clearly set their path and they continue to progress and mature and grow in a way that they are no longer. Accusable. There's no habit or pattern in their life that you can say this, this disturbs me, this causes me to question what you say. See, Christ alone is the righteous one. Christ alone is the perfect one. We're looking for men who are the mature men in the church. I mean, I put it this way. We're looking for shepherds. If you literally think of a shepherd, a shepherd never walks behind the sheep, pushing them. We're talking about the literal shepherd. You never see a shepherd walking behind the sheep, pushing them, because when you push the sheep, they all go everywhere. They scatter. Now, when you're a shepherd, you walk before the sheep and they follow you. We think about this. The Christian men we're looking at are not perfecting godliness, but they're leading us in godliness. They're models of godliness. That's what it means to be respectable. We look up to them because of their walk with Christ. We follow them because we can see they have something in their lifestyle and the way they think and believe and love God that we aspire to. So we're looking at those who are ahead. They follow Christ with all focus and intentionality, this is why they cannot be a new convert. A new convert is not, by definition, more mature, a new convert also has not yet been seasoned or tried or tested. So first, when we look at the commitments. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach. He must be blameless. Again, this does not mean he's sinless. It means that an accusation cannot be brought against him because of a clear pattern in his life. He cannot be someone who regularly lies. He cannot be someone who regularly goes bad on his debt. There should be nothing about that man and his lifestyle that causes you to question his teaching. When he's proclaiming Christ, you should not be thinking his lifestyle distracts from his teaching. There's nothing about him that is so obviously sinful and unrepentant of that when he teaches, you think, well, you're just a hypocrite. I'm not listening to you because your lifestyle just stinks. I can't smell Christ in your preaching because your lifestyle stinks so bad. There's nothing that distracts you. As we think through these, I want to make sure we're hearing sermons rightly. This is a little moment of teaching. When you hear challenges, the most obvious quick thing to do is to say, yeah, that guy needs to hear that. My neighbor, yeah, they need to hear that. So, as we're thinking about elders, I don't want you to quickly think who is like that or who is not like that. I want you to first ask, because this is a qualification, this is a character quality that we are all expected of having, how can I be more like that? See, if that's not your first question, we're going to build up and do self-righteousness. We have to first ask, how can I be more above reproach? How can I make sure my lifestyle is above reproach? So when we ask questions through this section, I'm going to first ask a reflection question for you personally, and then a question to help us think about the recommendation. So first, do you have a life where others entrust themselves to you? That's a way of knowing if you're above reproach. Do people tell you secrets, trusting that you're actually not going to go tell other people? Do people entrust you with their lives? Do people want to be around you? This is what it means to be above reproach. They see that you have a consistent character about you. You consistently see Christ, you consistently obey him. Trust is automatically wrapped into this. Who do you trust, church? Here's where we get the recommendation. Who do you trust to teach you? Who do you hear on a Wednesday night? Oh, they're going to teach on Wednesday night. I want to go hear them because I trust them. I know that their lifestyle will match the message. No accusation will be held against them. I'm not skeptical in what they believe because their lifestyle proves it. Who do I trust? Secondly, Paul says that an elder must be sober minded. Now this isn't referring to soberness and drink. No, we're going to get to that a little later. It's actually talking about how one thinks. One has their mind under control, their their thoughts under control, they have been transformed in their mind by God's truth. So we're talking about earlier how we need to study God's truth for edification, an elder is sober minded because they so study God's word and so transformed by it and edified by it that their mind is sober. It's temperate. They're watchful for evil. They're watchful for lies. They're able to identify them because they know God's truth. They're wise. They're wise because they spent years studying God's word. They know what God's word is. They think God's thoughts after them. What God has said, they think. They have a godly. and right perspective, when when a question comes up, they don't immediately try to give you their their Confucius wisdom. No, they judge everything according to Scripture, they'll tell you what's right and wrong based upon what Scripture tells you what's wrong. I've used the word for this before. To be so reminded means you have ballast. That's the deep part of the ship, that's the part of the ship that you can't see. It's for the ship that keeps the ship level and stable, because it's the depth of the ship that keeps it from tipping over. An elder needs to have ballast. An elder needs to be so deeply rooted in Scripture that he doesn't get tossed to and fro by every wave of doctrine. He knows God's truth, and it's clear. This is really what's true for all Christians. So they ask self-reflection. How have I built my identity on God's word? Have I built my identity and my understanding on God's word? There's a real fancy word that's been around for a few decades now. It's not that clever anymore, but we all have a worldview. We have a way of viewing the world. We all have categories in which we put everything in. Is yours one shaped? by God and his truth and his categories and his expectations or the cat or they is your world view more defined by the culture around you. This really gets into one of the qualifications we see in Titus says holy. Holy. Are you set apart? Are you different from the world in the way you think, desire and behave? Questions for recommendations. Do they have a steadiness about them? You know, you can be talking to somebody and you're really wrapped up in something very spiritual, possibly, and they'll ask a question from Scripture. But does that really promote the gospel? Is that really what's going to glorify God the most? I have friends like this here in this church that when I approach something, when I approach them with something, a question, an idea, they sharpen it by drawing out the clearest commands from Scripture and saying, but this, if we focus on this aspect of Scripture, it will make the idea better or correct it or throw it out. Do you regularly have conversations with people who draw you back to the most central messages of Scripture? They be sober minded. That means they have been, their mind has been shaped by God's word. Third, they need to have self-control. Proverbs 25, 28, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. He is not on guard against evil. He's not a guard, but against his own evil. He's overrun. To be self-controlled means you're not impulsive. You're not controlled by your appetites. You're not controlled by sin, rather you're ruled by God's love. You're compelled by Christ and his gospel. To be self-controlled necessarily implies patience. Self-control means you're able to wait upon God. It's interesting, an 18-year-old young man who I'm studying this passage with the last two weeks, he read all these qualifications and he said, you know what's missing from all this is zeal. Zeal is missing from this. I want all the elders to be expectant. I want them to trust that God is going to be doing something. I want them to have a zeal that God is going to be working as we seek to worship Him. But zeal isn't mentioned because it's something you don't learn, necessarily. Zeal comes from the heart that is committed already to the Gospel, that's committed to studying the Word. What we're looking for are men who have self-control in their zeal. As we reflect upon the qualification of self-control, the first thing I thought of was, well, if you're going to have self-control, you need to have self-denial. That's not real helpful, just to say, well, if you want self-control, just start denying yourself. I don't think that's really where we need to start, and that's definitely not where we need to just, that's all we need to say. If you want more self-control, the first thing you need to do is realize that the temptations that come for your flesh, you need to see them as they really are. To have self-control means you recognize sin as sin. It means you study God's word and you're able to identify sin clearly and you're able to see it for what it is, which means you will then hate it. To have self-control means that you're able to recognize how you were overrun by sin. You're able to recognize that it is destroying you and then you will hate it and then you will deny it. So, if you desire to have more self-control, reflect upon Scripture, reflect upon the sins that control you, reflect upon the gospel that frees you from that sin and the life you can have in Christ. As I think about recommendations, when you're thinking about these men, are they above reproach? Is there something in their life that they don't have control of? Is there an appetite that they clearly are controlled by? Fourthly, they're respectable. Now, this doesn't mean they have good manners and they're polite. No, it means they're admired for their love for Christ. Respectable. They're someone you want your children to spend more time with. They're someone that you want to spend more time with because there's something about them and their love for Christ and their obedience that makes you look up to them because they model Godliness. A reflection question. Are there patterns in our lives that would keep someone from respecting us? This is where a friend is so helpful. A friend is the one who's supposed to point out to us those patterns that we might be blind to. Because they become our own habits. The recommendation question. Who do you want your children to spend time with? Who do you want to spend more time with? Who do you look at and say, I wish I had more about this person in me. I wish I had that quality and that person in myself. Fifth, hospitable. Hospitable. They're welcoming. They're caring. They seek out others. They have others into their homes. They embrace and love and welcome and care for other people, especially those who are strangers. It's easy to be very welcoming and caring and open to those who are your friends, but here it's actually focused on the stranger. This person isn't looking to huddle around his closest friends in the military service. They're looking for those who might not be Christians. They're looking for those who are not like them. They're looking for those who may be in the corner by themselves. They're looking to seek out those who need help. They're pouring their lives out for them. As a reflection, do you gravitate towards others or do you gravitate towards your friends or do you gravitate towards those who are unlike you? As an example, I had a friend in my previous church and Well, if you're a visitor, I've ever come up to you and I gave you a pen and a paper and said, hey, would you give me your name and number kind of just up front? That's what I learned it from me. He's just very up front. And one of the things I love about him, you always go to visitors and say, hey, are you a Christian? And they said, yes, he just he looked discouraged. Because he was wanting to go find the sheep who were lost and say, let me take you to lunch so I can tell you about Jesus. He wasn't trying to gather more Christians, he was wanting to find those who were not Christians and go love them and seek them and care for them. Do you have a heart that wants just those who make you feel comfortable around you? Or do you actually seek those who are very different from you? Recommendation as we recommend elders who welcomes you and seeks you. Who is it that comes around you that you're not immediately friends with, but they are always welcoming, they're always seeking you? Who is quick to serve the needs of the body? Who has an open home? Who quickly welcomes and embraces you? A lover of good. This is actually from Titus 1 and I'm going to supplement very quickly. Matthew 516, Jesus says this, let them see your good works and glorify God. Philippians 4 8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. We have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things. And the God of peace will be with you. Now, this is a command for all Christians, whatever is good, whatever is noble, whatever is honorable, all Christians are to think about these things. And notice the application for us today, whatever you have seen in me, Paul says. We're looking for those who are leading us in loving the good. Because we want to love the good more. Here we can ask the question, it's the same question for both. What do I think about? Where does my mind go when I have those empty moments of rest? Is it the things that are honorable and good? One way of knowing about this, an elder, where do your conversations go with someone? Do they quickly go to what is honorable and good and holy? There are negative qualifications. He's got to be a drunkard. This doesn't mean he doesn't have any alcohol. What he's focused here is that he is consumed and controlled by alcohol. That one you'll have to ask him about, I assume. Not violent, but gentle. Not violent, but gentle. As a thing to apply this, and I'm going to speed it up here a little bit. You're welcome. Not violent, but gentle. We become violent when we lose control. We really feel like we deserve someone's respect and they don't respect us. That's when we become angry. Violent. You see, someone who is gentle trusts God and trusts that he's in control and doesn't have to become violent when he loses control. When it's obvious that he's not in control of his life, he's not in control of others. So, when we lack control of others, we become violent. No, the real Christian man, the real Christian woman, they're always gentle because they trust God and that He is in control. Not quarrelsome. He's not someone who goes out and picks fights. We don't want arguments here. He's not someone who wants to make sure everyone agrees with him. He's not someone who has to have the last word. He's not someone who has frivolous arguments. More so, a way of thinking about this, he's not someone who applies primary convictions to secondary matters. The gospel is a primary issue. If you question the resurrection, I'm going to get pretty heated and rived up about that. I'm going to really get enthusiastic that, no, the resurrection is absolutely essential. It's a primary matter. You cannot deny the resurrection and think you're a Christian. Well, there's secondary matters. You're a dispensationalist. Oh, OK, let's talk about that. There's primary matters and there's secondary matters. Someone who is quarrelsome treats everything as a primary matter. They want to fight about every little doctrine, every cross, every dotted I. They'll get revved up a true elder. A true man committed to God's word knows what's important in God's word and knows what is questionable because there's many positions throughout the church history. It's humility. Someone who is quarrelsome is not teachable. They don't listen. They're just waiting to speak when you're done. Not a lover of money. It's interesting, Jesus, I'm not sure if he teaches more on money or hell. But those are the two sermons we hear the least amount in churches today, those two subjects, hell and money. That's what Jesus taught on most, those two. Not a lover of money, not consuming money, not driven by what he gains and how he's going to spend it on himself. Now, being rich is not a sin. It's how you use what you have. It's how you're motivated in gaining wealth, look at your checkbook, what are the patterns of self indulgence? Do you give beyond your comfort level? If you're looking at elders, are they Not arrogant. In my prayer, I praise Christ because he sought us above his own self. Philippians 2 is a model of humility and is Jesus Christ. We should have the mind that is in Christ, the one who sought us above himself, the one who sought our interests above his own. A humble man seeks the benefit of others, he seeks to point out their significance more than others. Finally, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace. That's an important question. It's important for our culture because we're still kind in the South. The Southern Christian culture where everybody is a Christian and everybody dresses up and looks good on Sunday. What do you look like when you go home? What do your neighbors and your co-workers say about you? Because you can be nice and smile and shake hands in these four walls. But what do you say and do when you're not with us? What do you say and do when you're with your neighbor, your employer, and your employee? As we conclude, An elder is set apart to lead you into godliness. That's why he must be leading in godliness. He must be a model of godliness. He must first have the lifestyle that matches his confession. He must watch his doctrine and his life. One of the great metaphors that I have really grasped and tried to live out is that a pastor, an elder, those words are synonymous, They're physicians of the soul. It's a metaphor that's been used throughout church history since the fourth century to describe a pastor. They're a physician of the soul. They're able to diagnose sin and apply God's truth appropriately. They know when to apply grace. They know when to apply God's love. They know when to apply the law. They see and hear and they love and they want your best interest. And so they're not always telling you the same truth. What they're doing is they're hearing you. They're hearing that if you're struggling with assurance, they know how to to diagnose what that assurance route is. And if they should apply the power of the gospel or if they should start examining you from the law to point out your life doesn't match the confession. As you think about these men, I find that to be a very powerful metaphor, a very challenging metaphor. Do these men seek to know me and care for me with God's truth? And are they effective? Are they empowered by God? Let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, you are worthy of all praise. No one is good enough even to come into your presence on our own, but you have given us your Son To heal us, to love us, to give us the grace we need to know you. Not only have you saved us by your gospel, you've called us into gospel living and gospel work. May we all be challenged by each of these qualifications and character expectations that you've given us in your word. May we do proper self-examination. May your spirit do proper examination over us and may we have conversations with others about what these qualifications mean and these characteristics mean and how we can be more faithful. Help us, Lord, to be a faithful church who seeks to obey you in all things. Point out our sin, how we can reflect you more. Lord, I pray that you would set aside set apart with absolute clarity, who you would be calling to lead us in this way. Thank You, Father, that You have sent us Your Son. And while we wait for His return to remove all sin from us, You've sent Your Spirit to gift and equip this church. We thank You that You have not left us alone. You are with us. You are for us. We praise you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.