Title: The Shepherd's Testimony
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:7
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave the disciples one final charge, which was recorded in Acts chapter 1. Forty days had passed since His resurrection, and now the disciples are prepared to be sent out. And we read about this in Acts 1, just very quickly here. So when they had come all together, they were asking Him, saying, Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.
Yes, there'd be work to do for them. They would become preachers and evangelists and church planters, but the overarching theme is that their ministry would be one of bearing witness to Christ. Because who would really believe that Jesus lived? Who would believe that He died and rose again? Who would believe that He performed miracles? That He healed the sick and raised the dead? Moreover, who would believe that Jesus could redeem a sinner and change them into a new person and then do amazing things through them? Who would believe if nobody was going to tell them? And so Jesus wanted witnesses who would tell the world, and yet we know that nothing has changed.
He still uses witnesses today. See, every Christian is a witness to God's grace. You, me, every believer.
Our lives tell a story. John MacArthur has said, you are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read. Your witness matters.
It's vitally important to the progress of the gospel in the world. Of course, there is also the problem of those who profess to be a Christian, and yet they deny Christ by how they live. Either through their wickedness or their hypocrisy or compromise, they invalidate the very profession that they make.
Paul warns about this in Titus 1.16 regarding so-called Christians who are defiled in mind and conscience. He adds, they profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him. The problem is with bad testimony, and yet we know that God desires for every Christian to have a good testimony.
But for every aspiring elder, overseer, pastor, or shepherd, God requires this. And without this, they are not qualified. And so, for the seventh time together here, let's turn over to 1 Timothy 3 in your copy of Scripture.
1 Timothy 3. The Lord Jesus Christ, the good shepherd of the sheep, loves His flock. He loves His church. He loves us so much that He voluntarily went to the cross as a sacrifice for sins.
He bore the wrath of God against sinners. He made peace with God through His blood. He earned our forgiveness.
He secured our justification and our adoption. The Bible teaches that He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, opening the way of eternal life for all who would trust in Him. And every person is commanded to believe this good news, this gospel message.
And those who respond to that saving message, the Bible says they are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1.13. We are stamped with God's seal, mark of ownership, a mark of protection. And we are added to the body of Christ, which is the church. And we are the gathered assembly of the redeemed, those who've been saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
And once established, the Lord appoints shepherds over His flock, over His people, overseers who can watch and protect and guard and guide in the form of pastors and elders. These shepherds exist to care for the flock through teaching and feeding, equipping and encouraging, and all this to draw people closer to the Lord in faithfulness and in love. And so because of the greatness of the stewardship and responsibility of this, God appoints faithful men who are above reproach to do the work.
Well, how does a church know what to look for in a shepherd? And that's where we have been here for quite a while now. In 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7, it gives us God's requirements. And so we're going to look at these again.
1 Timothy 3, Paul says, it is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God and not a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil? And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. And so shepherds, overseers, pastors, elders, this is all the same office here.
They must be above reproach with no viable accusation against them. They must be faithful to their wives, upright in their character. They must be good fathers, faithful teachers, spiritually mature.
And last of all, they must remain in a good standing with those outside the church. They must maintain a good testimony. And so verse 7 here, at the end of this discourse, verse 7 brings us then outside of the church into the community.
Everything else has kind of been personal or inside the church body. Now we're going outside into the watching world. And note the imperative here.
He must have a good reputation with those outside the church. This word for reputation here is the Greek word martyria. It's where we get our word martyr from.
And it can also be translated as witness or testimony in other contexts. In some cases, this testimony refers to the content of Christian profession. He must be able to have a credible, accurate profession of saving faith.
Your testimony must align with Christian orthodoxy. Now that's, again, certainly accurate. Our doctrine matters.
In fact, if a person cannot articulate any semblance of a gospel testimony, I have a hard time believing that they're a Christian. And we go through this process even through church membership, through baptism, through all of our examination here at the church because we're looking for, does this person understand the gospel message by which they're saved? Do they understand God rescuing them from their own sin and from destruction? Because we ought to know what we've been saved from, what we're saved to, and how we're saved. If a person's testimony is, well, I try to be a good person, then they don't understand not only their own sinfulness.
They don't understand God's judgment of sin. They don't understand the need for salvation, nor do they understand the work of Christ to save us. And sadly, I've heard that before when I sit down with a person.
So tell me how you came to know Christ. Tell me about your Christian faith. Well, I try, and I understand sanctification, working out your salvation with fear and trembling.
That's not what we're talking about. But if your understanding of your standing before God, your salvation is, I do anything, you've missed the point of the gospel. You've misunderstood that it is actually God who redeems.
God takes pity and has mercy on sinners who are destined for wrath. He extends grace, gives us His Son. His Son gives His life for us, and we do nothing except believe, repenting of our sins, and placing our life into the hands of a capable Savior.
God saves. We, in salvation, can do nothing. And so yes, all Christians, especially aspiring elders, need to be able to give a good testimony of saving faith in Christ.
Pastors, elders, leaders, you have to know the gospel down cold. You have to understand how you were saved. I mean, at the very core of this, at the very basis of this, there cannot be any waffling or confusion when it comes to the doctrine of salvation.
You want to be fuzzy on end times eschatology? I'm kind of okay with that. That's fine. If there are things you haven't ironed out in theology, that's fine.
All of us are growing in the Lord. But when it comes to the core tenets of the Christian faith, the authority of God's Word, the personhood of Christ, the deity of Christ, the hypostatic union, justification by faith, the work of the atonement, the doctrine of the church, I mean, all of these kinds of things, these are essential. Your testimony that you understand truth must be there.
But there is an aspect of the qualification that seems to do more with the outward character. I don't think that Paul is talking about testimony when it comes to doctrine, even though I believe that that's true. It's certainly true.
But the context here is testimony not just of doctrine, but testimony of outward character in public. They must have a good reputation outside in the community. Some translations render this a good standing.
They must be admirable. Well, with whom do we have a good reputation? Well, he gives the answer, outsiders. The Greek word here is exothen.
In the original languages, the word church is not there. So, some of your Bibles, you might see it in parentheses or in italics. That's the implication of what he's saying.
Those outside, he implies to mean outside the church. But literally, it just reads those who have a good reputation with those outside, exothen, outsiders. What does he mean? The non-Christian public, non-believers.
There are several places in the New Testament that talk about the importance of reputation and conduct with outsiders. The apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4, 11 and 12, he tells the church, he says this to them, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business, work with your hands just as we commanded you so that you may behave properly toward outsiders, exothen, and not be in any need. So, we are not to have a reputation of being troublesome or a nuisance.
We are not to be a pariah in the eyes of the outside world. When Christians are always making a stink or becoming odious in the eyes of the public, whenever we go online and wreak havoc, or whenever we're fighting with our neighbors, or whenever we're lazy at work, or whatever the situation is, if we're stirring up trouble, guess what happens? We get a bad reputation. This includes what we say publicly and how we say it.
I think about going online and just blasting everywhere. I mean, we tend to do that because it's so easy and it's faceless and it's nameless and whatever, but we don't realize the effect it has not just on ourselves but on the body of Christ. We're going to talk about that in a little bit.
But moving on to Colossians 4, 5 and 6, he says, conduct yourself with wisdom toward outsiders. Wisdom. Making the most of the opportunity.
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, he says, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person. Again, going back to this example, because it's a very common one, going online, going on Facebook and complaining about your taxes, or the roads, or the school, or the town offices, or whatever it is. Complaining about the government, complaining about your neighbors, complaining about whatever.
Engaging in gossip. Especially when you're engaging in gossip with unbelievers. When you as a redeemed saint go and join unbelieving lost world in doing these sinful things, you're jumping right in with them.
They don't understand the distinction now. Now you're joining them in worldly pursuits. You're not acting wisely or prudently.
And invariably what you're going to do is you're going to destroy your testimony. Rather, Philippians 2, 14 says, do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach. He's talking to just everyday believers.
Not elders. Just believers. That you would be above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world.
Did Jesus not say you are the light of the world? Now he is the true light. We know this. But aren't you and I little tiny lights flickering among the world? They're not to see you and see darkness.
They are to see you and see light. But when we fall in with the world in fleshliness and bitterness and disputing and complaining, we look just like them. We look like spiritual darkness.
But as children of God, we are called to appear as lights in the world and to shine the light of the gospel to an unbelieving world. That's what 1 Peter 2, 12 says. He says, keep your behavior pretty good, fair, negligible.
No, what does he say? He says, keep your behavior excellent. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. See, the world already opposes the church.
They're already against us. And if you don't feel that, if you don't recognize that, if you don't see that, you might have to wake up a little bit. The world is against the church.
They pretend like they're not. Oh, no, we love people of all faiths. No, they don't.
They tolerate every other possible faith under the sun. But when it comes to believers, to Christians, to the gospel, frankly, they hate us, either with an outright hatred or a veiled hatred. They already oppose us.
And so if that's the case, we are to keep our behavior excellent and maintain a good testimony. When we open up opportunities for evangelism that will culminate in those very same people glorifying God in heaven with us. I want you to think about that sort of fourth dimensionally here in the future.
Imagine those who are slandering you and opposing you. If you keep your behavior and your testimony excellent, what would happen if those same people who hate you and despise you, what if they came to Christ? And what if you got to worship in heaven together? I think about that sometimes, especially when I'm doing any kind of counsel or dealings with unbelievers. I think about, is what I'm saying today going to be something that they're going to thank me for when they're saved for being faithful to them? If I cower in my doctrine, if I cower by conscience, just because I don't want to look awkward in front of the unbeliever, what's going to happen in 10 years when they come to Christ and look back? Are they going to say, pastor, you were faithful.
Thank you for being truthful, even when I hated you. Or are they going to say, I'm a Christian now, and boy, you know, you kind of waffled there, guy. We need to think about these things.
We need to think about the future, about fourth dimensional missional evangelism, if there is such a thing. Think about what your profession, your testimony is doing, not just today, but in the future. When they slander you as evildoers, Peter says, that they might look at your good works, the way that you live your life, and observe that, and one day they will glorify God on the day of his visitation.
The witness of the church is so important, to the point where even if one person maintains a bad testimony, it reflects poorly on the rest of the church. And there have been times when I want to tell people who are living as, they say they're Christians, but they're living out in the world and they look like unbelievers, many times I want to talk to them and say, do the church a favor, don't tell anybody that you're a Christian. And there have been people that I've encountered, and again, I'm not trying to be judgmental against them like I'm better, but when you see someone just living fleshly in the world, and they're cursing, and swearing, and doing the very same things, and living a debauched life, and they profess to be a Christian, I'm like, just don't talk about our church.
Don't use the name of Jesus in the same breath that you'll use a curse word. This is especially problematic for young men. Young men.
Which is why Paul says in Titus 2, verses 6 to 8, he says, urge the young men to be sensible in all things. Show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, as we talked about that earlier, purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is a beyond reproach, in order that the opponent might be put to shame. That those against you were actually ashamed of their accusation because it's clearly not true.
That your opponent might be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us. Us, he says. Not you, us.
It's a sad thing when a believer brings their approach against not just themselves, but on the church. And it is horrendous when it's the pastor bringing their approach on the church. And that's where Paul goes next.
He says to the aspiring elder that they must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that, here's the reason, so that he will not fall into reproach. The word reproach here has also elsewhere been translated disgrace. Again, this is the shame of a transgression, a disgraceful reproach or a reviling by unbelievers.
This is why church discipline at all levels is so important. It's one thing when you sin and have your church correct you in love and in grace. And there's plenty of grace here, even in this assembly.
Now, remember, church discipline starts really with your own conscience, but by the time it gets to church, it's one-on-one. Not every single church discipline case is going to end up in the assembly. And I hope that the majority don't.
It'd be better if they're handled one-on-one or just a couple of people in one. But there's lots of grace and there's lots of mercy in those kind of contexts. But when the sin goes public and the world begins to judge you, that's disgraceful.
Or there's even times when a church will not deal with the sin issue to the point where it has to go to the public, and the public has better judgment than the church does. That's a huge problem. And sadly, that happens all too many times.
A church will cover up for a person who's in debauched sin and won't address them to the point where the world has to step in. That's a shame. Now, we should have a stronger conscience and a stronger constitution for righteousness than the world does.
We should set the standard for righteousness compared to the world. Of course, we also have to take note that not all reproach from the world is bad. What do I mean by that? Well, we know that the gospel and Christian truth, that is a stumbling block to the lost.
There may be times when they accuse us of wrongdoing simply because we tell the truth. We tell the truth about personal identity and sexuality, gender, whatever it may be. We tell the truth about marriage, monogamy.
We tell the truth about whatever it may be, life in the womb. We tell the truth about money and stealing and borrowing and things like that. We tell the truth about anything with doctrine.
We tell the truth about sin. We tell the truth about righteousness. We tell the truth, and yet they oppose us and they bring their own reproach against us because of that truth.
But remember, even Jesus was arrested and shamed publicly and executed publicly for so-called sins, and yet we know that he's righteous. Hebrews 10.33 talks about believers who endured a great conflict of sufferings partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations. We read about this in Hebrews 11, even Moses.
This is very interesting. Moses, it said, by faith, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure the ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Moses chose reproach rather than fall into the sinfulness of his other people, his worldly people.
He chose to fall in with the people of God and suffer deliberate reproach, and so to be irreproachable doesn't mean that no one has anything ever bad to say about you. Christians are falsely accused all the time. All the time.
Many of you right now, falsely accused for being righteous. In fact, if no one is ever offended by your faith, I would begin to question its effectiveness. There's a quote that I remember in my mind.
I think it belongs to J. Gresham Machen, but it was something like, if you're not being persecuted for your faith, you're probably doing it wrong. That doesn't mean that you go chase to be persecuted. You don't go into the public square and, you know, put a placard on yourself and say, persecute me.
But when you live your life in godliness, when you attend to your own business, when you do what God has called you to do, and the world reproaches you for it, when they come after you, that's a very different kind of approach. Being above reproach, that means that no one is able to credibly accuse you of wrongdoing. That you don't have a bad reputation.
Just consider the words of 1 Peter 4, 12. He says, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. He says, if you're being persecuted for your faith, don't be shocked by this.
But to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. He says, if you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure, however, he says, that none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or a troublesome meddler.
So don't, if you're going to be reproached, don't make it legitimate. When they accused you of being hateful, don't actually be hating people and slandering them publicly. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he says, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.
You will suffer. The Bible says, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. If you're going through your life, hoping and praying, oh, I hope I don't suffer.
I can't make any promises to you. You will suffer hardship. If you haven't already, you will.
You will. And the more bold you are in your faith, you will be opposed, and you'll be attacked in varying degrees. Again, many of you have already experienced this.
And so, going back to our text here, church leaders are not to be those who are guilty of wrongdoing, evildoing, stealing, adultery, instigating trouble, rebellion. That should not be church leaders. They must not fall into reproach, genuine reproach.
But then Paul adds one more phrase here. He says, not just falling into reproach, but also the snare of the devil. This word for snare refers to a trap, but specifically a trap that is used to, the metaphor is to catch birds.
So, it'd be like a net or some kind of a trap to cage an animal in. But he says this is the snare of the devil, and the devil is not trying to catch birds. He's trying to catch people, particularly here pastors and elders.
Now, last time we looked at verse 6, the verse just before this, and we noted that the condemnation incurred by the devil is likely the condemnation that he receives as a punishment by the Lord. And so, a person who gets wrapped up in the condemnation of the devil is not that the devil is opposing him, it's rather that we don't want to get caught up in committing the same sin and receiving the same condemnation that God gives to Satan. That was that context.
But here, the snare of the devil is most assuredly the snare, the trap that is set by the devil. Frankly, the number and diversity of snares set by the devil is immense. There's lots of traps that are set for us.
Just to give one example, if you were to follow up, tease out this word snare in all the different places in the Bible that's used of this kind of thing, you're going to get quite a picture. But 1 Timothy 6, 9, for example, talks about the problem of greed. Greed is a snare.
Not money. Having things isn't a snare. It can become a snare.
But if you have a nice house, if you have money in the bank, if you drive a nice car, those things by themselves, those aren't evil. Those are not a snare in and of themselves. But the love of those things, the greed after those things, lusting and coveting, that is the problem.
That's the snare. And he says, those who want to get rich, they fall into temptation and a snare, Paul says, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. Greed, my friends, is a satanic snare.
When you look left and right and say, I want that. Oh, I wish I had more of that. Oh, I really, oh, you see someone with something that you, oh, I really want that.
And you chase after it and you desire it. And all of a sudden, the desire becomes so strong, you'll do anything to get it. Or even discontent because you don't have what you think you deserve.
That's a horrendous snare. That will ruin you so fast. Comparison, that's the thief of joy.
That's the thief of worship. Don't compare yourself to anybody. That's covetousness.
But along with that, the allure of success and fame, that's the same kind of thing. Not just greed for money, but greed for posture and presence and priority. And all too many pastors have sought after notoriety and fame only to fall into the devil's snare and ruin themselves.
And I see it all the time. I've had some friends who fall into this kind of thing. This is why I've grown weary of Christian conference culture, whereby we platform certain preachers as celebrities.
And I'll tell you, I used to love going to conferences. I used to be the conference guy. I loved seeing my favorite preachers give the best sermons I've ever heard in my life.
I used to love to get free books in the tent. I used to love to fellowship with my brother pastors. I mean, I love that.
But I started to notice that something was happening in my own heart, and I was watching it happen in the hearts of other people as well, as we began to platform these men and sort of deify them above the rest. And I'm seeing these very same men, some of them falling into reproach and falling into snare. And then I'm looking around and I'm thinking, what are we doing? It's one thing.
It's fine to give honor to whom honors do. But when we make these preachers or evangelists or writers or whatever, when we make these people into celebrities and follow after the course of the world, we're no different than the world. There is no Christian version of Hollywood.
And shame on us if we do that. Because the risk is this. Not only does it divide the allegiance of God's people, if you love such and such a pastor to the point where you're giving them your honor and worship, you're robbing from God.
And not only that, but these preachers start to believe their own hype. We are the ones that we puff them up and place them in a situation where they start to believe their own hype and they eventually ruin themselves, either through public sin or through character disqualification. And I recognize as I'm saying this, I recognize that there is an element of my personal ministry that's public.
I recognize that I write. Those books go wherever they're going to go. I have preached conferences before.
I have gone on public media venues. But I've got to tell you, it's a little bit sobering and it's scary. And I have to be careful.
I'm so weary of it. I don't belong out there on a stage somewhere. I belong here with you and with my family.
And if God wants to do something through whatever ministry gets built, that's his prerogative. But I have to be very careful, and you have to hold me accountable, not to chase that. It is not about that.
It is about being faithful to the body of Christ and being servants of the flock. But again, that's just another one of the numerous traps that's set by the devil to ruin his servants, the Lord's servants. And there are many.
There's a great book called Precious Remedies for Satan's or Against Satan's Devices by Thomas Brooks. He's a Puritan. He lists over 30 different devil snares and then the antidote.
He goes through scripture and he says, here's how you fight this, here's how you fight that. Priceless book. If you haven't, add it to your shopping list this year.
Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. And so here we see the snare of the devil, it can refer to any kind of sad instance of a Christian who falls into reproach and ruins themselves. But here's the thing, that is not the worst of it.
It's not the worst of it, believe it or not, to fall into the reproach and ruin yourself. There's something worse than that. And 2 Timothy 2.26 actually gives light to that.
He talks about another aspect of the devil's snare. And the context of 2 Timothy 2.26 is pastors who are called to be patient and gentle with difficult people. And Paul gives the hope of being gentle.
It's in this hope that God may grant the opponent repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. So he's telling pastors, listen, be gentle with your people, be careful. When you're dealing with opponents, people who are against you, who are fighting with you all the time, he says don't just take the sword of the Spirit and chop their head off.
Don't do that. Be gracious, be gentle, be patient when wronged, suffer it well. He says because you don't know if God might grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.
That's better, isn't it? It's more important to be righteous than right. So go after righteousness. Who cares about your reputation? But then he adds this.
Not only that they might receive repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, but he says that they also might come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive to do his will. That's another level, isn't it? The last phrase is the one that gets my attention. See, Satan is always trying to destroy our faith and lead us away from the truth.
That's always and forever. Well, not forever, but always at least in this generation. There's coming a day when he won't be able to do that anymore.
But for now, yes, that's what he's doing. He wants to ruin your faith and destroy your testimony. In fact, Jesus says in the last day, Satan will use false Christs and false prophets to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
Matthew 24, 24. So he's going to ramp it up. He's already doing it.
I don't know if we're in the last days, but some days I feel like it. The ramping up of the opposition and the misleading of the people of God. And so again, ruining believers is always Satan's goal.
But there are times when a person, maybe even a professing believer or a pastor, engages in such wicked thinking and evil living that they allow themselves to be used as a instrument, as a tool of Satan to do his will. It's not enough that they just destroy themselves. They give themselves over to be used for the devil's purposes.
I've met men who make sport of trying to manipulate Christian girls into going to bed with them. It's a joke for them. It's abhorrent.
They exist to ruin Christian women. I've also met women whose pastime is going on and reporting churches to the government for so-called hate speech in order to shut them down. People who go on the rampage, they don't just oppose us individually.
They're used by Satan to try to oppose the church and hurt us. People who are used as instruments of Satan to destroy others. However, the snare of the devil to do his will, again, it can also find its way into the pastorate.
And it happens when men of God forsake the truth, either through cowardice or through compromise. And they begin to steer the church away from the gospel, away from sound doctrine, away from biblical morality. And they begin to pursue other things and put them into place.
We see this kind of thing when pastors begin to focus solely on things like politics, social causes, whatever their pet project is. They steer the church away from the Lord, away from the gospel, away from the scriptures, and towards something else. And we see this happening all the time.
The last decade or so, I saw wokeness, social justice-caused wokeness preached in churches, even in New England churches. And they did insurmountable damage both to the individual's faith and a church unity. I saw churches split in half during this whole thing with wokeness.
Pastors who landed in a place of polarizing their church over COVID or polarizing their church over politics, ruining and destroying the church and individual believers for something else. They're being used as instruments of Satan. It's a snare.
It's a trap used by the enemy to hold believers captive to do his will. It's so dangerous. It's so damaging.
And so, what's the antidote to all of this? Well, again, aspiring elders must keep a good reputation. They must keep their behavior excellent. They must guard their life and their doctrine, keep their doctrine on point, keep the mission on point, keep their lives in check, and keep marching forward with the church.
Again, John MacArthur notes, a man chosen to lead the church must maintain a reputation in the community for righteousness, moral character, love, kindness, generosity, and goodness, so that those outside the church, they must recognize him as a man of impeccable reputation. Again, this is good and pleasing in the sight of the Lord that we must maintain a good reputation. Now, at this point, again, we've been seven Sundays in elder qualifications.
And some of you might be wondering, well, again, I see that elder qualifications are just Christian qualifications, but what is desired for the church is required for leaders. But there might be questions among you. How do I know if I'm qualified? How do I seek to be qualified? Because, again, even though I want to be faithful to teach this in our consistent exegesis of the text, I do have a very, I hope, upright ulterior motive.
I want to motivate and inspire, especially not just the men, but the young men, to aspire to the office of elder. Because how are we going to move forward? Our elders, and even my ministry, is only going to go so far. At a certain point, we must keep the till going.
Because even if God isn't calling you to church leadership, and He doesn't call every man to church leadership. But here's the conviction that I have. I believe that every believer ought to seek to have the qualification of character, regardless of what God does in their life and ministry.
I remember when I was part of a young men's ministry years ago, that was one of our mottos. We were all young guys, probably under 35 together. We would have men's group together.
Some of you were there. And that was one of our mottos. We want to train like a pastor.
None of us are pastors. We didn't think we were going to be. I had no idea that I'd be doing this for a living.
But none of us knew. But we all wanted to train like pastors, because you don't know. You don't know what God's going to do with you.
And so, seek to be qualified. Pursue this. Set this in front of you and say, I want to work toward this.
I want God to get a hold of my life. I want to cut off all the things that are loose and hold me back. I want to pursue the Lord.
I want to be qualified as a Christian. What do you have to lose? You're not going to get to the end of your life and go, boy, I'm really bummed that I work hard to be qualified and growing in the Lord. You're never going to say that.
It's only going to help you. And so, let me give you some takeaways today. I'm going to give you seven, because that's the number of perfection, right? So, seven things that I think will be helpful to you.
These aren't laws. These aren't authoritative commands. But let me encourage you, as you seek to be useful to the Lord, not just as a leader, but in every capacity of life and Christian ministry, okay? Number one, commit to learning God's Word and study doctrine.
Learn God's Word and study doctrine. Once again, you will not get to the end of your life sitting on your last bed with your last breaths and say, I learned too many verses. You're never going to say that.
Billy Graham, at the end of his life, actually lamented that he didn't spend more time in the Bible. The guy was a walking Bible, and he lamented not being in God's Word enough. Jesus said, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
God's Word will nourish you spiritually. It gives you life. It will give you wisdom.
It'll manifest godliness. It will give you comfort and affliction. It will grow you in your strength.
You'll learn who God is. You'll learn who you are. You'll see Him by faith.
I mean, I could go on and on and on about the benefits, the value of learning God's Word. So commit to learning His Word and study doctrine. Number two, love your spouse.
If you're married, you have a spouse, love your spouse. Now again, all believers ought to love their spouses, but especially men pursuing spiritual leadership. They need to be a man who loves his wife like Christ loves the church.
You cannot enter into ministry with a troubled relationship with your wife. If she doesn't feel loved by you, the church will never be loved by you. But if you know how to love your wife, then you will know how to love Christ's bride.
So love your spouse. Love your spouse. Number three, devote yourself to training your children.
Again, if you have children, devote yourself to training your children. Teach them God's Word. Model Christ's likeness for them.
Yes, discipline them when they sin, but love them through the whole process. Learn to manage your own household well, and you will be able to help to manage the household of God. Number four, commit yourself to the church.
Commit yourself to the church. I've been approached by men asking me to train them for eldership, and yet they're not anywhere to be found serving in the church. How are you going to lead those that you're not willing to serve? I've always believed since the very beginning that when we call a man to eldership, it should not be a surprise to the church.
They shouldn't look at the man being considered and go, wait, that guy? If anything, it should be like, oh, clearly that guy. I've had men that we've called in the church. People in the church have told me.
You've told me in the past. He's not in leadership yet. I thought he was.
I thought he was an elder. You should become invaluable to the body of Christ. And again, not for the purpose of attaining something, not for the purpose of an office or a title.
Forget the title, but seek to be useful, to be invaluable to the body of Christ. Make sure this is your home away from home. Pray for this church.
Encourage each other in the faith. Serve one another. Give.
Participate. Become invaluable to the people of God. Number five, look for opportunities to disciple and train others.
Elders, this is very simple. You ought to be one who is apt to teach, and so therefore you must be a disciple maker. That's 2 Timothy 2.2. The things that you've heard from me entrust to faithful men who are able to teach others also.
That's the charge to keep the wheel going, to be training more and more men. Since the beginning, I have not stopped trying to train men over and over again, whether it's men's theology, whether it's one-on-one discipleship, whether it's elder training, whatever it is. I don't care.
I just want to be training men for ministry. Again, Titus 2 calls this the outpouring of all Christian ministry, the responsibility of all believers. Not just those in leadership, but older men training younger men, older women training younger women, and even the younger women.
Find someone who's even just younger than you and encourage them in the faith. This is not just for the super-duper ones who are training the rest of us. No, all of you should be engaged in some level of discipleship, either teaching or being taught.
And so look for opportunities. Find opportunities to disciple and train others. Number six, work hard.
Work hard. Develop the discipline of hard work, whether you work one job, two jobs, whether you work at home, doesn't matter what you do. Colossians 3.23, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as unto the Lord.
If you learn how to discipline yourself to work hard, that will serve you when you're serving other people here. Laziness will ruin your reputation outside the church and you will not be effective within the church. And so work hard, be disciplined, honor the Lord.
And lastly, my last encouragement to you, if you're desiring to grow, if you're desiring to be qualified, number seven, learn to suffer well. Learn to suffer well. This is part of spiritual maturity, but it's also the key to endurance Paul exhorted Timothy.
He says, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. I always kind of chuckle when I read the pastoral epistles. He gets to the end of his life.
He's trying to encourage his young disciple, Timothy, who he loves like a son. And his big sweetener to the deal is brother suffer with me. That's not appealing to a young guy wanting to get in the ministry.
And yet we know that Timothy was in ministry. He was struggling. He was hurting.
He doesn't, Paul doesn't blow smoke and sunshine. He doesn't say, well, hang in there. It's going to get better.
No, he says, brother, suffer with me. This is a good work we're doing. Suffer well with me.
Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. The church needs men who will endure hardship and stand firm to the end. I've talked to many of you.
I get weary sometimes. I know I'm not supposed to say that publicly. I'm supposed to like, look like all I'm big and strong and I can just tough it out.
Guess what? I'm pretty weak at my core. I'm not a strong, bold, confident person. And yet you and I have to suffer well and learn to submit ourselves to the Lord, to bear reproaches, to suffer hardship, to endure.
You ask how to pray for me. What do I usually say? I know many of you could answer this question. What's my, when you say, how do I pray for you, pastor? What do I say? Strength and endurance, right? How many of you have I asked to pray for endurance? But guess what? Not just for me, for all the elders, for the deacons, for the ministry leaders, for one another.
Do you pray for others to be, to have endurance? There are many people right now in our assembly going through insurmountable trials. They don't need money. They don't need all the other bells and whistles.
Those are great, but you know what they really need? They really need the Lord's endurance. They need steadfastness. They need comfort.
They need the Lord's hand and our love to encourage them along, to come alongside and say, suffer well with me. Suffer well as a good soldier of Christ. And your church needs men who will endure to the end.
Don't be like John Mark and get scared and run away. Paul and Barnabas fight over that guy, right? Don't do that. Don't run and run away from the ministry.
Don't run from the opposition. Keep going because here's the thing, there is reward. There is reward for those who endure.
For elders, 1 Peter 5, therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God, not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those a lot of dear charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. Listen to verse 4, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
What is the unfading crown of glory? I have no idea. I don't know what that is, but God does. The chief shepherd knows what that is.
Now, we know textually, yes, in the Roman games there was a crown or wreath that was given to the victor. Yes, of course. But what is the substance of this crown of glory that we're given when we run the race well? I don't know.
But here's the thing, the motivation for shepherding the flock is the honor and glory of Christ. Whatever His rewards are, frankly, I don't care. I'm not chasing the reward.
I'm chasing Him. Whatever He wants to say, whatever He wants to do, whatever is right in His eyes to bestow in terms of reward to us, that's up to the giver. Don't seek after the gifts.
Seek after the giver. I want to get to the end of the race, and I want to see the face of the one who's pleased with the work. I want to honor Him.
See, to serve Christ, that is the greatest reward. There's nothing higher. He is the reward.
Seeing His face is a reward. Hearing Him say, well done, good and faithful servant, that's the reward. Paul said everything else is loss in comparison to the surpassing value of knowing Christ.
Everything else is futile, but honoring Christ is everything. And to love the ones for whom Christ died is the greatest endeavor that any man could undertake. Shepherding the flock is an honor above all honors, and we need more men who are called to do it.
And so examine yourself. Ask the Lord, Lord, what are you doing in me? What's stopping me from pursuing serving you in such a way? That's not to denigrate or look down on any other ministry, because you might not be called by God to serve in such a way, and that's okay. But wherever you are, whatever He's calling you to do, be faithful in that calling.
And if you're faithful in what He's called you to do, believers, you will hear on the day of glory, well done, good and faithful servant. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, You are the God of all creation.
You are the shepherd of all the sheep. You are the one that our soul loves. And Lord, we know that You gave Your life on the cross to pay for the souls here, Lord.
This church is not an entity. It's not a 501c3. It's not a charitable organization.
It's not a worldly endeavor. This isn't a hangout for Christians. We are Your people, Your household, Your family, Your adopted children who You gave Your life for.
And Lord, we love one another. And in the ways that we know that we don't, I ask that You would help us to love one another more. But above all things, that You would help us to love You supremely.
And Lord, would You call men to be qualified to lead this church and to lead other churches? Lord, would You put a fire and a desire in the hearts of many? Lord, this is what these verses are all about. And so, Lord, we know that this does not make us anything special. We are underservants and undershepherds.
But Lord, we know that You are the one who is supremely valuable. And it is our honor to serve You by loving one another. Help us, O Lord, and have mercy on us.
Be gracious to us. And thank You for giving Your life as a ransom. And Lord, I pray if there's any here who don't know You yet, maybe they're here and this is the first time they're hearing this, or maybe this is the hundredth time and they've just rejected.
I pray that they would see their need for the Savior, that they would reject their sin, reject their rebellion against You, and put their faith in Jesus Christ, who gave His life on the cross as a ransom of blood to pay for their sins, that they would repent and believe in Christ and have new life today. Would You save that which has been lost? We thank You and praise You. In Jesus' name, amen.