So what I decided to do today was to preach on the qualifications of the bishop.
Now this was something that I wanted to preach very early on the church, okay?
So that way, as a new church, you guys could judge me how I'm doing as a bishop, how I'm
doing as a pastor, how I'm doing as the elder that's been appointed to this church.
But it's not just about me, it's not just about reviewing me.
You know, you may potentially have a desire to be a pastor, to be a bishop, so this might
come in handy for you to prepare and think about those things.
And even if you have no desire to be a pastor, hey, you may not have that desire today, but
you may have that desire 10 years from now.
You don't know, you know?
There might come a time later in your life where that desire comes upon you.
But even if you never become a pastor, if you never be a bishop of a church, these are
great qualifications to have anyway as any man of God, as anyone that's trying to serve
the Lord in a church.
So for me, this is beneficial just across the board anyway, okay?
And especially if one day, you know, let's say you move, you know, needs of your family,
you decide to move and you're looking for a church to go to, hey, you should be judging
the church that you go to, also judging the man that's pastoring that church and seeing
how does that man line up with the qualifications.
Is he unqualified?
Is he disqualified?
If he's disqualified, hey, that's probably not a good church to be part of.
So this has many, many functions as to why we will preach a sermon like this.
But if you're still in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, it just says there, this
is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desire for good work.
If a man desire the office of a bishop, the title of the sermon tonight is the office
of a bishop, okay, the office of a bishop.
Now we're going to come back to 1 Timothy chapter 3 later.
I want to start with Titus chapter 1.
Please listen to Titus.
It's just a couple of books after 2 Timothy, it's Titus.
So you're in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, let's start with Titus chapter 1, because
when you're looking at the qualifications of a bishop, of a pastor, the two main areas
that you're going to be looking at is Titus chapter 1 and 1 Timothy chapter 3, okay.
And the list that's given in these two chapters are very similar.
But there are some minor differences.
So I want to look at both passages today.
Titus chapter 1 verse 1 says, 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 in
hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
But having due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according
to the commandment of God our Saviour.
Now this letter is called Titus.
This is Paul writing to Titus, okay, verse 4.
To Titus, mine own son after the common faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, for this cause.
So what you'll see here is that Titus, Titus is actually an elder, he's a pastor, he's
a bishop, these are three words for the same office and they're used interchangeably in
the Bible, okay.
So Titus is a church pastor, he's a bishop and he says in verse number 5, why have I
written this to you Titus, verse 5, for this cause left I thee in Crete.
Crete was a large island of Greece, okay.
It's a large island with quite a decent population there and Paul is saying, look Titus, I've
left you in this island for a reason, for a cause that thou shouldest set in order the
things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee.
So Titus, the reason I've left you in Crete is so that you can appoint elders or other
pastors, other bishops in these other churches in the other areas in Crete, okay.
The first thing that I want you to understand there is that a bishop or a pastor, actually
look at verse 7, first thing I want just to prove this from the Bible.
So it says he's there to ordain elders, look at verse number 7, it says for a bishop must
be blameless, right.
So he's there to ordain elders and then it says for a bishop.
I just want to show you how the Bible uses these terms interchangeably, okay.
But the first thing, the main thing that I want to bring to your attention is that in
verse number 5, it says that Paul had appointed or ordained Titus.
Paul the apostle had ordained Titus to be a bishop, to be an elder of a church, okay.
And then it tells Titus, I've left you there so you can appoint or ordain other elders,
okay.
The first thing you must understand about being a pastor is you must be ordained, okay.
It's a top down position.
You cannot just decide, you know what, I'm going to be a pastor, I'm going to be a bishop
and self-ordain yourself and just start calling yourself a pastor and start your own church.
Look if you want the blessings of God, if you want God's work, if it's God's will for
you to be a pastor, he will arrange it somehow.
And if there's no one there to ordain you, hey maybe that's not God's will for your life,
okay.
Don't just start ordaining yourself.
That is crazy and again, if you go to a church and you find out this man, this bishop has
self-ordained himself, I would say get out of there, okay, because if he's willing to
compromise on this, such an important thing, what else is he going to compromise on in
the Bible, okay.
So it's a top down thing, it's not a bottom up, okay.
You know I would hope one day, I don't know, you know, five years, ten years, who knows,
that one day I could appoint a bishop, a pastor and we could send someone out to start a church.
That would be a wonderful thing, okay, but it's not something that I'm wanting to rush
into, but we can see this is the right approach, this is the way God has intended that appointed
ordained ministers would ordain pastors, okay.
Now look at verse number six.
So from verse number six we get the qualifications.
Now if you're going to ordain elders' titles, this is the kind of man that you're looking
for.
This is the man in the church that will stand out, these are the qualifications that he
must have.
Now first thing I want to tell you before we even read this list, you're not going to
read anywhere that this man needs to spend three years full time in a Bible college.
Okay, so first thing, now I'm not so much against someone learning, okay, but what's
happened is, and I've seen this time and time again, is that people make the Bible college
the qualification.
Someone's gone to the Bible college, alright, they're ready to be a pastor.
That's not what the Bible teaches, okay.
Listen, if there's something that the Bible college teaches that you can only get from
the Bible college, then that needs to be taught behind the pulpit.
That needs to be taught in the church.
The problem with Bible college is that pastors will then teach very shallow things, and if
someone wants to learn more, well you've got to pay the big bucks and go to Bible college.
No.
You know the church is, we saw that in 1 Timothy, that it's the pillar and ground of truth.
It's not the Bible college.
The church is the pillar and ground of truth.
The church is the place where you come and hear the word of God preached from cover to
cover without compromise.
The church is where you learn doctrine, okay, and in your own Bible study at home as well,
okay, you ought to be someone that shows yourself approved with the study that you do in the
word of God.
But let's pick up the qualifications.
Verse number six, if any be blameless.
Now we'll look at blameless in a minute.
Let's move on.
The husband of one wife.
The husband, husband, okay?
You must be a man in order to be a bishop, okay?
A woman is not a husband.
A woman cannot be a husband.
It doesn't matter how the laws of this country will change with, you know, man able to marry
man or woman.
I don't know.
If two women marry, is one called a husband?
I don't know.
But even if they redefine it, look, that's still not a husband, okay?
The first thing, it's a man, okay?
The bishop is a man, and not just a man, but the husband of one wife.
He must be married to one woman, okay?
If you're divorced and remarried, you're not qualified, okay?
You're disqualified from being a pastor.
And even if that took place before you were saved, it doesn't matter.
You're still a man that has more than one wife, okay?
It doesn't matter if it was before your salvation or after salvation.
The qualification is clear, okay?
The husband of one wife.
Now, it doesn't say the husband of one wife at a time.
It's not that you can divorce your wife and then get remarried, and then divorce that
wife and get remarried.
That's what that Peter Ruckman did.
That pastor Peter Ruckman was married three times, divorced twice, and he's saying, well,
I still meet the qualifications because I'm the husband of one wife at a time.
Does it say the husband of one wife at a time?
No.
And I'll show you later on why that man was disqualified anyway.
Even if what he's saying is true, he was still disqualified.
I'll show you later on why.
But it's not just having one wife.
It's not I'm married now, now I'm fitted to be a pastor.
No.
Having faithful children.
Faithful children.
One child?
No.
Children.
Plural.
That means two or more children, okay?
Now why is that important?
It says, look, children not accused of riot or unruly.
You need to make sure if this is something you want to do, that your children are faithful
children.
They're children that you can trust in.
They're children that listen and obey their parents and aren't running wild.
They're not out of control kids.
If you say to me, my kids are out of control, well, then you're not suited to be a pastor
just yet.
You need to make sure this part of your life is settled first and organized.
Faithful children not accused of riot and unruly.
Now, not one child, but two.
Now if I was going to ordain someone and they had two children, I would not ordain them
if they had a toddler and a newborn.
Because a toddler and a newborn aren't kids that are going to run wild.
If you've had kids, you know that when they turn two, when they turn three, it's those
very early years when they start testing the boundaries.
It's those early years when they start to run wild and really wanting to have their
own will in their own way and that's when the parent has to step in and show themselves
that they're able to raise their children and nurture an admission of the Lord.
That's when they're going to have to step in and show correction, bring out that rod
of chastisement and discipline their children and raise them well.
That's the qualifications.
We need to be able to see a man that has raised children and the children aren't running wild.
I don't know because if someone has children but they're very young children that are barely
walking and getting around, I don't know if that man still is able to raise those children
up to not be...
It could potentially happen that those kids go wild and then he's not qualified anymore
if the kids are out of control.
Very important.
Your family is important.
You know, if you say to me, I want to be a pastor, listen, get a wife first and then
I want to have children and raise them in the nurturing admission of the Lord.
That's the training ground.
If you need to show authority, you need to show control of your own family before you
can start pastoring a church.
Let's look at verse 7.
For a bishop must be blameless.
Now if you can keep your finger there and turn to Philippians 2.14.
What does it mean to be blameless?
Does it mean to be sinless?
Can we say, hey, you need to be someone that has no sin?
Of course not.
Everybody has sin.
I have sin.
You know, we all sin every day of our lives.
So does this mean that you need to be sinless?
Of course not.
So how does someone...
How is someone blameless?
Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2 verse 14.
Look at this.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings.
Don't be a whinger.
Don't be someone that complains about everything.
Why?
Verse 15.
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.
So if you have an authority over your head, you go to work, you have a boss, you're in
church and the pastor has rule over you, you're a child or whatever and you have that desire,
hey, and you've got parents over you, then whatever they ask you to do, do it without
complaining.
Do it without murmurings and disputings.
Don't be someone that rebels against authority.
That's what it means to be blameless.
That when the authority tells you to do something, you do it.
It doesn't matter how bad it is.
I'm not saying do something sinful, I'm just saying, you know, within reason, if they ask
you to do something on the job and you think, why should I be doing that?
Just shut up and do it.
Don't complain.
Don't...
You know, be blameless.
You know, I gave this example in my old church.
I had a...
I was working for my boss and it was a granny flat company, a granny flat company, and they
had a granny flat on display, like, you know, with all the upgrades and it looks beautiful
so you can walk in and you want to buy that granny flat or whatever.
But obviously they had a toilet there as well, but the toilet was without plumbing.
There was no plumbing.
It was just on a concrete slab, you know, and that seat is meant to be down so nobody
uses it.
It's meant to be taped down so nobody accidentally opens it and uses it.
Well, one morning I come in and the granny flat stinks.
It stinks like wee.
Someone had piss in that toilet bowl and it had no plumbing.
It was just sitting there and it was just fermenting, right?
And what does my...
Look, and I had a position of management, but what does my boss say to me?
Kevin, you take care of that, won't you?
You know?
Now, do you think I really wanted to take care of that?
No, but hey, I'm trying to, you know, at that point, I want to be a pastor.
I want to be blameless.
I want to be someone that's not murmuring and disputing and causing problems.
I just put on those gloves, you know, get a tea towel, whatever it is, get bleach, and
I take care of that, right?
I just do it.
Now, that's not in my job description, but I just do it anyway, okay?
And you know, when I was at Big Tree Baptist Church, I was the superintendent of the Sunday
school, so I would make sure that, you know, all the teachers had their materials.
I made sure that if a teacher was on holidays, I had someone to fill that in or I would fill
that in.
Now, I wasn't really keen on the Sunday school.
You know, I would rather be with my wife, listening to the preaching, and help her out
because she had a lot of little kids.
You know, I wasn't that keen to be pulled out, but that was something my pastor had
asked me to do, and he has a ruling authority in that church.
And I just said, all right, I'll do it, you know?
I want to be blameless.
I want to be someone that's trying to work to all these qualifications, and if you have
an authority over you, even if it's something you don't want to do, but they ask you to
do it, hey, do it without murmuring.
Do it without disputings, that you may be blameless.
That ought to be, you know, the qualification that someone has.
If you're someone that's always fighting against authority, you're always rebelling, you're
always complaining, you're not suited to be a pastor, okay?
Let's keep going.
Verse 7.
Sorry, 1 Timothy, back to 1 Timothy.
Sorry, Titus.
Back to Titus, chapter 1.
For the bishop must be blameless as the steward of God.
So you're serving the Lord.
That's how you ought to look at it.
Oh, my boss says to do this, I really don't want to do it.
Look, do it as a steward of God.
Do it for the Lord, okay?
Not self-willed, okay?
So not selfish, not seeking your own will, okay, because, look, I was not willing to
leave Sydney.
If I was just going after my will, I wouldn't be up here with a church, okay?
But I sought the will of God.
I sought the will of a needy people that were looking for a sound church.
And so I gave in to that, okay?
If that's what the Lord wants, you know, but if you're a selfish person and you're not
looking out for the needs of others, you're not suited to be a bishop.
Not soon angry, it says there.
You know?
How's your temper?
How's your, you know, temperament?
How's your anger?
You know, do you have a short fuse?
If you're someone that struggles with anger and you have a short fuse, you need to work
on this.
You need to work on this.
Don't be someone that is soon angry.
It doesn't say don't get angry.
There is a righteous anger, and we ought to be angry against, you know, the workers of
iniquity, okay?
But don't be soon angry.
Don't just get offended so easily and fly off, you know, your rail at every little thing
that upsets you.
Not given to wine, and I believe that is a reference to alcohol, okay?
Not given to wine, not given to alcoholic beverages.
We already looked at, you know, drunkenness, and drunkenness is something that will get
you kicked out of church.
And we had a look at why a king and a priest in the Old Testament were advised not to drink.
And the reason why they were advised not to drink alcohol was because they had to make
judgment in the nation.
And it's the same thing for a pastor.
Don't be given to alcohol, don't have an addiction to that stuff, because you need to make, you
know, judgment in the church.
You've got to stand up and preach the word of God with clarity, you know, without compromise.
And alcohol is going to, you know, cloud your mind.
And you won't be able to preach and take action when action is necessary.
It says no striker.
Now I don't believe, because later on it talks about a brawler, okay?
But when it says no striker, what I believe that's saying is don't be someone that attacks
your fellow brethren, okay?
Because when you think, when I think of a striker, I think of something like a serpent.
I think like a serpent where, you know, a serpent sees its prey and finds that right
opportunity.
And when the time is right, it strikes that prey and kills it and eats it, okay?
It destroys that prey, okay?
Now I don't believe a preacher should seek to destroy his people, should seek to destroy
the flock.
Now if someone in the church is in sin, yes, they need to be called out on that.
Yes, they need to be approached and addressed, okay?
But do we approach them to strike them?
Do we approach them to tear them apart, to, you know, get them feeling like, oh man, the
church doesn't want me?
Now there are certain sins that will get you kicked out of church, okay?
We've dealt with that before.
But I'm just talking about just your general sins.
No, a pastor ought to be able to see those things, not strike, but be a helper, you know,
nurture and bring them and help that person to overcome that sin in their life.
And so that's what I believe the striker is, someone that tries and attacks the brethren,
destroys the brethren, and many times people then leave the church, leave the faith because
of the way they were treated by their pastor or by people in the church.
Not given to filthy Luca, in verse number seven, not given to filthy Luca.
Now yeah, you know, we're eight months in, we're eight months into the church, and I
still don't have a paycheck, right?
I did not come here, and I'm not complaining about that, don't get me wrong, but I did
not come here and start this church for money, okay?
If I was working at McDonald's, doing some part-time shift, whatever the lowest McDonald's
pay is, I would have earned more already in eight months than what I've earned with this
church, okay?
So look, obviously, I mean, if you're going to do something like this, it's not the highest
paying job, unless you want to be a tele-evangelist and be a liberal Christian and tell everyone,
yeah, it's all fine, you're all going to heaven, there's not such a thing as hell.
Yeah, maybe you'll make money that way, but if you're going to stand on the word of God,
look, this isn't a profession that you get into for money, okay?
And I made that decision a long time ago that I wasn't going to allow money to get in the
way of me serving the Lord, you know?
I had a job where I was, I had a job as a customer service manager for Australia and
New Zealand, and I earned the most money that I've ever earned in my life, you know?
It was great.
We were able to put a lot toward our mortgage, toward our house, which has helped me today,
you know, to get us ahead, okay?
But what happened was, I had a desire to be a pastor, I was preaching every month at my
old church, and then what happened was, there was a time when my pastor asked me, Kevin,
can you preach this Sunday?
And I was like, yeah, I'm happy to preach this Sunday.
And then, toward the end of the week, I was asked, Kevin, we need you in Perth, you know,
we need you there for Monday, meaning you need to fly out there on Sunday, you know,
because of the time difference and all that.
And I was really disappointed.
I was like, oh, you know, I was meant to preach, and I had to call my pastor and tell him,
look, I'm sorry, but work's come up, I can't preach this Sunday.
And he was fine with that.
You know, he didn't like, you know, make me feel bad or anything, but I felt bad.
I felt bad.
And I just put that down as like, oh, this just one-time thing.
Anyway, I come back from work, I come back from Perth, and then a few weeks later, my
pastor asked me again, oh, Kevin, can you preach this coming Sunday?
And I was like, yeah, you know, I already had a sermon ready, you know, for the previous
week.
And then again, toward the end of the week, I get, Kevin, we need you in Singapore.
And I was like, oh, man, what?
You know, and I was earning some good money.
And I got to Singapore, and that week, I felt so bad, I was like two weeks in a row, and
I was thinking, maybe the Lord wants me to decide.
Is this, is the Lord putting this trial in my life to make me decide, Kevin, is it money
or is it serving me?
Like which one is it that you want, you know?
And I was, I miss my family because I was really travelling quite a bit.
I was working long hours, you know, easily 12 hours a day, maybe more, you know, earning
good money, okay.
But you know, it was getting in the way of me serving the Lord.
And I was even sick, I was physically sick, I was throwing up in Singapore and all that
kind of stuff.
And I remember just calling my wife and saying, honey, I'm quitting this job.
And she's like, are you sure?
You know, yep, I gave like two months notice, I quit the job.
And I feel like that was the crossroads for me, you know, am I going to chase, you know,
a corporate ladder?
Am I going to chase, you know, a name, you know, in the corporate world?
Am I going to earn the big bucks?
Is that what's going to drive me?
Or am I going to serve the Lord?
And if I'm going to serve the Lord, I'm going to take a massive paycheck, right?
I'm going to look for work that's going to accommodate me and not get in the way of me
serving the Lord, not getting in the way of me being a father and a husband that I need
to be.
And so, yeah, you know what, if you're chasing the big bucks, being a pastor is not for you.
And again, how many stories, I've heard so many stories of pastors that take off the
offering, they, you know, not, they don't only take what is deserving of them for the
work that they've done, but then they take on top of that and, you know, they cheat,
you know, they take the Lord's money, they steal the Lord's money out of the church.
I've heard many stories like that, many stories of pastors that are greedy for money.
That's not something we ought to be.
Look at verse number eight, verse number eight, but a lover of hospitality.
Now, when people think of hospitality, they think of, you know, inviting families over
to their house.
And there's truth to that.
But what I've found is that the more children we've had, you know, nine children, number
10 on the way, it's become more and more difficult, you know, homeschooling the kids, whatever
it is, you know, and then inviting a family over for dinner, it's become more and more
difficult for us as a family to do.
So this is definitely an area that I can improve in.
But, you know, being hospitable is not just having people over to your house.
Being hospitable means to serve one another.
You've heard of the hospitality industry.
That hospitality industry, you know, being a waiter, being a hotel concierge, being a
travel agent, all these jobs exist to serve a client, to serve your customers.
This is the hospitality industry.
It's because you're serving one another.
And it's not just about being hospitable in your house, but you can be hospitable in the
church.
You can welcome, you know, new visitors, being welcomed toward them, having an interest in
other people in the church, seeing needs that they have and saying, brother, is there something
that I can pray about for you?
Is there something that I can do for you?
Can I help you in some certain way?
Being hospitable is more than just having people over your house, but having a genuine
care and servitude toward your fellow brethren, okay?
A lover of good men, it says here in verse 8, a lover of good men, man, of men.
So what kind of friends do you have?
You know, if you want to be a pastor, are your friends good men?
Are they godly men?
Are they faithful believers?
Or are your friends made up of the world?
Are they worldly influences?
If you've got a lot of friends, your best friends that are worldly, you're not suited
to be a pastor, okay?
Because you're finding pleasure in the world.
You're not finding pleasure in God's people.
This number, sorry, we're back in verse 8, sober, being sober.
This is more than just being, not being intoxicated or being on drugs, but being sober means to
be serious, you know, to be serious, to be sound in mind, you know, not someone that's
crazy, not someone that's, you know, friendly one day and then, you know, yelling and screaming
the next day, right?
Not being bipolar or something like that, right?
You need to make sure you're a grounded and sound person and serious.
And that's why I've said to you guys a few times, I'm trying to work on my sarcasm.
I'm trying to work on me just telling jokes all the time because sometimes I offend people.
And that's not being, you know, that's not being sober, that's not being serious, I need
to make sure that, you know, I say the jokes at the right time and not just always be joking
and mucking around.
You know, there's times to be sober.
Just, you know, someone that seeks justice, especially if you're going to have a church
of people and sometimes there's going to be clashes, you need to make sure that you're
just in your decision making, okay?
Holy.
What does it mean to be holy?
To be separate.
To be separate from the world.
Does your life reflect the world or does it reflect a Christian?
You know, do people see Christ in you?
Do they see you, you know, seeking and delighting in the law of the Lord or are you someone
that delights in movies and delights in video games and delights in, I don't know, whatever,
the state of origin?
Like, is that your life?
Are you more worldly?
When people look at you, are you more worldly or are you someone that reflects what you
believe a Christian, a man of God, you know, reflects?
Temperate.
That's where that word temper comes from.
It's similar to what we read about being not soon angry.
You know, so I won't cover that again but it's been temperate.
It's been, how can I say it, self-controlled.
Someone that's in control of their emotions.
You're not easily offended.
You stay calm, cool and collected when troubles times come.
Why?
You're the pastor, you're the leader, you're the example in the church, okay, and if you're
losing control and things are going bad and you don't know what to do, you're going to
unsettle the people that look up to you.
You need to be someone that's temperate, that's patient.
Hey, look, can I just say this, and I don't care if this offends people, but how many
Baptist pastors that you know are severely overweight, obese?
Hey, that's a lack of self-control, okay?
It's not just what's in the mind, but if you're eating and eating and eating, you can't control
that and you're getting over, I mean, think about the Baptist pastors that we know.
I'm not saying they're bad preachers or anything like that, they might be great preachers,
but their life, they're just, you see on the outward that they lack self-control, they're
not temperate, okay, they're not temperate in how they look after the body which is the
temple of the Holy Ghost.
We are required to look after our bodies, okay?
So that's something Baptist pastors and preachers definitely need to work on, all right?
And I think sometimes if they were just out soul-winning, if they were just getting out
there knocking doors, they wouldn't get to that place where they're that severely overweight,
okay, because you're getting some good exercise week in and week out, you know?
So yeah, that's definitely something Baptists need to work on.
Verse number nine, verse number nine, holding fast the faithful word as he have been taught.
Now does it say here, holding fast as he have been taught?
Holding fast as he have been taught?
Because that's what some people expect from you, right?
They expect you, if I'm going to send you out, and look, I don't have that expectation
on me, thank God, but I know there's this expectation on others, if this church, if
this past is sending you out, you must be 100% aligned with exactly what we believe.
Now look, if you've been in churches for a while, you know that you've never been
100% aligned with any pastor, with any church.
It doesn't matter, even if it's a church where you thought you were 100% aligned,
there are certain things that you still were like, you know what, no, I think it's like this, okay?
It's a scary thing if everybody feels they have to be aligned to one man or to one church, whatever.
That's a scary thought.
It doesn't say holding fast as he have been taught,
it says holding fast the faithful word as he have been taught.
So whatever's being preached, you need to make sure you have the word of God,
you have the faithful word that you base your beliefs on.
It's not just what another man has taught you,
but you can open the word of God and show people why you believe what you believe.
That means there's going to be times that you differ from your sending pastor,
there's times you're going to differ from your sending church,
but that's healthy if you're basing your beliefs on the word of God, okay?
Because otherwise if there's some error and then you're being sent out
and you're just repeating that error,
then you send someone out and they're repeating that error, hey, that's not a good thing, okay?
Now there are fundamentals of the faith that we need to stand on
and we need to be strong about and fight against some unbeliefs,
but look, at some point you're going to differ
and at some point when you guys listen to me, you're going to differ and look, that's fine.
I prefer, I wouldn't prefer to have a church that has some slight differences
than a church that's always like, yeah, amen brother, yeah, I agree with you 100%,
because then I'll be concerned, I'll be like, man,
are you basing it on the Bible or are you just trusting me 100%, you know?
I'd have some concerns about that,
but why is it important that we would hold fast the faithful word
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort,
exhort means to encourage,
so to encourage you in doctrine, open up the word of God,
I can show you to encourage you in doctrine,
and to convince the gainsayers,
so those that are against you, that preach contrary to you,
hey, you need to be able to be someone that can open the word of God
and show them why you believe what you believe and convince them.
And let me say this,
you're not going to convince the gainsayer by calling them a false prophet,
you're not going to convince the gainsayer by just speaking,
you know, bad words against them.
To convince the gainsayer means you're required to open the word of God,
it means you're required to listen to what they're saying,
to understand where they're coming from,
so then you can address their concerns, okay?
It's not, oh, that's just a false prophet,
that's just a false religion,
ah, it's just a heresy.
Listen, listen, and then with your knowledge and holding fast the faithful word,
you need to be able to show them why they're wrong
and convince them to, you know, why you believe what you believe.
If you're someone that's never convinced anybody,
then you're not suited to be a pastor, okay?
You need to show some signs that you've been able to show,
open the Bible and teach and convince people the truth,
convert them from something that is false.
Basically verse 9 means you need to be a teacher,
someone that can teach other people.
Now I want you to go back to 1 Timothy chapter 3,
1 Timothy chapter 3,
1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2.
So I want to really cover what we see here in 1 Timothy.
Now a lot of it's repeated,
so we're not going to repeat all of it again.
1 Timothy chapter 3, let's start with verse number 2.
We'll look at verse number 1 at the end, verse number 2.
A bishop must then be blameless.
We saw that the husband of one wife, vigilant.
Now that's a new one, vigilant.
What does it mean to be vigilant?
It means someone that's watchful,
someone that's looking out for their church,
someone that can spot danger and addresses that danger, okay?
Because if this is a body of Christ,
the devil's going to come and try to cause,
you know, so discord amongst the brethren.
He's going to try to bring false doctrine,
false teachers in here and the pastor needs to be vigilant
and make sure that he addresses the problems when they come.
He needs to be able to stand up and make sure things are right.
Sober, again it says sober.
Now please hold your finger there and turn to 1 Peter chapter 5,
1 Peter chapter 5,
1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8,
1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8.
It's interesting how in 1 Timothy 3 2,
it's got vigilant and sober together, okay?
Now look at 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8.
It says,
Be sober, be vigilant.
Why?
Because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion
walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
So the devil will want to come in here
and cause havoc in this church
and hurt us as a roaring lion seeking to destroy the flock of God, right?
And that's why we command there in 1 Peter to be sober,
be vigilant, be watchful, okay?
And look if I make some hard decisions,
if I need to kick someone out of the church,
if I need to break fellowship or whatever,
you need to understand the reason I do these things,
is because I'm trying to be vigilant.
I'm just trying to be sober.
I'm trying to look after our church
because that's the responsibility he's given me as a pastor.
That's one of the qualifications we must have, okay?
Look at verse number 9 in 1 Peter 5,
whom resist steadfast in the faith,
that's resist the devil,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world.
So he's just given us encouragement there
that we have fellow brethren in the world
that by being sober, by being vigilant,
they've been able to overcome the devil, that roaring lion.
It's just an encouragement.
Hey, you can do that as well, okay?
That's a qualification of the pastor.
Back to 1 Timothy chapter 3,
1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 3, 1 Timothy 3, 3.
Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy or filthy lucre,
that filthy lucre, that's money, but patience.
That's another one, patience.
You need to be someone that's patient with people, okay?
Because the church is made up of people of all kinds of backgrounds,
all, you know, some mature in the Lord, some younger in the Lord,
some knowing some doctrine, some others knowing other doctrine.
We've all come from a different background, okay?
And if you're someone that expects people to be just like you,
like after a couple of weeks,
if you expect people to just believe just like you,
look, that's not going to happen, okay?
You need to be someone that is patient.
People are going to grow slower than you want.
People are going to accept doctrines that you teach
slower than what you want them to receive.
And you can't get frustrated about that.
You need to be patient, you know?
And, you know, sometimes you need to preach something
and, you know, sometimes you might think,
I've preached that, you know, a month ago.
Why do I need to preach it again?
But you might need to preach it again, right?
You might need to preach the same things over and over again,
especially some of the key important things.
You need to be patient, okay?
Because some people need more time to hear something
again and again and grow from that, okay?
So if you struggle with patience,
you're not suited to be a pastor.
Or you need to develop that patience.
And, you know, with the Lord's help,
you can develop that patience.
Sorry, guys, what am I up to?
Yeah, not a brawler.
So this is someone that gets into fights, fistfights.
Yeah, I've really, I've got into one fight in my life
and I lost.
So, like a fistfight, you know?
So I've lost that one, I'm not a brawler.
Not covetous, you know, covetousness is something
that would get you kicked out of church, right?
That sin of covetousness.
But it's important because, you know,
it takes time for a church to grow,
especially a church that's building their beliefs
on the word of God.
A church that's not trying to be worldly,
that's not trying to mimic the world.
It's going to take time for a church to grow.
And sometimes a pastor may think,
man, I wish I was like that other pastor over there.
I wish my church was more like that church over there.
Hey, that's been covetous,
even being covetous for something good.
No, God has given you, your church,
God has given you that appointment that, you know,
ordained you to these people
and you need to work with these people.
You know, you have to be satisfied
in what God has given you.
And let Jesus Christ build a church in his church
in his time and in his will.
You know, because if you're always looking out over there,
looking over there,
you start to covet for things
and you're not satisfied with what you have
been given in your life.
And that's not just in the church,
but in your life in general,
the things that God has given you.
You know, be happy, be satisfied.
Australians shouldn't be whinging
if you knew what the third world was like.
You know, and I've been to Chile
and that's not even a third world nation.
They're doing pretty good, that nation over there.
And yet there are so many poor people
that don't have anything near what we have.
I can't imagine what it's like
in like some of the African nations or whatever.
I wouldn't even imagine just how poor these people are.
And I hate it when I hear Australians whinge
about how much we have
or the government needs to give us more money or whatever.
What in the world?
Go and work and make your own money.
You know, stop asking other people to pay your way.
Patient, not a brawler, not covetous.
Okay, verse number four.
One that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection.
So your children are subject to the parents.
It's not the parents subject to the children.
It's not the parents doing, you know,
the will of the children,
but hey, the children doing the will of the parents.
Look, children are happier.
I promise you this.
Children are happier when they know
they're pleasing their parents.
They're not happy when they get in their way.
They're happy when they know,
hey, I'm pleasing mom and dad and I'm obeying mom and dad.
And mom and dad, hey, when they obey
and they do the right things, tell them.
Tell them they're a great child.
Tell them they, you know, and, you know,
reward them once in a while, you know, make sure they,
you know, they, you know, that they deserve,
you know, the recognition.
Verse number five.
And this is such an important thing.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care of the church of God?
If your house is out of control,
if your wife's not in subjection,
your kids are running wild.
Look, it's not that you can't be a pastor,
but you need to fix those things.
You need to worry about your family.
Listen, if my family, if this church,
like if I had to decide between being a pastor
and having a family that is not falling apart,
I'd rather just step down as a pastor
and look after my family, honestly, you know?
And this is not just qualifications to get ordained.
These are qualifications you need to maintain
the whole time that you're a pastor, okay?
Now I hope, now I don't know,
but I hope my children, at least while they're in my house,
it doesn't matter if they're teenagers or young adults,
that they're always in subjection.
But, you know, it could come a time when they're,
you know, in their 20, over 20, 30,
that they mess up their lives.
Does that mean then you need to step down as a pastor?
No, I don't believe that.
Because by then, you know, they're out of their house,
you know, they're their own adults at that point.
But, you know, while they're in your house,
while they're young, while they're under the age of 20,
you know, they should be in obedience to the parents, right?
And the wife needs to be in subjection to the husband.
Look at verse number six.
Not a novice, so that's someone that's new to the faith.
You know, if you've been saved for a couple of years,
no, you're not suited.
Doesn't matter how much you've learnt.
And I've seen this, new believers,
they've learnt a lot of doctrine
and they think they know it all, they know it all.
And look, it's great, it's great to learn and know a lot,
but why not someone new in the faith?
Lest being lifted up with pride,
he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
It's interesting how it compares to that,
to the condemnation or the damnation of the devil,
because it was the devil when he was cast out of heaven,
or actually it was Lucifer, right?
That wanted to be like the Lord,
but wanted to be like God.
It was the pride that got in the way of Lucifer.
And then he was cast down and as a fallen angel,
you know, now the devil.
It's the same pride that can lift a novice
to desire the office of a bishop.
You know, they might be able to land a role,
but then they'll just destroy the church
because they're not suited just yet.
They need time.
And it's so important, not a novice,
because you need to be someone
that shows a track record of spiritual maturity,
that you've gone from this level
and now you're increasing.
You're becoming more mature.
You're becoming more godly.
We can see a growth in your life.
That's why it's not a novice.
You know, I'll never be quick to ordain someone.
I'll never, it doesn't matter how desperate we are
for a pastor here or a pastor there.
I'm not just gonna go and just ordain whoever it is.
I need to see a good track record of that person's faith.
It's not just gonna be, all right, you're ordained
and you're now my next pastor or deacon or whatever.
And this leads to the next point.
Look at verse number seven.
Verse number seven, look at this first word.
Moreover, moreover, he must.
If you're an underliner, underline these words.
Moreover, he must, must have a good report
of them that are without.
What does that mean?
People that are outside of the church.
He must have a good report in the people that he knows.
Amongst his friends, amongst his families,
amongst his previous churches, amongst his workplace.
Whatever it is, he must have a good report
even with the unbelieving world.
The unbelieving world ought to look at this man
and say, yep, you know what?
He's a stand-up human being.
He's a man of his word.
He doesn't have a bad reputation
even amongst the non-believers.
Why is that important?
Look, lest he fall into the reproach
and the snare of the devil.
Look, your pastor ought to be someone whose past is open.
You know, any of you guys can ring the church
in Punchbowl that sent and ordained me
and talk to Victor or talk to anybody in that church
and ask them openly, hey, what was Kevin like?
You know, those couple of years that he was at the church.
Any of you should be able to call Pastor Oliver
or Pastor Williamson at Victory Baptist Church.
I was there for nine years or anybody in that church
and ask, hey, what was Kevin like?
What was his wife like?
What were the kids like?
And there ought to be a good report
no matter where I've been.
Or you can call Southland Baptist Church
and ask Pastor Hernan.
He wasn't a pastor at the time, but he knew me.
You can ask him.
And there are a lot of people out there that know me.
You can ask them, hey, what was Kevin like
in his early years as an IFB?
You know, was he a railer?
Was he someone with discord amongst the brethren?
Was he rebellious or was he trying to serve the Lord
and trying to grow?
Okay, and I can give you the names of my employers.
You can call my previous work, you know, employers.
And ask, hey, what was Kevin like as an employee?
You know, was he obedient?
Did he do the job?
Was he a slack worker?
Hey, he must have a good report.
Your pastor ought to have an open past.
If you guys want to know about me, you can ask me.
I'll give you any name.
I'll give you any number.
I've got nothing to hide.
And if you go to a church
and the pastor's hiding their past,
you don't know who ordained them,
you don't know anything about their past,
get away from there because they must have a good report.
You know, if they're hiding their past,
it's probably because they have a bad report.
Okay, this is a must.
And if you want to be a pastor
and you've got a bad report right now,
hey, you need to start cleaning that up.
You need to start cleaning up how the other,
the unbelieving world, your work colleagues,
whoever it is that you interact with in life
can give a good report of who you are.
Now, you might ring a pastor and say,
yeah, but Kevin was off on the rapture.
We're pre-trib as he was post-trib.
Yeah, okay.
But you're not going to hear them say,
yeah, but Kevin was trying to spit the church over it.
You're not going to hear that.
In fact, you're probably going to hear,
we didn't even know about it.
That's because I wasn't trying to cause problems.
I never tried to cause problems over anything
that I disagreed with the church.
Let's go back to verse number one.
We'll end with verse number one.
1 Timothy 3, verse one.
This is a true saying.
If a man desire the office of a bishop.
Now, you might meet all these qualifications,
but you just might say, I don't have a desire.
That's cool.
That's fine.
If you don't have the desire,
you're not suited to be a bishop.
You're not suited to be a pastor.
If you want to know about me,
I had that desire probably when I was 20 years old.
I'm 37 now.
It took a long time.
That desire grew slowly, grew slowly, grew slowly.
Look, I can't tell you, I got to call in.
I was called by the Lord.
I had this vision and God said,
Kevin, you're going to the Sunshine Coast
and pastor a church.
Never happened.
It was a desire and as desire came
and it's not just was there and then disappeared.
It was there.
It was always there.
And then slowly develop and grow and grow.
And then I talked to Christina.
What do you think?
I don't want you to be a pastor.
I've got to be a pastor's wife.
And I was like, okay, well,
I'm going to wait for my wife to be on board.
You know, I'm going to,
because one of my former pastors said to me,
you know, if you're going to be serving the Lord,
if you're going to get into full-time ministry,
you got to remember, it's not just you,
but it's your whole family that goes with you.
It affects your whole family.
And so I was like, all right,
I'll wait for my wife to,
if she ever comes around, then we'll do that.
Eventually at some point years later,
Christina said to me,
I realize how important this is to you.
I've got, you've got my full support.
If that's what you want to do.
And then I let my pastor know and said,
Hey, this is something I want to do.
And then things developed from there.
Okay.
So it's a desire.
It's a desire that grows.
Now look what it says.
He desireth a good work.
Being a pastor is a job.
It's a work.
It's not easy.
It's not easy preparing sermons.
That's one thing, right?
It's not easy.
There's a lot of behind the scenes things
that you might not even be aware of.
You know, it's a work, right?
Don't ever think, Oh,
all he does is preach two sermons,
you know, what, two, two hours,
two hours of work.
You know, that's what I,
cause we have two services,
two hours of work, man.
You know, I work 38 hours.
Hey, you know, there's a lot more going on.
You know, there's a lot more discussions
and other things that are,
that are on my mind.
And I've never had a job like this
cause I'm a lot more mentally tired
than physically tired.
Okay.
But it's a work and look,
it's a good work.
You know, if someone says to me,
you know, to you,
you know, I'm thinking of being a pastor.
Don't laugh at them.
Yes, they might have lots of failings.
Yes, they may need to work
on a lot of these things,
but don't laugh at them.
Don't mock them.
Man, you'll never be a pastor.
That's the worst thing you can do.
They're desiring a good work.
It's something good.
It's something the Lord wants.
Hey, it's something we need.
We need pastors.
We need new churches.
We need people, you know,
preaching the word of God with no compromise.
We have compromise.
We need people, you know,
organizing, soul winning,
knocking doors and getting people saved.
This is what's going to change our nation
is the more people that we ordain
and send out and start churches.
This is a good work.
Don't laugh at people that desire that.
Hey, they might need a good 10 years
before they get there.
I need a good 17 years,
something like that before I got there.
Being patient.
That was one of the qualifications.
17 years since the desire started?
Yeah.
Patience is one of the qualifications.
It's not something that I needed
to be done immediately.
You know, I was just waiting for that right time.
All right, let's pray.
Heavenly Father,