First Timothy chapter three, first Timothy chapter three, as is our custom, we'll read
the entire chapter beginning in verse one, first Timothy chapter three, please read along
silently with me, first Timothy chapter three, the Bible reads, this is a true saying, if
a man desire the office of a bishop, he desire with a good work, a bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt
to teach, excuse me, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient,
not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in
subjection with all gravity, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, shall
he take care of the church of God, not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into
the condemnation of the devil, moreover he must have a good report of them that are
without, which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil, likewise
must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy
lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, and let these also first
be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless, even so must
their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things, let the deacons be
the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well, for they that have
used the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness
in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
These things ride I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the
house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Brother Nick, would you pray first?
Amen.
We're in 1st Timothy chapter 3, and this is, I'm going to preach this in two parts.
So I'm actually kind of probably be in this chapter for a couple different, probably three
different services, I might tackle one of them on a Sunday, just so I don't have to
just be overly repetitive.
I know I normally like to just get one chapter done per week, but I want to slow down and
take some time to teach this.
And so this is the qualifications, of course, of the bishop, but the title of my sermon
is the qualifications of pastors, and so part two I guess will be qualifications of
the bishop, but in my first statement of the sermon is going to be bishops are men
only.
Look down at your Bible at verse number one, says this is a true saying, "If a man desire
the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work."
So why are there qualifications for pastors?
Well, qualifications have to be met for pastors because they are the spiritual leaders of
New Testament churches, and they're not the only spiritual leaders of New Testament churches.
Not all churches even have pastors.
And unfortunately, that's just the truth, and in our day, the qualified men in this
country and in this world are very few and far between.
And a lot of times the qualifications get ignored, and there's people, there's all
kinds of Baptists out there going to Bible colleges, and they'll just say, "Well, the
Bible college gave me this little certificate that says I graduated," so then they go back
to whatever church that they were sent to from, or sent to that Bible college from,
and they go back, and if they're one of the top of their class or whatever, that pastor
will put them in as an assistant pastor, even if they're not married, even if they have
no children, and they're called a pastor.
And biblically they could be called maybe an evangelist or just a staff member, but
to call them a pastor is just not really true, because pastors have to meet these qualifications
as set forth in 1st Timothy chapter 3.
And of course, 1st Timothy is a pastoral epistle along with the book of Titus.
And so when it says if this is a true saying, if a man desired the office of bishop, so
like I said, my first statement in this sermon is bishops are men only, okay?
And bishop is just for your clarification, bishops are, that word is used synonymously
with pastor, elder, and I'll get to that point here in a minute, but if a man desired
the office, if a man desired the office of the bishop, there are no women pastors.
You're like, well, I know some, Joyce Meyer, not a real pastor.
Okay.
What's that?
What's some other ones that you know of Beth?
What's her name?
She's the one that like was president Trump's spiritual advisor or whatever, but what's
her name?
She's blonde.
You guys don't know Beth Moore.
That's what it is.
Come on you guys.
Don't you know your false prophets?
All right.
Beth Moore.
And, you know, both of them are charismatic.
They both, you know, were on their husbands, obviously, but you're like, "Well, that's
back then, Pastor Thompson.
Times have changed.
There's women pastors now."
Well, you know, the Word of God is timeless, and this is just a qualification.
A man has to be the spiritual leader of the church.
Well, what about Deborah?
What about that one lady that ran the college or whatever?
Look, Deborah did it because there was no other men to do it.
And Barack was so weak that he even said, "I'll go, but you got to go with me."
You know, that's how weak the men were at that time.
But that's just an unfortunate time period, okay?
Deborah didn't even want to do it.
She wanted him to do it.
And he was just like, "Yeah, but if you come with me," you know, and it's not like we
need Beth more today, but we need Beth less, okay?
We don't need Joyce Meyer, you know, the joker.
She took the joker's laughing gas or whatever, and her face never got fixed from it or something.
But we don't need her.
And last week we were in 1 Timothy chapter 2, and I didn't really spend a lot of time
on this, but let's flip back to one chapter and see what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter
2 verse 11, because you're like, you know, we're supposed to base our doctrines off of
building it of line upon line, verse upon verse, scripture upon scripture, here a little,
there a little, right?
So just last chapter, what does Paul say to Timothy in that chapter?
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11 says, "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to assert authority over the man, but to be in
silence."
So he's telling the pastor, Timothy, who he's instructing, "Hey, women are not to
teach men, they're not supposed to usurp authority over men, but to be in silence."
And it says, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve."
He gives the reason, this is the reason why.
It's not because men are better than women, it's just because men are not easily fooled
like this.
Eve was formed first, or Adam was formed first, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
This is part of the curse.
This is part of the reason why God just says, "Hey, women are not going to be the spiritual
leaders."
They're not going to be the spiritual leaders in the home, they're not going to be the spiritual
leaders in church, they're not supposed to be in power in the government.
But yet, what do we see? Specials about Jacinda, whatever her face is in New Zealand.
She was a train wreck.
Any woman that's in office is a train wreck.
And I mean, what's the name of that lady?
She's a representative in Congress, I think her name is, she has like three names known.
She's an idiot, but she's just an idiot, okay.
Thank you though.
Huh?
Marjorie Taylor Greene.
She's more of a man than most of the men that are in Congress.
She actually does stand up for, you know, some kind of truth, but she's kind of like
the Deborah in Congress or whatever, because there's nobody else that will actually stand
up against Israel and stand up against the wickedness that's going on, but she was waving
the flag for a lot of dumb things at first too, but she probably isn't going to make
it much longer.
I don't know who's going to vote for her now that she doesn't have, you know, the Israel
backing her, but she's saying a lot of truth that's going to get her in a lot of trouble.
So I'm not saying that she belongs in there.
She doesn't, but, you know, at least she's doing something.
She's being a Deborah or whatever when no, no men, Matt Gates, I think he had some kind
of dirt on him or something.
So he had to hit the road and it must've been something bad because, you know, he, he's
just like, okay, we'll see you, bye.
So I don't know what it was, but it's pretty bad.
Anyway, the Bible says I suffered another woman to teach in order to assert authority
over the man, but to be in silence, is Paul just a woman hater?
No.
He had women helping him.
Was Jesus a woman hater?
No, he had women helping him.
They can women go soulwinding?
Yes.
Do they have to be silent at the door?
No, they can preach at the door.
Women can preach.
They just can't preach at church.
They can't teach men in church, you know, and so obviously women can teach their children
at home.
You know, they can teach their boys at home, but they're not supposed to tell their husbands
about theology at home.
They're not supposed to teach their husbands at home.
It says, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman
being deceived was in the transgression."
Okay, now flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
You're like, "Well, that's only two places."
Well, here's the third one, 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 34.
Now this passage is kind of giving you the order of how you do things in church, and
it's just got done talking about prophesying.
You can't have three people preaching at the same time.
There's an order of things.
It's not a free-for-all at church.
We do things in certain orders.
Let everything be done decently and in order at church.
And it says in verse 34, "Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted
unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law,"
which also includes saying amen when men are preaching.
Or saying, "Amen," which, you know, see Congress for that foolishness.
I don't know if it was Congress or maybe it was at some mayor's meeting or something.
And then some weirdo gets up and says some prayer that he says, "Amen" and "A-women."
It's like, dude, I don't think you know what that means.
You keep using that word, but I don't think you know what it means.
So, but anyway.
So what's Paul saying?
He's saying, in church, when men are out preaching, when we're not supposed to be chirping and
giving their two cents.
Look, I've been to Baptist churches where, on a Wednesday night, with a small crowd,
and the pastor's like saying, "Hey, who wants to stand up and read this Bible verse?"
And some, you know, the ladies are just like, you know, they're just hopping up as fast
as they can.
They're just, you know, like, they're like bean sprouts.
You know, like, wow.
They're hopping up to what?
Read the Bible verse and then tell what they think the verse means or whatever.
It gets really liberal in some places.
Independent Fundamental Baptist Church is on Wednesday nights, you know, all the women
are wearing pants.
And then they're hopping up to read the verse before any man can get up and say anything.
And it's just shouldn't be being done.
It's like they just forgot that this verse existed in the Bible or something.
And then if you ask them anything about what they think the verse is, they'll just drone
on and on and on because that's their time to teach.
They want to teach and they're not supposed to be.
So you also have them teaching, you know, teens or boys.
Some Baptist churches will say, well, once they get to a certain age, you can't teach
them in Sunday school, which, you know, okay, cool.
But maybe you should just wonder whether there should be Sunday school in the first place.
So anyway, so look at verse 35 says, "And if they will learn anything, let them ask
their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."
So to get up and ask a question when the pastor is preaching or something like that, which
is exactly the situation I just got done telling you that does exist, I mean, that situation
is actually told in scripture, you know?
"Well, pastor, pastor got a question.
We've had people get up and or try to raise their hand here."
And look, I did it the first time I ever went to church.
So I kept doing it, but then I just kept saying things before they'd even call my name because
they weren't calling my name.
I thought, "Hey, this is question and answer time."
I didn't know any better, but they were very long suffering toward me, which I appreciated.
But if a woman is doing that, they're not supposed to be speaking, "Look, I'm gracious
to women that come in here," and they're like, "Amen."
But if they just keep chirping, I would say something, and I have said something.
I had women saying things to me one time in Yakima, and they just kept saying stuff over
and over again.
And I finally just said, "You know, it's because it's a shame for women to speak in the church."
And then they just like, you know, just like they stop saying things after that.
So I yelled it way louder than that.
So what's the Bible say?
Bishops are supposed to be men only.
Women are not the bishops.
It's not Pastor Thompson and Pastor Sherri Thompson also.
It's just Pastor Thompson.
So she doesn't have to be qualified as some Bible teacher to be my wife here.
So number two, statement number two is a bishop is a full-time ordained church office.
Okay?
Now whether I have a job at the same time or whether I'm, you know, full-time being
paid for that or not, it's still a full-time ordained church office.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1.
The Bible says, "This is a true saying, if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires
the good work."
So it says the office of a bishop.
Now an office, there's many different, you know, dictionaries, terms for the term office,
but an office in this sense is a position of authority or service, typically one with
a public nature.
So as the pastor, I'm the public figure or whatever you'd want to call it, but the position
or authority is residing with me as far as like who runs the things at the church and
all that stuff.
So who does the baptizing and the Lord's Supper and runs the services and makes sure that
everything is being done the way it's supposed to be, that's the office of authority that
I have here at the church as the pastor.
Now in the Old Testament, go ahead and turn to Exodus chapter 28, they had offices in
the Old Testament too and that kind of just transfers over into the different positions
in the New Testament.
So the Old Testament there was priests that were ordained and prophets that were ordained.
They were like the preachers, but priests preach too and they did Bible studies with
people and all kinds of stuff.
And then you had the judges and the judges had to be ordained.
Remember, Joshua was ordained by Moses before he died, he laid hands on him and transferred
that power to him and his spirit and the spirit of God.
And then, and then the kings, of course, once there was kings, the kings were anointed.
The kings had the oil poured upon them and the kings were ordained in the office of
being a king, right?
So those are the Old Testament positions or, you know, of course they had the Levites also.
They were, but the priests were actually ordained into the office of the priesthood.
Now Exodus 28 verse 41 says, "And thou shalt put them upon Aaron," talking about all the
vestments and all the stuff that was made, "upon Aaron thy brother and his sons with
him and shall anoint them and consecrate them."
So they poured the oil upon them, on their head, and consecrate them.
What does that mean?
To set them apart, okay?
They do all that washing and stuff like that and sanctify them, set them apart, consecrate
them, set them apart for the work that they were doing, and it says that "they may minister
unto me in the priest's office, and thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their
nakedness from the loins even unto the thighs shall they shall reach, and they shall be
upon Aaron and upon his sons when they come into the tabernacle of the congregation or
when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity
and die.
It shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him.
So this is something that they did perpetually until the priesthood was taken away of course.
So when they came to the tabernacle they had to go through all these cleansing processes
and things like that, but one thing that they had to do is they had to be anointed with
oil, they had to be consecrated and set apart and all that.
So to come into the tabernacle, to do those ministries, and what was their purpose?
They had to minister and work for the Lord and that was an office that they had.
Now in the New Testament you have pastor, deacon, and I believe evangelist is also an
ordained position.
So turn to Acts chapter 21 verse 8, Acts chapter 21 verse 8.
Not everybody necessarily agrees with me about this, but I don't really care because you
just are wrong, but I mean because Philip was ordained as a deacon in what, Acts chapter
7?
Or Acts chapter 6?
I can't remember which one, but anyway there was seven deacons and they didn't even call
them deacons in that passage, but in this chapter that we're in tonight they are called
deacons.
That's where we get the name from them is a deacon just means servant.
So they serve the church, but they also have to be qualified.
Now, after, you know, years later, 20 years later, when Paul meets up with Philip again,
see Philip is called an evangelist here in this passage of what it says in Acts 21, 8.
It says in the next day we were at that we that were of Paul's company departed and came
unto Caesarea and we entered into the house of Philip was say they're the DHE evangelist.
So he's not called Philip the deacon.
He's called Philip the evangelist.
So something has changed since the last time we saw him in Ash chapter eight and nine.
So once he got the Ethiopian eunuch saved when he was when he got the Ethiopian eunuch
saved he was Philip the deacon and he was going out and doing great works just like
Stephen had gone out and done great works.
We got a helicopter landing on the thing or what what's going on here?
That which was so anyway and Philip the evangelist you know he was what it says he was one of
the seven so we know he was Philip the deacon right and now he's Philip the evangelist the
is the definite article okay so he was the evangelist which was of the seven and abode
with him and the same man had four daughters virgins which did prophesy doesn't mention
his wife though and I feel like that the reason why he's the evangelist now is his wife must
have passed on so and probably don't want to take another wife this is just my assumption
that I'm reading into it but you know because you have to have you have to be the husband
of one wife in order to be a deacon and so if you lost that qualification maybe he just
transferred that into evangelist or something that's my thought on the process so now go
back to second Timothy chapter four verse five second Timothy chapter four verse five
so there's three ordained positions you got pastor you got deacon and you're like well how come
the qualifications for an evangelist aren't in here well i don't know but i do know that
there's other verses that talk about there being people that are given to the ministry
and their qualifications are are not all in here either so but it does say philip the
evangelist and then second timothy four or five says but watch thou in all things endure
afflictions do the work of an evangelist so he's you know as pastors we're supposed to
do the work of an evangelist so an evangelist everybody's supposed to do the work of an
evangelist basically we're all supposed to go out and preach the gospel right but it
says make full proof of thy ministry so it's just we're supposed to do the work that an
evangelist does obviously maybe not on the same level that an evangelist would do it
but we're still supposed to do that work also it's just one of the qualities you know another
qualification that a pastor is supposed to do go soloing on a regular basis but do the
work of an evangelist so it doesn't say he is an evangelist it says he does the work
of an evangelist so now statement number three is a bishop means overseer and elder and pastor
and other terms that are used as well so but mainly in the new testament you see like bishop
and elder and pastor so but overseer is basically what bishop means so now turn back to our text
first timothy chapter three verse number one first timothy chapter three verse number one
it says this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work so
so far we've seen that you have to be a man and that it's an office so it's a ordained position
that you have to have and then now it's the the actual office is called a bishop and that word is
used interchangeably in the bible so it's and it's taken from that greek word called episcopis i'm
not sure if i'm saying that right but uh it's an old english that's from the old english biscop
or biskeop i'm not probably not saying that right so i obviously don't speak these languages but
it basically just means overseer and it's from episcopis which means above looking so you're
overlooking or overseeing right so and you know we know what it look what it what i mean because
bishop isn't just intuitively known by us so that's the only reason why i'm saying that so
but that's what it means it means an overseer so the term bishop is an overseer along with
pastor elder shepherd under shepherd minister and those are described used to describe the
same type of position so look at acts chapter 14 verse 23 act chapter 14 verse 23 so a bishop
oversees what's going on and a lot of bishops you know a lot of people in the bible that were
chosen by god to do things were like moses what did he do he was a shepherd for 40 years
that's a long time so maybe god just said hey he needs to be really good at this
i feel like 40 years of taking care of animals would probably you know give you some experience
you know and so moses had a lot of experience and then he had millions of people that he had to
take care of so um and there's jacob was a shepherd and he learned how to you know he had 12
they had 13 children four wives he had to take care of a lot of people too so there's other
people of course that were doing similar positions and called by god to do these types of this
david was a shepherd and then david became the greatest king in all of israel besides of course
the lord jesus. Acts 14 23 says and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed
with fasting they commended them to the lord on whom they believed so here you have them being
called elders now some people say well elders just means old people that's not really true because
what it's saying though is that they're elders and the fact that they have knowledge that someone
that's older in the faith would know you because you know these mormons that go by your house and
they're like 19 years old or whatever and they have these badges that say elder on there and
they're not really old are they but they are considered elders because supposedly they know
a lot of stuff but so but an elder can mean two things when it comes to the biblical knowledge
you know you're elder that's why it says not a novice so you're not supposed to be a novice
where you don't know a lot about the bible you can't just ordain somebody that just got saved
yesterday because they don't know anything so it would be really dumb to ordain someone that's
never even read the bible once they just it's day two and you're like hey this guy seems pretty cool
let's make him the pastor yeah and it's just like guy doesn't know anything about the bible at all
he just knows he's a baby christian or whatever so so when they ordain elders in every church
that means they had the knowledge they knew the bible really well they could have been old too
but older but the fact is is that's not what it's talking about so it's talking about it could be
both like i said but it's mainly talking about the fact that they know the bible really well
and says and prayed with fasting they commended them to the lord on whom they believed now turn
back to first timothy chapter five first timothy chapter five because timothy is being written this
book by paul but he even uses the terms interchangeably within the the book that he's writing to him
because he talks about being a bishop in first timothy chapter three verse one where it says if
man desired the office of bishop and then in first timothy chapter five verse 17 he says this let the
elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially they who labor in the word and
doctrine so these are those that rule well elders who they're the same thing like what are they they're
the same thing as bishops they they're overseers but these are also the elders are those that rule
well and what are they supposed to do they're getting counted double honor that means they're
getting paid double what they should be getting paid you're like well that doesn't what honor
doesn't mean that necessarily but if you do a study about honor when it's when it's talking about this
that is what it's talking about because and especially in this passage it's saying
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine so the word what the word of god
and doctrine the teaching of god's word it says for the scripture saith thou shall not muzzle the
ox that treadeth out the corn and the laborer is worthy of his reward so and it says against an
elder received not an accusation but before two or three witnesses so this elder that it's being
spoken of here is the same thing as I just showed you in Acts chapter 14 verse 23
and to prove what I'm saying in our own in Titus chapter one go ahead and turn to Titus chapter one
you're right in the same area where it is it's just one book past you it's uh after second
timothy it's Titus so to prove that elders and bishops are used interchangeably though I'll just
show you in the book of Titus chapter one verse number five it says for this cause this is the
apostle paul writing to Titus another young pastor for this cause left I thee in crete that thou
should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained what say there elders in
every city as I had appointed thee and so they did that in acts 14 right they ordained elders
it says if any be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot
or unruly for a bishop must be blameless so you see how it's saying elders and then now
it's saying calling them bishops so that's the proof right there there well there it is
right for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of god not self-willed not soon angry
not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre of course i'm going to go into all that
the next time i preach about this we'll go into all that detail more closely so here's some more
proof that they're used interchangeably aphesians chapter four verse 11 this kind of also goes back
to me talking about how i believe that evangelists are also an ordained position so because all these
other ones are pretty much ordained positions so look at aphesians 4 11 so you have verse 11 it
says any gave some apostles is that an ordained position yes and some prophets is that an ordained
position the old testament yes and some evangelists some would say no but i say yes okay and some
pastors is that an ordained position yes and then it says teachers now you might be like well i
don't know well pastors are teachers also they're supposed to be able to teach the word of god
and they're supposed to be able to to show you from the bible that because doctrine is what
teaching so pastors supposed to be able to teach and preach the word of god so aphesians chapter
four verse 12 says for the perfecting what are they what are they given for for the perfecting
of the saints for what does it say there the work of the ministry so it's work so nobody works for
free in this life this is a minister a ministerial position that is given it's an office that's given
for the edifying of the body of christ it's i mean obviously not everybody is in the position
where they can get paid depending on where you're at depending on what the situation is there's
pastors that are in small towns that have to work dual jobs and stuff like that and i worked a
second job for a while also so same same thing but you know the god's will for pastors though is
that they would be full time if they can so now turn to jeremiah chapter 3 verse 15 jeremiah chapter
3 verse 15 so god wants us to have pastors of course and it says in jeremiah 3 15 it says
and i will give you pastors so a lot of people give pastor shelly a big bad rap over the fact
that he said one time when he was going to take over steadfast you know that he's god's given
them a gift or whatever it's like i don't have a problem with that it's not like he was
trying to act like he was god's gift to mankind or something he was saying he was quoting a
scripture when he said that and it's true because it says in ephesians 4 11 and he gave some when
you get a minister in your church or in your area that's a good minister it is a gift and people
should be thankful for that it says and i and i will give you pastors according to my heart if
god gives you a pastor according to his heart and you have a good church to go to you should make
every effort to get under that pastor get in the program and and follow him as he follows christ
and because god is the one that gives that person to you to help you to teach you to comfort you
when you need comfort to pray for you and it says which shall feed you with knowledge and
understanding see you know obviously we feed ourselves by our bible reading there's nothing
that you can't learn from your own bible reading you're like well what do i need you for what do
i need to go to church for well i just got done reading for you that the pastor and these other
ordained positions are given to you for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the
ministry look the ministry works through the local church on your own any of us on our own we're
gonna just burn out and fizzle away when we're all together that is the church we are the church it's
not this building this building is not the church we together are the church that's what the bible
teaches and for us to just be by ourselves and just you know watch youtube videos it's not enough
it's not what god commanded us to do so when it says that he gave you pastors what a pat where
do pastors go i mean do i just sit and watch make videos at my house and send them to you and that's
our church no that is not the church so where do pastors go they go to church and they teach the
bible at church they're like well you're saying it's a building no i'm not i'm saying we meet
someplace the disciples met where at the temple daily and in the temple and and in every place
They cease not to teach or in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ, you know
I'm not asking you to come to church every day. It's like a couple times what two days out of the week
It's actually what it is
So and i'm not asking you god's asking you god says for us to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together
So it's not me, but i'm the pastor. I I want to be here
But not only do I want to be here. I have to be here
So and if i'm not here, I have to have someone stand in for me
So that's what i'm supposed to do. That's my job. So
But god has given you a pastor according to his heart
Which shall feed you and if i'm not feeding you then come tell me but pastor I need to be fed
I'll be like here you go. Here you go. I'll feed it if you don't think i'm feeding you
I'll put more bible verses in my in my sermons. You want me to do that?
I'll chastise you with scorpions
You want you want more i'll give you more turn to jeremiah chapter 23 verse 1
I mean how many verses have I turned to you to tonight just tonight count them up. Yeah, right
81 maybe no, no, I don't think it's been that much but it's it's been more than eight. Um, jeremiah 23 verse 1
You're still mad at me from last week. I know you are
jeremiah 23 verse 1
The bible says woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor sayeth the lord
Therefore thus sayeth the lord god of israel against the pastors that feed my people
You have scattered my flock and have driven them away and have not visited them behold
I will visit upon you the evil of your doing sayeth the lord and I will gather the remnant of my flock
Out of all the countries whether i've driven them and will bring them again
To their folds and they shall be fruitful in increase and I will set up shepherds over them
Which shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed neither shall they be lacking sayeth the lord
So even if you get in, you know, this is obviously talking about the ones that at the time
Of the Babylonian captivity, but when they came back, you know, they did get he god did give them pastors that were good
He gave him ezra. He gave him nehemiah
He gave them these good guys and hagi
The prophet he gave them good pastors like he said he would and look we got to have a desire for god
we can't just
Uh get into this type of apathy where we just don't care about god or about the things of god
We have to have a hunger and a desire for god. You know what? He knows when we're faking it
He knows when we're just going through the motions and you know
We we can't get so far away from god that we just don't care anymore
And you know because god's going to give you what you deserve and he's going to give you
What you he's going to give you also what you want, but if he knows that if you don't want him then
You know what? He look god isn't fooled by anybody. He's not fooled by any fake people that don't want to be here
And you know if people just and here's what i've found is that people that want to quit
They'll just look for that one reason to quit and just bounce
But then they like to always blame it on the pastor
They like to do that or they like to blame it on some reason they're just waiting for what reason can I do?
To give the jump off the track. What what is it? What is it? And then if it's bad enough, you know
Then they'll just be like, okay, that was it and then they just jump off the track and look god knows why you're doing it
God knows, you know that what you just can't handle the grind anymore
But christianity can be a grind it really can being a pastor can be a grind being a church member can be a grind
Look, I was a church member for a lot longer than i've been a pastor and trust me
I've had days where I didn't feel like coming to church either
And i'm tired from a long week of working and I don't feel like being there on a wednesday night because it's hump day, right?
Well, it's not wednesday that we're coming here, but it's thursday. It's even worse sometimes. It's like friday's tomorrow
Oh man, i'm really tired but we need that spiritual
re-energizing
To get us through the rest of our weekend and we need to be in our safe space for a day
You know, i'm not saying that i'm not saying it like the liberals need it saying it like god's people need it
we've been out in the world for a few days for four days and
We need to recharge our batteries. We need
You know god's word to strengthen us and to energize us. We need to sing with god's people
So that we can be filled with the spirit of god and go out
And and face the world for a few more days before we come back again on sunday and look, you know people will say well
You just use christianity as a crutch. You're right. I do I need god. I need him as a crutch
I needed him when I got saved because I was going to hell. I knew I needed him then
You know what? I need him now just as much as I need him the day
I got saved and you know when we lose sight of that when when salvation loses its luster
That's what we need to do some serious heart checks
Serious looking in the mirror and saying what am I doing?
You know because the longer you get saved the more times that that stuff happens to you and you're just like hey
What am I doing? And you know what? That's the times we need to get on your knees and just say god
Would you help me to get my fire back in me god? Would you just help me to care about church again?
God, would you care would you help me to care about going so many would you help me to care about reading my bible?
Once again, would you help me to get back on track because i'm off track and nobody else can see it
But I know it and I feel it in my heart and I you know
Everybody gets backslidden if you get backslidden in your heart well before everybody can see can see it
That's just the truth and everybody in here knows it. Maybe you're like, well, i've never been backslidden. I'm newly saved
Well, praise god, but you know what when you do anything long enough when you do anything, you know for a long time
You always start seeing all the grass is greener over there or what if I do it like this?
What if I do this for a while or whatever and look man, but i've been there. I'm 50 years old
I'm a half century years old. I mean years almost almost 51. I've seen a lot of things
I've felt a lot of things. I've been saved half my life now and I've been in lots of different situations.
Saved and unsaved. I'm telling you sometimes things lose their luster even as a safe person
and sometimes life will beat you down but you know what we got to get back up and we got to
get back on track. I don't know where that's coming from but you know I just maybe someone
needs to hear that because I certainly do. You know I'm not saying I'm off track now. I'm just
saying that you know there's times when I have been. There's times when I don't feel it. Times
when I don't feel like coming to church too. I'm a man just like anybody else in this room. So
everybody feels that way sometimes but for us to just completely quit and walk away it's just
look we're the light of the world. A city set on the hill cannot be hid. You can never go back.
You can never go back to that life again because you cannot be hid. You're going to be found out
and then you're going to be mocked. Like Jeremiah he said the God said to Jeremiah don't you know
don't hold back. Don't be afraid to preach what you're preaching because you know I'm going to
I'm going to make you look stupid. Jeremiah preached everything that God said to preach
and people hated him for it. His own family members tried to kill him. You know what he even
tried to stop preaching but he said the Bible says that his heart burned within him and he
could not stay and he had to preach the word of God. That's probably a terrifying feeling to him.
He could not hold back what he was saying. He just he was ordained a prophet to the nations and
that's just what he did. So I forgot what verse I was on. Where are we at here? Uh verse I'll just
go back to verse two or no let's see. No I'm let's go to you don't have to go to Hebrews 3 but
there's also times when the the pastor is just called them that rule over you. In Hebrews 13 it
says remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose
faith follow considering the end of their conversation and then it says in verse 17 obey
them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as
they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is
unprofitable for you and then in verse 24 it says salute them that have the rule over you
and all the saints they have Italy salute you so it doesn't even give a title Paul doesn't even
give the guy a title it just says them you know them but he's talking about those that have the
rule over you and a lot of churches are not run like this church is where the pastor is just the
only person that's in charge now of course there's other people that you know have leadership things
that they do here and so on and so forth we have soul winning people that run soul winning and
and other things but the the pastor-led model is what the bible teaches in the old testament it's
how it was you know moses led nobody else was in charge god told moses what to do if anybody
anybody chirped up dropped down to into hell screaming and kicking kora and his friends right
kora dathan abiram and then it's like oh well guess guess what moses is the one leading you know
so it's just the way it was joshua was the leader of the children of israel he was the boss he was
the judge he was the ruler that's just the way god rules you know and he that's the way he wants
does anybody else tell god what to do is he the boss yes he is so that's just the way he has
people rule and it's like hey if i'm not doing a good job then god's just going to take me out of
the place and put somebody else here so last statement we'll be out of here statement number
four desiring the office of a bishop is a good thing if it's done for the right reasons of course
i have to put the little caveat at the end because some people become pastors for the wrong reasons
some people are desiring just the power and the prestige or whatever of being a pastor
and like if you're being if you're doing it right there it's not a lot of prestige and it's not a
lot of uh you know you got these pastors are these mega pastors and they're really rich and
famous and all that kind of stuff but if you're actually preaching the word of god most people
just hate you you get death threats you know you have to get security cameras i mean i think that
some of these guys do too but that's so people don't rob them and take all their millions of
dollars they have stashed in their house or whatever so uh first Timothy chapter three verse
one will end yeah we'll end well we're not going to end with that verse but that's where we're
going back to anyway so this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth
a good work so paul's just saying this with like you know no caveat at the end of his statement
because he's obviously speaking about those that desire the office of a bishop out of a pure heart
okay to serve the lord and his people though some may do it reluctantly like moses you know he was
just like i don't speak good lord and finally he just got god mad because god's like who made the
tongue you know and he just like moses like all right i'll do it you know he's like erin erin can
speak well you know he'll he'll speak for you or whatever but moses ended up speaking anyway so
moses ended up being a great leader he was just a little reluctant but he did do it so um some
might do it reluctantly but it's important what that they just do it without constraint turn to
first peter chapter five verse one we should never push somebody to do to become a pastor or
spiritual leader that doesn't want to do it and that's something that um you know can be learned
the hard way so if someone doesn't want to do it we should never push them to do it like oh come on
man you'll be a good one if they don't want to do it just don't don't try to push them because if
they're reluctant to the point where they just don't want to do it we should just take their word
for it because if they're reluctant before they do it how reluctant do you think they're going to be
when they're actually doing it look at first peter chapter five verse one the elders which are among
you i exhort who am also an elder so peter wasn't just an apostle but he was also an elder he was a
pastor he had a wife he had children and it says and a witness of the sufferings of christ and also
a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed feed the flock of god which is among you taking
the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly so what is it talking about here
it's talking about not by constraint like someone's stopping you from you know or trying to make you
be the pastor but willingly it's not saying that you're constraining the congregation it's saying
that you're not being forced to do it see how see do you see that anybody that can read english
here not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre you're not doing it for the money
but of a ready mind because you want to do it you're ready to do the task neither as being
lords over god's heritage but being in samples to the flock now what does this mean being lords
over god's heritage well when's the last time i've come over to your house and told you you need to
get rid of this you need to get rid of that what is this what is that when's the last time i told
you to come and tell me when you're going to buy a car and what color it needs to be when the last
time i told you not to buy a house or what house you need to buy what's the last time i told you
what kind of groceries to buy what kind of food to eat never you know why because i'm not a lord
over the flock i'm not going to do that i'm here to oversee the church and to do the daily operations
of the church and to help you if you need help you know but i'm not here to lord over your life
and tell you what to do outside you know if i preach something if i see something you know that
maybe needs to be fixed then i'm going to preach about it and if you don't receive it then that's
your problem you know and it'll continue to be our problem apparently too but if you don't fix it
then i can't do anything about it i can't make you do things the bible if you don't listen to
what the bible says that's that's the extent of my power i preach what the bible says i might
tell you in private or something hey don't do this but that's the extent of my power i don't go to
people's houses and do a white glove inspection say hey this house is filthy you're you're failing
your husband right now what's wrong with you well you guys went out to eat every day last week
you can't make something for dinner huh or how many hours did you work last week huh well you
can't work some overtime to make sure your family has more you know i mean i don't that's just not
what a pastor is supposed to do it's not by uh being lords over god's heritage or you know we're
in samples to the flock you know watch what i do and do likewise is is kind of like what pastors
are supposed to be like so look at verse four and when the chief shepherd shall appear so he's the
chief shepherd i'm the under shepherd of this flock he shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away so there is some sort of reward for a pastor that does a good job okay i don't
know what that is looks sounds like it's a crown that doesn't fade away and that's cool so i'm not
like that's not why i'm trying to do a good job though i'm not like i can't wait to get that crown
he's gonna polish that thing up every day i mean i hope that god finds me faithful i hope to be a
faithful pastor and that's you know the extent of it so but uh that's as far as i'm gonna go tonight
oh look at that it's not even eight o'clock i think that clock is fast all right let's pray
let's get out of here lord thank you so much for the bible and how much it teaches us lord i pray
that you'd help us to lord make some application out of this because everything that the pastor
is supposed to do we should we should also take heed and and and lord even if some of some of the
men in here don't ever want to be a pastor lord that we should try to at least uh meet some of
these qualifications if we can and uh lord as your people we should take heed to the bible and uh try
our best to match the standards in here and lord we should be people that care about the things of
god we should care about church we should care about working for you and lord we should care about
pleasing you pray just bless our church lord help us to have a right spirit and lord that we'd have
brotherly love towards each other and lord we would uh lord that we would serve each other with
gladness and joy and uh pray you'd help us to win lots of people to the lord this saturday and lord
help us to have a great time and keep us safe as we drive. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.