(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

In 1 Timothy 3 we see this passage starting out in verse number 1 talking about the office of a bishop. And in verse number 1 the Bible reads, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. And I'm preaching to you this evening on the subject of the office of a bishop. And I want to preach about what it means to be a bishop or what it means to be a pastor or an elder, which are two other words that are used synonymously with being a bishop. And the first thing I want you to see, put your finger in 1 Timothy 3, we're going to be right back here, but flip over to Titus 1. It's just a few pages to the right of your Bible, after 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus is right there. Put your finger in 1 Timothy 3, go to Titus 1, and I want to show you this first of all because the first point on the office of a bishop is, you know, who is qualified to be a bishop? I mean is this something that just anybody should do, is this for everybody, or is it only for certain people, or what are the qualifications? Okay. Now first of all, we saw in 1 Timothy 3.1, the Bible reads, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. So basically this starts out with it being something that someone wants to do. Now look at Titus 1.5 with that in mind. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanted, and ordain elders in every city as I have appointed thee. He said, well prove that an elder is a bishop, well keep reading, 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 we see that they're used interchangeably, he talks about an elder, he calls it a bishop, and he says, if any, do you see that in verse 6, if any be blameless, and then he lists a whole bunch of other criteria. So this isn't something where you have to be specifically hand-picked by God, where some light comes down, and you say, I know that I'm called to be a pastor, and a lot of people think that, and they'll say, well I just don't feel called, or I don't know if I'm called, or I believe I am called. The Bible says it's for any that will meet up to these qualifications, number one, and it's for any that desires the office of a bishop. So that's what it takes really. You don't have to be anybody special, you don't have to be born in a certain family or have some kind of a supernatural calling upon you. The Bible makes it clear, it's for any man that can meet the qualifications and has a desire to become a bishop. Look at 1 Timothy 3 verse 1, let's go through the qualifications here and see who God is demanding to fulfill this job of being a pastor or a bishop. It says in verse 1, this is a true saying, if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work, and the second point is going to be what the work is of a bishop. But look at verse 2, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given the hospitality apt to teach. Now right away we have a whole slew of qualifications that I've passed to myself, and one of the first ones mentioned in both Titus and Timothy is that he's got to be the husband of one wife. Now a lot of people have tried to make this out, that just means one wife at a time. It's okay if he got married in the divorce, then he got married again, then he got divorced again, then he got married again, no, the husband of one wife means the husband of one wife. It doesn't mean that this is his wife that he currently has right now, unlike the one that he had last year. And you've got to understand that the Bible teaches, and I don't want to spend my whole sermon on this, the Bible makes it real clear in Luke chapter 16, if you want to turn there you can if you're not sure whether you believe me on this or not, but if you can flip over I'll read it for you, from Luke 16, 18 the Bible says, whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another, comitteth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, comitteth adultery. So it's pretty clear, the Bible says, you know, if you marry somebody and then you get divorced and then you marry somebody else, that's adultery. So God's not saying that's okay, just don't have multiple wives. Now did people in the Bible have multiple wives? Well I don't really see it in the New Testament as being something that was a big deal. It seems like that was back in the Old Testament, you'd see people having multiple wives. It was never right. God always said it was a sin. He commanded against it. He said, thou shalt not multiply wives. He said that in the beginning he made them male and female, therefore shall man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh, what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. So we see that from the beginning God's plan was one man, one woman. But we see people practicing polygamy in the Bible, don't we? We see people like Jacob, people like David, who had multiple wives. Now what does God feel about polygamy? Definitely a sin. It definitely violates Scripture. But think about this. Let me compare two people for you, Jacob and Esau. Esau was a fornicator, okay, meaning that he basically had relationships with women outside of marriage. Jacob, on the other hand, was not a fornicator, according to the Bible. But he did end up with multiple wives, which is wrong, which is a sin. But which one did God view as worse, Esau, never being a fornicator. So you see, the way we look at things is not always the way God looks at them. They're definitely both a sin, but our society would just freak out about polygamy. You know, and hey, I'm all for people being upset about polygamy. It is wrong. But then they're just totally fine with fornication, and they're totally fine with adultery and divorce and remarriage, and they think that that's all fine and anything. I'm going to stand right up here and tell you, and you know, this might make people upset, and my goal is never to hurt anybody's feelings or make anybody upset. I'm just telling you what I believe biblically, what God judges more harshly. You know, I would say that getting divorced and remarried is worse than polygamy. And you know, people are going to say I'm crazy for saying that. You're both wrong, but it's true, okay, because that's what the Bible teaches, that, you know, not only are you compounding the sin of having a second wife, but you've also broken your vow to the first wife. That's double the sin, okay, and you don't have to agree with me on that, but the bottom line is they're both a sin, they're both wrong, and guess what, neither one of them has any business being a bishop, because a bishop is supposed to be the husband of one wife, and that's what we ought to stick with. Let's see another qualification, verse two. You say, well, I, you know, lived this with so many years ago, I made that mistake. You know, am I ever going to live that down? Of course you can live it down. You can win souls, you can serve God, you can preach the Word, but you know, you just can't fulfill this one particular office, that's all. It doesn't mean God doesn't love you. It doesn't mean God can't use you, and you can earn great rewards in heaven. It just means that you can't fulfill this particular office. It's not saying that God's through with you or God's matters to you. You know, confess and forsake your sins, move on with your life, but you're just not qualified for this position, that's all. He said the husband of one wife, and that's brought up right away, so that's a pretty important one. The next one he said is vigilant. What does it mean to be vigilant? It's somebody who's alert and aware of what's going on around them. If you think about vigilance, think of a vigil. That's when you stay up all night watching. And vigilance is somebody who's not just aloof to what's going on, like they don't know what's going on in the world, they don't know what's going on in the church, they're just totally unaware of what's going on around them, and it's just really easy for bad things to creep in and bad people to creep in. No, the pastor has got to be vigilant. He's got to be on the alert for the enemy. It says he's got to be sober. Now, yes, that's an absence of alcohol, that's an absence of marijuana, that's an absence of mind-altering drugs, but it's more than that. It's also being serious in the Bible, being sober, it's just being serious, taking things seriously. Everything's not a joke. It's being serious about their job of being a bishop and takes it seriously. Of good behavior, somebody who's just generally, obviously, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but someone whose behavior is good, not someone of bad behavior, given to hospitality. That means he's the kind of guy who has you over to the house and will basically have people over for dinner, and not like, well, my home is just off limits, nobody can ever stay there, nobody can ever have anything to get... We all know what hospitality is. And then the next thing is it says apt to teach. Now, this one right here, this might count some people out right away. Now aptitude is not something necessarily that you can always learn. Now, there are a lot of great people and great Christians and great soldiers, but they might not have the ability, no matter how much they try, to get up here behind the pulpit and effectively teach and preach God's Word. They're just never going to be that kind of a public speaker, and that's fine. God made us all different. He gave us all different strengths and weaknesses, and if you're going to be able to be a bishop or pastor, you've got to have that aptitude to be able to get up and expound the Word of God in a way that people can understand and to be an effective teacher and to have that aptitude or ability built in. Now, obviously, you improve your ability by practice. When I started out preaching, I couldn't preach my way out of a wet paper bag, but through practice and through experience, obviously, you have to learn how to preach and learn how to teach and learn how to speak, but some people just don't have it in them. Now, we had a preaching class last night, and man, did we hear some great preaching. It was a blessing for me to be there, and I would say everybody, and I mean this, everybody who got up and preached had the aptitude to teach. It's just they just need to cultivate it, and we heard some phenomenal sermons last night. I was really glad to be there, but it was a blessing to me. But that's an aptitude. It says in verse 3, not given to wine, okay. This is, you know, not someone who drinks, obviously is what he's saying there. No striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. Now, what does it mean, no striker? Well, what does it mean to strike? Obviously, this is talking about basically talking somebody in the face, that's what it means. This doesn't mean that you can't participate in the sports, okay, because I participate in boxing every week, okay, and so I do some striking, but obviously that's a sporting event. That's not going out, because I think you have to interpret it in the context of a few words later, not a brawler, okay. This is talking about somebody who's going out and getting in fights, not somebody who's in the ring doing kickboxing and so on. So I don't think this is saying that you can't defend yourself, okay. Obviously, if your life's in danger, the life of the people around you are in danger, you might need to strike somebody, okay. But in general, and I'll be honest with you, I have not struck anyone. As long as I've been the pastor, and even really in my adult life, you know, since I was a teenager, I have never struck anyone unless, unless it was in, you know, in the ring or something, you know what I mean. I have not gotten in a fist fight. Now, have I had people try to provoke me into fights? Oh yeah. And this is why this is an important qualification, not to be the type of a hothead who's just going to start swinging and think later, okay. I've been out still winning, I've had people shove me and push me, and a lot of people, if you push them, they'll just start swinging, you know, if you're a pastor, you can't be like that. Because if I started swinging every time somebody pushed me, I would have been in a lot of fights by now, because I've had a lot of people push and shove me, curse me out, throw me around. I got pushed into a window, and the window broke one time, out still winning. I've had people throw things at me, you know, I've had people try to provoke me and say, come fight me right now, come fight, you know, and try to get you to, you have got to be, you can't be a pastor if you're the type that's just going, alright, let's do it, you know, just drop the hat, you can't be like that. You've got to be the type of person that can turn the other cheek, and you know what, a lot of times pride is going to kick in, right? Somebody's assaulting you, somebody's challenging you, but you know what, the world is going to tell you, you know, you've got to get in there and fight, you know, but honestly, that's not what God is asking us to do. He's asking us to turn the other cheek. Now look, if your personal safety is in danger, if someone that you're with, if their safety is in jeopardy, then you know, there are going to be times when you have to fight. But, you know, it's amazing, I'm a pretty controversial guy, and I've had a lot of people get mad at me, and yet I've never had to use my fists one time. So that shows me that you can avert conflict, and you can avert fighting if you desire to avert it, and God's asking us to not be a striker and not be a brawler. He says also not greedy, a filthy lucre. Now, I'm going to talk about filthy lucre, that's one of my points later on, let's hold that thought, okay, we'll get to that one. But not greedy, obviously, that's a good one right there, kind of like he said over in Titus, not one that's covetous. Greed and covetousness is when you desire something that belongs to someone else. He says in verse number four, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. Now that right there tells me that the pastor needs to have children, you know, and a lot of people will say, well, just if he has children, they need to be in subjection. Well, you know, I'd rather go with exactly what God said here, because if you look at the next verse, verse five, it says, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Well, if you don't have children and you don't know how to rule over your children, do you have the experience necessary to rule the house of God? If you can't rule your own house, you are not qualified to take care of the church of God. That's what the Bible says. Now, you see young men, you say, why are we preaching this term? Because there are young men under the sound of my voice right now who someday need to fill this office of a bishop. The Bible says there ought to be elders in every city. Every city ought to have a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church, and it's not out there. In a lot of places, they can't find it because there's so many churches. We need a generation of young men that will rise up and say, you know what? I will fill that office. I will meet these qualifications. I will live up to these standards. You know, if I don't fit the bill here, I'm going to make the changes necessary in my life, if possible, to fit this bill and desire that office and step up to the plate. Because let me tell you something. There are a lot less people stepping up to the plate in this area than there ought to be. That's why I'm preaching this sermon. Because there are a lot of people, it's a lot easier to sit on the sidelines and to sit back and even maybe look at the job the pastors are doing and critique it and say, oh, you know, I can do it. Then why don't you show us how to do it? Don't tell us how to do it. Show us how to do it. You know, we need some young men that will rise up and, you know, you say, well, I can do a lot better than Pastor Anderson. You know what? Be my guest because we need you to step up to the plate. If you show me how it's done, blow me away. Make me look like a fool because I'm telling you, our country is dying for a lack of leadership and preachers that will fit this bill. And you say, well, I don't know, I'm just not that talented. Look, I don't see where a huge amount of talent is on this list. He just says, you got to be able to teach the Bible. And you know what? There's a lot of guys who teach the Bible. And here's what I've seen a lot. I'm just kind of going off, I'm getting off my outline for a second, but listen to this. I've seen a lot of guys who when they're growing up, they say, man, I want to be a preacher. You know, I want to be a pastor. I want God to use me to reach some city with the gospel and lead people and so forth. And then I see a lot of those same people. Then they get married. And then they have children. They get settled in. They get a comfortable job. They get a comfortable situation, which is great. But you know what? Sometimes they just get so comfortable that they just kind of think, you know what? Just let somebody else do that. You know, I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at. And I think I'm going to let someone else do that. Well, the problem is that there just really isn't anybody else to do it. You know what I mean? There's just so many vacancies out there. There's so many voids. And you've got great preachers dropping off the scene faster than they're being put on the scene. And so we've got to have somebody that will take this sermon to heart. And maybe it's you that God is dealing with that would say, you know what? I want to step up to the plate and fill that role and do what it takes. But you've got to be qualified. And that's why I'm giving you the qualifications. You know, and the Bible is clear. You know, yes, you've got to be married. You've got to have that wife. You've got to have the children. And you say, you know, maybe you're newly married. Or maybe you're a new parent. Or maybe you're not married. The first church that you'll ever pastor is your family. Before you ever pastor a church, you're the leader of that family. And God's looking at you. By the way, if you do desire the office of a bishop, God's looking at how you handle your family. And that's where he's going to decide whether he's going to put you in the ministry and allow that to take place in your life. He's watching how you deal with your wife and how you deal with your children. And that's what the Bible says. So take it seriously. You know, and by the way, if you can't get a wife to follow you, how are you going to get somebody else's, you know, children and family and husband? How are you going to get, listen to me, if you can't get a woman to follow you, how are you going to get a grown, hair-legged man to follow you? Right? You can't even get a woman to follow you. You're not going to get a man to follow you. And you're not going to get men to follow you. You're not going to have a church following you if you can't get your children, your little children to follow you. You've got to be a leader and you learn that leadership in the family. And so it's important to be married. It's important to have children. It's important to rule well your own house. Now, verse 4. And by the way, let me say this. If that word, rule it, if you're confused by that, you probably aren't qualified to take a position of being a bishop. If you're like, what? Ruling my house, really? Okay, maybe it's not for you because you've got to be able to rule your own house, okay? And if you don't understand that, you better figure it out before you think about being a bishop. He says, rule well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. Gravity is another word for seriousness, soberness. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Verse 6, not a novice. Now, what is a novice? A novice is a beginner. I remember my dad used to be really into riding dirt bikes. And he'd ride in a few different classes. There was novice, amateur, and pro. And those were pretty much the three classes that you'd ride in. A novice is just simply a beginner. It comes from the word nova or novo, which means new, you know, you're new at it. Now, you can't just have somebody get saved and then, you know, six months later, let's make them pass church to church. It's going to take time for that person to be proved and tested, to learn, to read the Bible, to study it, to understand things, and not to just be a novice, not a beginner. Now, is there anything wrong with being a novice? No. Everybody started out as a novice. You start out in the beginning and you grow from there. So you can't just take somebody who's a brand new Christian, a brand new believer, and just stick them in the office of a bishop, stick them in the office of a pastor. It's got to be somebody who's been saved for a while and has shown a track record and has learned the lessons of the ministry and of the church, who has served in the church so that they can know how to pastor the church and know how to preach and so forth. So it says in verse 6, not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Also, pride could be associated with someone who's advanced too fast. Just all of a sudden, they're put in a position of authority that they can't handle because they're a novice. Verse 7, moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Those that are without, we're talking about people outside the church. So this can't be somebody who just has a horrible reputation outside the church for being a crooked businessman or for whatever scandals in his life. He's got to be somebody who has a good report. Basically, you're going to be falsely accused. The Bible says, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, when joys to be exceeding glad, for great is your war in heaven, for so persecuted may the prophets which were before you. But it shouldn't be true, that's the point, that you're doing whatever wickedness. And so that's going to disqualify people who are not of good behavior and they have a bad report because of their bad behavior. So those are the qualities. Go to Titus 1. So that's 1 Timothy 3. Go to Titus 1. Now, you might look at these qualifications and say, hey, this looks like it's not really a big deal. But yeah, you'd be surprised how few people can fit this bill. You know, you look at it and you say, oh yeah, piece of cake. But you know what? Start trying to look for the people that will fit this bill that have been in church for long enough to where they're not a novice. They've been around the block. They've been here. They've been faithful. They've been faithfully parents. They've been faithfully a husband. They're preaching and teaching God's Word effectively. They are hospitable. They're of good behavior. They're vigilant. They're sober. It's harder to find than you think, unfortunately. And that's why you ought to try to fill that role because there aren't many people stepping up for this play is what I'm saying. Titus 1.5, we already saw it. Verse 6, if any be blameless, it's open to anyone who can meet the qualifications. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God. Of course, a lot of this is repeat. Not self-willed, not soon angry. Doesn't that remind you of the part about not being a brawler and a striker? Not soon angry. Not somebody who just blows their top about nothing to start swinging any later. Not given to wine, no striker. Not given to filthy lucre. But a lover of hospitality. A lover of good men. Sober, just, holy, temperate. And then, of course, here's where we get the name for our church. Verse 9. Holy fast, the faithful work, as he hath been taught. That he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain sayer. So he's got to be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain sayer. He's going to have to be able to stand up to those that bring in false doctrine. And to basically rebuke it. He's got to be able to stand up and correct false teaching and false doctrine. Not everybody can do that because some people are just a little bit too positive. Now some people are too negative. You know, you don't like those kind of people either. Some people are just too positive though. They won't ever tell anybody no. Well, if you're going to be a pastor, this word has to be in your vocabulary. No. No. Now jump down here in verse 13. I'm in a hurry. Read the whole chapter. I've preached on the chapter many times. But in verse 13, he's talking about some false prophets. And he says in verse 13, this witness is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. So the Bible does tell us in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Somebody who's just mixed up. Somebody who's just a little bit off on some doctrine because they just don't know anybody. God says be meek and gentle with them and help them see the light. But here we're talking about false prophets. False teachers who it says are reprobated concerning the faith. A few verses later, he says these guys are reprobated. These guys are deceivers. They're teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. They're false prophets. They're liars. Hey, rebuke them sharply. Don't get up in the pulpit and say, oh, well, you know, I don't know if it's really the best. He says, no, call them out. Rebuke them sharply like Paul did. And say, hey, look, they're deceivers. They're liars. And you say, well, that doesn't sound nice. But see, you can't be too nice. When you're nicer than God, you're too nice. You know what I mean? When you're more loving and kind than God is, you've gone too far. Because God is love. You know, and you think you're nicer than he is. I mean, there are some people who need to be reviewed. There are some people who need to be called out. And you've got to have a little bit of a mean streak to do that sometimes. And some people are just a little too positive. Now, some people are too negative, granted. But there's a balance, isn't there? The Bible contains both. Positive things and negative things. And then turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. I'll give you one more qualification. It's not on the list here, but it is a scriptural qualification. 2 Timothy 2.15 says, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The bishop better be somebody who knows the word of God. Because he said, if not, he's ashamed to the ministry. If he is not a workman that has studied. And notice he said, to show thyself approved. Not, oh, I went to the commentary. And so and so told me this. Or, oh, I know how to Google the answer. Or, oh, I know how to look at a Greek lexicon. No, to be able to study the word of God, the Bible, itself, yourself, with none but the Holy Spirit as your guide, and to be able to study to show your self-approvement. Not, well, Patrick Anderson said, so therefore it must be right. No, you've got to be able to approve it yourself. Approve it yourself from the Bible. And if you haven't done the necessary study, then you're not qualified. Because there are too many preachers who don't know what they're talking about. They haven't taken the time to read the Bible. And you've read the Bible twice, cover to cover. You're not even close. You have a long ways to go before you're going to get up and be the pastor of the church. You need to read it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. And you need to memorize. You need to meditate. You need to study. You need to eat, breathe, and sleep the word of God. Because it's a big responsibility to get up behind the pulpit. Because a lot of people are going to take what you say is true, whether it's true or not. Now, they ought to be checking it out and making sure it's true. But some people are just going to go with what you say. You better not be leading them astray. You better not be betraying their trust and preaching false doctrine. And not all false doctrine is preached intentionally. Some of it's just preached out of ignorance. You just accidentally, you just repeat something you've heard. You haven't studied it out thyself. That's the problem. But number two, we saw, first of all, who's qualified for the opposite of the bishop. Number two, what is the job? I mean, what is the work? Because he said, if a man desires the opposite of the bishop, he desires a good work. So what work or what job does the bishop do? I mean, what's his job? Does he just get up and preach three times a week? What else is involved? Well, let's look at this scripturally. First of all, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, we can see a little bit of the answer. He says in verse 2, because this is instructions unto a pastor, unto a bishop, Timothy. 2 Timothy 4, 2 says, preach the word. So obviously, preaching is a part of this. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. Doctrine is teaching the word of God. Jump down to verse 5. It says, but watch thou in all things. Endure afflictions. Watch this. Do the work of an evangelist. Make foolproof thy ministry. So we see two jobs mentioned here in 2 Timothy 4. There's a lot of other jobs we're going to look at. We see two jobs right away, and turn if you into Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. The first job we saw is preaching the word. That's why you've got to be apt to teach. You've got to preach and teach the doctrines of the Bible. But not only that, you're called to do the work of an evangelist. What's an evangelist? Evangelist means somebody who brings the gospel. That's what it means. Evangelist means you're giving the gospel. It means you're going out and getting people saved. That's simply what it means. Now a lot of people use that word to mean a lot of other things. But biblically in the Bible, the evangelist is just somebody who gets people saved. He preached the gospel. And so God's saying that the pastor ought to be out soul-willing. He ought to be out letting people to Christ. Now I talked to a pastor before, and he said, well, I don't think it's the pastor's job to go soul-willing. He said, I think it's his job to just pray and study and preach and to send out the people to go out with the soul-willing. But see, first of all, that's not difficult because number one, he says do the work of an evangelist. So that is part of the job is going out and getting people saved and not saying, well, I've graduated past that. That's how I started out. But now I'm past that. I just preached by the pulpit. No, the pastor ought to be out soul-willing. He ought to be doing it too. And secondly, not only does the Bible say to do the work of an evangelist, secondly, he says to be an example to the flock. Well, how are the people going to be soul-willing if the pastor's not setting an example, showing them how to go soul-willing, teaching them how to go soul-willing, and also just being an example of somebody who's just consistently out soul-willing, consistently out letting people to Christ. That's showing you how it's done. That's the whole point. That's what a pastor is. He's an example. We're going to get to that a little bit later. But you're in Ephesians 4.11, right? So yes, it is the pastor's job to be a soul-willing. And by the way, if you look at a church where the people are not soul-willing, you'll find a pastor who's not doing much soul-willing or he's not excited about soul-willing or both. Because if the pastor were excited about soul-willing and doing a lot of soul-willing, you know what? People are going to get on board with it and do soul-willing. Now, when I first started the church here five and a half years ago, there weren't really a lot. It was very small. We're just getting started. Sometimes it takes people a little while to grow into it. Sometimes people come for a year or two and before they grow to it. Now, I believe they ought to be out the first week to do it. That's a great way to learn and grow. But let's just face it. Some people are not going to be obedient to that command right away. But if you see a church where a pastor is just saying, I just don't get it. I just can't get people to go soul-willing. I just can't do it. They just won't do it. I've got 100 people in my church and it's pretty much just me going out soul-willing. Now, I don't know what to say. I mean, I would say 75% of the people in our church go out soul-willing every week. Why? Because I go out soul-willing. You're not going to lose. It's because I go out soul-willing. And because I go out soul-willing, the people in our church go out soul-willing. Because it takes a leader to be an example. Not lording over the flock, the Bible says, but being an example to the flock. That says, hey, let me get down in the trenches and do the work with you. OK, go do the work and come back and tell me how I win. He's out there doing soul-willing too. Now, his job is not just soul-willing, but soul-willing is a huge element because we're going to do the work of the baby. Go to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11. It says, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some what? Evangelists. Man, we've got a church filled with evangelists. And some pastors and teachers. OK? So here's some of the purpose of the pastor and teacher, what his work is. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the what? Knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of man and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. So according to that, we see the same two things mentioned. We see preaching the word, imparting knowledge unto the flock, imparting truths and knowledge that they can help them grow. And also we see doing the work of an evangelist. Go if you would to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter number 6. Acts chapter 6. So, so far we've seen preaching and teaching God's word to the church, and we've seen doing the work of an evangelist and going out slowly. Okay. Look at verse 1 of Acts chapter 6. The Bible reads, and in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected. And look at this next phrase, in the daily ministration. Okay. Look at verse 2, it says, then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples under them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Okay. So we see here that the church grew greatly. The first words we see in Acts 6.1 are that the number of the disciples was multiplied, and there arose a murmuring of people, you know, basically getting neglected in the daily ministration. So what we see here is that as a church grows, there's more just menial tasks that need to be done. The daily ministration. Okay. You know, they're basically kind of referring to it as like waiting tables. You know, just doing that, you know, and it's like this, I remember my boss told me in the fire alarm business years ago, he said, you know, he said, when you first start out of business, he said, you know, you're making the coffee, as it were. You're sweeping the floor. You know, you're doing all these just meat. You're taking out the trash. You're doing all that. But he told me, he said, as you grow, you've got to delegate that stuff and basically get to the point where, you know, you've got somebody else doing that and you can focus on the really productive work of really bringing in the money because we're talking about business, in the fire alarm business. And, you know, that's something that I always struggled with in business because I'm the type of person sometimes where I just want to do everything myself. Okay. But he explained to me, he said, you know, you got to basically delegate stuff when you, he said, in the beginning, in the early days, you and I, he said, because I was his second in command in the business, he said, you know, you and I in the early days, yeah, we're going to sweep the floor. We're going to make you coffee. We're going to, you know, I don't drink coffee, but that's what he said. And, you know, we're going to do all this menial paperwork and repetitive stuff. But he said, eventually we've got to delegate that stuff to other people as the business grows. What's the same thing when you start a church? You start a church, you're not, you don't have this huge church. So there's not all this daily ministration. There's very little paperwork or cleaning or just, you know, menial tasks to do. There's just not a whole lot of that to do. So you do it all yourself. You know, you start out and you're doing all that yourself. Then as the church grows, there's more and more to do, more and more to do. This church right here was running thousands. This was a huge church. I mean, remember there were 3,000 added at Pentecost. There were 5,000 added at chapter number, I believe at the beginning of chapter four it mentions it, even though it kind of took place in chapter three. This church is growing. It's huge. And so even though they've got the 12 apostles there, okay, including the newly appointed apostle in chapter one, they just said, look, we're spread too thin. We've got too much just menial work to do where it's basically taking us away from the Word of God to just do a lot of more busy work, okay, because the church is so big. And so even though there's 12 of us, we need seven more guys. And we need these seven guys to basically do the everyday work of the church that will free us up so that we can give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word so that we can focus upon the spiritual and not basically be doing all of the menial, everyday type tasks. Now, this is the origin of the deacons. These are the first deacons, the first seven deacons here. Now you say, well, Pastor Harrison, why doesn't Faith Ward Baptist Church have deacons? Well, we're just not to the size yet where we would have deacons. Now, a lot of churches, by the way, they have people that they call deacons, but they're not really scriptural deacons, okay? And here's why. Let's look at the deacon, if you would. Verse five, and the same pleads the whole multitude. Or I'm sorry, let's jump up to verse three. Wherefore, brethren, look you out among you, seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. You know, just the everyday like business type stuff. Okay, and the same pleads the whole multitude. Verse five, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, and Proselytia, whom they set before the apostles, and when they prayed, they laid their hands on them. And look at the result in verse seven. And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. So it seems that things were, it was slowing them down, you know, that they didn't have enough manpower in the church because the church was so huge, it was running thousands of people, okay? Now, the deacons according to the Bible are guys that are filled with the Holy Ghost. If you look at these deacons in chapter six and in chapter seven, and in chapter eight with Philip, these are guys who are powerful preachers. They're out soul winning. They're preaching the word. They're filled with the Holy Ghost. And not only that, if you look at the qualifications for a deacon in first Timothy three, guess what? They're almost identical to that of a pastor. You gotta be the husband of one body. You gotta be, you know, not a bro. You gotta be not given to filthy lucre and covetousness, and you gotta do pretty much all the same. You gotta, it says your wife has to be up to a standard. It says that your children have to be obedient. It's the same type of qualifications. These guys are, and what I wanna point out the most though, is that these guys are full time workers. What was the whole point of even choosing the deacons? Not enough manpower to do the work. So let's bring on seven guys on staff and let's have this be their full time job doing every day daily ministration, daily working in the church. And notice, these aren't just hiring anybody off the street to do these type of things. These are guys, these are not just employees. These guys, they lay their hands on them. They ordained them. These guys are literate. And honestly, I think we've diminished the office of a deacon today. Because you got guys who are not solely deacons, who don't know how to preach. They can't preach at all. They don't meet necessarily all the qualifications and they don't work at the church and they don't work every day on the church's business. And you say, well, there's not enough to do. Then you don't need deacons. Because the whole point of having the deacons is that there's too much to do. So you gotta get the help with somebody there to help out with it. So that's why our church doesn't have deacons because our church is not big enough to necessitate deacons. But the deacon is a full-time guy. Now, I'll just be honest with you. In 99% of Baptist churches that I've... Okay, I'm sorry. In 100% of Baptist churches that I've ever been a part of or even known anything about, the deacon is not an employee. He is not a daily worker. He is basically just somebody who makes decisions. And it's like a board of deacons that is like, it's like a legislative body and like they vote on stuff. Now, where is that in this passage? Can somebody help me out? I don't see them voting. I don't see them running the church. I don't see them deciding what the church is gonna do going forward. They're servants. The word deacon means servant. They are doing work and they're highly qualified. Did you hear me? They're just as qualified as the bishop. This is an important job. And when you put somebody who doesn't meet the criteria in the job, you've diminished the position. Isn't that true? If you put a bunch of people that are deacons, they don't live souls, they don't preach, they don't meet up to these... They're not Stephen, they're not Philip, they're not anything like the bishop. You're basically, people will start to look at it and think a deacon doesn't matter. And people will start to think, you're a deacon, big deal. So what? But really, a deacon is a really important job. And I believe that being a deacon could be a great stepping stone to becoming a pastor or a bishop someday. A lot of the same criteria. You could start out as a deacon in a church. Now you say, well, churches don't have scriptural deacons? No, because the guys that they call the deacons are this legislative body that meets once a month and votes on stuff and it doesn't do any of the work of the church. Now, who's ever been in a church that had an assistant pastor? And guess what? That's a real deacon. So I don't understand why they call him an assistant pastor. What they ought to call him is a deacon, because that's scriptural. Pastors and deacons, okay? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with calling him an assistant pastor depending on what his capacity is and what he's doing. But really, these guys... When you see a church that has seven assistant pastors, really big church, those are deacons. Call them what they are. You say, well, what are we going to call these deacons? Just get rid of them. I'm serious. Look, I am dead serious. Just disband them. Say, well, as you were, you don't need to. Because where are they? And a lot of times, they're just people that have money. Like people that are really wealthy or important people or respected in the community. They're the deacon at this church. That's not how you get to be a deacon. You get to be a deacon when you're on fire as a soul winner and a preacher and you're filled with the Holy Ghost. That's the deacon, my friend, okay? And your job is to not show up at a secular job somewhere. Are you listening to me? You're showing up here to work here, okay? That's a deacon. And you might work another job on the side, but you're a daily worker here. And if there's not enough work here for you to do, then we just don't need you as a deacon, okay? Because that's the whole point of a deacon is to take the burden off the pastor. When the daily ministration gets to be too much for the pastor to do, then that's where you need the deacons. Or you need another pastor, an assistant pastor or whatever. And I'm not against that, but we need to get back to real deacons. Real, not these imposters in churches that are not true deacons. 1 Peter chapter 5, if you will, toward the end of the New Testament. 1 Peter chapter 5. So basically, what we see in Acts chapter 6, we already saw, first of all, preaching and teaching God's word. We saw being a soul winner. Those are the two things that come to mind pretty readily in people's minds. But then there's also just a daily ministration. There's just menial tasks that need to be done. And a lot of people don't realize how much work there is to do because they haven't done it. Ask someone who started a church how many hours of labor they put into just everyday tedious menial tasks. And that you just might take for granted, not even think about the fact that when you put money in the offering plate, it has to be counted and recorded and charted in a spreadsheet. And that whenever we spend a dime to buy stuff, we have to log all that, and we have to report it all and make all these budget deals where we break down the finances. And they walk in, and of course there's a bulletin here. Somebody had to make that bulletin every week. Somebody has to straighten the chair. Somebody has to pick up your cup that you leave all over. And by the way, when you're done drinking out of your cup, throw it in the trash. Glad I got that off my chest, okay? Everybody drinks a cup of water, then you just leave it. Hey, somebody goes around and his name is Steven L. Anderson, and he goes around and picks up all your cups and dumps them out and throws them in the trash for you so I can pick up after you. And all the other junk that you throw everywhere and straightens out the junk. There's just stuff that needs to be done. Now in the early days, that's part of the pastor's job. And he's got to do that stuff. But eventually, and honestly, in the early days, there's less of it, right? And then the more people come, the more people throw their cup. No, I'm just kidding. The more people come, the more job there is to do of pastoring. You know, when I first started the church and there's 10 people coming, there's not much daily ministration. There's just not that much to handle. But then the more people come, the more people go, there's more to do, more of a job. That's part of it. That's part of the business. Hey, prayer is part of the job. That's part of the job. I mean, and by the way, if you want to be a pastor, you bet you got to be somebody who prays because that's going to be part of your job. And if you're somebody who doesn't pray, doesn't spend time praying, well, this job isn't for you because that is part of the job. And you got to love the Word of God because your life is about ministering the Word, whether it be from the pulpit, whether it be studying to show thyself approved, whether it be out on the streets in the highways and edges, you better have a Bible in your hand. You better love the Bible because if you're a pastor, you're going to eat, breathe, and sleep the Bible seven days a week. If you're going to be a pastor, you're going to be a bishop. And if it gets to a point where you're doing too much this and too much that and less of this, then that's where you get to a point where you might need to delegate some stuff, not to just anybody, but to somebody who's qualified to be delegated those certain things. And then there are a lot of other things you can delegate and you'll thank God for Amanda. She helps me out greatly and does a ton of the cleaning and other ladies in the church and other men in the church that help out and stuff or the Dave who uploads the audio of the sermon. You know, that's a lot of work. You know, everybody writes me angry emails when the sermons aren't up. You know, and hey, I'm just, I'm glad that they're excited about the new sermon. You know, praise God. But you know, that takes a little more work than you think. So, you know, update, you know, and you know, well, I see the sermon, but what about the iTunes podcast? Well, it's on the church website, but what about YouTube? No, it's the video. Hey, it's a lot of work, okay. You know, and you know, I'm telling you, get some computer geek who's filled with the Holy Ghost. You know, Brother Dave does a great job. He uploads the audio and, you know, and so, you know, you delegate stuff when you can and so forth, but there's just some stuff that you just have to do just to keep the thing going, okay. And you know, just planning things and just running things and planning the marathon and planning the activities, whatever, all that stuff, buying all the stuff. Did I tell you to turn to 1 Peter 10 to 5? We're seeing more about the Office of the Bishop here is work. The first stage was the qualifications because, you know, before we even get into the work, you got to be qualified. Here's the work. 1 Peter 5, 1, the elders which are among you. We saw that that was synonymous with Bishop in Titus 1. I exhort. Who I'm also an elder. Who's talking? Peter, right? He said I'm a pastor too. I'm an elder too. I'm a bishop too. Even Judas Iscariot, you know, he was a bad pastor, but he was called a bishop in Acts chapter 1 verse 20. He was called a bishop because part of being an apostle was that you were a, you know, a pastor or a leader or an overseer, but it says in verse number 1 here, I exhort who I am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Verse 2, feed the flock of God. So that's part of the job, right? Preaching the word, feeding and teaching the flock. But look at another part of the job that's brought up, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof. Now the pastor is also an overseer. You don't have to turn there, but in Acts chapter 20 verse 17, Paul sends the abbacism called the elders of the church. He says unto them, take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. And that's what bishop means to be an overseer. He says over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he had purchased in his own blood. So in Acts 20, 28 and in 1 Peter 5, 2, we see the two same things. Feed the flock and be an overseer. What is the purpose of even having a pastor? Now I've seen churches that don't have a pastor and they say, well, we don't even need a pastor. We'll just rotate people up here and preach and stuff. You need somebody to be an overseer according to the Bible. Now it's just like you go to your job and let's say you're an electrician. You got all these electricians, right? You got one guy that's what? The foreman or the overseer or the supervisor, okay? And hey, does anybody just get hired as the supervisor? What do they start out as? The apprentice. You know, they start out at the bottom. They do the work. They work their way up to like a journeyman or whatever and then they get to the part where they're a supervisor or foreman, okay? And that person is basically just coordinating and overseeing the work. Now look at the words that God uses for being a pastor. He uses the word bishop. He uses the word pastor and he uses the word elder. What's a pastor? What does that word remind you of? Pastor. What? Pasture. Yeah, that's where it comes from because a pastor is actually another word for a shepherd. That's what pastor means. The Bible talks about the pastors of the flocks in the book of Jeremiah. A pastor is a shepherd. Now the Bible, did you know that the Bible calls Jesus the bishop? There's a verse that calls Jesus the bishop and overseer. He is the good shepherd. He is the bishop. He is the pastor. But then basically what I am is like an under shepherd. I'm basically delegated below him just to carry out his will. Not my own will but basically to carry out his will. Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd. He is the chief bishop. He is the head of our church. Not some pastor in some other city is the head of our church or not some archbishop. Jesus is the only archbishop that's been well. Not some guy in a red outfit with a funny hat. You know what I mean? Who is the archbishop of this area. No. Jesus Christ is... You see a pastor's job is to feed the flock. There's another illustration of being a shepherd. What does a shepherd do? He feeds his flock. But what else does he do? He doesn't just feed the flock. He does and he does lead them. Also he leads them unto fountains of waters. He leads them to the grass where they're going to be fed. But not only that, he protects them by watching out for the wolves. Right? The good shepherd loves his sheep and he'll protect his sheep and he'll even give his life to protect his sheep. When the wolf is coming, when the lion is coming, when the bear is coming to just come and see if he can just grab one of the flock. You know, he is overseeing and he's looking over the flock watching out for the enemy, watching out for wickedness to creep into the church. And this goes back to being vigilant. He's an overseer, just making sure that the church program is moving forward in the right direction. There have been times in the, and I haven't been a pastor for a super long time. I've pastored this church for five and a half years. I started this church from scratch and passed it for five and a half years. Okay, there have been times when I, in my position of overseer, not often, but there have been times when I've seen things going the wrong way. I've seen the soul wedding going the wrong direction. You know, I see the different things that are being taught and different practices that are taking place in the church going the wrong direction. And I was vigilant of that and I got up behind this pulpit and I'm going to correct that and say, hey, you're going the wrong way. You're marching toward the cliff with that stuff. We need to go over here. So the pastor is a leader. He's an overseer. He's somebody who's going to guide you in the right... You know, we don't want it to just be like sheep having no shepherd, basically. Everybody's doing their own thing. Everybody's going a different direction. And I've never been in a more unified church than Faith Ward Baptist Church. And it's not because Pastor Anderson rules with an iron fist, because I don't. I'm one of the most hands-off leaders that I've ever known. In fact, I'm probably too... I mean, I'm a big softie, honestly. I'm not saying it's because I'm ruling with an iron fist, but somebody does have to be there to say no and to set the agenda and to set the tone biblically, you know, from the Bible and say, look, we're not going that way. Sorry, we're King James only. And I'm not going to take a vote on that with a bunch of demons or deacons, you know, that are going to vote on that to tell me whether I'm King James only or not. You know, I don't take a vote. I'm not taking a vote on whether this is a soul-winning church. This is a soul-winning church. We're going to knock the doors of preaching off every creature. We're not going to take an opinion poll about that. Somebody's got to just stand up and say it's a soul-winning church. Well, why is it a soul-winning church? Who decided that? I did it from this book that said we're going to be a soul-winning church and not a social club, but that we're going to go out and give the gospel and give people safe. Somebody's got to set that agenda like a Joshua who stands up and says, hey, choose whether to serve God or to live like a heathen. And somebody's got to believe and stand up. And that's part of the job. Feeding the flock, overseer. But look at verse 3, though. He says, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, remember we talked about Jesus is the real shepherd, the top shepherd. When the chief shepherd shall appear, he says, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fainted not a way. So he said not to lord over just to be, yeah, do this, I'm the boss, and I'm going to tell you what to do. He's saying, be a leader that leads by example. Yes, lead. Yes, rule. And he uses the word rule. But do it by example, not just, well, do as I say, not as I do, type of a thing, okay? So that's the job. But the third point is this. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And this is a question that comes up. I'm asked this question constantly by people. And this question is this. Should the pastor be paid? Is it a full-time job or should he have another job also? Now we already talked about the deacons. The deacon, I'm very clear on this right here. I believe that the deacon needs to be paid and it needs to be his full-time job. Because if it's not his full-time job and he's not being paid, then it sounds like he probably don't even need a deacon if he's spending all his time doing something else. Because remember, what's the purpose of a deacon? To basically carry a large part of the workload, to do a bunch of work. So if he's got another job that he's working 40 hours a week, 60 hours a week, and he's not getting paid to be a deacon, and you say, well, our church can't afford a paid deacon. That just tells me your church is probably not big enough to need a deacon. You know what I mean? Because this church had thousands of people and they only had seven deacons, okay? I've seen churches that had seven deacons that were running a hundred. Now, if you think that's really neat, of course, none of them are paid, none of them are working, none of them are doing anything, but they walk around with that title, I'm a deacon. You know, sometimes I run into women now, so many that tell me they're a deacon. You know, and by the way, being a husband of one wife, it means that you're a male. That's a good point. Oh, and I missed that on the qualifications. If you're a bishop or a pastor, or if you're a deacon, you need to be a man, okay? And then you're the husband of one wife. One time, I shouldn't have done this, but one time I was out soloing and this lady told me that she was a deacon. I said, I said, oh, really? I said, was your wife home? She said, excuse me? And I said, well, I said, you know, the Bible says that the deacon must be the husband of one wife. I was just curious about the idea if the wife was home. So anyway, should the pastor be paid? Now, before I get into whether the pastor should be paid, the deacon, I believe, must be paid. I mean, he is a full-time worker. The only exception I can see to that is just to someone who has another source of wealth. You know what I mean? Like, maybe it's somebody who has a retirement from another job. Like, let's say they're done with their other job. It's a lot of people, they retire and like, you know, they work 20 years and they get a big retirement. You know, if you're like a police officer or some government person, you get like a full best. I know my grandfather, man, he retired so young with a full paycheck from being a police lieutenant. And he got paid for decades. Now, that's the only exception I can see to a deacon saying, hey, I'm already getting a full-time salary from something else that I'm not having to work for. Whether it be, maybe somebody's just independently wealthy, or maybe somebody is retired from something where they're getting a full paycheck or something of that nature. You know, or maybe it's an older man. And I'm all for old men being pastors of deacons. A lot of people, they just, they get old before their time. You know, you got to be in your prime. I liked where the Garrets are. I mean, you know, showing, you know, Jacob was a lot older than a lot of people think, if you look at his life. Okay. Moses, these guys, they did stuff when they were older. So a pastor or a deacon could be an older man who's maybe got a big retirement and he just doesn't need any money. But unless he's got some other source of income that's just being given unto him, or just in the bank, then I'm very strongly convinced that the deacon must be paid. Okay. Now the pastor on the other hand, okay, should the pastor be paid or unpaid? Well, let's read in 1 Corinthians 9. We're going to look at a bunch of scripts on this. But in 1 Corinthians 9, this is Paul speaking, who is a bishop, of course, as an apostle. He's also a bishop in a sense of the word. But he brings this up and he says in verse 3, he says, my answer to them that do examine me is this, have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas. Now who's Cephas in the Bible? Peter. Did Peter have a wife? Oh yeah. Before he even met Jesus, he had a wife. Because when Jesus comes on the scene, remember, his mother-in-law, Jesus came and healed his mother-in-law. Okay. So yeah, he was married. And it's funny, the Catholics say he was the first pope or whatever, you know. And by the way, none of the Catholic bishops are married. None of them. And it says he must be the husband of one wife. Now most of them have children, but they're not married. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I'm sure a lot of them do, by the way. But you know, the bastard children that they have out of wedlock. But the bottom line is that Peter was married. The other apostles, according to Paul here, the other apostles were married. The brethren of the Lord, James, Joseph, Simon, and James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, they were married as well. So these guys are married. So basically, Paul is saying, hey, look, I could get married if I want to. Peter's married. All the other apostles are married. All the brethren of the Lord are married. He said, I could get married too. I have the power to lead about a sister or wife as well as other apostles. Look at verse 6. Or I only in Barnabas have not we power to forbear working. So right here, he's saying, look, Barnabas and I are working, meaning that they're doing another job outside of preaching and teaching God's Word. If you read your Bible, you know Paul was a tent maker. You know, he worked with his hand. He built tents. He said, look, but notice what he's saying. All the other apostles, besides Paul and Barnabas, forbore working. They were not working another job. They were just full-time preaching and teaching God's Word. We saw that in Acts chapter 6. Remember, they were delegating stuff. They worked all day on the things of God. But he said, I and Barnabas, we're not taking a paycheck. We are working our own job. Look at verse 7. It says, who goeth to warfare at any time at his own charges? You know, what soldier basically goes without a salary, pays his own plane ticket to the battlefield, buys his own weapons, his own uniform, buys all his own meals. Have you ever heard of a soldier like that? No, it's paid for by someone else, he's saying. Who goeth to warfare at any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? He's saying people don't do other jobs without getting paid. If they plant a vineyard, if they milk the cow, they're getting paid. They drink the milk, whatever. Say I these things as a man, or sayeth not the law of the same also. Verse 9, for it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Does God take care for oxen? Let me put that in the modern vernacular. Does God care about cows? Sorry environmentalist, sorry animal lover. And I love animals too, you know, they taste great. But anyway, it says, you know, where am I? Don't tell me I'm in church. I mean, where am I in the passage here? Yeah, does God take care for oxen? Verse 10, or sayeth he get all together for our sakes. So he's saying this has nothing, are you getting this? Nothing to do with cattle. He said it was all together said for our sakes, okay, for our sakes no doubt this is written, that he that plow... And what does he mean by our? He means man. It's written for mankind, not for animals. He says that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker though. He said, look, anybody who works needs to get paid, whether it's a physical job or whatever it is. He says in verse 11, if we have sown unto you spiritual things, basically preaching, teaching God's word, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? He's saying, why would it be wrong for someone to get up and sow not a seed in a field and then reap the harvest, but rather preaching the word of God as the seed, and then to reap a paycheck for doing that? And he says, if others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? But look at verse 12, here's the key. Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. So what's Paul saying? Paul is saying, of course, pastors should be paid, preachers should be paid for their work, of course, because it's hard work. And you know, anybody who goes out soul winning, is it hard work? Oh yeah. Anybody who gets up and preaches by the book, anybody who wrote an eight-minute sermon last night, it's work to write the sermon, and it's work to get up and to deliver the sermon. Now multiply that times about 25 every week, and that's the kind of preaching and teaching you're gonna do as a pastor, if not more. The soul winning is work. Every part of it is work. If a man decided the opposite of a bishop, he decided it didn't work. I remember we had a guy come out here, and he grew up on a farm his whole life. He said, I grew up on a farm my whole life. He said, going out soul winning with you guys is the hardest work I've ever done. He said it's harder. He said it's harder than working on a farm. And it's spiritually draining, and mentally and physically draining. And you know, praise God for everybody today who is out working. And that's what you were doing, you were working. You know, you were out there serving God. Now look, is it wrong to serve God and work as a volunteer? No. And Paul is basically saying this. He's saying we ought to be paid, but he said we don't want to hinder the... We want it to move full speed ahead. We don't want to hinder the gospel of Christ. So we have not used that power. Yes, I have the power, he said, to be married unto a wife. But he said, I've chosen to forego that, and to just give myself holy to the ministry. Now, of course, he was not the pastor of a church. The pastor of a church has to be married and have children. Paul was an apostle. We don't have any apostles today. But Paul is saying here, hey, I have chosen to not be paid, even though I ought to be paid. He said, I've chosen not to, lest the gospel be hidden. Now look, it's the same thing with me. I started this church five and a half years ago, and for the first four and a half years, I didn't get paid at all. One year, partway into it, I started to get a part-time salary, and I switched my job to part-time. But then I ended up making so much at my job, that I actually just paid it all back. And I was just, you know, I paid my time, and then I paid back everything that was paid unto me. And so for the first four and a half years, I didn't receive a pay. Now, a lot of people have wrongly interpreted that. Yeah, my pastor did, and they'll rip on their own pastor, like, well, my pastor gets paid. Can you believe that? He's preaching for filthy lucre. He's bad. No, just because I chose to not be paid for the first four and a half years, let me tell you why I chose not to be paid. A few reasons. Number one, and if you would, keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 9. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I'm almost done tonight, but go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I want to show you why I chose not to be paid for the first four and a half years of pastoring the church. Let me show you some reasons why. It says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 7, it says, for yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. This is the same guy talking, Paul. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught. He said, I did not take money and food from you, but wrought with labor and travail night and day. So he's working day and night to basically do both the work of the ministry and the preaching and the serving God and to make tents and to pay his own bills. And he says that we might not be chargeable in any of you. Look at verse 9. Not because we have not power. He said, it's not that we don't have the power to receive a paycheck for what we've done, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. He's saying, I work day and night to be an example. And I'm not going to read for the same time. And the rest of the chapter, he explains how there's a lot of people in Thessaloniki who weren't working hard. They were not hard workers. They were just busybodies and sitting around and doing nothing, working not at all. And he said two things. I wanted to be an example to show you how to work hard. He said, I could have the power, but I want to be an example. Now, he said, why did you not get paid faster? I said, for the first quarter and a half years. Because of the fact I wanted to set an example for other pastors that could follow to start a church without a bunch of money. Because a lot of churches, they think, well, we can't start a church until we go around and get all this money together and it's going to cost $100,000 to pay the pastor and to buy the building. I wanted to show an example of starting a church with no money, with a pastor doing it the old-fashioned way, just working by day, sowing by night, preaching on the weekend, and just doing it with nothing. That way, people could look at it and say, you know what, I can do that. I can follow that example that Pastor Anderson, and guess what? I can tell you a couple of people who are following that example right now and have followed that example. And I sat down and explained it to them and said, look, because they said, how do you do it without getting all these other churches to support you? And I just explained to them, I said, look, here's what you do. You have the money that comes in for the tithes. You use that to buy your chairs, to buy your song books. We started in my house in the living room. And I said, you know, you work. Here's your job that you work. And then you go out in the evenings and you go out soloing and you preach on Sunday. And I explained to them a pattern of how to do it so that the poor man could start a church and not have to say, well, I don't have the money. I got to go around and drum up all this money. Hey, if you're a real Bible-believing preacher like you ought to be, people don't want to give you money. Other churches, they're going to tell you to drop dead. They're not going to want to support you. Most of the preachers that I know that are really preaching right, they're not going to find 200 churches to support them, 50 churches to support them, and 20 churches to support them. Everybody's mad at them for preaching the Bible right. And I wanted the church to be independent. Independent, not depending on someone else. Independent Baptist, I thought that's what that means. So that's why I started the church that way. And then here's the other reason. Number one was to be an example and to show you, hey, if I can go soloing, you can go soloing. I'm busy, you're busy. I have a family, you have a family. I have a job, you have a job. I'm going to go soloing, why don't you go soloing? It's being an example, showing how it's done. But not only that, number two was, I was just making enough money at my job where I didn't need to get a paycheck because I was making plenty of money. And so because I was doing that, we used the church's tithes and offerings for the just stuff that we needed. I mean, just Yellow Pages ad or buying CDs and CDs to burn of audio preaching to give out to people. These invitations, I don't have any. I already took them out of my pocket. You know those invitations we use out of soloing, they cost money. Now they only cost like one cent. But guess what? When you put out hundreds of thousands, which we have put out many hundreds of thousands of these, that adds up to a lot of money. That adds up to tens of thousands of dollars. And so it's a lot of money that we spend on that. So by the time you factor in the printers and all that kind of stuff. So there's other stuff that we spent the money on. But what is the biblical use of the tithe? We'll go to First Corinthians chapter nine. Because you see, the tithe was used, if we go back to Malachi chapter three on tithing, he said, bring you all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be what? Meat in my house. Okay, so what the tithe was used for is that there would be meat in his house. Because the Levites and the priests would eat that food. Back then you didn't have all these bills. You know what I mean? You didn't have all this like electric bill, water bill. You know, you just kind of took care of that kind of stuff a different way. And pretty much your biggest expense used to be food. You know, that was the big thing was to buy your own food and to feed your family. Well, that's why the meat was evolved. Now another thing we use the tithes and offerings to saw is we'll have a church event where we feed everyone. That's also biblical. Because hey, there's meat in God's house. And man, if we had some good meat in this house. You know, we have barbecues and that's, you know, people are like, oh, you're spending your time money on the barbecue? You know what, let's get some meat up in God's house. Okay, that's a good one. That's Malachi chapter three. We're not going to turn there for sake of time. But you know, same thing. There's so many scriptures on that. I was just memorizing this week. I memorized Joel chapter one. And in Joel chapter one, it was talking a lot about that same thing. I mean, there's just a lot of things about that. But anyway, look at first Corinthians nine. Let's finish where we were reading here. Verse 12, if others be partaker of this power over you, are we not rather? Nevertheless, we've not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. He said, we didn't use that, but it was there. He says in verse 13, do you not know that they would minister about holy things, live of the things of the temple? You know, when they brought in the sacrifices, they would eat that meat after it was offered as sacrifice. And they would wait at the altar, are partakers of the altar. Look at verse 14. I don't understand how this could be any clearer. Even so have the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. He says right there that God is ordained for pastors to be paid. But I have used none of these things. He's saying, but I have chosen not to pay. So here's the quick answer. Go to first Timothy chapter five. And I'm cutting out a little bit at the end of my sermon just because I'm out of time. But first Timothy chapter five is the last place we turn. Here's the question, pastor paid or unpaid? Well, when it comes to the deacon, he needs to be paid. And I already talked enough about that. But with the pastor, he should be paid very clear biblically. But it's okay for him not to be paid. It's okay for him to work another job. It's okay for him to make tents and so be it. So there was nothing wrong with Paul not getting paid. But he had every right to be paid. So the answer to the question is, should the pastor be paid or unpaid? The answer is he should be paid. But he can choose to not be paid. So it can go either way. So if your pastor is not paid, that's fine. Hey, he shouldn't be working on another job or whatever. Or maybe the pastor is part-time with church and part-time with business. That's okay. And you should say, well, he shouldn't be going. He needs to just only be full-time. No, Paul worked a job. But if your pastor is paid, that's okay too. In fact, that's what God ordained was for him to be paid. That way he can be full-time. Because this is the progression. Let me give you the progression. When somebody starts out pastoring a tiny church or starting a church from scratch, guess what, there's no money. Because there's only a few people in the church. The pastor couldn't be paid if he wanted to. He needs to go work a job. Okay? But there's also not a whole lot of work to do either. So it's easier to work that job and to do both. Then as the church grows, there's a lot more work at the church. And then the pastor is probably going to end up becoming a full-time guy. Or he's going to have to hire someone else, like a deacon, to basically pick up that slack and fulfill that burden. So you start out with a pastor who's doing everything and he's working another job. Then you progress to basically either a full-time pastor or a half-time pastor. And then you basically progress to a full-time pastor. Then you progress to a full-time pastor and full-time deacons. Because that lets work to do because it's a much bigger church. Does everybody understand the progression? You start out, there's not a lot of work to do. There gets to be more and more work. The bigger it is, you need more workers. You need the pastor who was part-time to become full-time. You need deacons to be added. And eventually you've got a whole team of bishops and elders or one bishop and deacons that are all out there and in here doing all the work and getting it all done. And that way the number of the disciples can multiply greatly. Because you've got a lot of guys spending their time on the right things that have to do with the Word, with being an evangelist, with preaching the Word, with doing everything else that's listed here. But here's the last place in 1 Timothy chapter 5. The Bible reads this. 1 Timothy chapter 5. And by the way, I mentioned that for the first four and a half years I didn't receive any pay. Then basically, part of what happened, those of you who know the story, is that a lot of my customers in business, guess what? People who hate me and hate my preaching were calling them up and basically telling them, hey, do you know that your contractor here that's doing these jobs for you, did you know that he's preaching against homosexuals and he's doing all this? And then basically, guess what? These big companies, welcome to corporate America. There's a bunch of homosexuals in these companies. And you get one homosexual up there at the top of the company and all of a sudden he finds out that your pastor, Steve Anderson, the guy who's ripping on homos and preaching all this stuff, and guess what? You're going to lose that customer real fast. And so basically, my business was destroyed by people calling my customers and telling them, you need to listen to this guy's preaching. I know you love his work, but have you heard him preach? So that's where a lot of my business, but you know what? What God meant for, or I'm sorry, what they meant for evil, God meant for good. Because guess what? When I lost most of my business, I had a decision to make. Am I going to go out and try to rebuild my business? Or should I just maybe just kind of step out here and just try to just go full-time pastoring? And so I basically did that. And I just started just going soloing every day, just started working for the church full-time and taking care of those types of things and doing all the other things that I listed that are the job, which had gone neglected for a long time. And I started to do a lot more spiritual things and back off on business. And basically in the process of doing that, guess what? I got a bunch of people saved. Guess what? I was spending more time out in the street soloing than I did for the four and a half years previous. Guess what? I was able to preach better sermons. Guess what? I was able to memorize more Bible. Guess what? I was able to be a better pastor, a better soul winner, and to do more for God. And they thought that they're attacking me. They thought they're going to stop me. No, they're just helping me. To go forward and to step to the next level. And it was something that I had no plans of doing. I was just very comfortable. Just work my job and pastor, and I'm comfortable. I had no desire to be full-time. But God kind of pushed me into that. And then as I started to do that, some of my customers kind of came back to the fold. Most of them are still out to pastor, you know what I mean? But some of them kind of came back to the fold. And I've been able to get my business back a little bit. So right now, some months I'm working for the church full-time. Other months I'm doing business when the business is there. A lot of times I'm half and half. I'm doing both. I'm basically juggling both right now. But basically, I praise God for what I've been able to accomplish over the last year because of the fact that I was not spending as much time on business. Because I'll be honest with you. I was spending about 75 hours a week on business. Because it was a very demanding business being a fire alarm contractor. And not only that, it was hard to spend the right amount of time with my family. Just like Paul said, he's working night and day trying to get it done. Well, guess what? Paul didn't have a wife and six children either. So I was getting spread too thin. And there were times when I felt like I was losing my mind. Don't tell anybody I said that. But I felt like I'm just going to go crazy. When you're not getting enough sleep, and you're trying to, you're just, I mean, literally, those of you who were in the church in those days, going back several years, you know what my lifestyle has been like. You know the times that I would literally hop on an airplane, land the plane, you'd be picking, Dave picking me up at the airport. I'm changed. I'm like Superman running into a phone booth. I'm dressed up like an electrician. I run in the phone booth and come out in a suit. And I get up and preach. And it's like, all right, can you take me to the airport? You know, can you help me drive all night, Scott? You know, we can drive all night and go there. I mean, that was kind of a crazy lifestyle. I don't think I'd keep that up my whole life and raise my family and preach like I need to preach and pastor and do everything I need to do. But you know what? It was great for those four and a half years. But you just go through different phases. So what I'm saying is there are people here that are visiting from other churches I know. And there are other people who might hear this sermon on the internet or on YouTube or something. And don't sit there and act like your pastor shouldn't be paid or something. Because Pastor Anderson, he's out running himself ragged as an electrician or something. You know what? That's not what God ordained. Look, if I chose to live that life and to do it. And you know what, young men who desire the opposite of bishop? When you start a church, you're probably going to go through a phase like that where you have to do what it takes and work day and night. And you're going to have to do that. And you know what? I know people who are doing it now. God bless the brother he met us. He's juggling a few different things. He's working. He's pastoring. He's already, I think, about already half on pastoring. See, he's starting out more gung ho into it than I was able to and praise God for that. And I thank God. I hope he can be full time and pastoring because that guy is on fire. I want to see him not waiting tables. See him out there preaching the word because he's a great guy. So what I'm saying is don't, if you're hearing this, and don't be down on your pastor like, well, he gets a big paycheck and blah, blah, blah. Good. He's working. And if he's not doing any work, then get mad at him for not working. But don't get mad at him for getting paid. You don't want to go to work for free. And being a pastor is a job. It is work. Then you say, well, it's just not fair because he gets this great way. Hey, you're not even qualified, so shut up. And hey, if you are qualified, then where are you at? Because I'm telling you that I'm looking for, and I know God's looking. I'm looking for people. I'm always looking for people. Can I teach you how to lead sinning? Can I teach you how to preach? Can I teach you how to go soul-witting? Can I teach you how to pass this church? And look, if you're a young man sitting in this church right now and you say, I want to be a pastor someday, you come up to me and tell me, say, I want to be a pastor someday. And I will say, great. And I'll teach you everything. And I'll spend hours teaching you. And I'll teach you everything I know. And I'll praise God for it and send you out somewhere to go start a church somewhere. Because the harvest is plenty and the laborers are few. And it's easy to criticize people who are doing it. You know, let's see you do it, buddy. Let's see you step up to the plate. And I know that God is going to use this church to produce preachers. I know it. I know it because I was in the preaching class last night. I heard the great preaching. I know it because if faithful work Baptist church can't produce preachers and pastors, where are they going to come from? And obviously, yeah, there are other great churches too that are going to produce them. But you know what? They ought to be produced here also. We ought to reproduce. There ought to be other churches that are started as a result of our work here. And you know, there are men that are listening to my voice right now. And this sermon is all for you more than anything. You know, I'm preaching it to the whole church, but really the ones I'm talking to are the ones primarily that could step up to the plate and do this and to get in there and fill this calling. Let me just read the last scripture. 1 Timothy 5 verse 16. It says, if any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them and let not the church be charged that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. Let the elders that rule well become worthy of double law, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. And again, there's the job, word and doctrine. It's all about the word. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. So because the laborer is worthy of his reward, he says, count him worthy of double honor and don't muzzle the ox, okay? I remember when I worked at Round Table Pizza, they told certain workers that they couldn't eat the pizza for free. They had to pay for it. I said, don't muzzle the ox. You know, if you're working, you know, and the ox would tread out the corn, they would put a muzzle on it so that it couldn't eat the corn that it was treading. And God said, no, if it's treading out the corn, it should be a partaker of the fruit of its own labor. Amen. And that's what the Bible is teaching us here, that a pastor should partake of the fruit of his labor. A vine dresser, a husband and a farmer partakes of his own fruit of his own labor. So I hope that that helps you understand tonight the opposite of the bishop. Number one, who's qualified? Why is that important? Because you ought to be self-examining saying, can I step forward? Can I fit that bill? Maybe not today. Maybe not ready a year from now. Maybe five years from now, though, it might take you five years. Start gearing up for it. Start thinking about it. Might be seven years from now. Might be 10 years from now. It might be sooner than that, depending on where you're at on these things. But the qualifications are important so that you can decide whether there's something that you want to do and there's something that you can do. Some people are qualified. They don't want to do it. Some people want to do it, and they're not qualified. You've got to find the one that wants to do it and is qualified. Number two, what's the job? Hey, it's work. It's not sitting around. It's work. It's preaching the gospel. It's knowing the Bible up one side and down the other. It's deep breath and sleep. The Bible is prayer. It's preaching. It's daily just nitty-gritty tasks. It's soul-winning. It's all these things, OK? And you don't want to leave any of it out. You've got to do all of it. And then number three, should he be paid? Well, yes, he should. But there may be times when you don't get paid. Just because if the money ain't there, you ain't getting paid, OK? And because you might just be, like I said, starting a church, or you might just have a good job. And if you can balance it, hey, go for it. I would have done that for the rest of my life. I was enjoying that. You know, if you like the balance, kind of keeps you understanding where people are at because you're kind of living the same life than other people living in. You know, you don't meet your head in the clouds because you're out in the world. And so, but if you want to forgo working, hey, that's OK if you want to do that. You don't have to, but you can do that. But there's probably going to be a time where you end up having to do that just because of realities of the ministry. And so let's put our hands in that word of prayer. Father, I pray that this message would help people to understand the office of a bishop, what a bishop is, and what a deacon is. And Father, I pray that someday our church will grow to the size where we will need deacons. And I believe with all my heart that we will get to that size because our church is multiplying as we reach people. And it ought to be growing. It ought to be multiplying. And thank you that it has over the last five and a half years. But Father, I just pray that you'd help young men in this room to take this message seriously tonight and to take it to heart and say, you know what, is that me? Is he talking to me? And to desire that office if it be something that they can be qualified and something that they want to do. And Father, please help many young men to step up to the plate to that. And maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not a year from now, but eventually we can really see some serious soul winning churches started in this nation. And we love you and thank you for our church, dear God. And we thank you for your word and thank you for the soul winning that took place today and that takes place virtually every day around here. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.