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you you you you you you you you you well good morning everyone welcome to Mountain Baptist Church take your songbooks and turn to song 397 song 397 in your songbooks will sing little is much when God is in it? And if you would stand, we'll sing song 397. In the harvest field now ripen, there's a work for all to do. Hark, the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame, there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Does the place your call to labor seem so small and little known? It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame, there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Are you laid aside from service, body worn from toil and care? You can still be in the battle, in the sacred place of prayer. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame, there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. When the conflict here is ended and our race on earth is run, he will say to all the faithful, welcome home my child well done. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame, there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, again, we just want to thank you, God, for another Sunday that we get to be in your house and to hear your word preached. I pray, Lord, that you would just bless in everything that's said and done. Help it to be for your honor and glory. Again, we love you for it's in Jesus' name. We ask all of it. Amen. All right, you may be seated and take your blue mountain Baptist psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, notebooks, the blue notebooks that are in your pew there, and turn to page number two. Page number two in your blue mountain Baptist psalm books. We'll sing Psalm 15 and page number two. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that bideth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor take up reproach, and against his neighbor. He that bideth not with his tongue, in whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. In whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that swearth to his own hurt and changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, to his own hurt and changeth not, he that putteth out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hell? Amen, so welcome to Mountain Baptist Church on this Sunday morning, and as you can tell we have our bulletins, our fall flavored. That was purposeful, has nothing to do with our printer and our ink and all that stuff, so I'm joking, but just some announcements here. As far as service times, everything should be normal today, so we'll have our afternoon service at 4 p.m., but before that we're going to have our soul winning time at 1 p.m. The soul winning marathon up in Cleveland was a good success. We saw 14 souls saved up there, and so I appreciate everybody that came out for that and those that were praying for it and everything, and so that was a good time. Definitely a longer drive than I thought it was going to be, so it's definitely a long day. I think it was, for me anyway, it was like eight hour round trip, but it was worth it. Good time, good fellowship, and everything, and so praise the Lord for the soul winning marathon that happened last weekend and then this weekend as well, and then as far as soul winning times this week, we had our regional soul winning times Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and just beyond the church group there as far as times, locations, and all that with the men that are leading those up. We do have, I don't want to embarrass Miss Ada, but Ada, Eddie is someone I've known for a long time out at Trinity Baptist Church out in Blacksville, West Virginia, so and you know, don't ask her too many questions about me because I'm actually preaching on qualifications of a pastor today, so you know, I'm just, I'm joking, but we've known each other for a long time, and her husband Bill, and so, but anyway, if you haven't got a chance to say hi to her after the service, obviously, if you get a chance there, but as far as upcoming events, we have the men's prayer meeting at the end of the week here, and then we have a guest preacher, pastor Matthew Stuckey, now pastor, so I've got to get used to calling him a pastor, but he's obviously been doing the work actually out there in Manila for years now, and so he's going to be preaching for us this coming Sunday, so both services, I believe it'll be a blessing, and so excited to see him, and he's just going to be in for the day, so but, but I think it'll be a blessing, and just excited for the work that he's been doing out in the Philippines, and so, so be in your places for that, it's going to be exciting, I think my wife's probably going to be excited that I'll be sitting with the kids, and all that stuff, so anytime anybody else is preaching, and I'm here, my wife is really excited about that, so, but I'm also excited because I, you know, a lot of times I like to just sit back and hear the preaching, so, and a lot of times you guys have been filling in for me, but I'm preaching somewhere else, or doing something else, and so it's nice to just be able to sit back and listen to preaching, so, as far as upcoming events, that's what we have going on right now, we have our chapter memory of Malachi chapter 4 to the end of the month here, as we're memorizing the book of Malachi, and then 1 Timothy 3 1 is our memory verse for the week, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work, and so that's our memory verse for the week, birthdays, did we miss anyone, or was anyone not here, or who wants to admit that, David, yes, we need to sing for David there, and Jasinth, okay, so Jasinth, and then David, M'Chei, Levi, we got you coming up here on Wednesday, and did we miss anyone else, because we got the whole Gandy family right, in September, I think that's it, so let me know if I'm missing somebody, and then we need to sing happy anniversary to the Morris family, so we're not, or we got to embarrass you, you know, how many years, how many years is it now, four years hasn't been that long, so I married you, I should know, but congratulations on that, and so we'll sing happy anniversary there, and then the spin is yours is coming up on Friday, right, so we'll wait, we'll get you when your wife's recovered and everything, so, but happy anniversary, so, and then the Slagels, so next week, we'll have to remember that, so, pregnancies, be in prayer, well, for Tiara Alesco with the new baby, and the Alesco family, and then also the Spina family, just be in prayer for these ladies with the recovery process, but also with the babies in general, but then be in prayer for all the ladies that are on the pregnancy list, so Jennifer, Alyssa, Anastasia, and Tabby, be in prayer for all these ladies, and so excited about all the new arrivals, I think that's about all I have for announcements that I can think of, oh, children's Christmas choir, listen, you think, you think, you think this is too early, but it's not, okay, so I meant, I was actually going to mention this on last Sunday, and I forgot about it, so we really need to get that set up, at least figure out what songs we're going to do, and so, oh yeah, yeah, that's, hey, hey, hey, I'm all about it, Christmas songs all year long for all, you know, I love Christmas songs, but, so, so yeah, anyway, so those children that want to do the Christmas choir and be a part of that, get with brother Dave after the service, no, I'm joking, well, we'll figure out, is we're going to figure out what songs we're going to do, and we do need to start having a time set up, so we just need to be thinking about that, I know, I know it's still September, but if you think about it, there's like four Sundays in each month, as far as practicing goes, just being realistic as far as that goes, so you have October and November, and so you only have a few practices, because you don't want to just do it on Christmas, you know, we can do it like throughout December and all that stuff, so anyway, Christmas is coming, and anybody that doesn't like Christmas, then you know what, I just preached a sermon about Ebenezer, and you know, that might be you, anyway, all joking aside, the offering box is in the back there, if you want to give a tithe or an offering, and then the mother baby rooms for the mothers and babies only, I think brother Levi, you're reading this morning, so brother Levi's going to be reading first Timothy chapter three, after brother Dave does one more song, but we're going to do the happy birthdays as well. All right, take your song books, take your song books, and turn to song 355. Song 355, and we'll sing What a Friend We Have in Jesus, but before we do that, we need to sing happy birthday. So David, McShea, yeah buddy, all right, how old are you? He's just smiling away, okay, all right, his birthday was on the, oh 23rd, nice, nice, and so yesterday, well happy birthday buddy, and then Jasim, how old is he? Three, three, three, yeah, I need the dad or the mom to confirm, all right, and then Jasim, you want to stand up? Bro, I've never had a kid rebel against this, this is, this is, the kids don't watch this, how old is Jasim? Four, awesome, that's great, and then Levi, how old are you buddy? Thirty, thirty-five, you're gonna be thirty-five? Happy birthday brother, stand up, dude, I knew when Jasim didn't stand up, I was like, yeah, it's gonna, there's a, there's a riptide, there's a, there's a ripple effect here, all right, all right, so we'll sing happy birthday to these three, any other birthdays? Nope, all right, here we go, we'll sing happy birthdays, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, God bless you, happy birthday to you, that is hilarious, I'm gonna take a picture of that, hey David, look up here buddy, man, he is the happiest guy I've ever seen in my life, I'll send that to you guys, that was adorable, okay, okay, we need to sing happy anniversary to the Morris's, all right, come on, stand up, here we go, and four years, man, that's awesome, congratulations, happy anniversary, here we go, ready, happy anniversary to you, happy anniversary to you, happy anniversary, God bless you, happy anniversary to you, there you go, all right, you know the drill, all right, cool, happy anniversary, happy birthday, and we will, okay, and then, so we're gonna sing what a friend we have in Jesus song 355, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer, oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, oh because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer, have we trials and temptations, is there trouble anywhere, we should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer, can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share, Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer, are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care, precious Savior still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer, do thy friends despise forsake thee, take it to the Lord in prayer, in his arms he'll take and shield thee, thou will find us soulless there, all right take your bibles and turn to the book of first timothy chapter number three, first timothy chapter number three, and your bibles and we'll have brother levi come and read that for us, first timothy chapter three, this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work, a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife, vigilant sober of good behavior, given to hospitality apt to teach, not given to wine no striker, not given or not greedy a filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity, for if a man know not to how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God, not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil, moreover he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach in the snare of the devil, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy a filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, and let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless, even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things, let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own house as well, for they that have used the office of a deacon will purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. These things ride on thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if I tarry along, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in the glory. Let's pray. God, thank you for today. God, thank you for our time. We can hear your word preach. God, I pray with you. Be a pastor as he preaches and help us to learn when we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So you're there in First Timothy chapter 3, and I'm going to be preaching a sermon on qualifications of a pastor, and I'm going to be getting in also to my thoughts on what would disqualify a pastor. I actually preached a sermon on this, and well not, I preached a sermon on like ordaining and qualifications of pastor back in like 2019, but it's not on our YouTube channel. I don't know, some sermons got lost because they weren't saved. This may be, this one might be in the archives somewhere, but either way, doesn't matter. That was like what, four years ago now, so time to do another sermon on it, but I do want to go through qualifications of a pastor, and in First Timothy chapter 3 is definitely a passage that hits on this. Also Titus chapter 1 hits on this as well, so we'll kind of be going back and forth between those, but I basically want to just hit on the points, but the one thing I want to state is that within the qualifications there are things that are objective and there are things that are subjective, and let me just explain what that means. If you say something's objective, that means that basically it's black and white, it is what it is, there's no gray area, it just, it is straight up that, and there's no way to take it any other way. Subjective means that it's subject to basically, depending on who the person is, and there's maybe gray areas in there, and when it comes to the idea of like what these qualifications would deal with. Okay, so I want to hit on, well let's just start off with the first verse here, and let's get into something that's very objective, meaning something that's very black and white, and that is that a pastor is to be a man. Okay, this isn't subjective, this isn't a gray area. I know that we live in a day where people are non-binary, and like they want to be a fish or a dolphin, but like the idea here is that this is objective. It says here, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desire the good work. So that's pretty objective, right? It's very just black and white, a pastor is to be a man. Now, you could go obviously to the verses like in First Timothy 2, where it talks about, I suffer not a woman to teach nor to assert authority over the man, right? But she is to be in silence. The idea there is that, why is a woman not to be a pastor? Well, one, it doesn't matter the why, if it just says that it's to be a man. Does that make sense? Like there's sometimes where you may not know the why, but just know the command, right? That it's a man, that's the office of the bishop. But here's why I think it is, is because the woman is not to assert authority over the man. So if the pastor is the leader of the church, he's in charge, you're not just pastoring men. I mean, you're not just pastoring women, right? So therefore, that means if a woman was a pastor, then she would be asserting authority over men. Now, you say, well, can women teach anybody? Yes, women can teach children. It says they are not to assert authority over men, okay? So when it comes to like my wife, she is an authority over my children, and that includes my sons. So when it comes to that, obviously, the younger or the women can teach children and all that stuff. And this doesn't mean that women can't go out preach the gospel to a man. We're talking about the church. We're talking about the authority structure of church that it's supposed to, it is to be a man. This is objective. There's no gray area. We were out sowing in Cleveland, and we passed that. What was the name of that church? Like, Lift Up Your Hands or something like that. I don't know what it was. It was something lift up. And it was Pastors James Jr. and Catherine something. Sorry, Catherine. It wasn't you. But I was just like pastors, you know, like it was like, I'm guessing it's husband and wife, because if it's not, that'd be real. I mean, it's already bad as it is. But if they're like, just some man and some woman that are together as pastors, anyway. But that's just, I mean, that you could just look at that sign and say that that church is unbiblical right there. Because, I mean, just the office of a bishop. And I'll get into what the job of a bishop, because a bishop is someone that's an overseer. It means that they're in charge. They're overseeing everything. And so that's the job that the description here. And here's the thing. When it comes to being a pastor, this is something that is voluntary. This is something that you want to do willingly. This is something that, you know, you're not forced into or anything like that. And you shouldn't be doing it against your own will, right? Well, I don't want a pastor, but I'm going to do it anyway. It's like, well, if you desire the office of a bishop, you desire good work. And so it's not wrong to desire to be a pastor. But know this is that you need to be a man, number one. And you say, well, okay, all the women just tuned me out because this doesn't apply to you. Well, here's the thing. The things that are in here, women should want to strive to as well, as far as these qualifications, when it comes to a lot of these qualifications, right? You know, I don't think women want to be brawlers, you know, and you don't want to be covetous. Like, there's a lot of things you can look in here and be like, I want to try to be at that level. But I'll say this is that this is going to get into the idea of like your pastor or to the idea of, you know, the qualifications or what would be a disqualification of a pastor. Now look at verse two there. It says, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given the hospitality, apt to teach. So I'm going to kind of just be going down the line through these different things. Blameless. Now let me ask you a question. Does that sound objective or subjective? It would definitely be subjective, right? Because the thing is, is that when we say blameless, we're obviously not meaning sinless. We know, spiritually speaking, we're sinless, but let's just be honest. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now Paul said he was blameless, according to the law, right? According to the law, you know, concerning the law, blameless, right? He talks about that. That doesn't mean that he never broke the law. I mean, even he admits to breaking the law. But obviously blameless, I believe, is dealing with the fact that there's not some like crazy grievous type of blame that's being put against you. Because we're all, if you're to say, well, it's just sin in general, then all of us are to be blamed, right? There's, no one would be blameless. So this gets into the area of what would be considered blameless, right? This is something that, when I think about this list here, what you have to understand is that Paul is telling like Titus, for example, to ordain elders in every city and then Timothy himself is also to find people that can teach others also. And the idea here is that this list, I believe, is either for, it's for a church and for a pastor to be able to ordain somebody. And this list here is given for their benefit to pick the right person. Does that make sense? Like you're looking for these attributes in somebody and there's going to be, listen, pastors are going to be on different levels when it comes to blameless. Does that make sense? There would be a line to where you'd say they're not blameless. For example, if the pastor commits adultery, that's pretty grievous to where you're going to be like, hey, that is not blameless. So there's things that are just not, you're not, you're not wondering whether that, it's just obvious. But if it's not obvious, an obvious thing that wouldn't be blameless, then like they murdered somebody in cold blood. I mean, if they, they commit adultery, like there's certain things where you're like that person is to be blamed. And so when it comes to these qualifications, you have to look at this with the fact that some people are going to have different views as far as where that line's at. Okay. And when it comes to ordaining somebody, or if it comes into disqualifying somebody, that there's going to be people that are going to be thinking differently on that. And let's say you're at a church and you're saying, hey, well, I don't believe this person is blameless, but the rest of the church thinks that he is, then maybe you just need to find a different church, you know, if that's the case, if that's what you truly believe about the pastor. Or, you know, I mean, that's the thing. Like if the whole church is just like, yeah, I know he committed adultery with the secretary, but you know, I still think he's blameless and the whole church is behind that. It's time to find a different church, right? Because obviously they're not on the same page as far as what they consider to be a good pastor when it comes to that. The husband of one wife, this is objective. Okay. This is something that's very clear. It's not, you know, we don't have to be looking for gray areas here. The husband of one wife. Now when it comes to this, obviously this would be dealing with any type of polygamy, meaning that you're not like having multiple wives. You could get into the aspect of if you married somebody that was divorced, or if you were divorced and you remarried, as far as whether that would be in that camp. But I would put that more in the camp of being blameless. Okay. Meaning this, and listen, some other pastor may have a different idea on this, but I will not send someone out that has been divorced. As a pastor, doesn't mean that someone's divorced can't do great things for God. Doesn't mean that they can't win people to Christ and get more rewards than I do when it comes to the things of God. But the idea here is that I don't believe that that's blameless when it comes to going into the ministry and being a pastor. Okay. So that's just, that's where I stand on that. And some people may have different thoughts on that. And, you know, it is what it is. And so when it comes to being the husband of one wife, obviously you don't have multiple wives, but you could get into the idea that if you're divorced and you remarried, are you still, technically, is that an ex-wife there that's still alive, that you're still technically, you know, there was adultery that was committed or whatever the case may be that gets into the blameless area, I think. Okay. And that, that's where I stand on that. Vigilant, sober, of good behavior. So vigilant and sober. I mean, again, these are, these are subjective and this is something that you have to look at and whether your pastor, and I want you, I want you to think about this and I'm going to be getting into what I believe would maybe disqualify somebody or getting into that type of stuff. When it comes to ordaining somebody to be a pastor and when it comes to disqualifying somebody as a pastor, I do think that there's a different standard. Okay. And let me explain this. Okay. Let me use an example. I'm against smoking. Okay. I think, I think it would be a sin. You're harming your body, all of that, right? There's not like a strict command that says thou shalt not smoke, but I think it's unwise. I think it shows your lack of willpower. I think it shows a lot. It shows something about your character of anything, but it's also harmful to your body and all that, right? If somebody was wanting to me to ordain them to pastor a church, and then I found out that they're smoking, I'm not ordaining them. And you say, well, you know, there's no commandment in there. It doesn't matter. I don't have to ordain anybody. Does that make sense? I don't have to ordain anybody. I could just say, you know what? I'm not doing it. So, but me personally, I'm going to look at that and say, well, if they don't get rid of that, I'm not saying I would never ordain them, but if they don't get rid of that and I look at that and be like, hey, they got willpower to cut that out or whatever, then I'm going to, I'm going to basically like, no, I don't think they're, they're in that position to lead, lead a church. Now, let's look at this as far as someone's been pastoring for, let's say a decade. And then they start smoking or something like that. And they start smoking cigars. They want to be like Charles Spurgeon or something like that. I don't know. And they start doing something like that, right? And then I don't believe, you know, me personally, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be like, that person's disqualified. I would talk to them and be like, hey, you should get rid of that. You know, that's a vice. Like, what are you doing? That doesn't look good. That doesn't look like you're in control. Like, there's a lot of things that I would just say as a friend, you should get that out of, out of your, out of your, you know, out of your life. But I wouldn't be like, he's disqualified. He can't pastor. That's a legitimate church. Does that make sense? It's kind of like one of those things where it's subjective, but it's one of those things that I wouldn't ordain somebody that was doing that, but I wouldn't disqualify somebody if they were doing it, if they were already in the ministry. Meaning it has to be more of a, there's going to have to be a bigger grievance, grievous type thing. Let me give you another example. The Bible talks about here about not being a brawler. Actually it uses the term striker and then brawler and, and, and Titus, it also uses the same type of language, right? Let's say I'm out soul winning and someone's bull rushing me, right? Someone's coming at me and they don't swing at me, but I just like knock them out, okay? Now you could argue whether that's right or not, okay? That I just struck this guy to the ground. You're probably going to be saying, well, you know, it's a one-time incident. You know, this guy was bull rushing him. We don't know if this guy was going to try to attack him, whatever. You know, what, we'll get, you know, I think most people would be like, it's understandable. It's like, it could be self-defense, whatever. It's not like he came up to the door and just punched somebody in the face for no reason. The idea there is that you would say, well, he's not like a brawler. He's not doing this all the time, but if I was going to ordain somebody, right? And we're in this process of training you up and then you come back from soul winning, you're like, I just punched a guy in the face. You realize that I'm probably gonna be putting the brakes on that a little bit, right? I'm gonna be like, wait, let's just, I'm gonna wait to see if you got some self control. This is gonna be a continual occurrence, you know, like where we're gonna have like police involved because you keep punching people out. And so you get the idea that like, hey, you're in the ministry, something happens to where like, okay, if that's a common occurrence, if you're just like, our pastor's known for just punching people in the face. And that's just like what he's, he goes out soul winning, it's like half the time, it's a 50-50 shot whether he's punching someone in the face. I mean at that point you gotta, you know, you're gonna be like, all right, you're a striker, like join the UFC or something. And listen, I do think the UFC is different than being a striker and brawler. I don't think that you're technically a striker or brawler if you're a UFC because it's consensual, it's different than like committing violence to somebody and all that. So that's another term for another day. But the idea here is that, do you see there's kind of a different standard depending on whether I'm sending someone out or whether someone's already been proven. And it really gets into the idea, has this person been proven to have a ministry where their souls are being saved, stuff's, you know, like they, like God has been working in their ministry. So where, if something happens to where it would be on that qualification list, what would have to happen, there would have to be a little, it had to be a little more grievous for it to be considered disqualification. Okay. And this is just my thought process. And again, this is subjective, right? I mean, as far as what you would consider, what would you consider brawling? What would you consider striking? What would you consider being blameless or being sober or vigilant, right? Because you could say, well, you know, we were at the Red Hot Preaching Conference and some sodomite like ended up sitting it through the service. They didn't know until the end because he just looked normal. It's not like he came in in a dress or something like that. Some could argue and say, well, you know, Pastor Jimenez isn't vigilant because some sodomite walked into his church and like, and sat through the service and left. To me, that's insanity. Okay. Because you know, how are you going to know who people, I mean, they're not like hourly showing it, they're not like hourly like saying that they're this or that, right? There's infiltrators and all that. So you could see where people could put an unfair stipulation on being vigilant when it comes to being a pastor. But if someone came in in a dress and high heels, sat down in the front row and looked at you like, what are you going to do about it? And the pastor does nothing, then you, then you can look at that and be like, this guy's not vigilant. I mean, like you don't see that, you know, like what, what's going on? So when it comes to this, you got it, you got to give the circumstances. You have to also just think about was that person in the ministry for a long time, were they basically someone that has been proven to basically be, you know, a sole winner or someone that's leading people to go sole winning and the great commission and all that. And you got to be thinking about that type of stuff before and know that there's going to have to be, in my opinion, there's going to have to be a higher standard when it comes to what's going on with that. Now, when it comes to good behavior, obviously, go to Titus because I'm going to be going through this list in 1 Timothy chapter three, but I just want you to see in Titus, there's a, there's a list here and there's some things that are basically complimentary to this list. There's, there's one that I think, one that we don't, maybe a couple that we don't see in 1 Timothy, but Titus chapter one and verse five here, it says, for this cause, left I be in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. So he's telling Titus to ordain elders and a pastor is either, you know, basically there's, there's kind of three titles to a pastor. Pastor, which meaning like a shepherd, a bishop, and an elder. Now they all have three different types of, it's basically describing the same office, but it's giving you different information. So a bishop is someone that's like an overseer, so they're the leader. An elder, meaning they're not a novice, that they're an elder in the faith, meaning that they're, they're not just newly saved, they know what they're doing, right? They, they, they're, they're elder when it comes to the things of God and the Word of God and all that. And then you have the fact of being a shepherd, which is feeding the flock and protecting the flock, right? So you got these, these different things that are going on, but Titus is being told to ordain people to be, to be pastors, to be bishops, so then there's this list, and that's why I think that when you think about this list, a lot of times when we're looking at this, we're looking at ordaining, right? Like, who meets this qualification? Who, what type of attributes that we're looking for when it comes to a pastor? And verse, in verse six there, 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 as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given the wine, no striker, not given a filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. So a lot, some of the same things that we saw, when you see good behavior, I think of like the lover of good men and just and holy, you know, the Bible talks about be holy for I am holy, and it gets into that. Holy is like separated, right? The idea that you want your pastor to be separate from the world, but where's your line, right? Is your line that your pastor never watches any secular shows? Is your, where's your line when it comes to that? You see how that could be subjective, as far as what you consider to be separated? And every, pastors are gonna be different, because there's gonna be some pastors that are way more separated than others, and then there's gonna be pastors that are not as separated as others. So the idea there is that there's kind of like this ground where they're, they're separated, but the question is, is how separated are they? And then you get into the question of, okay, is your pastor just this worldly pastor that's just doing all this stuff, and he's not separate from the world, he's just in the world, right? Listen, if I go to a Taylor Swift concert, I'm not holy and just. Also, just kill me. If I have to overhear another Taylor Swift song about her boyfriend that she broke up with, I'm going to shoot myself. I'm joking, okay? Not about Taylor Swift, I'm joking about shooting myself. By the way, you know, I'm not suicidal, Epstein didn't kill himself, but I didn't, I'm not, I'm not suicidal. I can't stand Taylor Swift, but let's say, let's say a pastor was a Swiftie, and just can't control that, and it's like, I need to go see Taylor Swift. They personally, I'm like, I want nothing to do with that pastor, okay? You need to man up. Come hear my sermons on girding up your loins like a man. I know of guys that like Taylor Swift, and like, here's the thing, I knew guys that liked Taylor Swift because they thought she was good-looking, but there's difference between that and liking her music, and this isn't a sermon all about Taylor Swift and how bad her music is, but I'm just sick of it, okay? I'm sick of hearing it, I'm sick of pumping gas, and hearing Taylor Swift on the radio, or whatever. I had to get off my chest, okay? So, all I'm saying is that there's obviously things where you're gonna be like, that pastor is not separated from the world, that pastor is like in the world, and there's gonna be obvious things that are gonna be like that, to where you're gonna be like, what is he doing? Now here, listen, if any of you go, have gone to see Taylor Swift, I'm not saying you're expelled from the church. I'm talking about being a pastor, talking about like, but let me ask you a question. Shouldn't you all be held to that standard, men? I'm talking to the men right now. Shouldn't you all be held to the standard that you're not listening to Taylor Swift? I think so, okay? So, and I'll say this, you're not kicked out of the church, but you've lost a lot of my respect. So, if you care about my, me respecting you, do not tell me you went to a Taylor Swift concert. Don't tell me you like her music. Anyway, so, when it comes to, you know, just, holy, obviously that's kind of, you know, righteous, you know, someone that, that's trying to live a holy, separated life, but none of us come, come perfect in that area. I mean, we're all gonna come short, and we're all going to fail in that. I'm not perfect, obviously, and, and so, given the hospitality, a lover of hospitality, so someone that, that is hospitable, right? Someone that, you know, is, is, is welcoming, you know, it doesn't mean that like, for example, someone maybe have this stance to say, listen, if my pastor hasn't invited me over for dinner, then he's not hospitable. And they could have that standard. And listen, I want to have everybody over for dinner, and I'm trying to, but know this, that I have five children, work a full-time job, and pastor a church, and as much as I want to have everybody over for dinner, and listen, I want, I'm striving to do that. I've actually already told family like, hey, I want to have you over for dinner. I told them like two months ago. Still haven't got it set up, because just, schedules are crazy, and all that stuff, but if you have a standard to say, well, you haven't had me over to eat, therefore you're not hospitable, you can have that line, but you can see how that's kind of an unrealistic line, when you think about reality. Think about a church that has thousands of people in it, right? Let's say you're pastoring, and there's like a thousand people in the church. Is it mandatory that, that the pastor has had you over for dinner, in those cases, right? And listen, I'd like to, I'd like to try to do that, I'd try to be as hospitable as I can, but there's gonna be levels, and there's gonna be some pastors where you're like, that pastor is hospitable as can be, and then the other one you're gonna be like, he's, I mean, he's hospitable, but he's not like that pastor, okay? And, you know, I think of Pastor Jimenez, for example, when I think of hospitality, I think of Pastor Jimenez, because I remember going out there, going soul winning, and he, he had, he had me and Brother Stuckey, and another one of my friends, Brother Jeff, they just had to stay over at their house. I got sick while I was there, and they like took care of me, they're like giving me all this medicine, like, you know, trying to like take care of me, all this stuff, and I'm just like, that's hospitable right there, like that you would not be like, hey, we'll get you a hotel room, you can go over there, and you leper or cast out, unclean. And I would have understood that, I wouldn't have thought they were un-hospitable if they did that, but there are levels when it comes to hospitality. I don't know, me, if you're, if you're throwing up, you're going to, you're going to a hotel, and you can say I'm not hospitable, I'll pay for the hotel though, don't worry about it, I'll pay it, you know, but, listen, you can keep your disease to yourself. So, so when there's levels of hospitality, right, but obviously you're not just like kicking people to the curb, you know, someone needs your help, and you're just like nuts to you, it's not church time, is it? You know, you're like, so there's, there's obviously that. Now, something I was, when I was going through this, because there's the not giving the wine, okay, now let me give you my thoughts on not giving the wine. I do not believe this is talking about alcohol, though the Bible says, you know, wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. No Christian should be drinking alcohol, period, especially the pastor, okay. So I don't believe it's talking about alcohol, I believe what this is talking about is luxury. Wine, or like grape juice, or anything like that was a luxury, still is a luxury, to be honest with you, but we live in America, and the luxuries that back then, people couldn't even fathom of having, in a lot of cases, we have on mass now. Now, when it comes to this not giving the wine, what does it mean? It doesn't say don't drink wine, because that wouldn't make any sense, because Paul literally tells Timothy later on to say, have a little wine for thy stomach's sake, right. So you see how that would just completely negate that, if he's like, because Timothy's a pastor, and they think, you know, here's the qualifications, it doesn't say no wine, okay. Now in that case, I do believe he's talking about grape juice, he's actually talking about a drink, you know, but wine, I believe, is dealing with luxury, and given to that, is like if you were given to anything, meaning like you have a proclivity to it, like it's something that, that you have a problem with, or it's something that you must have, right. But I would, I was using this as far as like the not greedy, filthy, lucre, and Titus and then First Timothy, you'll have one will say not given a filthy lucre, and not greedy a filthy lucre, and you can see how, when we're talking about giving the filthy lucre, we're talking about like you're greedy of it, right, you desire it, you want it, okay. How about this, in one place that says given the hospitality, the other place that says a lover of hospitality. So you can see how when you're talking about giving the wine, what you're talking about is basically being a lover of it, right, a lover of luxury, okay. So, and this doesn't mean that you have to drive around a beater, right, you can't have any nice things, but listen, if I roll up in a $200,000 sports car, and I'm on the payroll, I'm not on the payroll right now, but if I'm on the payroll, the church, and I roll up in a $200,000 car, there's a problem. If I'm not on the payroll, and I'm just being honest with you, if I'm not on the payroll, and I roll up in a $200,000 car, that shows you something about my heart, doesn't it? Because it's not, it's a luxury, it's something, there's nothing wrong with luxury to a certain extent, but there's extremes, right, where you're just like what are you doing, why are you spending almost a quarter million dollars on a vehicle that you can't even put your kids in, right, the idea of like a sport, I'm talking about like these two-seater like, you know, like Corvettes and everything, and listen, if you want to have a Corvette, I'm not saying you're sinful, but if you have the money to do it or whatever, but it really comes into do you love that though, is that something that you are just like all about, it gets into covetousness, and it gets into the idea that I must have luxury, you want a pastor that can live without luxury, right, it's not that you can't have luxury at all, but you're not given to it, you're not a lover of it, right, it's not like I have to have luxury, and so, and then the deacons, that's why you say, well why is it not talking about like actual like, like let's say alcohol, because the deacons are not given to much of it, right, so it's like well you can drink, you just can't have a lot of it, right, so deacons, you can go down and get your beer, just make sure it's not Budweiser, right, but the idea there is that this isn't talking about alcohol, this is alcohol, listen, there's certain things in here that it doesn't mention, it doesn't mention murder, does it, but that's going to be on the list of things that I'm not going to ordain somebody, I just killed somebody in cold blood murder, let's lay hands, let's do this brother, like there's gonna be things that you're gonna be like no, that's, it doesn't even need to be mentioned, so when it comes to not give, not get greedy a filthy lucre, not, not giving a filthy lucre, that means that you're not like a lover of getting money, right, and you know, something being lucrative, you can think about that idea that something's profitable or it makes a lot of money, so you don't want a pastor that's just like in it for the money, you don't want a pastor that's just like giving the luxury, he must have luxury, I need to have a Jaguar, I need to have like you know a Ferrari, I need to have these type of things, honestly the older I, the older I get, the more I'm all about things that are practical and useful, that's why I wear cargo shorts, that's why I wear cargo pants, because the pockets are practical and you can keep your trendy pocketless pants all you want, but you know what, I'm all about practicality, and when it comes to like West Virginia, give me a truck, if I'm gonna spend a lot of money on a vehicle, I'm buying a diesel truck, okay, because it's practical, but the idea there is that you don't want to be given the luxury, you don't want to be greedy a filthy lucre, you don't want to be covetous, and that's another thing that it says, you don't want someone that's covetous, someone that's just all about money, you don't want someone that loves money, right, that's kind of the idea, because the love of money is the root of all evil, so if that's the root of all evil, to love money, then you definitely don't want a pastor that loves money, okay, if I love money, I wouldn't have so many kids, just so you know, because those diapers are expensive, that's my retirement plan, my retirement plan is that I don't have to buy diapers anymore, I'm gonna have so much money when I don't have to pay for diapers, it's okay kids, I love you, and I'll pay for the diapers, but not a striker, not a brawler, and we kind of covered that when it comes to this, not covetous, let's look at ruling his house well, and children in subjection, having people not accused of riot or unruly, okay, so in First Timothy chapter 3, it says, one that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity, now when it comes to this, I do believe that a pastor should have children, okay, that that, how can you know whether someone's ruling well their own house, and having faithful children if they don't have children, okay, now, just to be honest, if you say, well what if someone has one child, I personally would not ordain them, me personally, okay, but I don't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to say they're disqualified, let me give you my reason why, okay, if you were to say, if I were to say to you, do you have children, but you have one, would that be, and you said yes, right, if I said you, do you have children, but you only have one child, and you said yes, would that be a right thing to say, yeah, you'd be like, yeah, I have, you don't say no, I have one child, right, now, I'll give you some Bible to this, I don't have it in my notes, but in Chronicles, it lists off like the sons of so-and-so, I think, and it'll be the sons of Dan, I believe it's in First Chronicles 1 or 2 or something like that, they'll say the sons of Dan are one of the tribes, and it lists one person, okay, so I believe, when you're looking at children subjected, you could make the argument that if someone has one child, and they're ruling them well, that that would be, that they'd be qualified, now here's my stance, me personally, I'm not going to ordain somebody unless they have more than one child, and my reasoning behind that is because there's a big difference between one and two children when it comes to how you cope with everything, okay, and I'm not against anybody that only has one child, I'm not saying like it's not hard to have one child, because it is, okay, but there is a difference between having one that you have to focus on, and having two at the same time, and keeping them both alive, right, and then there's a big difference between two and three, and three and four, and four and five, and five and six, and six and seven here soon, right, there is a point of diminishing return, they do get old, they do get the, you know, like to where they can actually do things for themselves eventually, and they do grow up eventually, but the idea here is that if someone has one child, I wouldn't say like they're illegitimate, but I wouldn't personally ordain them, does that make sense, like I'm not going, because to me I don't have enough information at hand to say this person is going to be able to handle it, so I hope that makes sense, and there's my Bible as far as like how that would work, because some would say well it's plural, therefore it has to be more than one, and I get it, and I'm not against those, I'm not against the pastor would say that, and just be like it says children must be more than one, and that's where they stand, and if they say that person's disqualified, that's their opinion, okay, me personally, I don't, I would say, you know, would I recommend the church, that's another question, right, because if I don't recommend a church that doesn't mean that they're disqualified or it's an illegitimate church, there's certain churches that I don't recommend, because there's just certain things that I don't agree with them on, and I'm just, I just don't want to put my stamp of approval on this church, and say hey go to this church, and then, you know, there's certain things I don't agree with, right, so, when it comes to children that are faithful and all that, it gets into, how about age, right, how old do the children need to be? I've heard some say that they must be two years old and older, now if that's your stance, great, but nowhere does it give you age when it comes to children, okay, could you have twins that are newborns, and then someone ordain you? I think that it's possible, and it would still technically meet the qualifications, you say well, how do you know that they're faithful, that's why I think that I wouldn't do that personally, because I don't know yet, here's the thing, if you have babies, are you ruling your house well? Can you not rule your house well until they're older, right, is that something that's not possible to do until their children are older? No, here's the thing, the outsider can't see it until they're older, and that's why I think a lot of times you're gonna, you want to wait until they're a little older, so you can say okay, I can see that they're doing a good job here, hey they're raising them right, hey they're disciplining them, I can see it, right, it's more for the person that's ordaining them, so if someone were sent out where I'd be like, I would have waited a little longer, I would have waited until their children were older, I get it, I get where someone would be like, I wouldn't have ordained them, I wouldn't have thought they were ready, or I wouldn't have known whether they were ready, and that's where a lot of it comes in, is like, do you know whether they're ready, are you confident enough that they're ready, and so when it comes to these, there's gonna be some subjection when it comes to age, when it comes to how long someone's been saved, how long, you know, there's gonna be a lot of things that are gonna be subjective, you say, well how long do you have to know somebody until you ordain them, that's gonna be subjective, because it's gonna be based off how well-connected I am with that person, I could, I could know somebody for 10 years in church and not really know them that well, because we're just not, on a friendship type basis where I'm seeing them all the time, talking to them all the time, and it'll be someone that I've known for like a couple years, but like I know them well, because we just talk all the time, we're hanging out all the time, like I see them all the time, I go sowing with them all the time, does that make sense, like there's gonna be a difference there depending on that, so you can't just put, I don't just put a hard number like it has to be this many years that I've known you, it's gonna be, it may be different for different people, and so, not a novice, again this kind of gets, this gets into the idea of like what would you consider a novice, my personal stance on this is that you've had to, if you're gonna be sent out, you have to have read through the Bible at least 10 times, now if you've been saved for 20 years, and you've read through it 10 times in that 20 years, that's an issue, unless that 10 times was later on and you're just like finally got into the things of God, I mean this is that you need to be reading, I recommend that a pastor read through the Bible four times a year, that's my recommendation, that's what the schedule you should be on when you're going out to pastor, you know, how much doctrine do they know, do they need to know, listen, I'm not saying that I have to ordain somebody, you have to be, you have to know everything I know before I ordain you, that's ridiculous to put someone to that standard, but there are gonna be things that I'm like you need to know like the basic doctrines, you need to know how to preach these doctrines here, you need to, you know, like the main stuff, right, I'm not gonna be like hey can you go through Ezekiel and preach it, because that, I mean just to be honest as a pastor, I'm looking at that book and I'm like I'm gonna have to study that, you know, there's gonna be things that I'm gonna have to be looking into, I'm not, I'm looking at that thinking like I might not be ready to really just dive into that without a lot of study beforehand, okay, to do it right, and to do it effectively I guess, right, because you could always skip over stuff and be like well I don't really understand that, I'm gonna go over that, right, good report from them without, I think this gets into the idea of being friends with the unrighteous mammon of the world, and the idea that everybody in the world hates you, that's a problem, okay, the world's gonna hate you, those that hate the Lord are gonna hate you, and stuff like that, right, but if everybody just hates your ever-living guts, right, like your co-workers hate you, like everybody hates you, that's a problem, like that, it shouldn't be that way, listen I don't know about you, but my co-workers like me, I think they do, not that I'm their boss, I don't know, they don't, they don't speak up too much now, but no, anyway, but there's people that I, that I, that I work out with that are Sahib, and they like me, they know where I stand on everything, they know what I believe on most everything, but, but there's gonna be that idea that, okay, are you just a troublemaker out in the world, because there's difference between being hated of the world for righteousness sake, and for his name's sake, and being hated of the world just in general, right, you're just a jerk, like no one likes you in general, you're a bad worker, like all these things, right, you cut people off, you know, like you do all these different things out there, you, you drive in the left-hand lane all the time, and you don't ever get into the right-hand lane, joking, not really though, stop that, not soon angry, it doesn't mean you can't be angry, but not soon angry, meaning you're not just flying off the handle, you're not just like blowing off your top all the time, and you're just like this ticking time bomb, right, and I'll say this, I'm not perfect in any of these, but that one right there is what I'm always trying to keep under control, just to be honest with you, is that my mom could tell you, you don't have to testify right now, but my mom could tell you that I had, I had anger issues as a child, and I can see it in my children, it's like I'm reaping what I've sown, you know, like that Robinson temper is like coming out, and when I see it, I'm just like, I can't, it's hard to get mad at them, because I'm just like, it's just like looking in the mirror, and so that's something that I have to keep under control, and you have to, and hopefully, hopefully you're looking at me like, I don't see that, what are you talking about, like how in the world can you say that you have, that you have to reign in anger, okay, but I do, and that's something that, there's a lot of these where you may have a proclivity to it, but you're reining it in, you're controlling it, right, you're holding it back, and that's something you got to constantly do. Is he okay? So let's, so when it comes to children, and the thing that I want to kind of hit on really here, is disqualifications as a pastor, and go to Proverbs chapter 22, when it comes to children, okay, I want all my children to get saved, okay, I want to be clear, that's my main objective in life, okay, if you want to know what like my main goal is, is that my children get saved, and that they love the Lord, okay, in this verse right here in Proverbs 22 6, it says, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now this verse, I do not believe this verse is saying that it, that it's a hundred percent like your children are gonna get saved if you train them upright, okay, and what I mean by this is that there's still free will, I do believe that there's like a 90-some percent chance your children are gonna get saved, but there's always that chance that they reject it, and there's nothing you can really do about it, and so when it comes to this, when you're dealing with verses in the Bible, there's things that are stated, but there's always exceptions to that, okay, meaning like this is the general rule, in most cases this is gonna apply, if you do this right, this is gonna happen, just as much as when it says honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment of promise, that you may be, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth, but let me ask you a question, just because you don't live long on the earth, does that mean that you dishonored your father and mother, right, or that you broke that commandment to that extent, you know, or are there, think about Ecclesiastes, right, there's righteous people that die young, and there's wicked people that live long, that dishonored their father and mother, so there's always those exceptions to the rule, but in generally, generally speaking, there's this promise that hey, if you honor your father and mother, you know, like long life to you, but if you don't, you know, then you might die younger, okay, sometimes the Bible use hyperbole, when it comes to stuff like this, think about in Proverbs 30, in verse 17, you can turn there if you want, but it says that the eye that mocketh at his father, and despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagle shall eat it, now obviously it's given the gravity of like how bad that is, to mock your father and mother, but eagles and ravens aren't just plucking out eyes of children right now, in America, that are doing this, and I believe that the Word of God is pure, and like obviously everything's right, but the idea there is it's showing you the gravity of the situation, of the idea that, I believe it's happened, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but sometimes it'll use like hyperbole, meaning it'll, it's not to be taken like completely literally, sometimes it's more of like a, just like giving you this, this, like here's the gravity, their eyes should be plucked out, all of this stuff, but it doesn't mean like every single person that does this is going, this is gonna happen to them, okay, and so when it comes to children being faithful, I'll say this, while they're in the home, you better have them under control, okay, I'll say this though, if, let's say one of your children, let's say they're a teenager, and they're kind of doing something rebellious or whatever, here's what I say to that, okay, I'm not saying, the pastor isn't disqualified if their child does something awry, I believe the pastor is disqualified if he doesn't do anything about it, okay, because children are gonna do stupid things, like it is what it is, like that stuff's gonna happen, but is the pastor just letting it go on, and just letting that happen when they're in the home, then that's the question, you know, are they doing something about it, so if they hear about, if something happened, you're like that's grievous, that child did this over here, but here's the question, did the pastor nip that in the bud once he found out about it, right, you can't blame the pastor if he doesn't know about it, right, if it's something that happened and he had no knowledge of it or whatever, but again, you could go into like, well he's not vigilant then, he's not sober, and you get into all those avenues, but the idea here is that, does he take it under control, now here's my thought process, after they leave the home, okay, I do not believe that they're bound to the same rules, because you don't really have rule over them, okay, now let me give you an example here, and this is hypothetical, and this is subjective, okay, let's say someone has 12 children, and one of them, when they leave the home, turns out to be an unbeliever, and ends up being like a reprobate, okay, I'm giving you kind of an extreme example, but the other children, a lot of them are like, they're at least saved, or they're not like really getting into trouble, you know, they're kind of just, it's kind of like this anomaly, if that makes sense, it's kind of like this, this outlier, I wouldn't say the person is disqualified, now if they have two children, and both of them turn out bad, when they leave the home, that says something, that makes sense, there's kind of a different, it depends on the situation, depends on maybe how many children they have, and all of that, because the more children you have, the more you're rolling the dice, as far as how things are gonna turn out, and obviously we want them all to turn out right, but there's a big difference between someone that has two children, and they all turn out right, and you're like that person did everything they should be, and then this one, this other person has 12 children, 11 of them are awesome, they love the Lord, they're saved, they're doing great things for God, and one of them is a bad apple, and then you're just like that person doesn't know what they're doing, does that make sense, like there's a difference there, to where that person may just lucked out that they had two children that turned out right, you know, when they were raising them up, and this person over here, like he's got a lot more to deal with, you know, there's a lot more that you had to deal with, with 12 children, okay, and so it's gonna be subjective as far as where you lie with that, and you may say I don't believe that person's qualified, because that, because you know, after the person left home, they did this, this, and this, the question I would ask is, what was going on when they were in the home, was that stuff happening when they were in the home, and then it gets into the circumstances, how many children do they have, did they all turn out bad, like all of those questions are in that, that camp, right, and, and I'll say this too, when it comes to those type of things, when it comes to other churches and other pastors, I would just probably lead that up to the church that they're going to, and those that are under them, to decide that matter, okay, the church will decide that matter, and all of that, I may not associate with them, I may not like link up with that person, if I think that they're disqualified, or I think that they're not maybe legitimate, but I would leave that up to them, and just let the chips fall where they may when it comes to that, that's just me personally when it comes to it, but I just want to, that there's a lot of subjection there when it comes to that, but if all your children are reprobates, I mean, come on, you know, at that point, like what, what are you doing, if someone is, is a false teacher, obviously they're disqualified, they should be taken out, and here's the thing, taken out meaning of the office, not like taken out physically, okay, we're not forming a militia here, go to Third John, Third John, let me show you that it is biblical to get rid of a pastor, okay, for a church to get rid of a pastor, it is biblical, it's biblical, if you, if I was up here preaching some false doctrine, if I committed adultery, if I did something like that, you'd be like, you're out, and you'd be right to do it, okay, I'll say this, if the whole church was saying I was disqualified over something that's subjective, I would step down, why would I want to be at a church where everybody thinks I'm disqualified, does that make sense, and you could even make the argument like, well maybe God isn't disqualifying me, but they think I'm disqualified, well it does get into the fact that what the church binds on earth is bound in heaven, and what the church looses on earth is loosed in heaven, and the idea of God recognizing those decisions, whereas maybe over here, they, they don't take that high of a mark, and it doesn't happen over there, but diotropies is an example of someone that should be kicked out, and should be taken out of office, and John is writing to this, to the, those of this church, it says, I wrote unto the church, but diotropies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not, wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. I mean, dealing with some extreme stuff here, you won't receive the Apostles, and he's throwing people out that would receive their Apostles, casting them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius hath a good report of all men, and of the truth itself. Yea, and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true. So you know what he's stating here? Don't follow that guy, but Demetrius on the other hand, he's a good guy, right? You know, it's kind of like, we have a guy that we would recommend. So what are they doing? Get rid of diotropies, and put in Demetrius, right? So there's a case where, yes, there would be a case where, hey, that person needs to step down, the church needs to get rid of that pastor, and put in a new one, right? One that's good, okay? And so I think that is definitely legitimate, and when it comes to disqualifications, I was going to go through this, but I'm running out of time. I want you to, in your homework, if you want to look at this, as far as, obviously a pastor can be disqualified, but the question is, when would God basically pull the plug on it? And I believe the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the churches in Asia, give us at least some extremes to where we know like they're still technically qualified, like God still regards them as being a pastor, okay? Think of Ephesus, okay? And here's the thing, who is Jesus writing to in all those? To the angel of the church. The angel is the messenger, it's the pastor, okay? And you'll see that thou, thee, thy, and he's saying specifically to that messenger, to that pastor, here's what I like, and here's what I, you know, he's like, I have a few things against thee. So in Ephesus, he has against that pastor is that he's left the first works, or that he's left his first love, and then he needs to do the first works. You know what could be going on is that other people in the church are still soul winning, but he stopped. You know what the consequence to the pastor stop soul winning is? He's gonna take that candlestick away. And listen, if I stop soul winning, and everybody else is still soul winning, and then I stop soul winning, listen, you need a pastor that's soul winning. I need to sit down with my family, and whoever, you know, is qualified should step up and lead. The leader should be the one doing it, as well as everybody else. Now when it comes to Pergamos, for example, false doctrine was going around. This gets into being vigilant, all that, as far as dealing with this, but false doctrine, as far as the doctrine of Balaam, which is causing people to commit fornication. There was a doctrine of Nicolaitans, which Jesus says that he hates, and he's stating that I have a few things against thee, because there's people in the church. He's not saying he had that doctrine, but there's people in the church that had the doctrine, and he's not nipping it in the bud, essentially. But he's still, you know, being seen as being the pastor. You have the church of Thyatira, which I think is a pretty grievous one, when you think about the fact that he has this woman preacher in there that is seducing men to commit adultery. He's suffering a woman to teach in the church, and that, you know, obviously he's rebuking that. But again, I want you to think about like some grievous things that are going on in the church, from not soul winning, to not, you know, now obviously with the soul winning one, you can see how that's kind of like, that's the one where you're saying the candlestick's gonna be taken away, right? It's kind of like, you're in trouble if you don't get this right. The other ones, it's like, you need to repent, get these things right, or I'm gonna come, and basically with the sword in my mouth, I'm gonna fight with them on this. Basically, Jesus is like, I'm gonna take this, and he's gonna take it into his own hands and deal with it, if you don't deal with it. Now, so Thyatira, we obviously have fornication, adultery, women teaching in the church, that's, you know, a grievous thing that's going on. And then the Laodiceans, if you notice when it says, I know Thy works, and it says that, that thou art neither cold nor hot, but that thou art lukewarm. Who's he speaking to? The pastor. And he's speaking to the pastor, because the pastor thinks that he's arrived, he's Dr. Fatbottom, he's sitting in his ivory tower, he doesn't need anything, you know, he's got this mindset that he's arrived, and that he's like, just above everybody else. That's obviously, so you can think about a lot of these things that are going on, where you'd be like, our pastor's, you know, like, just high mighty, he doesn't think he can learn, and you know, like, he's just arrived in all these areas, and all this stuff, but he's blind, and you know, all this other stuff. So when it comes to that, there's a lot of things that you can look at, at least in those passages, and say, well, those were still, they were still considered pastors, they were still considered legitimate churches, even when that stuff was going on. Even Jezebel, the woman that was teaching and committing adultery and all that, it says that I gave her space to repent. And when it comes to a lot of this stuff too, let's say there's a pastor out there that you say, well, I think he may be disqualified, maybe he's still in that space to repent. We don't know, you know, as far as whether God has disqualified him. And I think it'll be evident, okay, and here's my thought process on this, is that I think their ministry will show whether God is disapproving of it. You're like, what about Joel Osteen? He's a false prophet. That's not who we're talking about. The false prophets and all that stuff is not who we're talking about. We're talking about legitimate, saved pastors, right? If they're a false prophet, they're a false prophet. I mean, you don't really have to even worry about talking about them being disqualified. They've already done that, right? They never were qualified. But when it comes to like a saved pastor, I think that if you're not a part of that church, it kind of doesn't really matter to you. And you can kind of just look off from afar and see like, is it going to be destroyed? Is it going to fall apart? Because all the stuff's going on, you're just kind of watching the ship to see if it sinks. But if you're in the church, that's different. Because if you're in the church, you're like, I don't want the ship to sink. Let's figure out what's going on. Do I need to move? Can we change this? Will they get this right? Do we need to get a new pastor? Like, you got to be thinking about all those things. If it ever happened here, you'd have to be thinking about it here. But if it's some other church, I would say just don't worry about them. You don't have to yoke up with them. You don't have to be friends with them. But just let it be and just see if it falls apart. Now the last thing I want to mention with qualifications for a pastor, when it comes to this, and one thing I look for about being qualified, and you could probably put this under disqualifications too, if they lack this, compassion. You have all these different qualifications when it comes to, like, you're not a novice, you have your children in subjection, you know, like all these different things. It's kind of like you're checking off all these boxes. But here's the question. Do you have compassion? Go to Matthew chapter 9, Matthew chapter 9, and I'll say this. If I were choosing a church, the one thing I'm going to look at is, does the pastor have compassion? Right, when he preaches a sermon, do you feel like he's condescending to you? Or do you think he cares? And you can know the difference. I've heard sermons where I'm like, that person's mean, right? Like that person doesn't care about who they're talking to. You can just tell by how they're saying it. And sometimes you won't know that until you're there with them, right? Because you'll probably hear, someone will hear a sermon that operation and be like, that guy's hateful, you know, like he doesn't have any compassion. They don't know me from Adam. You know, they never been around me. They never talked to me outside of like preaching. But Jesus had compassion and obviously he's the shepherd and bishop of our souls. So I mean, if we're going to look to somebody when it comes to being a shepherd or a pastor, it should be Jesus. It says in Matthew 9 35, it says, and Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then set unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. The pastor should have compassion on the flock. I mean, that is, that's the key. I believe that's the key to why you would even want to have pastor. But I'll say this, you know, the Bible says enough, some have compassion making a difference. You want to make a difference as a pastor? You need to be compassionate. You want to make a difference as a soul winner? You need to be compassionate. You need to have compassion on who you're talking to. Compassionate on the souls that you're talking to. And I'll just be honest with you. The reason that I keep pastoring is because of the care of the church. Paul wrote this. It says, he talks about all these different things he's dealing with. He says above all this, the care of the churches and he's the apostles. He's dealing with multiple churches and all that. But the care of the churches. And the idea of when he says to Peter, love us thou me more than these. And he says this to him three times. And what does Jesus say to him? Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. The reason, and I'm not, I'm not here to like puff up myself and be like, oh, your pastor is so compassionate. The reason that I still pastor and the reason that I don't just give it up and just be like, I'm just going to go do my own thing. I'm just going to work and just be a person in the pew is because I think about the families. I think about the fact that what if I quit, who else would quit? Right. The idea of people that would, that would drop out or people that wouldn't get fed. Because if I stopped pastoring, now you got to go to some lame Baptist church that doesn't preach anything but like one verse, a poem and a prayer. And the idea is if you lack that compassion, I think when I think about pastoring, I think about, are you going to quit? Are you going to stop? How much grit do you have to say, you know what, I'm going to keep going. And you know what, I'm all about being manly and I'm all about, you know, like having grit to be like, you know what, I'm going to strength, I'm going to go through this. But here's the reason why I would still go through it is because the care of the churches, because the families, the children, those that are going out and winning souls to Christ, that I don't want to see that stop. And if I stop, if I stop, that stops here, right. Now, hopefully you'd say, hey, no, we're going to get another pastor and we're going to keep going, right. But in my mind, the idea there is that, no, it's the care of the people, right. I care about the people. I don't want to see the people get hurt. I want to see you fed. I don't want to see you malnourished. I don't want to see you get out of things of God. I don't want to see any of that happen. So therefore, you know what, I want to have the mind of Christ where he's looking on the multitudes, move with compassion because they're as sheep having no shepherd. That's the reason I started the church. That's the reason I started pastoring to begin with is because in West Virginia, I saw sheep having no shepherd and I wanted to be that shepherd. I wanted to be that pastor to be there to do that. There has to be this higher, like, he that desire at the office of a bishop, desire at the good work, you need to desire for the right reasons, not for glory, not for the limelight, not for the accolades, not for someone to call you pastor, but so that you can actually love people and help them out. Feed them, protect them, oversee them, kick the wolves out when you have to. That's the idea. That's the qualification. And all this list, there are a lot of things that are subjective, but you're really just like, is this person able to do that? Does this person have the grit? Does this person have the knowledge? Does this person have the ability to lead that flock? And obviously, you know, if I ordain somebody, obviously I'm going to have a lot of confidence in them, but I can't control them right after that. They're their own person that has to make those choices. And so when I'm looking at that stuff, I'm looking at that. Does this person care? Does this person care about the people in the church? Does this person care about people when they go out soul-winding? To me, that's number one. All these other things are kind of like, yes, those should be there, but does this person care? And we have enough pastors that are in it for the money. We have enough pastors that are in it for accolades, for the limelight, for the glory of it. We have enough of that garbage. We need pastors that care and that'll actually feed the flock. And I'm not perfect in this, okay? Like I said, I have anger issues. You know, I have things that I have to work on. There's things that I have to get through, and things I'm constantly holding in at bay, you know, as a person. But I'll tell you one thing, anytime I feel like quitting, I think about John 21, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. Do you love me? I think of Jesus saying that to me, do you love me? Then feed my flock. And you know, it just, it's like a gut punch. You know, when I think about it, I'm just like, what am I thinking about quitting? Do I love the Lord or do I not? And so let's end with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this passage. And Lord, just pray that you would help me to meet up to these qualifications all the time, as much as I can. But I pray to also be with those in our church that are wanting to pursue being a bishop and desire that work, Lord, that you'd help in any area that they would need to work on when it comes to these qualifications. And Lord, we pray that we could send out many men out of this church to start churches and be pastors, to be deacons, to be evangelists, to be just many things that we'd love to see happen here in the future. And Lord, help me to be the pastor to lead them into that position. And Lord, I just, I pray for that. I pray for many churches to be started from our church and just see great work's done. And Lord, just pray that you'd be with us throughout the rest of the day. Lord, we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. But today we'll come and sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 370. Song 370 in your song books. We'll sing Throughout the Lifeline, song 370. Throw out the lifeline across the dark wave. There is a brother whom someone should save. Somebody's brother, oh, who then will dare to throw out the lifeline, his peril to share. Throw out the lifeline, throw out the lifeline. Someone is drifting away. Throw out the lifeline, throw out the lifeline. Someone is sinking today. Throw out the lifeline with hand quick and strong. Why do you tarry? Why linger so long? See, he is sinking, oh, hasten today. And throw out the lifeboat away.