Show Notes
Titus 1:6-8
Pastor Stephen Laurer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Our great sovereign King Jesus.
[00:00:08] We thank you that you reign not just over all creation, but especially you reign in the hearts of your people.
[00:00:20] We thank you that you are doing what we need in our hearts, that as we hear your word, as we meditate on it, as we approach you in prayer, seeking your help, you are reigning and you are using your Word and your spirit to change our hearts.
[00:00:49] We confess that when you brought us to yourself, we were full of sin and awful things. And really that was all we wanted in our selfishness and darkness.
[00:01:01] But you are making us new, filling us with light and with life and with love.
[00:01:11] Lord Jesus, we've experienced some of this to varying degrees, each of us, and we long for more.
[00:01:18] We thank you that as we hear from you in your Word, you promise to continue this process of sanctification, of making us more holy, of making us more like you.
[00:01:33] We ask Lord Jesus, that you would help us this evening as we attend to your word, that your spirit would help us to focus, to meditate, to understand, to believe, to trust in you.
[00:01:47] We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:01:54] Our scripture reading this evening is from Titus, chapter one. We'll read verses five through nine and our sermon will focus on verses six through eight.
[00:02:08] Hear God's word. Titus, chapter one, beginning in verse five.
[00:02:14] This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order.
[00:02:19] Appoint elders in every town as I directed you.
[00:02:23] If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
[00:02:34] For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach.
[00:02:41] He must not be arrogant or quick tempered, or a drunkard, or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good self, controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
[00:03:02] He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
[00:03:15] Please be seated.
[00:03:30] Remember the story of Joseph, the last section of the Book of Genesis starts off a little bit sad, doesn't it? Joseph's 11 brothers.
[00:03:45] Or I guess his 10 brothers. I'm sorry, counted that wrong.
[00:03:50] His 10 older brothers sell him as a slave and he's carried as a slave down into Egypt. And then they tell his father that he died. It starts out very sad, right?
[00:04:03] But after Joseph goes down to Egypt, he's sold as a slave to this guy named Potiphar, who was a wealthy man, had a Big household.
[00:04:14] And as a slave or servant in Potiphar's house, Joseph did very well.
[00:04:25] He did so well in fact as he served under Potiphar that very quickly he rose through the ranks of the servants and the workers in Potiphar's house. And Potiphar made him the steward or overseer over all of his house.
[00:04:43] Potiphar says at one point that he gave everything over into Joseph's care except his wife. Do you remember that statement?
[00:04:52] Joseph was the guy in charge below Potiphar of everything. He was the steward and overseer over everything in his house.
[00:05:03] All of Potiphar's business as well as all of his other servants and everything in his household was Joseph's responsibility.
[00:05:14] And as Potiphar's steward, it was his job to make sure the household ran to smoothly.
[00:05:21] That all the servants were cared for, that they had what they needed, that they were all doing their jobs well, that they were fed right and that things ran in an orderly, well governed fashion.
[00:05:37] That was his job as a steward. Now do you remember why?
[00:05:43] Why did Joseph get that job of Potiphar's steward?
[00:05:48] It was because Potiphar saw Joseph's character. He saw what kind of a man Joseph was, that he was faithful and trustworthy. Everything that was entrusted to Joseph, Joseph took care of it. He did a good job with it.
[00:06:06] He didn't steal, he didn't cheat, he didn't lie.
[00:06:09] He did a good faithful job with everything that was entrusted to him.
[00:06:14] He was a hard worker, capable.
[00:06:17] And all of this flowed from the fact that he had a good character.
[00:06:22] It was because of this, his good character, that he was qualified to serve as the steward over Potiphar's house.
[00:06:32] Here in these verses that we've just read, Paul tells us about something similar.
[00:06:38] He tells us that these guys that we've been studying the last few weeks, the pastors and the ruling elders, these elders and overseers, that they are stewards of God's house.
[00:06:51] And because God has placed them in his house as stewards like Joseph, they need to be men of good character.
[00:07:01] We want to look at this idea, the steward over God's house and how he's qualified to be the steward.
[00:07:08] This evening as we look at Paul's instructions to Titus regarding the kind of character these stewards or elders are to have in God's house. Titus is to go around the various gatherings of believers, the various churches on the island of Crete, and over each he's to appoint elders.
[00:07:30] And we learn something very important here about the kind of Men, the kind of character and qualifications that men are to have if they're to be entrusted with this stewardship in God's house.
[00:07:46] These are some, you might say some stringent qualifications.
[00:07:53] Why?
[00:07:56] We can answer this question at the outset.
[00:08:00] God has taken and entrusted his household to these elders or stewards.
[00:08:09] He's taken what is most precious to him in this world, you, his people.
[00:08:18] And if you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not.
[00:08:22] You are so precious that God sent His own son to die for you. That was your purchase price.
[00:08:29] He said, I love you and I'm going to save you. And the only way to save you is to give my son for you.
[00:08:36] That's how treasured and valuable you are to God.
[00:08:40] Now, if God is going to entrust his most treasured possession.
[00:08:45] Parents, what's your most treasured possession? It's your children, right?
[00:08:50] If God is going to entrust his most treasured possession, his children, to someone, that someone, that steward, has to be well qualified. Someone who's of good character, who's trustworthy, in fact, someone whose character, like Joseph's, has been proven tested.
[00:09:13] And that's what we find Paul describing here. Before men can be stewards in the household of God, they need to learn to be stewards of themselves, of their character, and of their families. That's what you find in verse 6. In verse 7, we'll look this evening, first at how the man is to be a steward of his family, and secondly, how he is to be a steward of his character before he can be a steward in the house of God.
[00:09:43] I'm going to begin looking at verse six, then.
[00:09:49] Now, this verse begins with a general statement, a statement that's repeated in verse seven, if anyone is above reproach. And then again in verse seven, if someone's going to be an overseer, a steward, God's steward, he must be above reproach.
[00:10:07] This is a broad, general statement of character. Now, we don't use the word reproach very often, do we? Someone being beyond or above reproach.
[00:10:20] Sometimes this word is translated blameless. We also don't talk about people being blameless very often.
[00:10:28] But the root idea here is that the man can't have any serious accusations against him.
[00:10:41] It's not that he's completely without sin.
[00:10:45] Anyone who's a Christian is a sinner. We all acknowledge this. If someone's come and become a disciple of Christ, it's because he's a sinner and he needs salvation from his sins. No, it's not men. Who are sinless, but men who don't have any serious charges of sin against them.
[00:11:03] There's no accusations, no gross or slanderous sins that this man can be charged with.
[00:11:11] To put it positively, this is a man of good reputation in the church, someone that we know lives, seeks to live a godly life.
[00:11:24] That's the way to think of this word, blameless or without reproach.
[00:11:31] Verses 6 through 9, then give all sorts of specific areas in which the man should be without reproach, not having any serious charges that can be brought against him, for example, and we're going to get into detail. But for example, an easy one to give is that if he is to be the husband of one wife, then you should not be able to bring any charges, legitimate, real charges, that he's an adulterer.
[00:12:03] Does that make sense? He's blameless in the area of not being an adulterer because he's the husband of one wife, faithful to his wife.
[00:12:12] Okay, so it begins with a general statement of character.
[00:12:16] The next thing we need to observe here, as we get into the details here, before we get into the details here, is that the person in view who would be an elder, an overseer, or God's steward, is a man and not a woman.
[00:12:32] God has chosen men to serve in this role of leadership in his church.
[00:12:38] Let's dive into the specifics.
[00:12:41] This man who's to be blameless or with above reproach is to be above reproach first in the area of marital faithfulness or sexual faithfulness.
[00:12:53] God has given the gift of marriage and the gift of sexual relations in marriage.
[00:13:01] And God calls all Christians to be faithful in this area.
[00:13:06] Now we know this not just all married Christians, but all single Christians, young and old. Every Christian is called to fidelity, faithfulness in the area of sexual relations.
[00:13:19] Now God calls all Christians to faithfulness in this area.
[00:13:24] But what Paul is saying here is that God requires elders to be faithful in this area.
[00:13:32] In other words, if someone's going to be an elder, it's not just that he's called to faithfulness, but in order to serve as an elder, he must be faithful in this area. It's non negotiable.
[00:13:43] Sinners are called to be Christians called to repentance. Elders can't have a charge of infidelity in this area. Okay, what does that mean? Well, if one is married, the husband of one wife, what's forbidden to him are some things we don't practice in our culture at the moment anyway, may be coming in the future.
[00:14:08] Polygamy. He can't be a polygamist.
[00:14:11] He can't have more than one wife.
[00:14:15] He can't be someone who was unlawfully divorced, in other words, who divorced his wife without biblical grounds, who left his wife without cause.
[00:14:26] What's also forbidden here is that he can't have a mistress, something that is practiced quite widely in our society.
[00:14:36] These are negatives, but positively this man is the husband of one wife, or literally a one woman man.
[00:14:44] That's how it would literally be translated. He needs to be a one woman man. And every Christian husband is called to this.
[00:14:53] He's to be devoted to his wife.
[00:14:56] All his love, all his affections belong to her.
[00:15:01] He showers them on her and on no one else.
[00:15:06] He loves her and he loves her alone.
[00:15:12] Now, Paul here is addressing the general state of mankind, as the Bible often does. It often addresses the situation that most people are in, or you might say, most Christian men are in.
[00:15:31] Paul's not saying that one has to have a wife in order to be an elder. The Apostle Paul wasn't married, but he, like the other apostles, was an elder.
[00:15:43] Jesus himself, certainly the ruler and king of his people, doesn't have a wife on earth, does he?
[00:15:53] And Jesus says that some are called to singleness for the sake of the kingdom. So if one is married, he must be devoted wholly to his wife. But if he's single and is to serve as an elder, this applies differently. He's to be faithful in his singleness, sexual purity in his singleness, devoted to the Lord Jesus, his heavenly bridegroom.
[00:16:18] Now, here's where we take a moment and we apply this more broadly.
[00:16:23] In fact, we can apply this not just to men, but to women.
[00:16:29] This matter of faithfulness in the area of marriage and sexual relations applies to all of us, whether men or women, single or married.
[00:16:40] God calls us to faithfulness and purity.
[00:16:46] I'm going to speak very bluntly here. If you're dealing with or struggling with a habit of pornography, Christ calls you to repentance.
[00:16:56] We had a wonderful sermon this morning on repentance. We often struggle with repenting because we're stuck in shame and guilt and we're not turning to the Lord Jesus.
[00:17:08] Usually this is the sort of habit that nobody else knows about but me, something we do in private, in secret, we hide from others.
[00:17:18] If this is you, Christ calls you to himself in love and mercy, with kindness on his faith, he calls you to turn to him for help.
[00:17:29] And if someone taps you on the shoulder and says, come be an elder or a deacon, and you're struggling with this habit, immediately disqualify yourself. Don't start down that path. Instead, work on this sin, Work on faithfulness to the Lord Jesus, and then look to serve more broadly.
[00:17:50] One more direct application here in this area of marital and sexual faithfulness. When the elders consider nominating a man, that's what we we do, right?
[00:18:01] We train a man and then we say we think this man could serve as an elder in the congregation. Then we nominate him, and then you vote him and ask him to be an elder to serve over you.
[00:18:11] When we consider nominating a man, this is an area we need to examine him, talk to him about carefully. Not only do we need to talk to him, but we need to interview his wife.
[00:18:25] Is your husband a one woman man? Does he devote himself to you wholly, purely, faithfully, or does he make you uncomfortable?
[00:18:38] Do you catch him flirting with other women at work or out and about?
[00:18:43] Are you constantly worried that he's seeing someone else?
[00:18:47] These are conversations we need to have with the man and his wife, and she should speak up and let us know so that. Not so that we're catching people, but so that we can help him and so that we don't place him in a role he's not yet ready for. The elder must be a faithful steward of his marriage and his sexual purity.
[00:19:09] Secondly, in this area of being a steward of his family, he's called to be a steward of his children.
[00:19:17] Again, Paul speaks to the general state of men, the most common state of men. Jesus says it's only a few who are called to singleness for the kingdom. In other words, most men need to get married, and they do.
[00:19:31] And most men who get married, not all, but most men who get married have children. So Paul speaks of him not only being as a steward in his marriage, but being a steward of his children.
[00:19:45] The Father is a steward. God has entrusted young ones to his care.
[00:19:51] And that's the way in which this is being spoken of here in this verse.
[00:19:56] Paul speaking about the Father as a steward of children under his care, under his authority, in his home. Sometimes people read this verse and they wonder, well, now, what if there's an elder whose children have grown up and he's 25 or he's 30, he's off and he's out of the home and he stopped going to church and he doesn't seem to be faithful anymore. Maybe he's leading an ungodly life.
[00:20:19] Is that who Paul has in view?
[00:20:21] No, I think the verse is pretty clear. It's the idea that the father, as a steward of his children, needs to show himself faithful in that area before he can be entrusted with the care of others. So this has in view children not who are grown and out of the home, but children who are under the care of their father. It parallels the stewardship with the elder as a steward over God's people.
[00:20:47] So it's children under his authority at home that he's tasked with raising and caring for.
[00:20:54] Secondly, what is it that he needs to do about these children? How is he to be a faithful steward over them? Or how do we see that in his care of them?
[00:21:04] Now, our translation says that his children are believers and not open to charge of debauchery or insubordination.
[00:21:21] That word there, the way our translation translates it, I think is within the realm of possible translations. There's basically, there's two possibilities for the word believing here. One is that children who believe, or the other option is children who are faithful. The same Greek word, just like our English word faith, can refer to faithfulness, or it can refer to belief. Right. Faithfulness or belief.
[00:21:52] And I think the correct translation here would be faithful children who are faithful.
[00:22:07] Think of it this way. The father has shown his stewardship over the children God has entrusted to his care because he has instructed them carefully in God's ways. In other words, he's raised them, talking to them in the home about God's word. He's led them in prayer. He's taught them to pray to the Lord Jesus. He's taught them about repentance and about forgiveness in Christ.
[00:22:32] He's brought them faithfully to worship and taught them how to serve the Lord in the church, in his house of prayer.
[00:22:41] When they've gone astray, he's corrected them and called them to repentance.
[00:22:46] In other words, he's raised them as a Christian father should raise his children.
[00:22:52] And the result in the lives of the children in his home is that generally they're faithful, they're obedient to him. They do what he calls them to do. They follow in the ways that he's leading them in.
[00:23:07] Ordinarily, when fathers do this, not every time, not every case, but most of the time, when fathers raise their children, correcting them, disciplining them, and leading them in God's ways. Ordinarily, children in the home as they're being raised live in an orderly way, and we see that they're faithful. Maybe a way that we would say this in English that would make sense is sometimes we. This is older language, but someone might Say, I am your faithful servant. And then he signs his name at the end of a letter. In other words, I'm loyal, I'm obedient.
[00:23:43] That's the sense of the word here.
[00:23:46] And you can see this further by how Paul explains what it means to be faithful. What it means for the children under the Father's care. To be faithful is expanded by explaining that they are not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
[00:24:03] In other words, they're not living flagrantly disobedient pagan lives as they live in their Father's home.
[00:24:14] This is a matter of their outward behavior. The Father is disciplining them, correcting them, teaching them, and leading them aright.
[00:24:23] When a father is a good steward of his children, leads them, cares for them in the ordinary course of things, this is what should result. And so we see in the faithfulness of the children. They come to church, they worship the Lord, they're orderly, they're faithful and obedient to their father. We can see that the Father has been a good steward of his children.
[00:24:46] So these are two very key ways in which the elder's faithfulness, diligence of his stewardship is seen in his marriage and with his children.
[00:24:56] God requires, then, that the elder must first show that he's faithfully stewarded his own family, his marriage, and his children.
[00:25:06] Paul says it this way in 1 Timothy 3. 5.
[00:25:10] For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?
[00:25:19] God cares deeply for the sheep that he purchased with the blood of His Son.
[00:25:25] And he entrusts those sheep only to men who have proven themselves in. In their stewardship in the marriage and in the home.
[00:25:34] Think of it this way.
[00:25:37] God wants men who have applied the Gospel in their marriage and with their children, who've led their children in repentance, in reconciliation, who've led their children to love Jesus, to serve Jesus, to know Jesus.
[00:25:53] He wants men who lead their wives to Jesus to know him, to love him, to find forgiveness in him, to serving him.
[00:26:04] Men who've demonstrated that they, Paul says, are to be entrusted with the stewardship in the house of God.
[00:26:13] So there's his stewardship in his family. But secondly, there's his stewardship of his character.
[00:26:20] And next week we'll look at verse nine, the stewardship of doctrine.
[00:26:25] But stewardship of his own character. He's given the gift of others to care for. He's also been given the gift of himself and his own heart to care for he's to be a steward of his character. You see this in verse 7 and verse 8.
[00:26:41] If I were to summarize everything Paul's saying here in verse 7 and verse 8, I would summarize it this.
[00:26:47] The man needs to show evidence of the grace of God in his life.
[00:26:54] He needs to show evidence that Jesus has been at work in his heart, changing him from the man he used to be to the man Jesus is making him to be.
[00:27:08] There should be visible evidence of the grace of God at work in his life.
[00:27:14] It should be seen in his attitudes, in his conduct, both how he thinks and how he treats others.
[00:27:23] What do we call this?
[00:27:26] Sanctification.
[00:27:27] Right.
[00:27:28] We need to be able to see that God's work of sanctification has been there in his life.
[00:27:34] That God by his Holy Spirit has been taking this man and making him more like Jesus and less like the world.
[00:27:42] That he's been putting off sin and he's been putting on Christ.
[00:27:48] We'll zip through these here. There's five ways in particular in which Paul says he needs to have been be clear that he's been putting off sin.
[00:27:59] Five things that he is not. First, he cannot be self willed.
[00:28:08] Now all of these are kind of self centered sins.
[00:28:11] But here we're talking about someone who is self pleasing.
[00:28:15] His character is that he's always self serving.
[00:28:20] Everything is about him. He needs to get his way. He's. The things that flow out of this are things like stubbornness and arrogance. The inner quality, bad quality, is that he self willed. But what comes out, it comes out in the actions and attitudes of arrogance and stubbornness.
[00:28:39] He's not to be quick tempered. Again, this is a. It's a statement about what's on the inside.
[00:28:47] But we see this in someone who is easily angered.
[00:28:51] We call them hotheads. Right.
[00:28:56] Thirdly, Paul says he's not to be addicted to wine.
[00:28:59] That's pretty obvious. Someone who gets drunk regularly is addicted to wine. Someone who gives himself over to his passions.
[00:29:11] Fourthly, someone who is violent cannot serve as an elder.
[00:29:17] What does he mean by this? Well, the older translations sometimes use the word pugnacious.
[00:29:23] If you've heard that word. That's a.
[00:29:25] The companion word to that is the pugilist. A pugilist is a fighter, a fist fighter. Right. A boxer is a pugilist. Right.
[00:29:33] This is someone who's quarrelsome, not just necessarily getting into fist fights. So that gives us a good image of it. Someone who likes to fight. This is someone who gets into conflict and quarrels all the Time. It's almost like he's seeking a fight.
[00:29:52] He's not to be greedy.
[00:29:57] Jesus condemns covetousness. He says that we're to set our our heart is to be set on things above that we're to lay up treasures in heaven and not on earth. But a one who is greedy is focused on earthly wealth as a pursuit in itself. I need that and I need more. The root of all of these is someone who's self centered. All of these get back to me and they're simple, self centered heart that's sinfully out of control.
[00:30:34] A man like this can't serve as an elder caring for others.
[00:30:39] He needs to make progress in all of these areas. Whatever his struggle is, he needs to make progress in it so that by the grace of God he could put these sins to death and then be able to serve others negatively, putting off those sins positively. He's called to become like Jesus again. These are things that all Christians are called to. But as elders we need to have grown in demonstrated that we've grown in this before we can lead others in it.
[00:31:09] I'm going to summarize it this way. First, the man needs to have grown and developed the heart of Christ.
[00:31:19] A heart that's more like Christ. Christ.
[00:31:23] Paul says he's to be hospitable.
[00:31:25] The word literally is one who has a love for strangers.
[00:31:31] We know what hospitality is. Hospitality is when you open your home and you invite others in and you feed them and you care for them and you bless them in your home.
[00:31:43] This quality of hospitality, it's not just in his activity, but it's something that's become a part of him. His heart has been changed so that he has the heart of Christ for others.
[00:31:57] You might put it this way. The man has come to have not just a home, but a heart that is flung wide open to receive not only God's people into his home and his heart, but to receive strangers into his home and his heart so that he can bring people into his home, be with them, show the love of Christ to them and lead them to Christ, whose heart is wide open to the sinner.
[00:32:28] He has to have a heart of Christ in hospitality, but he also has to have the heart of Christ in being a lover of what's good.
[00:32:37] A lover of good.
[00:32:40] What's that about?
[00:32:42] Sounds good, doesn't it? A lover of good.
[00:32:45] Christ is eminently the one who loves good. Isn't he our Savior? You see that? And everything he does and everything he says through the Gospels. As you read About Jesus, you see someone who loves what is good. Why? Because God is good and God loves what is good.
[00:33:05] And Jesus heart was in tune with the heart of the Father.
[00:33:09] All that the Father sent him to do, he did. All that the Father loved and wanted, Jesus loved, wanted.
[00:33:17] And so Christians are to become like our Heavenly Father. As his children, we're to learn to love what is good.
[00:33:25] And we know that as sinners we hated God and we hated what was good and we wanted nothing to do with Him.
[00:33:33] But that has to change.
[00:33:34] We have to become in terms of our loves from the inside, like our Heavenly Father.
[00:33:43] A heart that's been changed by the gospel now loves what Jesus loves, it pursues what Jesus does.
[00:33:51] What Jesus pursues, it seeks. Galatians 6:10. It seeks to do good to all men.
[00:34:01] It's a heart of Christ. We find here too the mind of Christ.
[00:34:09] Verse 8, Lover of good, self controlled. And then the Word at the end of the verse, discipline. The two words are similar, self control and discipline.
[00:34:19] The first could maybe be translated it's related to self control, but it's the inner aspect of self control.
[00:34:27] Discipline has to do with the expression of that in outward actions.
[00:34:32] So it's kind of both sides of self control here. And the inner aspect is a word we don't use that often. It's the word soberness or sober mindedness. In other words, it's a mind that knows the truth, that loves the truth, that loves wisdom, and that contemplates in every moment.
[00:34:53] What does God call me to do here? How can I live soberly and rightly?
[00:34:59] It's a mind that grabs hold of the passions as is. No, we're going to direct these in the way that God wants us to.
[00:35:07] It's a mind captivated by Christ and his thoughts and then expressed outwardly in self control and discipline.
[00:35:17] This man demonstrates a life.
[00:35:20] The sober, disciplined man demonstrates a life that's lived in prudence.
[00:35:25] That's a life that's ordered according to God's word and his wisdom.
[00:35:30] A man who's in control of his passions and his affections.
[00:35:36] A man who brings everything, every thought, every motion of the heart, captive and into service to the Lord Jesus.
[00:35:47] It's a man who lives by God's law.
[00:35:50] He's just.
[00:35:53] He orders his life according to the law of God. God's standard of ethics. He knows what it is. And he says, I'm going to apply this to my life and live it. And you see it because a just man treats others in justice.
[00:36:09] And finally he's a worshiper of God.
[00:36:12] That's the idea behind the word holy. Here, a man who has devoted himself to God. Devoted is another word for worship, devotions, worship. He devotes himself to God. His heart seeks God and his glory. Yes, on Sunday, worshiping God faithfully. But all week long, all day long, devoting himself to the Lord.
[00:36:37] That's an overwhelming picture.
[00:36:40] Step back and look at all of this. But you see what Paul is calling elders to be before they become elders and and what all Christians are called to. They're to have the heart and mind of the Lord Jesus and a life that's shaped and changed by the Gospel and by the things that God loves.
[00:36:58] Before a man can be a steward of God's household, he needs to show evidence of God's grace in his heart, in his life, that he's stewarded the graces and the character God has given him.
[00:37:13] I want to tie this together.
[00:37:15] How does his character relate to his work? You probably already can guess some of it, think through some of it.
[00:37:22] But let's look at it briefly. Why does a steward of God's household need to be such a man with the heart and mind of God, who's put off egregious sins?
[00:37:35] Well, let's deal with it negatively first. Think of the man who is a drunkard.
[00:37:42] Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:37:47] Joseph had the Holy Spirit in him, didn't he? It was because God was with him. We're told over and over again, God was with Joseph.
[00:37:56] And God blessed Joseph. And so he did well and served faithfully as a steward. If a man is to be a steward, an elder in God's house, he must have the Holy Spirit with him.
[00:38:07] But if he gives himself over to drunkenness, he pushes the spirit away.
[00:38:13] He cannot serve well in the house of God. A hot headed man.
[00:38:18] Imagine a hot headed man who lacks patience.
[00:38:23] How will he care for God's sheep?
[00:38:26] He's going to hurt them, get angry with them and drive them away.
[00:38:32] A pugilist, a fighter, a contentious man.
[00:38:37] He's going to disrupt the precious unity of the body of Christ by causing trouble and hurting people.
[00:38:46] A self willed man, he seeks his own agendas.
[00:38:51] He's going to use the office of elder to get his way, to get what he wants, to put himself first.
[00:38:58] Rather than representing Christ the King and his interests for you, the flock.
[00:39:04] You see how each of these is directly related to the work of the elder and a problem, a chargeable offense. Right? He has to be blameless he can't have problems in these areas.
[00:39:16] A chargeable offense in any of these areas is going to be a man who cannot serve well in the church, but will hurt the flock positively.
[00:39:26] The mind and heart of Christ.
[00:39:29] Men who are just deal rightly with God's people. They're going to treat you well.
[00:39:36] And when they sit in the government of the church, making decisions, ruling for the church, they're going to rule justly. Why?
[00:39:44] Because they're just. Their character's been changed. Right?
[00:39:47] Men who are self controlled, they will be able to disciple and lead others who are struggling with their passions.
[00:39:55] Someone struggling with lust, an elder can come alongside that young man and disciple him. Say, I used to struggle with that too. Here's how we deal with this sin. And we work to bring our hearts and minds in captivity to the Lord Jesus.
[00:40:13] He can serve as an example in this, can't he?
[00:40:17] Men who have the heart of Christ, who love what is good, their hearts are full of God's goodness.
[00:40:24] They will be quick to do what is good for Christ's church.
[00:40:29] They will be full of zeal for what is good.
[00:40:32] A man who loves what is good won't just sit by and watch someone, one of the sheep, struggling with sin or with problems out of his zeal for what is good, loving what is good, wanting to see what is good for this sheep of Christ. He's going to pour himself into that sheep. He won't let him stray. He's going to follow after him. He's going to take time out of his schedule to go spend time with that sheep. He's going to be on his knees zealously praying for that sheep. Because he loves what is good and he desires to see God's good things come to fruition in the lives of God's people.
[00:41:11] And men who have the heart of Christ for strangers, men whose hearts are hospitable, men who've been touched by the love of God. For strangers, those who are far off from God, they will open their homes wide.
[00:41:36] Think about people who are strangers and aliens from God. Maybe that's your experience and you know it. And you've experienced this.
[00:41:44] What were you like when you were far off from God, Separated from the promises of God? You didn't know Christ.
[00:41:52] What kind of a person were you?
[00:41:56] Not very pretty. Well, it's still not very pretty if you look into my heart. But Christ is changing us by his grace, right? But those who are still lost, they're not pretty people.
[00:42:08] They're not easy to have in your Homes.
[00:42:11] But when a man has a heart of hospitality, God's love for the stranger, he welcomes those not very pretty people into his home.
[00:42:22] Because his heart is burning with the love of Christ for the lost.
[00:42:26] And he wants nothing more than the opportunity to lead these lost sheep to Jesus.
[00:42:36] The steward of the house of God has to be a steward of his family and a steward of his character, of his heart and life before he can serve in the church.
[00:42:48] Why?
[00:42:49] Because he's caring for Christ's sheep, Jesus disciples, and leading them to Jesus.
[00:42:57] He has to know the gospel of Christ not just here, but here. Not just here, but here and here. Right?
[00:43:08] Not just head, but heart. Not just heart, but hands and feet. In other words, from top to bottom, inside out. The gospel needs to have gripped this man so that everywhere he goes, all the time, he's seeking to live the gospel out so that he can lead others in the gospel.
[00:43:30] Now, all of this is a tall order, and it's a tall order for me.
[00:43:34] Lots of heart searching to do for all of us, I think, as Christians and as elders.
[00:43:40] Why all of this and how do we apply it? Right. We're doing some elder training, deacon training. Right.
[00:43:50] This year we hope to have elders and deacons to place before you.
[00:43:54] How do you apply this? And think about it.
[00:43:58] Jesus is the one who calls and appoints elders in his church.
[00:44:04] Jesus is the one who does that. So how do you know if someone should be serving as an elder or not if you've been asked to serve? How do I know if I'm called to be an elder or not?
[00:44:16] Jesus will make it evident by working in the hearts of men and the lives of men, changing them to look like what we just read and studied.
[00:44:26] You'll see it. You'll see this man changing. You'll see Christ shining through him and how he treats people and how he thinks and acts. And you'll say he looks like what I read in Titus chapter one.
[00:44:39] That's the kind of man that Christ wants to serve in his church. I'll support him. I'll submit to him. I'll follow him as he leads me to Jesus.
[00:44:51] Well, Joseph was fit to serve as steward over Potiphar's house because he was faithful, because he had good character. God will give you the elders, dear church. God will give you the elders and overseers that you need in this church.
[00:45:11] But there should be a thread that ran through all of this, and I want to leave you with this thought.
[00:45:16] Elders are sinners.
[00:45:18] We need Jesus too.
[00:45:20] Our job isn't to lead you to me.
[00:45:23] Us. Our job is to lead you to Christ.
[00:45:27] For you were like sheep going astray. But you have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
[00:45:37] Jesus is the chief overseer and shepherd.
[00:45:40] Let's go to him. Lord Jesus, our king, our Savior, our shepherd and our overseer. We thank you that you faithfully keep watch over your sheep, over each of us, that you love us desperately and dearly more than we love ourselves, more than we love each other.
[00:46:02] We thank you that you are caring for us and that having died for us, risen for us and poured out your spirit in our hearts, you will finish the good work that you had begun. In each of us, Lord Jesus, we hear this description of men who are to be overseers of all the sins they're to put off, all the ways in which they are to be. Like you and each one of us, myself included, Lord Jesus, we see our own weakness. We see our own failings. We see just how much we need you.
[00:46:38] We thank you that you are faithful. We ask that you would bless us, shower your gifts upon us, wash away our sin, not only its guilt and shame, but its power.
[00:46:51] And fill us with. With love and faithfulness, sober mindedness and all the gifts of the spirit, that we might be useful tools for your glory. Jesus name we ask. Amen.
