Elders: Qualified and Called Men - 1 Timothy 3:1-7 - Let's Be Clear

All right. Hey, guys, welcome at all of our locations.

Man, we're excited that you're here this weekend. We're going to be in First Timothy, chapter three this weekend, and we're going to be diving into our last sermon in the Let's Be Clear sermon series. We're going to be talking about the office of elder and who that is reserved for. All right. And as we have seen in this series, y'all, a lot of times when we get into what the Bible is clear on, there can be rubs in culture with that. But it is a disservice not to be clear.

What the scripture is clear on because God has given us many things for his glory and our good. And I really think leadership in the church and the home is chief among them. So we're going to get into that here this weekend. But as we do that, I got to I got to just sort of piggyback on what was already said. Guys, parent commissioning is an incredible weekend. Always at Mercy Hill because it's not really baby dedication. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it is parent commissioning. It is parents stepping up. It's a community and saying, man, we want to raise our kids in this way. But it is such a blessing to see a church that's growing in a number of kids.

But listen, we've got to celebrate this together at the High Point campus this weekend. There are 14 kids represented in the commissioning that's happening. Okay, listen, eight of them were not born into the family. They're chosen to be here. Can we praise God for that?

All right. We want to be a church that builds families through adoption and restores families through foster care. We feel like it's really a calling that the Lord has placed upon us to be involved in our community in that way. And so, man, we just celebrate that. But here's why I bring that up.

I don't want to celebrate it. But I also just want to say, guys, this church is attracting a lot of young families with those young kids. Many of them right now, that child has come into their life, many people in our community, and those kids are throwing them for a loop. And all of a sudden, they're realizing, you know, these kids don't just wake up being God-fearing.

Okay, they're kind of the opposite, actually. And so, you know, a lot of families get woken up when they have kids, and they're like, man, we're not. All of a sudden, they realize, like, we're not a faithful family when it comes to church, and our kids aren't learning the Bible stories and all that. And it's an awakening moment.

This coming two weeks from now, Easter, can be one of those awakening moments for literally hundreds of families in the triad. Listen, go invite them, and we would prepare the jars here well for them. Now, what do I mean by that? Okay, here's what I mean. It's not just about inviting.

It's about making sure that we're ready for what God is going to do. Across all of our campuses, okay, you think about five, you know, five different campuses, six with, if you think about Espanol, you think about, you know, Regional North. All right, but you think about all those locations. Every single weekend, it takes over 500 volunteers from the congregation. They're jumping in to serve to pull off all those services and all that stuff.

Well, what happens when you blow it out? And you say, hey, we're doing 20 services over Easter weekend, because that's what's happening. Okay. We normally need about five, 550. We need 750 volunteers to prepare the jars well, okay. Easter and Christmas are a lot of times those all hands on deck. So even if you haven't been through the weekender, we would love for you to jump in.

And there's there's areas that we can we still love to see you serve even if you haven't jumped in the weekender for this coming weekend. So guys, go to the website and jump on mercyhillchurch.com slash Easter. What a tragedy it would be if that person in your life that you've been wanting to invite forever finally decides they will come and they come and they have a terrible experience because there's nobody here to disciple and can look after their kids while they're in the service or because there's nobody here to greet them or because there's nobody here to run production. You understand what I mean? Like, that would be such a tragedy, right? God's been moving in their life forever and you invite them and they say yes, and then it's a bad experience because we didn't prepare the jars very well.

I don't know what God is going to do. But I know what we get asked him for and the type of numbers we're asking him for. I mean, we need a bunch of people to jump in. Alright, so maybe you served in the past, you've kind of fallen away, life happened. Hey, jump in now. Maybe you're a college student, you've never served at Mercy Hill, go sign up. It's one weekend, man, help us pull off these 20 services.

It's going to be incredible. Alright, First Timothy chapter three today. Now, we got to be clear here.

Okay. You guys intuitively know that when we live in a culture that can't stand distinctions in the way that we were created, right? And that primarily comes out when you're talking about family, and when you're talking about church leadership. And so, you know, I think we've got to just hit it head on.

And we've got to talk about something here this weekend. And that is this question, much like in the home, and we're going to see the analogy of a home. Alright, much like in the home, who has God called to lead, guide, protect, feed his flesh?

Block his household? Who is there that God has put there to lead the family of God? Here's what I would say, big idea this weekend, God calls qualified men to lead the church as elders. And he does so both organizationally and spiritually. Now, you can see the rub with this statement, right?

If we live in a culture that wants to say a man can have a baby, they're going to have a problem with saying a woman can't be an elder. Right? That's just where we live. By the way, we can be sheepish, we can try to apologize for everything that's in the Bible or whatever, or we can take a belief that says, wait a minute, God created this world and designed it in a particular way for his glory and for our good. And if he did it that way, then we can trust it. And we can lean into it.

My prayer today is that for some that don't understand this rightly, maybe you will, for some that don't like it, maybe you'll learn to love it, maybe even for some that are sheepish about it, you can become courageous in the clarity of the scripture. But I know this is going to be hard for some people. You know, I remember one college student, this was very tough on, and it was hard. I remember her name, I remember exactly who she was, you know, she's been in my mind for years now, because of what happened. But it it's always served as a reminder for me that we don't do anybody any favors by beating around the bush.

We've got to be straight with people and let them decide, right. But here's what happened. I remember we had a college student that was super involved. I mean, she was at all the stuff, she was helping lead stuff, she was inviting people to come. And over time, you know, just the ideology of the college campus and all of that, man, she just started to have some problems with things that we were preaching and that the Bible was proclaiming very boldly, right?

One, you know, I remember how it started, because I remember being a little taken back. It started when she got very upset that I made fun of men who wear skinny jeans in a sermon, okay. And, you know, I don't mean to be offensive, but I think I said something like, if guys, if you got jeans on that you are so tight, you can't put your phone in them.

The phone is not the problem. Okay. And I think I think historically, I was proven to be right about that.

Okay. But she was, you know, but I'm messing around. She was she was she was kind of rubbed by that, which I understand, you know, and I was like, Hey, you know, humor is a part of it's a part of the human interaction. And you know, I don't want to go too far, but we got through that one. Then we had a guest preacher come in and did a marvelous job. He's a pastor and now a pastor in Winston Salem. And and he gave a wonderful illustration.

But in it, he bragged about how his grandmother was a great cook. And then I got another email and it was this is a microaggression or whatever. Okay, this is a stereotype. This is that that kind of idea about women and this is and so we you know, we started sort of I was like, man, there's something really wrong. There's something really off.

You know, this sounds a lot like, you know, political pundit rather than the girl that I know. And we just started kind of talking and, I mean, we would all listen, I can give you the whole story. At the very bottom of it, you know, the problem was, it wasn't skinny jeans, and it wasn't grandmama's cooking.

At the very bottom of it, elders and husbands have authority and family and church, and they're called to be men. And that's what was at the bottom of it. And here's the deal.

There's people right now at our campuses right now at the sound of my voice, and you know what, you're rubbed by that too. And what I want to try to do is I don't want to beat the podium. What I want to try to do is show you the beauty of what God has done. And there is a dance that women are called into in marriage, there is a dance that the church, men and women, are called into in the church, where there is leadership from the elder board, there is leadership from husbands, so that we don't step all over each other and so that we can actually go places. And we can see what God is going to do through us. There's a beautiful thing here, but I know that this can be tough.

Let me ask you a question. What if God actually designed the church specifically for His glory and our good? What if the way the church is ordered and organized is supposed to be something wholesome and beneficial for humanity, and it was created by a God and given to us in guidance and even rules and He has given us these things, and they're for our good and for our flourishing? Well, I think that's the case that the Bible makes, because He certainly does that in the family. And the church, the way it's led, is really sort of based off the analogy of the family.

Do you know, let me tell you something, do you know why a lot of churches around our community are dying, and they're about to be graveyard dead? Because they have taken the way they organize their church from the branches of government they see in the United States rather than the family and rather than what the Bible calls us to. They've decided it's some sort of democratic republic, you know, and they're trying to figure out all the different branches and voting on all this. And it's like, wait a minute, it wasn't patterned after a government.

It was patterned after the family. But God is a good leader who is willing to lead in sacrifice. He will win over wife and children who want to follow Him, and the family can move as a unit into God's glorifying purposes for them. That's what the Bible kind of talks about. And that's what we're going to get into here. Alright, so let me just talk about elders here this weekend. We're going to talk all around it, and then I'm going to call you to trust the elders.

That's going to be our time together today. I want to talk to you about three words. Overseer, noble task, more than three words, three phrases, okay? Overseer, noble task, and I want to talk to you about how character is king, okay? We want everybody clamors for accountability. I'm for accountability. You can't accountable your way out of bad character.

Character is king, okay? We're going to talk about those three and we'll dive into some application and we'll be done. Here we go. First Timothy chapter three.

That's important, right? That the Bible is likening to God's name. The Bible says that the elders are called to care for God's church.

Don't you see the connection there? Of the devil. I want to talk to you about overseer. I want to talk about noble task and character is king. Let's talk about overseer for just a minute.

Most of our time we're actually going to spend just in this first verse. Saying is trustworthy if anyone aspires to the office of overseer. Now, at Mercy Hill this is very important that you catch, okay? You're going to hear the term elder a lot and pastor some. And I fully acknowledge that from the outside that can be confusing, okay?

So I want to try to give you the key. At Mercy Hill, and there can be debate on this, I'm not going way into this right now, but they're, you know, debate on are these different positions in the church? Are there different names for different things?

And our entire tradition looks at this and says, no, we actually believe they're kind of different ways of saying the same idea, okay? And so you'll hear at Mercy Hill elder or you might hear us say pastor. You probably won't hear us say bishop very much or even overseer very much.

But we don't see a whole lot of distinction in those terms, okay? So even when he says overseer here, that would be like in our church us saying elder, but the idea of overseer is very descriptive, isn't it? What are they doing? Well, they're overseeing, right? They're doing the same thing that a man is supposed to do for his family. He's overseeing his family. Man, he's looking in. He's thinking about direction.

He's thinking about how we practically see what we want to see come out of the family. That's what an overseer is doing. Another way to talk about overseeing is they are doing what a shepherd does.

What does a shepherd do? Man, a shepherd oversees the flock, right? They are looking over the flock. They're leading the flock.

They feel responsible for the flock. And what I want to try to do is set up this analogy that I honestly think is in Paul's mind of the church being led like a husband is trying to lead. What the pastors to do for the church, you should be doing for your wife.

Remember I said that? Okay, now let's just reverse it, all right? What you should be doing for your wife is probably what the pastors should be trying to do for the church, right? To see them grow into maturity and mission, to present them blameless before the Lord, to do everything in our power through sacrifice to see you and at our campuses grow up into maturity, into the God dreams that he has for your life. They're very connected, this thing of husband and father and elder, okay? Let me give you a couple examples of this just from 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 5. For someone does not know how to manage their own household, how he care for God's church.

There's a connection there, right? But then look at verse 15. He says it even more specifically. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God.

Okay, there it is. As clear as you can get, right? The church is the household of the living God. It's the concept of a family unit where a husband is leading. Now what does Ephesians 5 tell us about the family unit? Well, it tells us very clearly that the husband is the head of the wife, that the husband is setting vision.

He's setting direction. This is what our family is going to be about. And what does the book of Genesis tell us about what the wife is? Man, she comes in to help that vision, to say yes, you're setting this vision.

But without me, we're not going to get there. It's two parts that are so integrally woven together, and they're so needed. You know, it's like if you, many people want to say, well, there's no distinction between husband and wife. Well, if that's true, then one of them is unnecessary. And the Bible doesn't say that. What the Bible is saying is there's these two parts. They're in the family and in the home.

And both of them are totally necessary. Let's just, you know, in the home. The best analogy is thinking about it in the home, right? People, man, Christians all over the world, they're giving up gender roles when it comes to the home. They don't know how much of the game they're giving away.

They don't know how much they're giving away when they do that. Okay, that we got to stand firm on the family so that we will understand church and vice versa, right? It's a dance.

Okay, so what happens? You know, one of the guys here at Mercy Hills named Jonathan Yarbrough, I didn't know, but he was actually on the video earlier, okay? And, you know, we affectionately refer to Yarbrough as the albino rhino. All right, he's a big dude. He's a Mack truck looking dude, okay? If you didn't know that, I would put a picture up that made him look really, but that's probably some kind of HR violation.

So I didn't want to do that. Everything he does is heavy. He lifts heavy, he steps heavy, and my word is he breathes heavy.

Okay, I know that because I just launched, I just did a podcast with him the other day, and I told him they had to turn the microphone down. Okay. But no, he's a big guy, heavy guy. Everything's heavy, heavy footed, except for when the brother is dancing. He can dance.

Okay. He does shagging. All right, that's what they do him and his wife. They go shagging, you know, the beach music and all that.

They go to some senior center in Denton at 109 somewhere. That's what they do. Okay, and they go shagging. I mean, twinkle toes gliding across the thing. You should see I'm calling Jonathan slick shoes. Yarbrough.

Okay, just gliding. Now, why do I bring that up? Well, it is a little bit of a dance that we do in marriage, right? I mean, it's like this. If we both lead, we step all over each other. If neither of us lead, we don't really go anywhere.

Right? So we lead, we help. We lead, we help.

Here's what I want you to see. The church is a family, and it's ordered like a family. 1 Thessalonians 2, 11 and 12, another good reference if you're writing this down. It's all like likens the role of elder to fathering in a congregation. I mean, I'm not saying it's all one to one.

I'm just saying there are a lot of similarities that are there. The elder is an overseer. He is responsible for the church and the way that a husband is responsible for a wife. Wives are called to help.

I understand. Men are called to sacrifice and lead. And this is this is this is so important for us to get guys. I'm talking about character of an elder.

I'm talking about what they do. But it's important for us to know that that that you know, it is a God given. It is a God given position that we hold.

And it's it's important for the beauty and the design of the church. Now, let me say this, I'm gonna move on. Okay. Like in a marriage, the only authority that an elder has over your life is that which you give him. Just like in a marriage, you could say all day, I'm you know, I'm the husband and I'm this and I'm that it's like all you get is what she gives you. So are you winning her to that? Are you laying your life down to win that right?

That that's all you get. I've shared this with you guys before, you know, me and and I've only had a few times in our life, I literally had to use the S word. Are you being submissive in this? I had asked the question.

It's only been a couple of times. One of them was I was like, man, anytime I call you, I never get you on the phone. And I feel like I'm responsible for you in a way that you're not for me.

And I need to know where you're at, where the kids are at all that. Well, I'll be honest with you. We're still working on that one. Okay.

All right. But I've told you before, I've used this before. I think it's a good example. The other example is, man, we got a kid that's a year old, she's working full time because we're just planting the church. All right, because we had I mean, she had to work and I was working. I mean, this is just and and and she's dog tired.

And every night the kids up a couple of AP was up a couple of nights a week. And, and finally a year in, I've got to tell her you need to let him cry it out. I don't want to do that. I know you don't want to do that.

I finally had to bring up the word the biggest word, right? Hey, listen, I know if she says no, what am I gonna do? I mean, there's I don't have that authority. I have the authority that what she gives me. Because really, it's an issue between her and the Lord. It's not even between me and her right. And so I say, Hey, we need we need to let him cry.

I think I've told you he cried for 10 minutes, the first night, two minutes, the second night, and then slept like a baby ever since. But in my mind, that's more of the idea of like, guys, you see something in her life that she needs to listen to you in for her good. And so that your family will flourish and thrive. That's, that's what I'm talking about with elders. Listen, with the elders sit down, somebody in a community group is falling as stuck in sin. And they and they come forward and the elders sit down, you know what they're gonna do, they're gonna create a plan. Much like a husband, they're gonna say, Hey, like, like I said to her, you need to let the boy cry it out. They're gonna have a plan for you. Man, the plan is, hey, we're gonna read this book, I want you to meet with me three times. Maybe it's something we want to we want to go through a counseling management, we have biblical counseling, I don't know what the plan is going to be.

It could be different for every situation. Whether you do that or not is going to be between you and the Lord. Right? I can't make you do anything, right? I can't, I mean, I don't have authority like that. But I have God given authority, if you would give it to me, between you and the Lord and all the elders of our church. That's what they do.

They're going to enter in to situations like that. And look what it says again, in verse one, this saying is trustworthy and true. This saying is trustworthy, sorry. It requires a noble task. Okay, I know I've spent a lot of time in verse one and really just talking about a specific word. But I was talking about overseer, like a shepherd overseas, like a husband overseas, his family. All right, overseer.

Okay, let me talk to you for just a few minutes. It is a very teaching oriented sermon, I know that. Okay, it's for the knowledge of the church. So we understand kind of how we're not even organized, but shepherded and led. All right, the second phrase I want to look at is noble task. Man, it is a noble task. Stepping into this concept of spiritual oversight over the flock. It is a noble task.

You don't appoint someone to that, if they're not ready for that. We'll talk about that in a few minutes with character. But what, okay, so here's what I want to ask the question. What is the noble task? Well, I'm going to do the thing that every English teacher in the world tells you not to do, but the Bible does all the time.

You know what that is? Mixed metaphors. Because I've been using one metaphor the whole time, family, right? The Bible. The Bible switches it up all the time.

What's the next metaphor? The flock. Shepherding, okay? Elders shepherd the flock. That's the deal, all right?

They shepherd the flock. Now, hey, I meant to say this earlier. Let me say one thing. I'm sorry, I hate to do this, but I'm going to go back. I meant to say, guys, a lot of times 1 Timothy 3 brings up a lot of questions around deacons.

I meant to just say this, okay? And a lot of us may have questions around that. The way you grew up, different things, deacon, okay. I want to tell you, we did a series, if you want to jot this down, called Gospel Church. And in that series, I preached a sermon from 1 Timothy 2 and 3 that was called God's Household, if you're interested in that. And halfway through that sermon, man, I spent 15 minutes talking about the way that we think about deacons, all right, and the way that we think the Bible teaches about deacons.

And I tried to be as clear as I could there. I don't have the 20 minutes to do it here, but I wanted to give you guys that footnote, okay? What about deacons?

Okay, you can go check that out if you're interested in that. All right, sorry, noble task, okay? What is the noble task? The noble task, we're switching metaphors, is shepherding the flock.

This is not a word, but sometimes I say to our guys, it is elding. Sounds like something off of Lord of the Rings, okay? You're an elder, you eld, all right? You're a shepherd, you shepherd. You are a shepherd of the flock.

1 Peter 5, 2 says this. This describes the noble task, I think. What does it mean to shepherd? I mean, shepherd is a noun, but here it's a verb. Shepherd to shepherd is to do the things that a noun shepherd does. Well, what does that mean? What do they do? Let me try to make it as succinct as I can.

It's the word of God that he uses to lead his people into maturity and mission. That's it. So, remember, husband, it's like, man, the wife is first. Kids aren't first, he's not first, she's first. Okay?

My goal is to present her blameless. All right, switch the metaphor. What's a shepherd? Man, shepherd, he's not first, right? Them sheep are first. And he is trying to make sure they get where they're going, and that they are held and protected and that they're strong all right what a shepherds do they do a couple of things the first thing is this shepherds protect the sheep you know Jesus told us there will be wolves in sheep's clothing I would think that's somewhere out there one of our campuses today or in this room I'm sitting right now there's a wolf in here I would bet anything on it one of our campuses there's a wolf you know why I you know because I've seen it so many times over and over and over that's why one of the reasons why God has given us the elders that they are to be looking they are to be watching they are to be in communication with their group leaders when a group leader is like man something is off they talk to their elder okay we got it let's let's talk about it what's going on is this is this an EQ issue is somebody just a little or is this a spiritual issue man what's going on because they are given to protect the flock that's what a shepherd does right that's what a husband does no joke the other night all of a sudden the alarm goes off that you know we have a thing where the door if you open the door it dings ding-ding two o'clock in the morning thing goes off I'm like groggy kind of waking up and it's like the alarm went off and I'm like I'm like okay and she's like well get up and go check it out you know and she's like and I'm looking I'm just still kind of trying to wake up and she's like well I know I ain't going and I was like that is super sexist okay let's just call it what it is all right I mean I'm joking but but I mean I it was nothing it was something our back door wasn't shut good or whatever because it was locked on the other side but but I just you know what does a husband do a husband is supposed to you know hey I'm waking up here I'm getting up I'm getting the bat baseball bat or the gun or whatever and I'm going right okay that Shepherd does that husband does that elder does that elder is looking out they are protecting because you know what they know Titus 3 10 that we're called to reject divisive people Matthew 7 5 that there are wolves in sheep's clothing we know that there are false teachers as we see in 2nd Peter chapter 2 they are to be ones who are always watching you know it's funny I've used illustration before but I it's funny to me in Spanish my dog is a German Shepherd that word is pastor Ali mine is German pastor is shepherd which is funny you know because we're like the pastor the shepherd right and I have a German Shepherd so it's funny too because we have a puppy now too he's only he's two years old so he's not a total puppy but he's you know he's young and all that but our my old dog who's 10 you know he's he isn't we talked about this all the time he is never not watching okay now the puppy I don't know what he's doing okay but but my man read all right he he isn't he is always watching man if a kid is out in the yard he is he is always there he can barely even get around anymore but you know he will drag his tail all over that property because he is not gonna let them get out of his sight it's a shepherd it's a pastor right there they're always watching because there is danger shepherds lead the sheep okay that's number two they lead the sheep just giving you a couple of little three things here the shepherds do all right shepherds lead the sheep so our desire as shepherds as pastors as overseers as elders okay our desire is growth and impact for everybody that is here but here's what we know man we know that the sheep need to be led into that now what now don't get offended okay in that sense all the shepherds are sheep too right we have a pastor who you know we have a an ultimate Shepherd right I understand that but God has given us instruments to make sure that the sheep are led to where they need to be because they won't go on their own you know and listen in 2005 there this happened in Turkey real story in 2005 there was one sheep that fell off a cliff and 1,500 other ones followed him by jumping willingly that's what sheep do they created the world's largest pillow the bottom of that cliff okay and it that's what sheep do man that is what a sheep will do they're following and listen don't be offended okay I'm taught this is all of us I mean in this sense we're all sheep we need to be you know we need there to be a God in heaven who is leading us okay the the pastors have been given to the church to lead man to be ones that are like hey we're checking in to see how you're doing in group now we want to know what's going on now we want to set up the things the discipleship pathways for you to be able to go through we're gonna push you to things like gather groups give and go because we see them as spiritually important in your life when you have a problem an issue it comes up through your community group and if it's something serious and everybody needs to be involved your elder is gonna find out about it and they're gonna want to talk to you or they're gonna want to coach your community group leader on how to talk to you all right do we do this stuff perfectly all the time of course we don't do it perfectly all the time but we're trying and that's what the elders do they're trying to lead this sheep we also do this organizationally guys our organization I don't sit at the top of something that is just me and all that no there are five brothers two of them are on our staff and three of them are lay all three of the lay guys are guys that are older than me I think I think almost all of them are all of them are grand grandparents and they get they have a perspective with that and they give us a chance those are the five brothers that even organizationally look out and lead the church into big decisions like the new building or like you know making big hires and on our lead team or if I was to get hit by a bus tomorrow I don't know it's always hit by a bus okay but they would they would be the ones that would would help replace my role in that you know that's what they're there to do to lead third third thing I would say is this what does shepherds do for the flock they feed the flock now what do they feed the flock they feed the flock the Word of God man they do that we do that by preaching that happens a lot we have a lot I remember last year I think it was we had over 20 20 different communicators preach in one of our campuses or a service which is awesome how do you know that's how you plant churches that's why multi-sided so awesome for church planting you know gives us all these opportunities to preach and all of that but it's not just that y'all we teach the word in counseling situations we teach the word when we're shit you know trying to trying to work with the group leaders on an issue or whatever you know sometimes preach sometimes teaching the word looks like you know we raise chickens at our house okay sometimes you go out there and you throw them a bunch of seed you know you throw a bunch of food but sometimes you got one that's a little bit needing something else and you got to pick that one up one-on-one and just kind of go like this you know what teaching the word feeding them the word it happens in both situations all right so we preach the word we cast the word the guys for our elders when we talk about feeding the sheep teaching the word is primary our pastors I think many times right now pastors are supposed to be from the world they're supposed to be cultural experts know what the Bible said is they're supposed to be able to teach the word I want to be sharp on stuff I try okay I try because our culture is moving so fast and I'm always reading I'm trying but the reality is there have been times where I have felt crushed by like man can I even keep up with all this or what if I get something wrong and it gives me a lot of of soulless sometimes to realize wait a minute I'm called to teach this book we are a people of one book all right and so that's what then we feed okay overseer noble task and I want to move toward this I know this seems like a lot here but I'm not gonna speak on this I want to just read to you the character qualifications because the reality is they're they're pretty straightforward and self-explanatory I don't know you need to preach a ton on some of this it's like being overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife we take that at Mercy Hill to mean a one-woman man okay we say a one-woman man sober minded self-controlled respectable hospitable able to teach not a drunkard not violent but gentle you get in the picture not quarrelsome not a lover of money must manage his own household well and with all dignity and keeping his children submissive for someone does not know how to manage on household how will he care for God's Church let me say one thing about that I think I've seen churches try to nail a pastor because they're teenagers a little bit going off the rails or whatever I think more of this the heart of this is a more like no no what are they trying to do about that like how are they engaging that how are they how are they bringing the children in you know to that it's it's not just like a pass fail for the pastor's kids here right I think about he must not be a recent convert don't don't be quick with this stuff he might become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil moreover he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into a snare of the devil now let me tell you this very plainly okay there is not one elder at Mercy Hill that embodies this perfectly it's it's not okay and we cannot have a culture among the church that wants to be healthy where any failure of any little thing is fatal even for the elders it can't be that why because none of us are Jesus okay so we're not gonna be in I look at this list and I'm like hey there's things that I'm trying to grow in I mean I think about my own life like I by nature analytical I can be quarrelsome I can be a person who's like man I disagree with you about that and that and that and that right I mean I you know I can be that guy and I and I've meant from from an EQ standpoint emotional intelligence standpoint I've tried to learn to temper some of that okay as I've gotten older but my point is there you know that's a little bit easy to say but there's a lot of things on this list that I am growing in our elders are growing in nobody's perfect but this is the type of person they're striving for this kind of character this is what they love here's what I want to tell you guys for the elders of this church character is King now why do I say that because okay there was a couple years ago a podcast went round the world in the Christian world okay it was about a famous church that imploded overnight seemingly but really when you got into it it was a lot of leadership issues and all this and a lot of people after listening to that podcast wanted to say well where was the accountability where was the accountability where was the accountability here's the problem with that there's really nobody else looking over the elder shoulder I mean an organization like ours we have like bylaws and stuff but when you're talking about sitting down with a family what what there can be accountability we need accountability but the reality is character and being slow on the front end matters so much more because you can do accountability all day but as that podcast even showed you can do accountability all day but the reality is it's the character of those who are in that leadership position you know this is let me give you an example okay it's one of the things I tell young women all the time it's like hey if you are talking about getting married all right you have got to think about what you are giving up and who you're willing to give that to what you're staying in a marriage is I am willing to let you someone else determine the vision and the direction that I'm gonna help in my life to get us there can you imagine what could be more important than somebody you're giving keys like that to then character right then character you don't be fast with something like that and that's why at Mercy Hill guys we do this you know when we're gonna think about an elder coming on who is going to Shepherd and by you know for us that primarily means working in the small group ministry with people okay before we do that we want to bring them up before the church on pictures and just say hey these are the names of the people that are going through this process if there's some reason we don't need to have one of them do it you've got to tell us we will have done our due diligence you know but if there's some reason what you've got to tell us because and the scripture tells us in Hebrews to obey our leaders I mean think about it from the church's standpoint what you are called to do necessitates the character of these men all right let me conclude with this I know this is a very teaching oriented sermon but here's what I want to call you to do y'all trust God's design for church leadership trust God's design for church leadership so I go all the way back to the intro man people can have a lot of problems with churches the living many you know I like I said the skinny jeans thing or the grandma's cooking thing a lot of times it comes down all the way to this do we love and trust the way God has designed this do we say can we say it is for our flourishing it is for our health it is for the best version of us that will blossom and flower in a growing church that is ordered well not perfectly by any means but but tries to be ordered well if you're struggling with that and you're like man I just cannot get there well then let me tell you this I want you to think about the gospel for just a minute all right I just want to take you on a little ride here y'all in our sin we don't deserve to have a good family like a good church family and our sin actually the scripture tells us that we're kicked out of the family I mean think about Ephesians 2 it says so then you are no longer strangers what does that mean it means in our sin we were kicked out of the family and we became strangers or aliens the Bible calls it we were separated from God but through the cross Jesus brings us who were once far off near think about it like this you are fellow citizens with Saints and members of the household of God you went from stranger to end the family how did that happen didn't happen because of your works it didn't happen it happened because Jesus Christ saw the church as worthy enough to die for it now here's what I want to tell you if you will trust that Jesus died for the church can we not trust his design for the church right if we can say man his value on it was enough that he would die for it I get to be included in that even though I don't deserve it done nothing but rebel fight run away from the family and yet God has brought me in he's adopted me in right think about eight of those 14 kids at High Point chosen to be in the family we've been adopted in all right if Jesus died for it will we not trust his design for it so hey you've been brought in all right now here's what I would say you know are you in the family two things I'm done are you in the family of God today man how you know maybe you've had all these issues around elders and husbands and the Bible and the way it talks about there okay man what if today is God opening your eyes to the beauty of his design and his love for even you he has died for you he wants to bring you into his family would you admit your sin believe in what he has done confess him as the Lord of your life and be brought in to the family of God but the last thing I'll say is this hey maybe some of us are already and you're like man I'm in I'm in the church but man this is a hard truth for me because I've been hurt by church leaders and I know in a room this size I think about all of our campuses and many people that will be here that's not a small number you've seen things abused you've seen TV shows of pastors flying around on jets you know I mean you've you know you know what I'm saying like you you've seen the part where you're like I can't bring myself to trust okay I've just got to call you to the maturity to say don't take what it was supposed to be by what you see in culture take what it's supposed to be by the Word of God and then I promise you Mercy Hills I'm gonna do this perfectly but then lay it up next to churches that are doing this well there's many in our community I pray that we're one of them then lay that up next to a church like Mercy Hill and see man if you can begin to trust again all right let's pray father come before you Lord we pray that you will take this series and just sear it into our heart give us courage to speak what is true we live in a culture that is so confused and clarity is the answer father I pray that we would learn to love the way you have designed your church and lean into it and trust our leadership God I know that the leaders in this church are not gonna get it perfectly right all the time father I pray that you'll keep us humble and you'll keep guiding and leading us as we lead this church in Christ's name we pray