1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,200 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 17 is where we will start. Last week we looked at some instructions 2 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:25,320 on who qualifies as a widow and there's certain qualifications there when it comes to supporting 3 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:31,040 the widows or as some of your translations may have said honor, to honor the widows. 4 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:40,880 And tonight we're shifting gears. We're talking about those who are elders or pastors. Timothy's 5 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,520 already dealt with that or Paul I should say has already dealt with that as far as the 6 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:49,440 qualifications for those who are going to be elders or overseers or we might call them 7 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:55,600 pastors. And here he's back on that giving some more instructions. So let's pray and 8 00:00:55,600 --> 00:01:01,600 we'll get started. Father God we come to you tonight. We thank you for these words. Dear 9 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:08,200 Lord I pray that you would help us to understand what your word says. God I pray especially 10 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:12,760 for me as one who's leading this church that you would help me to hear these words dear 11 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:17,040 Lord and listen to them and to live by them dear Lord that I would do a good job. Dear 12 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:21,480 Lord should I fail that these people would hold me accountable to that dear Lord as your 13 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:26,080 word says here. So God I pray that your word would be good for us tonight and it will. 14 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:30,320 I pray that your Holy Spirit would just speak to us and free us from the worries of the 15 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:33,960 world and hide me behind the cross that I may preach and teach in a way that brings 16 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:41,320 glory to you tonight. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. All right. First Timothy 17 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:48,920 chapter five verse 17 the elders who are good leaders should be considered worthy of an 18 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:54,380 ample honorarium. Some of your translations may say double honor especially those who 19 00:01:54,380 --> 00:02:00,920 work hard at preaching and teaching for the scripture says do not muzzle an ox while it 20 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:07,960 is treading out the grain and the worker is worthy of his wages. Now here he's talking 21 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:14,080 about those elders that is those who are leading the church position and we might be more familiar 22 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:18,440 with calling pastor. That is the one who's going to preach the one who's going to teach 23 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:24,320 the one who's going to be a leader. And what he says here is that the elders who are good 24 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:30,520 should be considered worthy of an ample honorarium are of double honor. Now it could just be 25 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:36,120 speaking of honor in a sense of respect. However it appears in the context that it's speaking 26 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:42,900 of support that that is there is some obligation for brothers and sisters in Christ that meet 27 00:02:42,900 --> 00:02:48,240 together to support those who are leading them those who are good leaders those who 28 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:52,960 are doing a good job those who are being faithful to the ministry those who are preaching and 29 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:57,520 teaching and doing the work that comes along with being an elder or being a pastor and 30 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:03,720 Paul says for those who are among you it is good to give them double honor to give them 31 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:10,760 an honorarium. That's a word you may hear sometimes is honorarium. You may perhaps maybe 32 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:15,960 we're most familiar with that in terms of a wedding or a funeral. Now sometimes people 33 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:20,480 say how much do you charge to do a wedding or a funeral and I say nothing. I don't charge 34 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,220 anything. I don't expect anything. I don't need anything. I don't want anything. Now 35 00:03:24,220 --> 00:03:28,240 I suppose some pastors have a fee as this amount of dollars is that amount of dollars. 36 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:32,300 But but an honorarium is something that's not required. It's not it's not something 37 00:03:32,300 --> 00:03:37,920 that's established that I'm charging X amount and you owe me for this. An honorarium is 38 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:43,520 something that that that that is is is meaning that it's not something that's being charged 39 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,240 for it's just something that's being done. It's something that the person wants to do 40 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:52,480 that the pastor wants to perform a wedding ceremony for example or or do a wedding for 41 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:57,320 example. There's no money expected. There's no money required. Sometimes however people 42 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:02,600 would choose to give money to a pastor. They would say here take this. We want to give 43 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:08,520 this to you and that would be considered an honorarium. I suppose that in the grand scheme 44 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:14,280 of things generally speaking I suppose any pay that anyone gives to a pastor even when 45 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:19,960 it comes from a church body I suppose that that would even be considered an honorarium 46 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:25,620 as well something that's maybe not expected. Perhaps a good example of this is Brother 47 00:04:25,620 --> 00:04:30,320 Ernie. Now Brother Ernie's not able to preach anymore but he was a faithful servant to this 48 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:35,680 church for years and Lord Lord knows he would love to be here today. He would love to go 49 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:40,560 see people today. He still would go visit people if he could but he's not able to but 50 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:46,080 the church still gives Brother Ernie money every month. I would consider that an honorarium. 51 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:51,000 That's something that we have acknowledged and recognized that he is a good leader. I 52 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:56,640 say he is. I don't say was because even though his health is declining and his mind is declining 53 00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:00,440 he is still a man who's strong in the faith. He's still a man who prays and he's still 54 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:06,720 a good leader for us. He's still a strength for us as a church and so we respect that. 55 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:11,960 We respect his years of service and what he has done and we continue every month to give 56 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:16,000 him an honorarium. Some of you may not know that but that's something that we voted on 57 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:21,160 years ago and we have continued to do praise the Lord and so that may be a good example 58 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:26,720 of this passage that's being spoken about here and he gives an example. He says it's 59 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:32,040 good to give this honorarium. It's good to support those who are in the ministry and 60 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:38,240 he says because the scripture says do not muzzle an ox while it is treading the grain. 61 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:44,280 Now that's a quotation from the Old Testament from Deuteronomy chapter 24 and the idea of 62 00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:52,440 being there is okay the ox is treading the grain and he's doing the work but the ox 63 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:55,600 also can eat a little bit of the grain and there's nothing wrong with that. That's the 64 00:05:55,600 --> 00:06:00,340 way it needs to be. The ox needs to be able to eat a little bit of the fruit of the labor 65 00:06:00,340 --> 00:06:04,560 and that gives the ox strength. If you just made the ox work all day and you didn't feed 66 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:09,600 him then the ox wouldn't do very good but it's alright the scripture says. The ox needs 67 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:14,040 to eat a little bit of grain along the way and it's okay for the worker to eat from the 68 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:19,680 fruits of his labors and this is the illustration that Paul is giving here. And then he gives 69 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:24,760 a quotation of Jesus from Luke chapter 10 verse 10 where he says the worker is worthy 70 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:31,320 of his wages. Now in this passage Jesus sends out 70 or 72, depending on your translation, 71 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:36,480 disciples to go out and do the work and Jesus says look if you go to a house go to it and 72 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,600 bring peace. Speak peace on the people and if they invite you in, if they give you a 73 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:45,720 place to stay, if they give you a food then eat it, partake of it. That's a good thing. 74 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:50,080 You're doing the work of the Lord and it's okay to partake of those things. That those 75 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,600 would be kind of the fruits of your labors that the Lord has provided. You're not going 76 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:59,920 asking people for anything but if someone wants to support the work of the Lord then 77 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:06,080 that's a good thing for those who are doing the Lord's work. Now certainly there is some 78 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:12,800 difference of interpretation and difference of opinion among Christians as to what this 79 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:18,280 should look like in churches. Now some would say that pastors shouldn't take any type of 80 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:22,680 pay from a church, that they should be willing to preach free of charge and I think that 81 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:27,920 that's probably a good belief. I think that that should be the heart of a pastor. Some 82 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:33,880 would say that you know what it shouldn't be the job of a church collectively but anyone 83 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:38,760 who wants to support the pastor could do so and that may be by giving them groceries or 84 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:43,920 giving them food or giving them money or whatever it may be and let the Lord provide that need 85 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:49,440 as it sees fit. Some would say that it's wrong for a church body to pay a pastor. Some would 86 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:54,340 say it's not wrong that the church collectively says hey we see that there's a man who's serving 87 00:07:54,340 --> 00:07:59,080 us and serving our community and preaching and teaching to us and we want to give that 88 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:04,440 and we choose to give that and so you can decide for yourself what you think is right 89 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:09,680 or what you think is wrong. There's certainly differences of opinion there but I'll tell 90 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:16,240 you as a pastor for me it's a blessing to be able to serve. It's a blessing to be able 91 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:20,760 to get to go see people. Now some would say a pastor needs to work a full job and preach 92 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:26,520 on the weekends and maybe that's correct. However I'll say as a pastor that it's a 93 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:30,480 blessing to be able to not have to work a full job during the week to be able to be 94 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:34,240 at the hospital with people and to be able to go where people are sick and to be able 95 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:38,480 to help people when there's a need. I think that there's a need for that too. I think 96 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:44,800 that that's important and so I think it's good for pastors to serve in those ways if 97 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:51,040 they can. Sometimes pastors have to work a real job if we can call it that. Other times 98 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:56,800 pastors may not have to be bivocational but I think that the Lord provides and I think 99 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:01,400 that that's what Paul is saying here that it is good for the people to support those 100 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:06,600 if they see them doing the Lord's work. If you don't see me or whoever may be here in 101 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:11,120 the future doing the Lord's work then it doesn't need to be supported. You don't want to support 102 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:15,840 those who are not doing the Lord's work, who are not preaching and teaching, who are not 103 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:20,800 taking care of those in the community. But Paul says do support those who have been good 104 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:25,800 leaders and are being good leaders. Offer support to them. It's good for the church 105 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:33,720 to do that. Verse 19, don't accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by 106 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:41,000 two or three witnesses. Now elders probably being in that position to be an elder, to 107 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:47,600 be an overseer or be a pastor, you kind of set yourself up for attack to some extent. 108 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:52,000 If somebody is not happy with what you're doing or somebody wants to do something or 109 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:55,960 say something to try to tear you down if they don't like you then you're kind of a prime 110 00:09:55,960 --> 00:10:02,800 target because you're kind of in the spotlight so to speak as a pastor. All eyes are on you 111 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:07,800 so if somebody really wanted to hurt you then they could say anything or they could come 112 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:13,660 up with some accusation. Well what does Paul say here? Don't pay attention to every accusation. 113 00:10:13,660 --> 00:10:17,440 Somebody might come up with an accusation against a pastor that they don't like. There 114 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:22,800 are certainly plenty of people in the world that don't like a pastor for whatever reason 115 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:31,120 and some would use their dislike or even hatred of a pastor to say things to try to tear them 116 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:36,080 down or to spread rumors or say things that aren't true. So what does Paul say? He says 117 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:40,320 look, if you hear somebody that just comes out of the woodwork and says something then 118 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:46,700 pause for a second and make sure that it's true. Let there be two or three witnesses. 119 00:10:46,700 --> 00:10:50,440 Don't just listen to one person that comes out of the woodwork but give your elder the 120 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:53,840 benefit of the doubt. If he's been a good leader, if he's been a good pastor, if he's 121 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:59,080 been a good elder then he deserves the benefit of the doubt. If there's no history of him 122 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:04,160 doing a bunch of crazy stuff and you hear something that's pretty crazy then give him 123 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:07,480 the benefit of the doubt. That's not to say that maybe he didn't fail or do something 124 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:13,080 wrong. It is certainly possible that sometimes that pastors will fall in some way or fail 125 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:17,760 in some way. But generally speaking, if somebody comes with an accusation kind of out of the 126 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:23,000 blue then you might not want to put too much emphasis on that. If two or three people come 127 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:27,600 forward and say hey, here's something I've seen, here's something that's going on, well 128 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:32,240 then we need to pay attention to that. We need to deal with that. And that's what Paul 129 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:39,080 is saying here. Look, pastors and elders need to be good, faithful men of God that are above 130 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:44,720 reproach. We've already seen that in the qualifications. And so he's holding him to a high standard 131 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:48,680 but he's also offering a little protection here. He's giving the people a little instruction 132 00:11:48,680 --> 00:11:53,160 here. Look, pay attention and be careful when somebody comes against your elder and make 133 00:11:53,160 --> 00:12:01,160 sure that the charge they're bringing against them is a legitimate charge. Verse 20, publicly 134 00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:09,760 rebuke those who sin so that the rest will also be afraid. Now this passage is kind of 135 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:15,480 an interesting and difficult passage in a sense. Now it would seem as though in the 136 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:21,500 context that he's speaking of elders here when he speaks of rebuking those. However, 137 00:12:21,500 --> 00:12:27,280 you could argue that he's speaking generally of anybody. And this is a scary passage because 138 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:31,800 this is one of those you could kind of just pluck out of context and just take by itself 139 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:36,120 and you may get yourself in trouble. Cause what does it say? Publicly rebuke those who 140 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:41,920 sin so the rest will also be afraid. So does that mean that if we find out somebody's sinning 141 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:46,480 among us that Sunday morning in church and announcements when I say, does anybody have 142 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:51,200 anything to say that you stand up and say, sister so and so has been sinning in this 143 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:55,360 way? Well, I don't think that that's the way that we should handle it. I don't know that 144 00:12:55,360 --> 00:13:01,160 that's appropriate. Now, perhaps, perhaps there is occasion for that. As the scripture 145 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:06,200 says, look, if somebody sins against you, then you go to them. If they keep sinning 146 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,600 against you and they don't change, then take somebody with you. If they still continue 147 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:15,880 to sin against you, the scripture says, bring it before the church. So perhaps there is 148 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:21,480 a time that things need to be brought before the church, but always in a very prayerful 149 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:28,160 way. This is one of those passages that we probably never, we never, we never carry out 150 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:33,480 or very seldom carry out. And, and, and maybe rightfully so it's probably good that we don't 151 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:38,600 carry this out very often. If we come in here every week pointing people out for sins, then 152 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:43,480 we would have a lot of trouble on the flip side of that. There may be other times that, 153 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:48,000 that maybe there is sin that's going on in the church and people know that that sin's 154 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:53,520 going on, especially with an elder. That's, that's serious. It needs to be addressed. 155 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:58,600 It needs to be dealt with. And I think in the context here that Paul is speaking about 156 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:03,920 elders that it needs to be made known, Hey, look, the leader of this church has been living 157 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:09,840 in sin in this way and it's not acceptable. And we are not going to support that. Now 158 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:15,080 we'll help him. We'll try to restore him, but he is not fit to lead this church. And 159 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:19,040 sometimes churches have to do that. There, there are times and you may have known of 160 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:24,680 churches or pastors that have failed in some grievous way. And the church had to say, look 161 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:29,000 brother, we love you, but this is not acceptable. And there has to be times where you have to 162 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:34,440 stand up and say, brother, so-and-so is not fit to lead right now. And, and maybe that's 163 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:39,360 what it's talking about here because to be a pastor, to be an elder should be held in 164 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:43,800 the highest regard. It should be something that should not be taken lightly for those 165 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:48,880 who are going to serve in that way. And so this just adds a little more, a little more 166 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:54,180 seriousness to it. Hey, if you fail, this, it's going to be a big deal. And this is how 167 00:14:54,180 --> 00:15:00,980 Paul says to deal with it, to publicly rebuke those who sin so that it, the rest will also 168 00:15:00,980 --> 00:15:06,200 be afraid. And so when it comes to rebuking those who sin, we want to be careful. We never 169 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:10,360 want to be those who just go around pointing the finger at everybody else and using a passage 170 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:15,600 like this at justification. Certainly we're all sinners, but in the same, in the same 171 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:20,120 vein, sometimes we know as brothers and sisters in Christ, that there are other brothers and 172 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:24,080 sisters that are sinning and it's not right. And sometimes out of love, we have to sit 173 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:30,080 down and say, look, what you're doing is not right. You don't need to do this. And so oftentimes 174 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,960 we don't like to hear that. We take that as an attack. We respond with who are you to 175 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:38,080 call me a sinner? You're a sinner. But sometimes maybe we need to listen to what people are 176 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:41,600 saying. When we, when we tell somebody, I love you and I'm worried about what you're 177 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:46,080 doing, we're not implying that we're perfect. We're not saying, I'm telling you this because 178 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:50,360 I'm perfect and better than you. We all as brothers and sisters in Christ, we kind of 179 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:54,440 sharpen each other and there are all, for all of us, there are times maybe that we need 180 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:58,040 somebody to say, look brother, look sister, I'm worried about you. You know, this isn't 181 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:02,880 a good way to live. And I don't think that there's harm in that. I think that there is, 182 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,680 there is love in that, but we just have to be careful about how we do it. And we have 183 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:10,120 to be very prayerful about how we do it and when we're going to do it and let the Lord 184 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:17,680 lead us and he'll give us the words to say, should those times come. Verse 21, I solemnly 185 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:23,560 charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to observe these things without 186 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:30,280 prejudice, do nothing out of favoritism. So we might be tempted sometimes if there's somebody 187 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:35,280 we really like to let them get away with a little more, but we don't want to show favoritism. 188 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:39,880 God doesn't show favoritism. And that's what Paul tells Timothy here. Don't, don't show 189 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:47,400 favoritism in that way. Verse 22, don't be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder and 190 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:53,960 don't share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Well, this is good advice. You don't 191 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:58,240 want to just pick somebody out of the blue that you don't know very well and say, Hey, 192 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:02,320 would you be the pastor of this church? Would you, would you come? We want you to be our 193 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:07,720 elder. We need to get to know people a little bit. You need to be able to kind of gauge 194 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:14,040 them for years and years and years, probably some long period of time. You need to be able 195 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:19,080 to kind of know who somebody is to kind of understand whether or not that they really 196 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:25,000 are somebody who's living for the Lord. And, uh, I think that's important. If, if, you 197 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,880 know, sometimes people from other churches, uh, might, you know, if they're looking for 198 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,520 a pastor, they may say, Oh, you know, what should we look for or what should we do? Or 199 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:38,360 we're not sure. I always advise them first and foremost to look for somebody local. Now 200 00:17:38,360 --> 00:17:42,960 you can get a stack of resumes for people from Timbuktu, but you don't know them. You 201 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:48,040 don't know them at all. But if you find a man of God that is local, that you know, that 202 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:52,400 feels called a preach, then I think that's the best place to start because you got a 203 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:56,300 good idea of who you're looking at. You got a good idea of what their life is and how 204 00:17:56,300 --> 00:18:01,800 they have lived their life. And that's important. So don't be too quick to appoint somebody 205 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,400 to be your elder, to be your pastor. If you don't, if you don't know them, if you don't 206 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:09,560 know a little bit about them, if you don't know if they really are living for God or 207 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:15,920 not. Okay. So don't be too quick to point in one and don't share in the sins of others. 208 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:22,600 Keep yourself pure. So perhaps if you are an elder and you see other elders around you 209 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:28,320 that are sinning in some way, you may want to justify that. You may want to say, well, 210 00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:32,400 you know, other, other preachers are doing it. So maybe it's not that bad, but we shouldn't 211 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:37,560 justify sin. Whether we're a preacher or not, we should never justify the sin of those around 212 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:42,440 us. We should strive to keep ourselves pure. And I think that's super important for those 213 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:46,800 who are going to be elders and those who are going to be pastors to keep their self pure 214 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:51,640 and to try in every way to do that. Billy Graham perhaps is a good example of that. 215 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:56,840 And he was kind of in his prime. I think this was back in the seventies. Uh, I forgot what 216 00:18:56,840 --> 00:19:01,120 they call it. Uh, it was some name that he and the group that was, he was ministering 217 00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:05,080 with called it. But, but anyway, they, they came up with these, these rules that they 218 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:09,920 gave theirself about when they were out doing all these evangelism tours, that they would 219 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:13,480 never be alone with another woman. They would never eat a meal with another woman. There 220 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:18,760 were all these ways in which they were trying to protect themselves from any temptation 221 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:24,080 they may have. And from anything anybody might try. There's a famous story about once, and 222 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:28,320 I've heard this story multiple ways, uh, that either Billy Graham had got on an elevator 223 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:32,120 and there was a woman on there. And as soon as the door closed, she took her clothes off. 224 00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:35,760 And when the doors opened on the next floor, there were people there to take pictures. 225 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:40,240 One version I heard she was in his hotel room. I'm not sure which version of that is true, 226 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:45,320 but that was one of Billy Graham's rules is he would never ride an elevator with anybody 227 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:50,320 else. He'd ride it alone, especially not a woman unless his wife was with him. Why? Because 228 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:55,360 he was trying to protect himself. He wanted to remain pure. And even if he didn't have 229 00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:01,800 any temptation to sin, he didn't want anything that someone else may do to take away from 230 00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:06,600 his ministry. That's a good example of if you got, if you got something like that, that 231 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:10,780 happens. Well, take a long look at somebody's life and somebody's ministry. What are the 232 00:20:10,780 --> 00:20:14,660 odds that they're going to do that? Well, in his case, it was probably pretty slim. 233 00:20:14,660 --> 00:20:19,040 So that's easy to figure out that there was somebody kind of out to get him. But anyway, 234 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,840 he and the group that was with him, they had all these rules for this reason so that they 235 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:27,760 could remain pure and that they would never give anybody any kind of reason to doubt the 236 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:35,880 work that they were doing. Verse 23, don't continue drinking only water, but use a little 237 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:41,760 wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. Now, this is an interesting thing 238 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:47,240 to kind of throw right here in the middle of this. It seems a little out of place. Now, 239 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:51,520 maybe it's just in the middle of rightness. Paul just happened to think about this. He 240 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:56,000 said, Oh, you're having some trouble with your stomach and the water's probably not 241 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:00,280 good. So mix a little wine with it and that'll, that'll help purify the water. That'll help, 242 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:05,160 that'll help clean it up, kill anything that's in it. Maybe it just popped into his mind. 243 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:10,320 Some have suggested that, that maybe Timothy was trying to refrain from, from drinking 244 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,960 any wine whatsoever. And maybe Paul is saying, look, it's okay to drink a little wine is 245 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:20,840 okay. To be a drunkard is not okay, as we have seen in the previous chapters, but having 246 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:24,920 a little wine is okay. And maybe, maybe he's just telling Timothy, it's all right. You 247 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:29,000 know, you're sick and a little wine in your water is not going to hurt anything. Now it 248 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:34,520 has been suggested by some that the water in those days was not always pure, that it 249 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,400 was not always safe. And that it would, it would have some things in it that would cause 250 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:43,440 you to get sick. But by mixing your water with a little wine, it would kill whatever 251 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:47,480 was in there and it would make it safe to drink. And there are still, as best as I can 252 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:52,320 understand some places in the world today that do this same practice, mix a little wine 253 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:57,680 with their water so that it will be safe for them to partake of. So he gives, he gives 254 00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,960 Timothy this instruction here for whatever reason, he just kind of, he kind of throws 255 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:07,760 it in the middle of this passage. And then it seems like he gets back to the point and 256 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:14,720 that is elders, verse 24. Some people's sins are obvious going before them to judgment, 257 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:20,880 but the sins of others surface later. Likewise, good works are obvious and those that are 258 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:26,520 not obvious cannot remain hidden. So when you're looking for those who are going to 259 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:30,800 be elders and those who are going to be pastor, there are some people that you could write 260 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:36,560 off off the bat. You could say he is not qualified. He doesn't meet the qualifications. You see, 261 00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:40,880 you see the sin, you see the troubles in his life. Other people, however, you got to be 262 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:45,920 patient because some things Paul said they could remain hidden for a little while, but 263 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,120 ultimately they're going to rise to the top. They're going to, they're going to kind of 264 00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:50,120 work their way up. 265 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:54,680 Now I remember when we first bought our, our house, there was a spot right out there that 266 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:59,360 it was just grass. And lo and behold, after almost three years, there's some roots that's 267 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:03,200 kind of boiled up to the top of the ground. I didn't know they were there before, but 268 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:07,880 over time they kind of boiled up to the top of the ground. Well, that's how it is with 269 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:13,040 our sin. Sometimes we can kind of keep things hidden, but, but ultimately if somebody's 270 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:18,480 got some trouble, give them a little time, watch them and you'll be able to see things 271 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:22,600 that aren't right. Now that's not to say again, that there are not going to be times that 272 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,640 a pastor's got going to say something or act in a way that he shouldn't have acted in. 273 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:31,120 But, but when you see those things rise to the top, if you see those things be pretty 274 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:35,920 persistent, you see a pattern of those things. Well, that's what Paul's being telling us 275 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:40,640 to look out for. He said, you can't hide those things forever. But on the flip side, he ends 276 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:45,720 with a positive. He said, the good works are obvious as well. So sometimes good works are 277 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:51,060 obvious. You just see somebody and you see that they're doing good works of God. Maybe 278 00:23:51,060 --> 00:23:54,680 you don't see those good works. Maybe there's somebody you're thinking, man, maybe that 279 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,600 needs to be our next pastor. And you look at him and you say, Oh, I'm not too sure. 280 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,360 I don't see, I don't see anything bad, but do I really see any evidence that they're 281 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:06,640 working for the Lord? Well, Paul says, eventually the good works will rise to the top. They 282 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:14,400 won't be hidden either. So the point being, I think is time will tell the tale. And sadly 283 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:18,220 in our, in the kind of in our, in our church structure today, in the way that things are 284 00:24:18,220 --> 00:24:24,520 laid out and the way that churches call pastors, very seldom do they know who the pastor is 285 00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:30,200 very seldom do they have other than a resume and maybe a few people they call. But, but 286 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:34,960 I believe probably in these days that the elders and the pastors that are being spoken 287 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,280 of here were people from the community, people that, that the congregation would know and 288 00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:43,680 people that they would choose and say, all right, we think you, you have what it takes. 289 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:49,080 We see the way you live your life and, and, and laying on of hands and appointing people 290 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:53,300 to be elders. And I suspect that maybe some of our churches would be better off today 291 00:24:53,300 --> 00:24:59,640 if the people of the church knew who the person was that they were going to call. So Paul 292 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:05,120 gives some good instruction here for Timothy and some good instruction for elders too. 293 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:09,720 It's good for me who's in the ministry as a pastor, and it's good for you as a church 294 00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:15,000 to look at these things. And, and we want to make sure as a church that, Hey, hold me 295 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:19,520 accountable. Am I doing a good job? We, I want to make sure as a pastor to look at passages 296 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:24,320 like these and say, Hey, am I being obedient to the word of God in the future? Should you 297 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:28,580 go to another church or when the time comes that I leave this church, we want to remember 298 00:25:28,580 --> 00:25:34,520 these things so that as a body of Christ, wherever we may be that we are, we are under 299 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:39,800 a person who's going to be a good leader and who's going to serve God, not one who is hungry 300 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:44,440 for money. That should always be a red flag that, that if somebody says I want X amount 301 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:48,960 of dollars or I'm not coming, well, I would tell them, thank you. Have a nice day. We 302 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:53,720 don't want you to come, but everybody's got to do their own thing. But we don't want people 303 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:57,960 who are, who are greedy for money. I think it's good. Praise the Lord. If churches can, 304 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:03,500 can, can provide for a pastor and allow them to do the work, that's a good thing. But those 305 00:26:03,500 --> 00:26:08,080 who are seeking money and seeking more money, well, that's not a good sign. And so Paul 306 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:12,580 says, look, there's an obligation to support the pastor, but make sure that they're doing 307 00:26:12,580 --> 00:26:17,600 a good job. Hold them to a high standard. And if they're not held to a high standard 308 00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:22,040 or excuse me, if they're not doing right, then address that. And so Paul gives us kind 309 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:27,280 of some hard instruction here, but it's good instruction nonetheless. Let's pray. Father 310 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,760 God, we thank you for these good words. And I pray that you would help us to be a church 311 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,160 who is faithful, dear Lord. You would help me to be a faithful leader, that you would 312 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,920 help us as a church to be faithful in all we do, dear Lord. We want to be about your 313 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:43,480 business. We want to be about your work. And so I pray God that we would all work together 314 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:48,000 to accomplish that goal. I pray that we would take passages like these and kind of let them 315 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:53,160 simmer and to dwell on them and to know how we need to respond and how we need to react 316 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,360 and how we need to deal with certain situations, dear Lord. And I pray that you would help 317 00:26:57,360 --> 00:27:03,760 us to be careful. If we ever try to restore a brother, dear Lord, we need to look at the 318 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:07,880 log in our own eye before we take the speck out of our brother. So help us to examine 319 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:12,960 ourselves so that we will be fit, dear Lord, to help restore someone else. So God, let 320 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:18,680 us never have a heart of being judgmental, but let us only have a heart of love that, 321 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:24,120 God, we would seek for others to be restored as you seek for us to be restored, dear Lord. 322 00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:27,920 I thank you for your word and I pray that you just bless it. And I ask these things 323 00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:43,280 in Jesus' name. Amen.