And first Timothy three and let me get the slide with the verse and we'll read this passage. I'll read as as you listen first Timothy three The saying is trustworthy if anyone aspires to the office of overseer Which is elder he desires a noble task Therefore an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife so reminded self-controlled Respectable hospitable able to teach not a drunkard not violent but gentle not quarrel some but a lover of not a lover of money He must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children submissive For if anyone does not know how to manage his own household how will he care for God's church and then down to verse 12 talking about deacons Paul repeats let deacons each be the husband of one wife managing their children In their own household's well Let's pray Father just looking at that list. We would have to bow down and Proclaim how great you are and how sinful we are and I know those who are Officers in this church and in searches throughout our domination are
struck at the Qualifications that are given there and we know how we must depend upon you And we pray for those who would be nominated this year to serve that You would even use this sermon to encourage Folks to be nominated into accept nomination and also to give us all a a healthy sense of The sober nature of what it means to be involved in Giving servant leadership in your church We pray for our needs For they are many we pray you to forgive our sins for they are many We pray God that you would bring recovery and health and restoration to Many of our congregation who are suffering of pray for Chuck particularly has spent a very long Morning for him and just pray that the virus would quickly pass and not impact the rest of his family and you know Many in the community are ill at this time. We ask your sustaining grace all them and in their lives Teach us today in Jesus name. Amen I Was asked the other day in class of about took my watch off but on the podium and in the Bible class and when the students said Well, you know, why do you do that? I was reminded of a story of Someone had a friend at church a friend who'd never been to church and the service is is going on and they you know The the men come down with the offering plates and they says what is that for what is happening? It says well, this is where people give you know to help support the ministry of the church and it was a church that had Sort of alters and kneeling rails and this is how everybody got down to the kneel and and the friend said What is this forces with this is you know, we kneel at this point to pray Pastor got up to to preach and took his watch off later on the podium says well, what does that mean? He says absolutely nothing So you can hope that's not the case today, but in looking at our passage in in Timothy we see the reality of of the call for Elders and Deakins and the theme is officers in the family of God because In that passage there was the repetition of the whole aspect of the officers in their family and Therefore the qualification for being involved in leading in the family of God and Thing that we see the way of introduction is that churches and Westminster Church is like a family God is set up the church as a family. We are part of a body. We're part of a family of Christ And so there are principles that relate and the principles relate to those who are active We call active elders or inactive elders and Deakins and church members Those who are not officers need to understand the role of those who are elected and you know We'll have nominations right now in a couple of months You'll be asked to elect elders if you're here today and you're visiting and you're thinking well, this doesn't relate to me I'm not a member That's okay. We want you to hear so where is our heart when it comes to Looking towards our officers who lead the church. What are the qualifications and you need to to be aware of that? So that you can can know who we are and family relationships You know can be kind of messy and we all know that Family relationships can be messy and frustrating and so we can really expect the time to see the same thing in the life of a church Is sometimes life of a church can get Messing and frustrating and so we want to ask God to raise up Officers who lead the church in shepherding through the the messy and frustrating times and God says one of the main things is that An overseer and elder needs to manage his household well in the same applies for Deakins There's a there's a flow in the text that we saw where Paul is making the comparison between managing her household well and He says managing Now he did say the the family of God is as the church which is the family of God and so there's a connection there And it means that the church and the family share qualities that make one who manages this family well qualified to manage the church Also now there are there are other qualities that are built in there versus that we looked at and Characteristics that we looked at but particularly I want to focus on this aspect of the family quality and the first thing What I want to point out is that this is serious business It is so important as we go to nominating and electing officers because God has placed Officers in the church to give leadership and direction in spiritual oversight and I become increasingly convinced by the Passages of scripture like Hebrews 13 and elsewhere that he says to the church your leaders the elders Keep watch over your souls and though as those who give an account To God let them do this with joy not with grief For this will be unprofitable for you and then Paul and speaking to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 He says be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers To shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood that the church of God is a Purchased church purchased by the blood of Christ and so God says be very careful how you lead this church and you can hear Paul is the Pleads and gives earnest words here to the elders and the shepherds when he talks about God purchased a church with his own blood He says to care for them to give care and concern and that Adiv caring of course conveys the importance of the gravity of the situation that there is a there is a danger To the church if a man doesn't lead his own family, but is asked to lead the church This should create humility to fall on our faces before God and to seek the input of others if Those who are who are in positions of leadership or those who may be nominated if somebody comes and says you know I want to nominate you for an office You're you're right to say I've got to fall before God and just plead for God to do a work and for God's grace to be in my life and all my life and through my life That is a very certainly very natural and appropriate response. So the impression or leave this morning, especially really for all of us who are fathers and And particularly those who would as scripture said that the worthy thing to aspire to be an overseer is that being a Responsible parent is serious business and that being a shepherd in the church is serious business And then we see that the second main point is to be qualified to leave the church says that a man must be a good manager Of his family Now there's something about this word to manage. It's it's a great word. It has two distinct Context I'm going to to nuance is so to speak the first is it means to stand before is the one who leads and protects and It also means that you care for the word indicates care and diligence to attend to Family and the focus in this verse. I believe is that of caring there is yes There's a sense of standing before and protecting and leading but also and I think primarily in this context is that of caring for the church that The idea is that the leaders are to bring a separating caring mentality and heart to the church and The word that is used to care for here in 1st Timothy the only other time in the New Testament where that word is used is in the Parable of the Good Samaritan when it says that he took him to the inn and took care of him Now so that tells us that the the shepherds of the church the elders your job our job is to care for wounded people what this tells us in the church is full of wounded people that we know that We don't always like to admit that that we're hurting and that we're wounded, but the reality That is the case and so as shepherds our our job is to care for wounded people the way the Good Samaritan cared for the man who had been Beaton and left on the side of the road that the aim of leadership is not coercion and Loading it over people as Peter tells us, but it is to shepherd the flock with care and And it doesn't mean that elders are just sort of syrupy sweet and nice It means the compassion leads us to act in caring ways and sometimes caregiving can be hard Sometimes caregiving can be painful and any parent knows that when you're dealing with children when you know a child and It falls down and scrapes an egg. It's an elbow, you know Banged up and is bleeding. It's how come running in for care But you know the child didn't necessarily want it to hurt But we know as parents sometimes it's going to hurt a little bit We have to put that that stingy stuff on there, you know some of us remember mccuric room You know that orange bright orange stuff that you'd put on there and boy that was stingy you have to You know blow it and stuff and and our kids where there is that or something else I remember to say not this thingy stuff that this thingy stuff, but to care for the wound sometimes You have to do something that isn't going to be pleasant at the moment and this is the part of sort of shepherding and and Being an elder that is is not always fun because sometimes to care for hurting adults because adults we can be a lot like kids We have wounds. They may be different types of wounds They may be deep emotional wounds deep psychological ones. They may be deep relational wounds and that wound is starting to To get infected and it's impacting Relationships and marriages and families and relationships in the church and it becomes evident that it needs care and The shepherds are called to come and to give care To that person and sometimes you've got to go in and you've got to really take a look at that wound You've got to to examine that wound. You've got to you know Open that wound and and I don't know what they do, you know I'm TV you got to get in there and irrigate and suction and intubate and all those doctor words You know, but you got to go in there and it's not always pleasant for the person that's having that done to him But it's necessary but the good news is and And here here's the sort of the tricky thing the stingy stuff is the gospel Because the gospel does sting at first because it tells us and it reminds us that we're bigger sinners than we dare imagine That what it reminds us that that some of the stuff that's going on in our lives and and why our relationships are infected and why our hearts are Infected is because part of it is sin on our part and it may be maybe a hundred percent Well, it's probably never a hundred percent sent on somebody else's part But it may be majority sent on somebody else's part But it's causing us to hurt and and to sting where the gospel comes in and it tells us and it stings it reminds us of our sin But the gospel is also like a soothing balm that tells us that there's forgiveness and that we can be more loved and Forgiven and accepting and then we dare imagine or understand through Christ and as shepherds That's what we go with Is the stingy stuff of the gospel when we have to deal with wounded people not because we want to see people hurt But because we want to see people healed and the gospel does that but it may sting a little bit Paul tells us that The way a man manages his household is a good test of whether he can provide What the church really needs namely leadership Then has a caring heart and a caring heart that has the strength to lead Sometimes his parents we don't want to make that that hard decision with our with our little child or with our teen or with a you know An older child because it stings and it you know We might just want to avoid it and easily that doesn't work real well And so what Paul is saying is you know, we need to To see if we're doing it on our home. There's a good chance. We'll do a better job of it in the church And so there's a relationship there, but this raises a serious question our parents responsible for their kids behaviors I mean if you've got you know one child you want to say hey, I'm not totally responsible for child's baby You got more one child. You definitely want to say I'm not responsible for the child's behavior and yet scripture says and it indicates Obviously Ephesians 6 says children obeying your parents and the Lord that is it is a command that child has a responsibility Do what they say don't lie to them respect them honor them next to God the instruction of your parents is the most important thing in your life You need to hear you need to listen to and so children you have that God-given Responsibility and all the parents said Hey, man And so there is the responsibility of the child well, but yet there's some kind of a balance here on the other hand scripture and the text that we read says that Fathers are in some way responsible for the behavior their children says you must manage his own household well keeping his children submissive respectful in every way So what is it? Is it the total of the child's responsibility or is it the parents responsibility? But that is quite attention and some of you know that tension very well and some of you live with just a deep sense of of either my child has failed or I have failed my child or see just a lot of heartache related to this and The reality is that these two things are intention and There is not a clear cut answer Is it this or is it this? scripture says They're both involved about I wish I had a good simple easy answer formula of how to lay that out But in respect to scripture, you know, I can simply say that we have to let these two ongoing truths stand That yes children are responsible and yes There is some way in which how we as parents Raise our children we certainly have an influence in an impact. There's not a direct a to be correlation as much as we like to think there is but that there's there's something in there that is a mystery and We just have to let the mystery be a mystery That's hard for us We want it all to be nice and tidy and wrapped up neat in a package and it just doesn't happen that way Kids don't come in a nice neat package families don't come in a nice neat package and There's a mystery here that just causes us to go back and say God how great thou art We need you Well, the third principle is that the gospel must be operative and I mentioned that alluded to that that the the central focus of Shepherding is the gospel because the gospel aims not only at behavior but at the heart We're not a church. We don't want to be a church where everything is focused on external behavior Where we've got a list of of do's and don'ts either written out or or of the very subtle Because the gospel aims at the heart and out of the heart will flow the qualities and characteristics that come as we understand the gospel more and more and actually I'll be talking about that a little bit more next week and in Colossians 3 but Members need to understand the the what and the why of of what's going on in their hearts and it's the part of this the chef The role of the shepherd is to help people look at the heart and see the gospel isn't about doing new things. It's a message about being a new creation It speaks to people as broken fallen sinners who need a new heart So that's why we have to take the gospel out in Shepherding because we continually need the message of the gospel in Our lives and the church is a family where we're to care for each other Enough to speak the truth and we can only do this when the gospel is big and it's operative in our lives And we're believing the truth of the gospel believing the truth of the gospel for others Who may have offended us or we may have offended so that we can extend forgiveness and we can receive forgiveness Now We see there's an important parallel between the church and the family some things that are very much in common And I really owe a debt of gratitude here to to Paul trip and his book age of opportunity and on raising teens in which he lays out some things first is that the church or the family as Theological communities that means that this it is ground zero the church of the family or are ground zero To understand that all of life is lived under God. There is no Unattached moment. There is no moment in which Romans 8 20 Romans 8 28 done the plot the goddess can work all things together for good We need to learn those that truth in the church and in the family Live it out practice it in the church and in the family all of life is chaotic unless it's rooted in the fact that makes sense of everything else And that is that God Exist and that he is sovereign control and it is his people we can trust him The second thing reality is the church and family is sociological Communities it's where we learn to play well in the sandbox, okay? This is ground zero for learning to love our neighbors as ourselves The family is ground zero for that how you treat your siblings Those are your brothers and sisters, okay? How you treat your parents how you treat your children how you treat your husband or your wife the family is the workshop Of the Holy Spirit and it is the first place that you Experience it in the day and it is the last place that you experience it in the day and so the family is at and the church is a Large family where we need to learn to love our neighbor as ourselves It's where we're to be taught intentionally The truth of the gospel and then the third thing is the church and family as redemptive communities that We the reality is we live in a fallen world and we live in fallen homes and We need a great sin with the reality of redemption in the home and in the church And so that's why Paul makes this connection between you know managing your family and managing the church because there's so many similarities between the two and Shepherding then comes with a central focus in redemption The cross has to be central in our shepherding Taking our own hearts to the cross taking others to the cross Discipline godly discipline is Chuck talked about last week when God disciplines us the purpose is the God has our heart in view And when we're as shepherds are involved in in biblical Correction and love and restoration it's that the cross should be central and the goal is to Bring people to the cross to where repentance and forgiven are experienced again Now what does this look like in just kind of a practical sense? I want to just flesh it out real quickly a servant leader. These are those that are our officers now And that you would be nominating for officers there needs to be a servant leader a strong in grace and bold in love first thing is loving discipline That is that they they love the sheep enough to go to the herding sheep and to walk with them through the valley Said because we love you and we want to want to help you move out of the valley and Sometimes that that hurts it can be that sort of tough love that is required, but it is loving discipline as the hardest part about being Shepherding the second thing is gentle firmness and firm gentleness General firmness and firm gentleness see these are things that we need in the church. These are things we need in the family This is what husbands man. This is what we're called to in our families whether or not we ever serve as an officer in the church we're called to this in our families and It involves Rescuing from the danger of disobedience Recognizing that if somebody's out there and the wound is gotten so that it's impacting their lives in the marriage and their family You know the people in the church you're in a rescue mission To rescue that person as Galatians six one says when you see someone in sin go General with with a spirit of gentleness, but you want to rescue that person and so you know I say to our to our elders you know That's our role is to go on the rescue mission to help hurting people and Then we see there's repentant correction and Correction that leads to repentance repentant correction means you go as a fellow center as an elder You go as one who knows the need for Christ and Recognizes your own sin and one who is embracing Christ and Feeding off of Christ and you go with Repentant correction So there'd be correction that leads to heart Felt repentance not simply changing an external behavior, but where the heart is really addressed. That's that's what we're called to as as shepherds as elders There's a scene in the movie regarding Henry It's it's fairly old now Harrison Ford plays a tough no nonsense Get it together, you know get it right keep it right kind of a guy He's a lawyer high powered and sort of runs his family that way and It is else is alienated as wife and she's gotten involved with another person because of part of because of who he is and He gets he gets shot and creates in the head and it creates brain trauma and when he finally comes out, he's just a very different person and There's a there's a powerful scene in that movie where he's sitting there with his with his daughter who used to be afraid of him And now she's seeing what my father's a different person because of what happened to him and he's he's He's softened all the rough edges have been taken off because he has just been laid low All the stuff that he used to be able to do he can't do it anymore and there's a scene where the daughter Shows him or some scar that she got from you know some accident of his horse riding or whatever and He sees her scar and then he he shows her his scar Like is on his head or his neck, and it's like she reaches out and they reach it and they touch each other scars And when I saw that he's a hit me wounded people recognized wounded people and They connect And they come together and as shepherds We're called as wounded people To go and minister to wounded people and Recognize those wounds and that when they can see that you also come from a place of woundedness and healing and hope And that's what we're looking for. That's what we're called to as shepherds Now as I said if you're not a member here You need to hear this so that you get an understanding of who we're looking to be and who we're looking to to have Giving leadership and and shepherding in our church This church is a place where the gospel That when the gospel is believed lives are being changed That's a reality And we could have any number of you come up here and share that testimony when the gospel is being believed Lives are being changed Marriages are being changed Families are being put back together relationships are being healed When we understand our need for Christ and we go to him and if you're here today and and you don't know Christ Let me say all the wounds that you're experiencing all the the anguish and heartache that you've experienced in your life It'll never make sense and it'll never be resolved To you come to the great position the one who himself was wounded For you this table before us is a table of a wounded Savior One who took Our wounds so that we might be healed one who took all of the alienation took all of the sin all of the Infection of the wound upon himself poured out upon him on the cross Presented to us in the bread and the juice So that we could be healed and so as we come today We come as those who say God we need this we need this table Remind us again of the glory of Christ Remind us of the meaning of the table and let me say friends pray for your officers Pray for your your elders and deacons pray for those that you would nominate Pray for for this church and for us as a denomination to be characterized by this this shepherding redemptive Gospel-centered approach to relating to those around us and understand that officers are committed to the Lord and to you I Can speak I'm sure for all the officers in this church and saying we're not perfect people But we know that there's a savior and we're not proclaiming Jesus Simply as an example you got to go follow and try your best to do what Jesus did and you'll be okay We don't need an example. We need a savior We need a savior and that's what God has given us in this in the In Christ, and that's what we're reminded of as we go to the table. Let's pray
Father, we thank you for your grace in Christ. We thank you that he was wounded so that we could be healed. We thank you that he is all sufficient Father, we are just overwhelmed by the mystery of The Christian life and sometimes we're overwhelmed Thinking that somehow we're going to pull it off that we Live at 100% perfectly and we know our own Sin and if we don't know it those around us know it We thank you for Jesus who lived the perfect Christian life for us the only one who has lived that life And so we come to him and we give you thanks for who he is We praise you for the grace that is found so readily through Christ our Lord. We pray amen