Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 1 Timothy 3:1-7 - 15 Qualifications For Pastors and Elders

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1 Timothy 3:1-7 - 15 Qualifications For Pastors and Elders · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: How do you faith listeners? Welcome to the Bible Explained,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: and good morning. We're going to be talking about First
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  Speaker 1: Timothy chapter three, the qualifications of the elders. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: extra excited to delve into this topic because it's one
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  Speaker 1: that is of particular interest to me. So we'll get
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  Speaker 1: into it in just a moment, all right, So today
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be reading First Timothy chapter three one
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  Speaker 1: through seven and talking about how the American Church is
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  Speaker 1: in a lot of trouble because they don't follow the
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  Speaker 1: qualifications for pastors or elders. And we will get into
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  Speaker 1: what those qualifications are. There are at least fifteen of them.
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  Speaker 1: So let's read First Timothy three one through seven. Go
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  Speaker 1: ahead and grab your cup of coffee or your cup
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  Speaker 1: of tea this morning, and let's go ahead and read
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  Speaker 1: this together. As usual, I'll be reading from the web.
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  Speaker 1: This is a faithful saying. Someone who seeks to be
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  Speaker 1: an overseer desires a good work. The overseer therefore must
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  Speaker 1: be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable,
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  Speaker 1: good at teaching, not a drinker, not violent, not greedy
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  Speaker 1: for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome not coveteous one who
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  Speaker 1: rules his own house well, having children in subjection with
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  Speaker 1: all reverence for how could someone who doesn't know how
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  Speaker 1: to rule his own house take care of God's assembly?
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  Speaker 1: Not a new convert less being puffed up, he fall
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  Speaker 1: into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must
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  Speaker 1: have a good testimony from those who are outside to
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  Speaker 1: avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.
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  Speaker 1: So not to pat myself on the back too hard,
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  Speaker 1: but this was the one portion of scripture that I'm
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  Speaker 1: talking about with you guys that I haven't had to
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  Speaker 1: study in great detail, because I've actually done a lot
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  Speaker 1: of study on this passage before, just due to the
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  Speaker 1: fact that my husband is an elder at my church.
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  Speaker 1: And this is what this is talking about. Here's what
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  Speaker 1: verse one says. This is a faithful say, someone who
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  Speaker 1: seeks to be an overseer desires a good work. So
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  Speaker 1: an overseer is somebody who oversees the church like a
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  Speaker 1: superintendent of sorts. So this could be a pastor, but
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  Speaker 1: it also refers to elders as well. Because if you
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  Speaker 1: turn to Titus Chapter one, Versus five and six, it
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  Speaker 1: actually uses the word overseer to describe elders. Also, so
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  Speaker 1: here's what Titus one, starting in verse five says, I
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  Speaker 1: left you in crete for this reason, that you would
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  Speaker 1: set in order the things that were lacking, and appoint
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  Speaker 1: elders in every city as I directed you. If anyone
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  Speaker 1: is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe,
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  Speaker 1: who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior, for
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  Speaker 1: the overseer must be blameless as God's steward, not self pleasing,
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  Speaker 1: not easily angered, etc. Et cetera. So that's clear that
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  Speaker 1: the overseer can refer to an elder as well as
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  Speaker 1: a pastor. And so going back to first's Timothy three,
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  Speaker 1: Paul goes into the qualifications of the pastors and elders
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  Speaker 1: in the church, and the first qualification is that he's
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  Speaker 1: a man. Last week we talked about the role of
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  Speaker 1: women in the church, specifically how women can be respectful
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  Speaker 1: at church, and the one thing Paul said is that
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  Speaker 1: he does not permit women to teach or exercise authority
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  Speaker 1: over the men. In other words, he doesn't want the
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  Speaker 1: women to be the overseers of the church, especially speaking
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  Speaker 1: to new converts of Christianity, where a good chunk of them,
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  Speaker 1: a good majority, were actually women coming to the faith
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  Speaker 1: in droves. So Paul explains very clearly from the beginning,
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  Speaker 1: look for you, women, being a pastor is not for you.
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  Speaker 1: God did not design you for that role, and so
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  Speaker 1: you should not want or desire that role. And we
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  Speaker 1: talked about other reasons as well as to why women
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  Speaker 1: should not want the role, and I even exp blamed
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  Speaker 1: from my own personal experience, like, legitimately, I do not
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  Speaker 1: understand how any woman could want to be a pastor because,
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  Speaker 1: knowing the pastors that I know, that is the most
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  Speaker 1: difficult confrontational job I have ever seen anybody undergo. Not
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  Speaker 1: to mention, pastors do that pro bono. You know, they're
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  Speaker 1: not getting paid a good majority of the time to
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  Speaker 1: listen to people's problems. It's not the same as like
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  Speaker 1: somebody going to a you know, psychologist or a counselor
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  Speaker 1: and talking with them, because the counselor is being paid
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  Speaker 1: to sit down with that person and figure out their problems.
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  Speaker 1: Not to mention. The pastor himself doesn't just deal with
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  Speaker 1: confrontation between two people, but they also deal with confrontation
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  Speaker 1: being directed at them. All the time people angry at them,
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  Speaker 1: irritated over something they said, a lot of times with
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  Speaker 1: no real rhyme or reason to it. Even so, pastors
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  Speaker 1: have a very difficult job, and it's one just better
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  Speaker 1: suited for men, as we discussed last week. So here's
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  Speaker 1: what Paul says in verse Timothy three, starting in verse one,
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  Speaker 1: this is a faithful saying. Someone who seeks to be
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  Speaker 1: an overseer desires a good work, So being a pastor,
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  Speaker 1: even though it is a hard and difficult job, it's
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  Speaker 1: still a good work. Somebody who wants to be a
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  Speaker 1: pastor is desiring a good thing because you're essentially giving
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  Speaker 1: yourself up to God's ministry. You are becoming a servant
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  Speaker 1: for the people, and serving is a very good thing.
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  Speaker 1: It's a thankless and difficult job, but it is a
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  Speaker 1: good thing. The overseer, therefore, verse two must be without reproach,
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  Speaker 1: And Paul begins to give a list as to how
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  Speaker 1: this person can be without reproach. Without reproach basically means
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  Speaker 1: without any accusations being brought against them, like any noticeable
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  Speaker 1: wrongdoing that this person is engaging in. And here's the
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  Speaker 1: first thing that makes the elder without reproach, he has
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  Speaker 1: to be the husband of one wife. So right now,
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  Speaker 1: you know, there's this whole movement of polygyny. You know,
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  Speaker 1: it's like polygamy, but except the men are the ones
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  Speaker 1: that get to have all the wives. And there are
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  Speaker 1: Christian polygynists out there who take this verse and they say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: that's not really what Paul's talking about. He has to
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  Speaker 1: just have his own wife. That's what Paul really means.
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  Speaker 1: He has to have his own wife. No, that is
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  Speaker 1: not what it says. He has to be the husband
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  Speaker 1: of one wife. One wife. That does not mean a wife,
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  Speaker 1: that does not mean multiple wives. That means one wife.
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  Speaker 1: And this is consistent throughout scripture. This is not the
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  Speaker 1: first time this is found. Whenever we see anybody in
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  Speaker 1: a leadership position, God commands those people to have one wife,
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  Speaker 1: just one. Whether it's the kings of the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: or the leader of the church. They have to be
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  Speaker 1: in a monogamous relationship. You can't twist it to make
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  Speaker 1: it into whatever you want. This is what scripture says.
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  Speaker 1: You have to be the husband of one wife. So
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  Speaker 1: this brings up the question actually that a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people ask, well, can an elder be divorced and still
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  Speaker 1: be qualified to be an elder. I would not say
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  Speaker 1: that that is a black and white issue where across
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  Speaker 1: the board, if you've been divorced, you are not qualified
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  Speaker 1: to be a pastor or an elder, because there are
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  Speaker 1: a couple situations in which you biblically do not have
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  Speaker 1: to remain married or even can't remain married. The first
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  Speaker 1: situation is if your spouse just up and leaves. There
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  Speaker 1: is nothing you can do about that, that is not
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  Speaker 1: your fault, that is on them. That'd be the first situation.
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  Speaker 1: And the second situation is if your spouse cheats. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as we've talked about before in the past with that subject,
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  Speaker 1: that does not necessarily mean you have to divorce them biblically,
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  Speaker 1: but it is not unbiblical to get divorced in that situation.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, Scripture always talks about reconciliation. So if you
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  Speaker 1: can be reconciled to your spouse, if you can get
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  Speaker 1: past the hurt in your heart, and you see that
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  Speaker 1: your spouse genuinely wants to change, genuinely wants to experience
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  Speaker 1: life with you once again, even after making an absolutely
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  Speaker 1: terrible and disgusting mistake, you can be reconciled with your
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  Speaker 1: spouse and not necessarily have to get a divorce. But
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  Speaker 1: the reason scripture gives an out for that situation is
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  Speaker 1: because it is so extremely hurtful. And I'm sure many
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  Speaker 1: of you listening to this podcast have had somebody cheat
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  Speaker 1: on you before, and you understand how gut wrenching that
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  Speaker 1: absolutely is. And so that's why scripture gives an out
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  Speaker 1: for marriages like that, especially if the spouse is unapologetic
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  Speaker 1: or doesn't want to really be reconciled with you, or
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  Speaker 1: even keeps doing it again and again, like saying, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I definitely want to be reconciled with you, like let's
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  Speaker 1: give our marriage another go, but then goes off and
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  Speaker 1: cheats once again or doesn't change. That's why scripture biblically
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  Speaker 1: says you can divorce your spouse over that type of behavior.
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  Speaker 1: And so I would say for a man that's had
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  Speaker 1: a divorce because of one of those two reasons, their
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  Speaker 1: spouse leaving or cheating, there's an argument that can be
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  Speaker 1: made that they should be allowed to maintain the eldership
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  Speaker 1: because the divorce wasn't really their fault, it was the
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  Speaker 1: fault of the spouse. But some churches do not interpret
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  Speaker 1: it that way. It kind of just depends on the
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  Speaker 1: policy of the church. Some churches say, if you've ever
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  Speaker 1: been divorced, you are not qualified to be an elder.
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  Speaker 1: But I think there's an argument that could be made
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  Speaker 1: that elders can in fact keep being an elder even
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  Speaker 1: if they have been divorced for one of those two reasons. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there's one other type of divorce that I would say
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  Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily disqualify an elder, and I would say that
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  Speaker 1: was before the elder got saved, but he became a
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  Speaker 1: Christian after the divorce, learned a lot about what sin was,
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  Speaker 1: how to become a healthy husband, how to lead his
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  Speaker 1: family properly. I think there's also an argument that could
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  Speaker 1: be made for an elder in that situation also not
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  Speaker 1: being disqualified from being an elder even though he was
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  Speaker 1: divorced previously. So that would be the three reasons I
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  Speaker 1: would say that divorce doesn't necessarily disqualify an elder. But
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  Speaker 1: generally I would guess that Paul is also talking about
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  Speaker 1: divorce in this, not just monogamy, because don't forget the
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  Speaker 1: culture that Paul was living in. Remember Jesus, who you
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  Speaker 1: know lived only a short time before this, he was
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  Speaker 1: talking to the Pharisees about divorce. The Pharisees came up
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  Speaker 1: to him with this question. They were like, so, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: is it okay for any man to get divorced for
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  Speaker 1: whatever reason? And Jesus was like, no, no, it is
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  Speaker 1: not okay for a man to get divorced for any reason.
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  Speaker 1: And then they tried to trick him with a question
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  Speaker 1: from the Old Testament law, but Jesus of course answered
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  Speaker 1: it perfectly. They were living in a time period where
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  Speaker 1: you just handed your wife a written notice of divorce
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  Speaker 1: and you were like, see yah, bye bye, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like I'm gonna go marry so and so over here
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  Speaker 1: because she's prettier and younger. That was the culture Paul
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  Speaker 1: was living in, and so I'm sure he was combating
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  Speaker 1: a lot of that as well, where he's telling his elders,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot just divorce your wife for any reason whatsoever.
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  Speaker 1: You need to treat your wife the way that God
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  Speaker 1: treats his church, by loving her and giving himself up
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  Speaker 1: for her. That is how you have to behave towards
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  Speaker 1: your wife. So I would say yes, this qualification for
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  Speaker 1: an elder talks about both monogamy and also divorce. You
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  Speaker 1: can't just willingly have multiple women in your life and
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  Speaker 1: be a biblical elder. You just cannot do it. You
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  Speaker 1: have to remain faithful to one woman and that's it.
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  Speaker 1: So moving forward with the next qualification, even though we've
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  Speaker 1: been talking about this for like fifteen minutes now and
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  Speaker 1: we've got fourteen more to go through, these will go faster. Though.
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  Speaker 1: The elder must also be temperate. In verse two, sensible,
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  Speaker 1: and modest. So when I think of those three words, temperate, sensible, modest,
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  Speaker 1: that always reminds me of money. So somebody being temperate, sensible,
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  Speaker 1: and modest with money is not going to overspend, especially
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  Speaker 1: church funds. They're going to take care of the money
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  Speaker 1: that comes into the church, and even personally, they'll take
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  Speaker 1: care of their own finances. They'll be able to take
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  Speaker 1: care of their families without going into a lot of debt,
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  Speaker 1: without spending money on needless things or wearing overly flashy
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  Speaker 1: or showy clothing just to show how rich you were,
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  Speaker 1: which was also a problem in Paul's day as well.
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  Speaker 1: So they had to be sensible, modest, and temperate. Not
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  Speaker 1: to mention, they had to be hospitable. So this is
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  Speaker 1: a very important one because fellowship comes with food, and
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  Speaker 1: you have to be willing to bring people into your
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  Speaker 1: home as an elder or as a pastor in order
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  Speaker 1: to have tr true fellowship with those people. As I
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  Speaker 1: was reading through this for you guys, I read a
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  Speaker 1: little commentary that talked about how Christians would travel back
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  Speaker 1: in these days. There were things like hotels and inns,
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  Speaker 1: but these hotels and inns in Paul's day often served
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  Speaker 1: food that was presented to idols, so it was like
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  Speaker 1: idle worship food, and a lot of Christians, you know,
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  Speaker 1: didn't feel comfortable staying at an inn where there was
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  Speaker 1: idle worship happening. So Christians a lot of times when
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  Speaker 1: they were traveling would go find other Christians that they
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  Speaker 1: could lodge in their homes. And this was a way
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  Speaker 1: for Christians to get to know each other from different
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  Speaker 1: cities and different countries. So Paul expected the elders and
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  Speaker 1: pastors of the churches to open up their homes to
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  Speaker 1: the traveler, to the Christians who needed a place to stay,
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  Speaker 1: and in this way you were actually fellowshipping with those people,
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  Speaker 1: getting to know them even more. And this also stands
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  Speaker 1: true even today. An elder has to be hospitable. He
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  Speaker 1: has to be willing to let people into his home.
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  Speaker 1: That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: let somebody live in your house rent free or take
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  Speaker 1: advantage of you. But just not hate guests in your house.
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  Speaker 1: Like just be comfortable having people over for dinner, having
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  Speaker 1: fellowship with people, having teenagers, have a bonfire in your yard,
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  Speaker 1: you know, something along those lines. Just opening up your
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  Speaker 1: home for events at the church and getting to know people.
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  Speaker 1: That is important for a pastor to do. Now, they
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  Speaker 1: also have to be good at teaching, is what it says,
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  Speaker 1: and I kind of feel like this is a no brainer.
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  Speaker 1: Like one of the roles of an elder or a
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  Speaker 1: pastor is to actually teach, is to be the overseer
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  Speaker 1: of the church, and that of course includes teaching and
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  Speaker 1: preaching sermons Verse three. They also have to not be
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  Speaker 1: a drinker and not violent. So a man has to
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  Speaker 1: learn to be self controlled before he can become a
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  Speaker 1: pastor or an elder. He has to also not be
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  Speaker 1: a drinker. So not just self control when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to aggression, but also self control when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: addictions and things. So not prone to being addicted, like
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  Speaker 1: having control over yourself. And this goes not just for alcohol,
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  Speaker 1: but any kind of addiction really, and not greedy for money. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if you turn to one Timothy six, verse ten, Paul
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  Speaker 1: actually talks about the love of money. It says, for
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  Speaker 1: the love of money is a root of all kinds
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  Speaker 1: of evil, some have them led astray from the faith
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  Speaker 1: in their greed and having pierce themselves through with many sorrows.
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  Speaker 1: So if you love money too much, it's actually a
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  Speaker 1: snare to you, is what Paul says. It becomes something
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  Speaker 1: bad and evil. Now, money in and of itself is
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  Speaker 1: not evil, but if you are greedy for it, that
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  Speaker 1: is when it becomes evil. And like we were talking
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  Speaker 1: about before, a pastor and an elder have to be
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  Speaker 1: financially wise with the funds that come through the church,
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  Speaker 1: because that is donations from other people, that is tithes
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  Speaker 1: from other people. And if the church is just spending
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  Speaker 1: all of that willy nilly, with no rhyme or reason
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  Speaker 1: on a whole bunch of junk, that's not being a
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  Speaker 1: good steward of the funds that are coming in. And
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  Speaker 1: that's also a bad reputation for the church. And that's
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  Speaker 1: why a pastor and an elder especially cannot be greedy
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  Speaker 1: for money because once they start becoming greedy that it's
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  Speaker 1: going to possibly snowball into something even bigger where they're
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  Speaker 1: you know, like skimming a little off the top for
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  Speaker 1: themselves or something like that. You got to be very careful.
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  Speaker 1: And so an elder and a pastor should not be
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  Speaker 1: greedy for money, but they should be gentle, not quarrelsome
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  Speaker 1: not coveteous, so not covetious in general, not just for
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  Speaker 1: money but anything. You should not be coveting something that
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  Speaker 1: someone else has. You know, the word covet actually goes
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  Speaker 1: further than greedy. Coveteousness is almost like becoming obsessive over something,
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  Speaker 1: like you want it so badly that you are obsessed
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  Speaker 1: about it and you can't like it's living rent free
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  Speaker 1: in your brain. You can't stop thinking about it. So
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  Speaker 1: you can't be coveteous if you want to become a
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  Speaker 1: pastor and an elder, because you're not supposed to have
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  Speaker 1: your sights focused on the things of this world. You're
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  Speaker 1: supposed to have your sites focused on God. You're also
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  Speaker 1: not supposed to be coral some, so not constantly fighting
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  Speaker 1: with people over things that just don't matter. But you
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  Speaker 1: have to be gentle. You have to be a man
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  Speaker 1: prone to gentleness, controlling your emotions, and being kind towards people.
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  Speaker 1: And also in verse four says you have to be
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  Speaker 1: one who rules his house well, having children in subjection
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  Speaker 1: with all reverence, And Paul qualifies this one for how
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  Speaker 1: could someone who doesn't know how to rule his own
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  Speaker 1: house take care of God's assembly? So, in other words,
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  Speaker 1: if an elder's kids are destructive and disrespectful and disobedient
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  Speaker 1: and rude, if he can't manage his own children, if
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  Speaker 1: he can't discipline his own children, who he loves very deeply,
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  Speaker 1: how is he going to discipline and reprimand the people
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  Speaker 1: of God's church? And that's a big part of the job.
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  Speaker 1: Remember how I was talking earlier on this podcast about
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  Speaker 1: how being a pan mas is like NonStop confrontation. You
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  Speaker 1: have to be able to handle that confrontation when it
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  Speaker 1: comes in. You have to be able to tell people
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  Speaker 1: you are sinning, you are doing something wrong, you need
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  Speaker 1: to turn away from this and go on a better path.
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  Speaker 1: That is what a successful pastor or elder does for
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  Speaker 1: the congregation of the church, And if he can't do
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  Speaker 1: it for his own family, for his own little children,
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  Speaker 1: then he certainly is going to be terrible at it
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to people he doesn't know as well,
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  Speaker 1: people he doesn't love as much as he loves his
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: own kids. Now, of course, this goes back to the question,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: say an elder doesn't have children, is he qualified to
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: be an elder? What if he doesn't even have a wife,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: is he qualified to be an elder? If he is
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a single man, I would say he's still qualified. And
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the reason I say that is because Paul himself and
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: many of the disciples were unmarried men with children, And
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: if they were qualified to teach and lead and be
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: overseers of churches in their own right, then certainly a
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: man who is single, who is wise, and who meets
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: all of these qualifications is likely a good candidate to
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: be an elder, even if he doesn't have a family.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: And then, of course there's a question of what about
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: adult children who are not following God? Does that disqualify
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: an elder or a pastor because their adult children are
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: off doing all sorts of terrible things. Well, that's a
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: harder question to answer, because adults make their own decisions,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: you know. Ezekiel eighteen twenty. Here's what this says. The
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: bear the iniquity of the father. Neither shall the father
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: wicked shall be on him. So that verse means that
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the parents should not be charged with the crime of
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: their adult children. If their children grow up and sin,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that is on the kids. That is not on the parents.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: The parents did not cause their adult child to sin.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: The child did that themselves. So there is a debate
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: as to whether an elder who has adult children who
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: are not following Christianity if they should be elders or not.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: But then of course there's also versus in the New
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Testament that say train a child in the way he
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: will go and he will never depart from it. So really,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I think it comes down to church policy as to
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: whether a man is qualified to become a pastor based
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: upon the actions of their adult children. Quite honestly, I
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: don't have an answer for that. I do think it
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: could go either way, because I think adult children do
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: make their own choices. But at the same time, parents
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: do you have a lot of control over their children
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: when they are young. And I've known many people who
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: have grown up to be awesome adults because their parents
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: just trained them very well. So there's a lot of
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: questions and a lot of different paths you can take
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: when it comes to asking questions about these short little verses.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: But verse six here, and this is one of my
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: favorite qualifications. He cannot be a new convert lest being
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: puffed up. He fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: If you turn to one Timothy six, I'm sorry first
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Timothy five. Rather verse twenty two, it says lay hands
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: hastily on no one. That means if a new person
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: comes into your church, or if a new convert gets saved,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you should not put them in positions of leadership right away.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: You need to see where their faith is and disciple
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: them before you lay your hands on them or give
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: them a position of power in the church. And this
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: is true across the board, whether it's an elder, a pastor,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: a worship leader, a deacon or deaconus. They should never
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: be new converts of Christianity or brand new members of
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the church because a lot of problems can happen. For example,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: say somebody new to Christianity wants to become an elder,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and this church is super excited because they need elders,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: and because this person is interested and he seems like
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: he meets all of the qualifications and he's a nice guy,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: and the church goes ahead and makes him an elder.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: What happens then, Well, the second that person's faith is tested,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: or the second he has confrontation that comes his way,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: he breaks or he starts doubting his faith, and he
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: starts turning other people, possibly against the faith or doing
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: bad things, implementing bad ideas because he doesn't have enough
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the scriptures yet, and this can cause a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: lot of problems in the church. I've seen this happen
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: where people get really really excited because they need help
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: in a certain area, and then they put somebody in
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: charge and it turns into an absolute train wreck because
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: that person is not grounded in the truth yet, and
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the church didn't wait long enough to see if that
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: person was actually grounded in truth. This is where church
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: hurt comes in a lot of times. Putting bad people
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: in charge, not checking their qualifications not seeing where their
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: faith is and just putting them in because they need
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: somebody in that position. Terrible, terrible idea, and it happens
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: all the time in tons of different churches across the
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: United States, and it causes so many issues, and not
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: to mention it's bad for the individual themselves, because here's
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: what Paul's says. If you give a position of leadership
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: to a new convert, they may become puffed up and
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Now that,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of course, is talking about Lucifer himself Satan, who was
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful angel in heaven, and Satan, because of
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: his beauty, became very prideful and wanted to become like God,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and he fell because of his pride, And the same
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: thing might end up happening to a brand new convert.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: They may fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: They get too prideful because they get a position of
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: leadership early on in their Christian life, and that causes
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: them to fall astray from the faith. It causes them
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to get too big for their breeches and they fall
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: similarly to Lucifer. Now I'm not going to go into
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: whether or not Paul's talking about the loss of salvation here,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: because personally, I don't think you can lose your salvation.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: I don't think scripture teaches that. But I do think
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: that people can fall away from the faith and do
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: all the time, and very easily, especially when pride comes
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: in the scriptural verse I believe in Proverbs that says
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that pride comes before the fall, and that's what can
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: happen to a new convert if the church gives him
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: too much power too quickly. Moreover, verse seven, he must
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: have a good testimony from those who are outside to
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: So not only should the elder have a good reputation
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: inside the church, but outside the church as well, to
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the people who aren't part of the faith. He has
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: to have a good reputation across the board, because if
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: you have a good reputation inside the church but not
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: outside the church, that's going to first and foremost turn
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: off anybody who is seeking the truth because they see
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: how terrible this pastor is acting outside the church, and
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: they're like, why would I ever want to go to
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: his church? That's the first reason, and secondly, because if
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: a pastor is acting poorly outside the church, that's also
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: going to cause those who hate Christianity to target Christianity
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: even more, and in that way, they will fall into
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: approach and the snare of the devil, because Satan is
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: doing his best to make the church look foolish in
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: every single way that he possibly can. And a lot
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: of times it's the church itself giving Satan that power
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: because they're not doing what they should be doing. You know,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: all of these rules are laid out so clearly in
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Scripture as to what a biblical elder or pastor is
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: to look like. And how many churches actually follow this
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: half of them, a quarter of them, a sixteenth, probably
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: not even a sixteenth of all of the churches in
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: America follow these basic qualifications for a pastor. They just
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: get in, you know, whoever fits their agenda, or whoever
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: says the nice things, or whoever just seems good, because
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: they're just trying to get people through the door. The
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: American Church is in serious trouble because they don't find
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: people who fit these qualifications. And quite honestly, the pastor
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: and the elder board, they set the stage for what
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: the church is going to look like. So those men
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: better be good, grounded men, truly focused on what the
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Bible has to say, otherwise the church is in serious trouble.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Faith listeners, thank you so much for tuning into the
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Bible Explained and discussing the qualifications of the elders with me.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And I'd love to hear about your church and whether
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: or not you think your church follows the guidelines for
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the elders and pastors. I'd love to hear about all
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: of that because I'm genuinely curious about it. So contact
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: me and tell me does your church follow the guidelines
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: for the overseers? But faithful listeners, I really hope you
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: all have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I hope to see all of you guys tomorrow morning,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: six am or whenever you choose to wake up. Until then,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: happy listening, and God bless