(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desire for good work a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality apt to teach. So that's your memory verse guys I hope you've memorized it and for those that are still to preach you guys hope you have memorized it but I'm going to go through these qualifications first and foremost so the title of the sermon tonight is Bible qualifications for a bishop part 1, Bible qualifications for a bishop part 1. Now the first thing I want you to notice there in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 it says this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop. Hey what does it mean to desire something? We're talking about it during the break a little bit about the desire that comes. Now just if you don't mind go to the book of Mark please Mark chapter 11 verse 22, Mark chapter 11 verse 22. You guys turn there and I'm going to read to you from Luke 20 46, Luke 20 46 because you see we're called if it's something that you desire something you want to do so it's a work you want to take on board you need to desire that work but you know you can desire the wrong things as well okay and I'm going to read to you from Luke 20 46 it says beware of the scribes okay the scribes were religious leaders you know to be a bishop is to be a religious leader all right so these scribes hey they had a they had a desire to be a scribe but it says here beware of the scribes which desire what do they desire they desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts you see the the the scribes here they had a desire didn't they they had a desire to be a religious leader hey but they were desiring the wrong thing they were desiring self-praise they were desiring people to look up to them for them to walk in their long robes to love the greetings of people to be looked up and and be lifted up by man hey the reason they had a desire to be a religious leader was because they were seeking the praise of men is that what we should be desiring if you have a desire to be a bishop of course not it's not about the praise of men all right it's about serving the Lord it's about serving the people of God now you guys are in mark 11 verse 22 let's have a look at a few things you need to be desiring for okay or how can you work toward being a bishop how can you work toward aiming for these qualifications it says here in verse 22 and Jesus answering said unto them have faith in God for verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and thou and sorry and be thou cast into the sea and shall no doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith now look at this verse 24 therefore I send to you what things so ever ye desire when you pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them hey so desiring the office of a bishop it's something if that's what you have a desire what does Jesus say you need to do in verse 24 what things so ever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them hey you know what the desire of a bishop isn't this thing that you know you know it's sort of mystical you know we when you desire the office of Bishop Jesus says when you want to desire something to pray for that okay to believe that you will receive it hey take honest steps you know look at this as a real desire if that's what you have and make it reality be praying to God that he would give you that desire of your heart okay now I'm just going to read to you from 1st Corinthians 14 you guys go to Philippians chapter 4 you guys go to Philippians chapter 4 I'm going to read to you from 1st Corinthians 14 verse 1 it says follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts you know to become a pastor to have the office of a bishop you must desire also spiritual gifts you know preaching is a spiritual gift you know serving one another the things that you can bring to the table the ways you can serve the people these are spiritual gifts that God gives to every man it says this follow after charity you know follow after love have a love for the Brethren and desire spiritual gifts but rather that ye may prophesy that's 1st Corinthians 14 you guys remember at that church how bad that church was but look this is about desiring the ability ability to prophesy hey that's talking about the ability to preach that's something we should be desiring but as well as the spiritual gifts but also following after charity making sure that the reason you want these things that these gifts that you want the reason you want to prophesy or preach is because first and foremost you have a love for the work you have a love for the Lord you have a love for the Brethren you don't have an unfeigned love and you know what as a pastor and and we're going to touch upon this some other time but your wife your wife is very important you know your wife must also have a love for the Brethren your wife must also have a love for the work so she can be there behind the scenes supporting you being that help meet for you all right now you guys are in Philippians 4 look at verse 15 Philippians 4 15 now another another reason another thing that we can be desiring to be to be a full-time worker for the Lord this is Paul speaking to the Philippians now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only he says to the Philippian church hey you're the only church that has asked me about hey can we give to all the work financially okay you're the only one that asked me this concerning the giving and receiving ye only verse 16 for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity so when I was in Thessalonica you sent me my resources you sent me financial assistant to to to meet my needs look at verse 17 not because I desire a gift the reason you sent me these resources and these financial gift things was not because I desired a gift okay notice that what do you what should we desire as as bishops he says but I desire fruits that may abound to your accounts you see when you have a desire to become a pastor a full-time worker it's not about you you're not desiring gifts for you you know you don't come for people to come and grovel at your feet and come and serve you and and send you financial gifts and no that's not what it's about your desire you know as it was for Paul to the Philippian church he says I desire fruit that may abound to your accounts hey I want you church to be fruitful I want you to abound in rewards and riches okay and in doing that yes one way is for the church to financially support the bishop but the the reason for that is that the church may abound in the fruit of the work okay so you know the last thing that I want to mention there is a desire ought to be about making sure the church is fruitful and not desiring personal riches personal wealth that's not what it should be about okay I mean if you're looking for a job that will you know make you wealthy then being a pastor that's not for you all right just go and get a secular job work hard and get yourself wealthy that way okay and then give to the church you know give to the church that way but yeah becoming a pastor taking on this office is not about desiring to become a wealthy okay now what is that person desiring it said if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work he desireth a good work please turn to second Timothy chapter two please second timothy chapter two verse twenty second timothy chapter two verse twenty you see being a pastor is a work it's a job all right and it's not just a job the bible says it is a good job it is a good work okay god looks down at being the work of a pastor and says this is good all right now you know how much work you put into the church is basically dependent on what your church requires you know right now we're a smaller church you know I'm not required to do as much work obviously as a pastor that might have 100 people 200 people all right so you need to base the amount of work that you do based around what your church requires and one thing that I'm often asked is you know are you a full-time pastor are you a full-time pastor I'm often asked that question by different people and I don't even know how to answer that question okay because I don't I don't look at being a pastor like having a nine to five job I don't look at it like that I don't look just a nine to five Monday to Friday job I guess that would be considered full-time now am I full-time in that sense that from nine to five Monday to Friday I'm just you know running around serving the brethren and running church no of course not I'm not full-time in that regard you know but some people consider full-time as though well you know the church is fully supporting you financially you know the church is supporting you financially and that's how you hey that's how you make a living well I'm not full-time in that sense either because it's only just recently that I started to uh you know take a bit of an income from the church just recently so no you know I'm pretty much self-supported you know self-supported on on my previous labor that I have in the investments that I've made so what does it mean you know I don't I don't think about these terms full-time part-time I just think about what does the church need god what do you need me to achieve what is it that we need to do and I'll work toward that okay and as you guys know I'm a real believer of organic growth you know I don't need to force ministries I don't need to force things to happen I'm sure when it's time when it's time to have a certain ministry when it's time to do more work when it's time to do more sowing whatever it is you know that's the time when the lord's going to lead me to that and I'll step up and do that work I don't think about full-time or part-time pastoring I don't know what those words mean to be honest okay now you guys are in second timothy chapter 2 verse 20 second timothy chapter 2 verse 20 now the reason I want to read this passage is because obviously paul is writing to timothy who's the pastor and we know the qualifications he gave is is is in first timothy we're now in second timothy chapter 2 verse 20 now look at this it says here but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and earth and some to honor and some to dishonor if a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified and meet for the master's use look at this and prepared unto every good work hey what's the office of the bishop the bible said that is a good work okay so what we see here in second timothy chapter 2 is how to prepare yourself for every good work all right so we need to backtrack a little bit in that same passage there let's go back to verse 14 second timothy chapter 2 verse 14 because it said we must purge ourselves okay there are certain things we need to get out of our lives in order to be prepared for this good work second timothy chapter 2 verse 14 let's start there it says of these things put them in remembrance charging them before the lord that they strive not about words to no prophet but to the subverting of the hearers now remember timothy is a pastor paul is writing to timothy as a pastor he says look you need to put in remembrance to your people to your church charging them before the lord not to strive about words to no profit now what does it mean to have no profit it means it's empty it's another way of saying vain okay it's another way of saying vain jangling all right first timothy 1 6 says this from which have uh from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling one big problem that a church can have is vain jangling it is to strive about words to no profit as it's written there in second timothy 2 14 words of no profit but then it says that keep reading it says that but to the subverting of the hearers okay what does subverting mean that means to overthrow to utterly ruin so what paul is saying here is in your church if you have people that are striving that are arguing debating about you know the terminology what words to use for this you know and and they're just just wasting time there's no profiting it it's going to cause hearers that are hearing that to be overthrown in their faith you know to to give up on the church to say hey this is stupid why are we fighting about this this isn't you know and leave the church or maybe even you know be discouraged in the faith so that's something that if we want to prepare ourselves for the good work as a pastor we need to make sure that we're not people that strive about words to no profit let's keep reading verse 15 it says study to show thyself approved unto god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth so a pastor should continue in study okay notice remember timothy is already a pastor what does paul say to him study timothy study to show thyself approved so you see it's not about just studying to become a pastor but once you are a pastor you need to continue studying the word of god you can't get to a point where like man i know the doctrines now and you know we're just going to take it easy i'm just i'm not going to prepare much because i know it all no you keep studying you keep learning it's it's a really bad place when a pastor thinks they can't learn anymore and you know what to some extent i feel like there's probably not a lot more i can learn as far as major doctrines like all that's pretty much cemented in place i mean should be by the time you're going to pass through a church okay but there are the little things right there's always we always have conversations about some verse some passage what do you think that means it's this parable you know there's always these little things that we need to you know that we can continue learning on but make sure that it's building upon the foundational things that you've already learned and you're not starting to create some some crazy new doctrines based on it but you know to study to show the self-approved unto god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed okay so a pastor should not be someone that is ashamed okay a pastor that has not studied you know when they preach there ought to be some obvious um effort that's been put behind it okay if you come to to hear to hear preaching and just hearing the same thing over and over again you guys you know this guy's not preparing you know this guy's not putting any work toward it okay and it's a shame to that person it's a shame to that person you know when you come to church you ought to be hearing new things you know learning new parts of the bible you know discovering new things that are being taught and and you know you ought to know that your pastor is putting in his study you know and uh and then it says rightly dividing the word of truth now of course our dispensational brothers you know would look at this uh rightly dividing the word of truth saying without me that's dispensationalism brother that's working out the seven dispensations and teaching the dispensational theology no no no it says rightly dividing the word of truth you know to divide is is another way of saying to distribute the word of truth so you go and study okay you go and study as a pastor and now you take the word of truth and you divide that okay so instead of me just preaching the whole bible like just bang you know no i've got to rightly divide i've got to take passages you know that's why you know we look at topical sermons you know you look at certain topics you divide it to that topic you teach on that topic or you look at chapters you divide that chapter you teach that chapter hey when you preach uh bits and pieces of the bible hopefully eventually the whole bible but you've got to take the bible as a whole and break it down divide it and teach it that way okay let's keep reading verse 16 but but shun profane and vain babylins it's the same kind of thing about the words to no profit the profane and vain babylins for they will increase unto more ungodliness so you know if our church we start arguing about ridiculous things vain talking the bible says here it will increase to more ungodliness okay it's not just going to end you actually have to put a stop to it and say hey we're not having that discussion anymore all right i mean you know someone brings up the flat earth you know and you guys start vain you know start talking about this and it becomes no there comes a time when you say look brothers i wish you stopped by now but you just have to stop now okay this is causing problems this is upsetting people this is stupid why are you teaching this ridiculous stuff you know you've got to put an end to these things you need to uh purge these things out okay it says uh and then it says verse 17 for their word will eat doff as a canker of whom is hymenus and philitus who concerning the truth have erred saying that the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some you see the flesh here's the thing about the bible guys i'm sure we all all of us we've read the bible we know it i'm sure we all have some quirky doctrine i'm sure all of us have some you know fringe quirky doctrine that we've read in the bible we we think yeah that that's that seems true i think i've worked something out you know but you know that nobody else believes it you know that nobody else sees it the way you do it's some quirky thing you've got there right and the flesh this is what the flesh is going to do when you have that doctrine the flesh is going to be like i need to tell my brethren you know because the flesh wants to be seen as wise look look at this thing that i found i think this is awesome okay but when you teach it it's going to cause division when you teach it when you start talking about it people are going to be rubbed the wrong way they're going to get upset frustrated why are you believing this no one believes this guy like your brother you know whatever it is well that that vein uh babbling you need to make sure you purge that out of your system you know even if you have some weird thing that you believe and you become look i'm sure i have things here that i think you know but i'm not going to preach it all right because i can't be dogmatic enough about it you know i understand if i preach it people are going to be wondering how well how did you come to that conclusion i'm like well so when you find things that are weird you know and you think that's what the bible says but you know best thing to do is just put it in the back of your mind okay put it on the back burner and maybe eventually at some time in the future the lord will reveal that to you okay we'll reveal the truth about that and and clarify that okay but the flesh loves to show how wise it is okay and uh and that will uh cause uh the vein babblings so the bible says there in verse 16 shun profane and vein babbling shun it stop it get rid of it okay don't go there because it'll cause conflict within the church and then verse 19 you know nevertheless the foundation of god stand offshore having this seal the lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that nameeth the name of christ depart from iniquity how else can you prepare yourself for this good work guys is to depart from iniquity you know you can't as a pastor you know the design of the office of pastor say well my life's pretty clean my life's pretty good there are people that are worse sinners than me yes i still have my sins but you know i'm quite happy with where i am no we need to continue you know overcoming the sins in our lives we need to continue overcoming iniquity never get to a point where you're comfortable with where you're at never get to a point where i'm pretty good i've just got these sins i'm sure god will allow me to keep those sins you know because the rest of me is good no no no we need to continue overcoming those iniquities okay we need to shun we need to get rid of that we need to purge ourselves of these things so if you want if you have a desire for the good work guys and you need to prepare yourself for the good work these are the things that you need to overcome okay the vain talk and the vain bad ones the things that have no profit get rid of it okay if it's in if it's in the you know if you're causing that to to develop in the church you know get rid of it number two study you know know the bible prepare divide the word of god so people can hear it people can understand it break down sermons so they can rightly divide it and be able to take it in smaller portions and of course overcome the sins that we all have in our lives we need to keep working to overcome those sins never get comfortable with the sins in your life uh the next thing that i wanted to talk about now um if you look if you remember our memory verse what comes after um desire and the good work a bishop then must be blameless okay blameless go to philippians chapter 2 please philippians chapter 2 very quickly what does it mean to be blameless obviously it doesn't mean to be sinless okay because none of us are sinless okay all of us have some sin in our lives and we can all be blamed for that sin okay we can't blame anyone else we blame ourselves for that sin of course it doesn't mean sinless but what blameless basically means is that this person is with no major sin no major fault in their life where someone can look at that person go man you've got this big problem in your life you know if someone can look at your life and say man you've got a major issue here you're not blameless okay like if your if your family's falling apart you know there's friction in your marriage and it's obvious that's not being blameless that's something that's very obvious in your life that's a major problem you know but we all have we all have sins in our life we all have those things but just you know we've got to make sure that it's not some major sin or some major fault in our lives but look at philippians chapter 2 verse 14 philippians chapter 2 verse 14 it tells us how to be blameless it says do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the sons of god without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life that i may rejoice in the day of christ that i have not run in vain neither labored in vain so hey what's the first thing there in verse 14 how do we be blameless okay first thing we need to make sure that everything we do is we have murmurings and disputings okay we can't be whiners you know whingers you know i didn't get my chance to preach this other guy got his chance to preach but i didn't get my chance you know well pastors asked me to do this work in the church i don't want to do that why isn't he asking someone else hey that's someone that does things with murmurings and disputings okay you know don't be a whiner don't be a complainer don't be someone that finds faults in everything you know sometimes you can work really hard have a great church and and and you know things are going well and there are still people that are going to be in the church and you'll know these you'll know these people a mile away that all they focus on are the bad things all they focus on is complaining about certain people in the church all they focus on is well why aren't we singing these hymns or why why why do we do ministry like this and it's like instead of focusing on the positive things they'd rather look at the the things that they feel out of line and and complain and murmur about those things hey you know what i want to encourage you guys to be a people that if there's something that's not quite right in the church that you let me know about it you know you let me know say hey this is something and this is what i'm willing to do to make it better okay you know when you have something that you're concerned about you know don't just complain about it come with a solution you know be someone that's blameless okay it's good to point things out but come with a solution be willing to make a change yourself instead of requiring other people to do it for you all right so um it also said there in verse 15 blameless and harmless the sons of god without rebuke without rebuke this means someone with a good reputation okay someone that is blameless is someone that has a good reputation okay might be a good reputation in the church but we also know that it means a good reputation outside of the church okay of good reputation what else does it say there um in the in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world hey you ought to be someone that shines in this world when people look at you in this world in this crooked uh generation in this crooked nation perverse nation they see and they say this person's different why is he different and hopefully you give them the answer because you're a child of god you know you're a child of god and you're blameless and then it said there in verse um uh verse 16 holding forth the word of life that i may rejoice in the day of christ you know does your life give joy to other christians you know when you when you when i see a godly man when i see when i saw brother um tim and uh and and david so winning today you know what i rejoiced i was so thankful that you know what it's it's a windy day i'm sure you guys are tired especially you you know traveling from sydney but it's still willing to go out and do the works of god you know i use someone that that people can look at your life and say hey i can rejoice in this person because i can see the love and service that they have toward the god toward god this is what it means to be blameless all right to shine as lights in the world being a a good example of a godly man you know what the pastor should be a good example should be okay should be a good example but if you have a desire for the office you know you need to meet these qualifications you should also be working toward being someone that people in the church say hey this is a godly man hey his has a godly wife you know this is a godly family you know i wish i could be a little bit like this you know i can wish i can work toward and and be and be godly like this family what's the next thing it says husband of one wife the husband of one wife meaning that if you are going to be a pastor i have that office you must be married okay you must be married you must have been married once and that you're still married to the same woman okay it's not married to one woman at a time okay it's not having many divorces and many remarriages as long as it's one woman at a time no it's the husband of one wife and you know what i would also say that you cannot be someone you cannot be a pastor if you've been divorced or remarried okay and some people say well what about if it's before they were saved before they were saved they made the mistake they got they got divorced and they got remarried it's the qualifications are there for a reason it's not about this is the point you get saved i mean i i hear people say but that was under the blood it's like but all our sins are under the blood i mean all our past sins our present sins and our future sins are under the blood you know it's not under the blood just because you're ignorant and now it's not under the blood of course it's all under the blood jesus christ paid for all sins okay but here's the thing it's not just about you might say but you know he he is husband of one wife you know he's been divorced you know or married or maybe he married a divorced woman maybe he's never been married but he married a divorced woman doesn't that fit under the category category of of being the husband of one wife i suppose it kind of does but now you're no longer blameless because there's this major sin a major sin of adultery that occurred and it's that sticks out you know you would be someone that would be not qualified unqualified disqualified from being a pastor you know and the question that comes up is you know what about a man whose wife has passed away so you know you've been pastoring you you are the husband of one wife and your wife passes away you know do you require would you expect that person to step down well i'll give you my answer the bible doesn't really tell us you know this level of detail obviously it's going to come down to the needs of the church to some extent okay and what the church how the church operates the needs of the church but i want to give you my thoughts on this very quickly so let's say hypothetically my wife passes away christina passes away okay now you know we have the funeral service on a saturday and then i come in on sunday you know and you guys have your arms crossed it's like you can't be pastor anymore because your wife's you know you're no longer the husband of one wife obviously that would be ridiculous okay obviously that would be ridiculous okay but i do believe that it is it is the right thing for a pastor to get remarried as soon as possible okay and not saying to rush into it obviously you've got to find a godly woman a woman that you can love a woman that would be willing to to look after your children you know and and um you know has you know some level of those qualifications or has those qualifications that a wife requires you know of a of a pastor but i think it's super important because you know you're teaching the word of god you're teaching about family you're teaching about you know um being a being a father being parent and being a godly husband you've got to people have got to be able to see that you're actually doing that in your life not that you just once did it but you're still doing it you're still working uh toward having a godly uh marriage and things like that so i do believe it's very important not just that but also the temptation that will come you know naturally you know being without your wife and and you know better to to get a new wife you know otherwise you might be tempted to sin you know tempted to commit uh fornication and if you did that obviously that person will be disqualified uh from being a pastor as well so i do believe that if your wife passes away you should seek as soon as you can to uh find another another wife and um it's about protecting the integrity of the office of a bishop you know i don't believe a pastor should be going five years with a deceased wife and still pastoring i think that's that's that's too much that's my you know that's my opinion i don't think that that should be the case okay now here's the thing if i've been if i've been pastoring let's say my wife passed away hypothetically and i'm pastoring for a year and i still haven't found another wife by by this stage i'm probably thinking i should be thinking which man in this church can can step up to the office okay i haven't been disqualified from the office and i can still ordain a man but you know i probably shouldn't be operating in that office at this point in time you know and if there's no one in the church does that mean i should just go five years ten years like this of course not you know if if we went a long time there's nobody in the church that could step up and be the pastor you know i would just i would just say guys look i'm stepping down from from um you know what's the word i'm stepping down from the operations of of this office at this point in time and i'm stepping down i can still preach you know i'd like to get different men that can rotate and we can all preach and do things but for now until i find a wife until i can get this part of my life organized then later on after that i might be able to step back up and become a pastor but i think at that stage you know if there's nobody in the church you should really probably step down and not be a pastor anymore because you're damaging the integrity of that office you know now if you guys can just quickly go to exodus chapter 2 verse 21 exodus chapter 2 verse 21 so i just want to show you this about moses so obviously moses is a picture of an old testament pastor exodus chapter 2 verse 21 it says and moses was content to dwell with a man and he gave moses zipporah his daughter so we see here in exodus 2 21 moses was about um how was he here he would have been about 40 years old he would be about 40 years old when he married zipporah okay um and then it says verse 22 and she bear him a son and he called his name gershom for he said i have been a stranger in a strange land now go to numbers 12 please numbers chapter 12 verse 1 numbers chapter 12 verse 1 so what we're about to read now is about 40 years later okay because if you guys know the story that it's 40 years later when g when god calls um moses to take the people out of the land of israel ah sorry out of the land of egypt and um it says here in numbers 12 verse 1 it says and miriam and aaron spoke against moses because of the ethiopian woman whom he had married for he had married an ethiopian woman okay so we see here in numbers 12 1 moses gets remarried okay moses gets remarried now we don't know what happened to zipporah the Bible doesn't tell us but this is at least 40 years later i think it's safe to assume okay that zipporah had passed away okay safe to assume that zipporah had passed away and what does moses do if he's an example of an old testament pastor what does he do he finds another woman and gets married to this woman this time an ethiopian woman so i just want to show you this example that we can take from moses you know before he went into israel he was married okay that's one of the requirements of being a pastor but after he lost his first wife what did he do did he continue just leading without a wife no he got remarried and married now an ethiopian woman so you know if christina were to pass away for example you know i would look to remarry you know for the personal companionship to find a mother for my children but also to maintain the integrity of the office of a bishop and if it were an extended time where i would not be able to find a wife you know i would like i said i would step down from operating in the office of a bishop i would still hold the office but i would be looking at somebody else that i could ordain and take on that mantle you know and then let's say another example maybe someone's very elderly maybe they're in their 70s you know and 80s and they lose their wife and they're a pastor my personal opinion is if you haven't got uh someone but but if you're that age and you haven't got someone that can take over the church i think you've done a bad job okay as a pastor i think you should always be looking at someone that can eventually take over for you but i would say at that point you're unlikely going to get remarried i think the wisest thing to do at that age is to just step down and say look i no longer meet the qualifications of being a bishop okay let's keep going the next requirements was to be vigilant and sober vigilant and sober and if you guys can go to first peter chapter five please first peter chapter five first peter chapter five now i want to keep these two words together being vigilant and sober and because if you go to first peter chapter five verse eight you'll notice this it says be sober be vigilant say why these two words together just like they were in the qualifications of a bishop it says because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour you see guys these are qualifications that are required of a pastor because satan does look to devour the church of god satan is looking to devour the people of god all right you need to be vigilant you'll be watching you'll be sober minded you'll be aware of the dangers that might come to the church this is why it's called the office of a bishop a bishop is an overseer you know this is where the word pastor also is very similar being a shepherd you're watching over the sheep now look if someone walks into the church and i think they're a potential threat you know am i just going to kick that person out of the church no you know i'm not just going to kick someone that i think is a potential threat because i don't know okay there might not be okay but i'm not necessarily going to trust that person okay if i think someone's a potential threat i'm not going to put them in a position where they can have you know authority or or influence in the church okay if i think they're a threat you know but at the same time i'm not just going to kick someone out because i feel oh they could hurt our church no that that's not how things ought to be you know people have found um would uh uh innocent uh before they found guilty you've gotta you know you can't just say someone's guilty and then tell them hey tell me why you're innocent no they're first innocent until they're proven guilty so being vigilant being aware and one thing that i'd be looking at to know that you're a vigilant person that i know you're going to be vigilant vigilant for your church is are you vigilant for your family you know does your family is your family influenced by the world you know do you know is your is your family watching all the the worldly movies you know do your children know all the worldly lyrics of worldly songs you know are you being vigilant for your children are you being protective of your children of the influences that comes from the world and if you can't be vigilant for your own family the people that you ought to love the most then you're definitely not going to be vigilant for your church okay you're definitely not going to try to protect your church i think that's that's very important that's something i'll be looking at is to see what influence does the world have on your now here's the thing there's always going to be some influence okay you can't put all your family into a protective bubble and and not be aware of the world of course that's not the case okay but you know if if they're if your family especially your children if they're just like the world you know you haven't been vigilant you haven't been protective of your family you know what's to say you're going to be vigilant for the church that god may give you you know i i wouldn't ordain someone that um is not vigilant the next one is sober you know being sober now usually we think of sobriety as not being drunk but also a drug user i i would not ordain someone that is on antidepressant drugs or anti-psychotic drugs okay because they're not sober they're not sober-minded it's like they need the drugs just to just to get by life hey that's not that's not how a pastor should be our pastor shouldn't be taking these kinds of hard drugs that affect the brain so i'll just leave it there for sober let's keep going of good behavior can you guys please turn to hebrews 13 please hebrews 13 hebrews 13 of good behavior now the word behavior isn't found that that often in your bibles you're going to find the word conversation more often you know conversation quite often when the bible uses the word conversation it's not conversation like we think of it like just speaking to one another no it's about your behavior okay it's about how you show your life and i'll just quickly read to you in first timothy 4 verse 12 so the same book that we find this of good behavior it says you know uh paul wrote to timothy let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation that's behavior in charity in spirit in faith in purity you see the pastor needs to be an example of good behavior if you want to be a pastor you want to take on this office you must show that you're someone of good behavior you're someone of good conversation now you guys are in hebrews 13 look at hebrews 13 verse 5 hebrews 13 verse 5 it says let your conversation be without covetousness now remember conversation that's your behavior right your behavior ought to be without covetousness you shouldn't be desiring the things that don't belong to you you shouldn't be someone that's greedy you know and unsatisfied with the things that god has given you it says look and be content with such things as you have for he have said i will never leave thee nor forsake thee god wants you to be content with the lot in life that he's given you and why because he just says i will never leave thee nor forsake thee hey i'm with you in what you have i've given you these things you know and and you can taint your behavior you can get you can get into bad behavior with the sin of covetousness okay the sin of coverage in fact the sin of covetousness will get you kicked out of the church okay now let's uh backtrack a little bit here because let's go back to verse number one let's go back to verse number one and let's understand what our conversation ought to be like okay hebrews chapter 13 verse 1 it says here let brotherly love continue what what your good behavior be like that you have brotherly love for one another you love the brethren you said but i don't get along with this person that's okay you don't need to get along with people but do you love them like if that person was in need would you you know would you go and help that brother will you go and and and and try to fulfill the needs that that brother has you don't have to get along with everybody in the church okay but you do you are commanded to love the brethren all right that's a good example of um of good behavior you know when a brother or sister is backslidden when they're cast down they're depressed you know do you just talk about them oh did you know sister so-and-so was was was upset you know this sunday or was brothers you know brothers so and so didn't even say hello to me you know is that how you respond or do you have a love for that brother and you go and encourage them and lift them up instead of speaking bad of them verse number two it says be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares hey so are you someone when there's visitors when there's strangers coming into the church you know do you go in and greet them do you go and entertain them you know are you someone that's really encouraged when you see visitors and you want them to feel welcomed is that you you know are you doing that that's good behavior you know and it's not just about greeting the visitor it says entertain strangers now i'm not saying put on a show you know go juggling and and show them your soccer skills and that's how you entertain them it's not that's not what it's about but you know to entertain someone means basically that you know you spend time with that person you get to know that person you know you make them feel work and you make them feel valued in the church it's not just visitor a has turned up i said hello to visitor a i've done my bit now i'm going away i'm going to go to my my clique of friends you know i'm going to go and go no no you go and entertain that person you go and make them feel welcome and um you know part of the church that's part of being of good behavior verse number three it says remember them they're in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adverse um adversity as being yourselves also in the body so believers who are incarcerated believers who are in prison you know now i don't the only one that i knew of was pastor logan robinson right and so you know i would try to contact him say hey we're praying for you brother is there anything you need you know i i phoned him up and tried to encourage him things like that because i was aware of this passage you know that that our brethren that are incarcerated they're in bonds we need to be thinking about that person we need to be remembering them you know it says that as you as being yourselves also in the body it's like you need to be thinking about them as though you are the one that's that's um that's bound that you're the one that's incarcerated you know keep them in prayer that's good behavior verse number four it says marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but hall mongers and adulterers god will judge you know so your wife should be your one and only partner in life you know if you go chasing after some other woman obviously that's bad behavior obviously that's covetousness you know and if you you're someone that commits adultery you're immediately disqualified from being a pastor you know immediately disqualified from being a pastor so if we're trying to work toward having good behavior then hebrew chapter 13 is a good one to turn to to make sure that you're working toward these things and if you guys can go to verse number six now just drop down to verse six it says uh so that we may boldly say the lord is my helper and i will not fear what man shall do unto me remember them which have the rule over you that's talking about the pastor who have spoken unto you the word of god that's the job of the pastor right to speak the word of god whose faith follow follow follow considering the end of their conversation you see a pastor needs to have good behavior why why it's because others are looking at your life and others should be going hey you know what i i love how pastor is so friendly i love how pastor welcomes the visitors i love how pastor feeds us the word of god you know and and i love how you know his relationship with his wife i love to see that it's strong i love to see the children they seem to love the lord and love church and uh you know if you can see those things if you can have that good behavior not to puff uh the one that has the rule of you up but to encourage the believers to set a good example so other people can go yeah you know what it's doable to live a godly life it's doable i'd like to follow up with the lord and live after his commands that's why it's so important to be someone of good behavior if you have a pastor and you're like you know what this guy has bad behavior you know i wouldn't want to be like that then you need to get away from that person okay because that person is not living up to the qualification that's required of them you know the next one is given to hospitality given to hospitality so obviously that means to be hospitable you know and to be hospitable means to receive guests and strangers and i really covered this a little bit but of course if you have guests or strangers people that turn up to church we ought to make them feel welcome yes you know into your house you know pastors should invite people into the house yes but i think the house of god is a priority making sure that people are invited to the house of god that people are made work made to feel welcomed here and that's that's a key thing to being hospitable i'm going to read to you quickly from romans 12 verse 13 it says distributing to the necessity of saints given to hospitality let me read that again distributing to the to the necessity of saints given to hospitality that's romans 12 13 and so if we keep that within the context what does it mean to be hospitable there it means when the saints have necessities that you're willing to distribute you're willing to go and help the brethren when they're in need okay you know if if a brother's someone's in hospital okay you know we should pay them a visit encourage them ask them what can we pray about you know someone's in need whatever that is what can i do to help you that's being hospitable you know today we have this mindset that being hospitable is about having someone over for a meal and that is hospital that is hospitality that's part of it but it's beyond that okay it's beyond that it's making sure that you truly have a care for the needs of the brethren and that you're able to fulfill those needs when they come up and then lastly apt to teach apt to teach now apt means aptitude you know which is a natural ability a natural ability to teach you know to be able to break down the bible into portion-sized meals to feed god's people you know are you apt to teach you know the lord said here sorry i'll just read to you in exodus 4 11 you guys turn to uh where can i get you you guys go to acts 20 please go to acts 20 i'm going to read to you from exodus 4 verse 11 it says and this is the first time by the way it says the word teach okay it says here this is god speaking to moses it says and the lord said unto him who hath made man's mouth or who maketh the dumb or deaf or the seen or the blind have not i the lord now therefore go and i will be with thy mouth look at this and teach thee what thou shalt what thou shalt say okay and teach thee what thou shalt say you see what is the job of the preacher what is the job of the pastor to teach what god had said okay to teach what god had said that's why when we open the word of god it's not about my wisdom i'm not here to entertain you with my stories or my jokes okay now they might be part of it okay but it's you know your teaching is not based on your experiences the teaching should not be based on your jokes the teaching should be based on what god had said okay that's being apt to teach being able to teach the word of god hey any of us can teach anything but we need to be people that can teach the word of god and make sure that the things that you add is just helping clarify helping understand what the word of god already says and of course there's matthew 5 19 which says whosoever therefore shall break one of the least commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven you know what there's one way to be great there's there's out of many ways to be great in the kingdom of heaven is to do and teach the commandments of god and what a great honor you know to to be a pastor you know if you get the opportunity to preach think of it as a great honor to teach the commandments of god but you should do them and teach them and you'll be counted great in the kingdom of god okay it's so important that we teach the commandments of god you guys are in ax 20 look at ax 20 verse 27 ax 20 verse 27 for i have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of god what should we teach guys all the counsel of god all of its valuable okay we shouldn't be people that just skip passages and go i can't teach that no you ought to be someone that is apt to teach all the counsel of god verse 28 take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the holy ghost have made you overseers to feed the church of god what are you feeding them the whole council of god right which he have purchased with his own blood okay so you need to be someone that is ready to teach it all if you're afraid to teach against the homosexuals if you're afraid to teach certain portraits of the bible you're afraid to say to someone they're going to hell without christ then you don't have to teach you don't have to teach you might be a natural speaker you might be a great presenter of things but if you're not able to just you know without compromise teach the word of god you don't have to teach the word of god okay now i do believe the word apt aptitude is a natural ability but i do believe it is an ability you can learn and acquire i mean all these things all these qualifications are things that somebody is not has not achieved so they've got to work toward achieving that okay you might be a single person before i become a pastor i need to work toward finding a wife so you work toward finding that wife getting married work toward having a faithful family all these kinds of things well someone that struggles to stand before public and teach you know you just need to work on those things you can you can learn these things you know just you might say today i'm too shy i can't do it okay you might not be apt to teach right now but start developing the skills okay start developing you know that they're a ask god for the gift of preaching ask god for the gift of prophecy that you can you can learn and and not have the fear to preach the word of god so you know this is something we all need to be working toward i'm trying to work toward it i'm trying to find better breathing techniques i'm looking up on youtube how i can breathe better so i can project my voice louder you know that i can breathe through my um what do they call this part of the body but yeah you know you know preach from your diaphragm so it doesn't wear out your throat because sometimes i'm preaching on tuesday night in sydney i come and preach on wednesday night i'm feeling so tired i feel like my throat's like burning and i can't do it you know especially because i'm song leading as well so i'm trying to trying to learn how can i how can i project my voice and not damage uh my throat but these are things that we can we can definitely be working toward so that's what i've got for you guys today i hope that was beneficial i do want to break down all these qualifications and go into more detail like i said and i will be continuing i'll continue to do this next month as well let's pray