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

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music In your green hymn book page 167, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name page 167. Music All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, sing out loud on the first. All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, let Angels' Cross reform. Bring forth the Royal Diadem and crown Him Lord of all. Bring forth the Royal Diadem and crown Him Lord of all. On the second You chosen seed of Israel's race, He ransomed from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe, on this terrestrial ball. To Him all majesty a scribe, and crown Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty a scribe, and crown Him Lord of all. On the last, all that with yonder sacred call, we at His feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song, and crown Him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song, and crown Him Lord of all. Okay, Matt's time. We'll have our announcements. Good evening, I'm your pastor, Pastor Thompson. Let's take our bulletins and look at some announcements. Is this the right one? Feels right. Okay, it is right. It's been so long since I've been here, so I just... Anyways, everybody got a sheet for the announcements? No? You got one left. Anybody need it? Anybody want it? Right over there. All right, on our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety. Psalm chapter 4, verse number 8. Our service times are listed below. Sunday morning service is 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening service is 3 30 p.m. and our Thursday Bible study is at 6 30 p.m. We're in Titus 1 again, and we'll be covering the qualifications of the bishop tonight. And our solving times are listed below. Let's see in our salvations. I wanted to do a check on those salvations, because I thought that there was four saved in Puyallup on Saturday, and there's two written in here. Was there any salvations last week in this morning? I thought there was. None? No days. None on Sunday. None on Saturday. I thought Brandon had one on Saturday, so that'd be two, three. So that's seven. So there should be seven salvations in there. Rylan, will you take note of that? Take note of your failure and make sure that it's fixed. I'm not just kidding. I was just like, am I bad at counting or what's going on? Sorry Rylan, I'm just kidding. You know I love you, buddy. All right, so our praise report, you can see the salvations, which should be seven there, and then I will adjust all those numbers. I believe there was a Brother Wynn baptized somebody on Saturday, and then, so praise God for that. They had seven salvations in their soloing marathon up in Canada. And let's see, the mega soloing conference is almost over. It's going to end up being the last one, I think, in Sacramento, which is the Red Hot Preaching Conference. So it's kind of one conference is melding into another. So who else is going to the Red Hot Preaching Conference? Would you raise your hand? Just kidding. Okay, all right, cool. So there'll be some people left over here. I think a lot of people are going though. So anyway, that'll be coming up next week. We had the 4th of July fellowship. Sounds like it went, everything went well except for a couple little mishaps. But other than that, somebody blew Eli up, I think. But he's still here, he's alive, so praise God for that. So there was, I saw this picture where it was like everybody, every emergency room, and it like had these, this guy with both of his hands blown off. I was like, oh man, that's so bad. Anyway, okay, they weren't literally blown off. It was just like a joke. But anyhow, nothing's funny about blowing up with fireworks, right? So anyhow, okay, let's see, the baby shower is, for Miss Alana, is this Saturday at 11 a.m. So Miss Alejandra, you got that all hooked up, ready to go? All right, so it doesn't say where she's registered, but it is at Amazon. So if you just look up Alana Yankee, it'll automatically come up if you look for the list. So there's items on there that still are in need, so if you haven't gotten a baby shower present, you can get on Amazon and do that if you want. And then Red Hot Preaching Conference is next week, so starting Thursday. So even if you go down there Wednesday, Wednesday there's no church service, so people always get fooled by this. I think they'll have some soul-winning times, extra soul-winning times on Wednesday, but Thursday I think is the beginning of it, and then it'll end on Sunday night. So that's in Sacramento, California, of course. And then our four-year anniversary will be the last weekend of the month, and that will be, Pastor Pazarski will be preaching for us on Friday at 6 30 p.m., and then Saturday we're going to have some soul-winning, and then I'm thinking we're going to have some kind of fun event, some fun family event. And I heard the bounce house was pretty cool, but would that be too back-to-backish? Okay, we're trying to think about it because unfortunately we can't really close this off right here unless we did like where we just park all of our cars and block everything or something, but I'd have to get permission to do that. So I'm going to work on that and see what we can get done, but either way we're going to do something fun on Saturday, maybe a barbecue, some bounce house stuff. I can get a rent, I could rent a dunk tank and we could put brother Eli in it so, you know, he could soak his legs and then, you know, get wet. So we'll put ice in it for him. Anyway, sorry, he's right there, so I just can't help myself. Anyway, I've been gone for a while so I gotta play around, but yeah, so that weekend will be great and then Pastor Jones will be coming up. He'll be here on Saturday, maybe, yeah, Saturday, he'll be here Saturday morning with us, but he'll be preaching on Sunday morning. So very excited about that and you guys all know all the other stuff and I was hoping since it's my anniversary that somebody would come up and sing to me and my wife because it is our anniversary today. It's 21 years. She's put up with me for this long, can you believe it? Did we already sing to the woods? All right, who's going to do it? Brando, come on up. Happy anniversary Mrs. and Mr. Thompson. All right, let's sing happy anniversary. One, two, three, happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. God bless you and keep you. Happy anniversary to you. Thank you. That's it for announcements. That's it, okay. Thank you Brandon. All right, let's turn in your hymn books to page 169. We're gonna sing Come Thou Fount page 169. Page 169, Come Thou Fount on the first. Yes, on it, sung by Faming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come. And I know by thy good pleasure, Safely I'll arrive at home. Jesus saw me when a stranger Wondering come the fold of God. Heed to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wondering heart to thee. Prone to wonder Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, I'll take it, seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Amen. Great singing everyone. At this time we'll receive our offering. Brother Sean, can you bless the offering for us? Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day, Lord, and I thank you for this opportunity to gather today, Lord, and hear some preaching. I pray that you would bless all aspects of the service, Lord. Please help us be attentive to the word. I pray you feel pastored with the Spirit and I pray you bless this offering. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, well we're going to go to the Lord in prayer for our prayer requests so let's all bow our heads together. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord so much for the privilege to come to you in Jesus' name and we just ask that you would Lord put a hedge of protection about our church and about the churches of like faith that we fellowship with and Lord especially for Pastor Shelley and for Pastor Jones as they've been persecuted greatly by the sodomites and other people that just hate you Lord and we just pray that you would Lord that you would just protect us Lord. There's just so many people out there just trying to destroy us and Lord I just pray that your hand of protection would be upon us and Lord we also ask that you would help us to find a suitable church building in Spokane for our church there and also for Brother Alex. We pray for him and for Miss Sheila, Ciara and Ethan and also for Brother Chris as he's away on deployment for Miss Sarah and the girls to have comfort while he's away and we also ask for especially for Miss Alana for she's due really soon and just pray that you would help them to have a very safe and healthy delivery Lord and that Miss Alana will have no issues health wise and the baby would be fine and not have any issues Lord. We also ask for prayer for Miss Chantal and Miss Amy and we also ask for special unspoken for Miss Julene and for the Velazquez family and also concerning their home that they would get some answers soon on all that and then for Miss Sheila that she would have some relief from her pain that she's been in and for Miss Sarah Miller for her prayer for her physical health and for work and also for Miss Leilani that she would get some good results from her appointments that she's been having and for the Harrington family for spiritual unspoken for their children and prayer for Penny James one that has cancer and also for Heidi who has a brain tumor and Lord we just ask that you would watch over Miss Kylie's family and we especially pray for her Opa who is not doing well and apparently not supposed to make it past this week and Lord we just ask that you would reach down and Lord I know that they want to make sure he's saved I pray that you would just help give him that comfort Lord that they would get another chance to speak the gospel to him and Lord we just ask that you would bring your healing hand upon him and Lord that you might spare him and Lord that you might save him and Lord we pray all these things in Jesus precious name tonight. Amen. Alright good evening would you please turn with me to the book of Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1 The book of Titus chapter 1 In Titus chapter 1 the Bible reads Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our savior to Titus mine own son after the common faith grace mercy and peace from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ our savior for this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee if any be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God not self-willed not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers specially they of the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake one of themselves even a prophet of their own said the cretians are always liars evil beasts slow bellings slow bellies this witness is true for rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth unto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled they profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate brother Alex would you pray for us thank you for this time amen amen alright well we're in Titus chapter 1 still we haven't really gotten too far in the book but there's only three chapters anyway so but I kind of wanted to take it slow for at least the first chapter and I'll probably actually preach one more sermon out of this chapter but tonight we're going to talk about the qualifications for pastors so let's look down at our bibles at verse number six let me get to the right book here and I'm going to be taking my qualifications for pastors out of the book of Titus so that's going to be my main points and obviously I'm going to bounce back and forth with 1 Timothy chapter 3 some and some other verses tonight but anyway number 1 let's look at verse number 6 it says in verse number 6 if any man be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly for a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God not self-willed not soon angry not given to wine nor striker not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers let's have a word of prayer heavenly father we thank you lord so much for this great chapter and I pray that you'd help me to cover the qualifications tonight of a bishop and lord help me give the sense of the scriptures tonight pray that you just fill me with your spirit lord that you'd help me once again to deliver the message you put on my heart tonight pray that you just bless the people that came here to be faithful on a Thursday night and pray that you just bless them and fill them with the spirit as well in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright so in verse number six it says if any be blameless so number one the first qualification for being a pastor is that you must be found blameless if any it says if any be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly now I kind of believe that the part about being blameless encompasses multiple things within the text here and because it brings it up again in a couple verses here so I think that some of these things are kind of underneath that umbrella of being blameless I'll show you what I mean here in just a minute but blameless I just want to kind of explain what it means to be blameless because a lot of people would say well that means thinless now I don't know if you realize this or not but Pastor Thompson's not sinless okay and maybe you've seen me sin before maybe you've heard me sin before maybe you've witnessed a judgment call that wasn't completely right or whatever you know blameless does not mean sinless and I know that a lot of people like to put pastors up on a pedestal and think that they could do no wrong but that's just really far from the truth really what it is is the pastor meets the qualifications to become a bishop to be the leader of the church to be the ruler of the church but it doesn't mean sinless there's only one sinless person that's ever walked the face of the earth that's the Lord Jesus Christ okay so and I'm not saying that I'm not held to a higher standard of course I am but I'm not held to the and I'm glad for this that I'm not held to the standard of being sinless because then if you want to have a sinless pastor up here then you're going to have to have Jesus come back down from heaven alright so what does it mean to be blameless well it's used to describe someone who hasn't done anything wrong so what does that mean exactly well they haven't done anything to be blamed for to blame some you know because blame is meaning you're you're faulting somebody for something right to blame someone for something is to accuse them of having caused it or to hold them responsible for it so you know you could blame me for blowing up Eli at the fourth of July thing but I wasn't there so you can't blame me for that well you're the pastor of the church yeah I understand that but you know I only have so much power okay so I can't stop everything from happening but so I mean I guess ultimately am I responsible for everything that happens in this church everything rises and falls upon leadership I understand that but like you can't blame the pastor for everything that goes wrong alright so let's look at a couple there's a few verses in the in the scriptures I think might help us to understand this term let's look at Genesis chapter 44 verse 10 Genesis chapter 44 verse number 10 this is the first time it's used in the Bible and it says in Genesis 44 verse 10 it says and he said now also let it be according unto your words he with whom it is found shall be my servant and ye shall be blameless of course this is Joseph talking about whoever is discovered with his silver cup in the bag remember they said well we'll be your servants you know yada yada yada you know and because they didn't want to be found in Benjamin's stack right but it was found in Benjamin's sack but the point of me showing you this verse is that you know he said let it be according unto you unto your words that he that whom it is found shall be my servant and you shall be blameless so what is what's being accused of is that Joseph you know you know he's accusing them of stealing his royal goblet or whatever his silver cup right and so what would they be doing if they took that cup well they'd be stealing right and you know to steal from the second in command really the leader underneath Pharaoh of all of Egypt to steal from his house would be a crime wouldn't it I mean to steal from anybody is a crime because you could file a police report now I know that right now in modern day 2022 nobody's gonna do anything about it I mean you'll be lucky if the cops show up if someone's you know getting shot so right now but hopefully that's gonna change at some point but the point is is that you know they would have been blamed if the cup was found in their sack and so basically it's kind of like a shoplifting thing here going on if you think about it like if someone's shop say you got 11 guys and they all leave and they all have bags and the Walmart person comes over and says you guys are all stealing you know let's go into this back room over here and then they look through everybody's bags and they found something that was not paid for then they would be considered thieves that person whoever got caught would be considered thieves and the other ones would not be considered thieves because they didn't have any merchandise in their bag so I mean basically when you're talking about blameless in this situation it's talking about what did they did they steal something so that would be something that they could be blamed for and so if you apply that to the pastor if I stole something and it was like you know if I got caught stealing at Walmart you walk by you see me being taken back in handcuffs because I am a kleptomaniac and you catch me stealing well then I would not be blameless at that point right I would be you know someone that was to be blamed so a public sin like that where you're caught red-handed stealing something that it would be something that would make me not blameless or a pastor not blameless so look at Joshua chapter 2 Joshua chapter number 2 it says in Joshua number chapter number 2 verse 17 it says and the men said unto her we will be blameless on this vine oath which thou hast made us swear so what's going on here is that not I was going to say Hagar but it's not Hagar it's Rahab the harlot yeah she's basically you know wants to you know throw she was helping the spies and she basically wanted her and her family to be spared in order for that to happen you know they she was to swear an oath and basically if she broke anything of that oath then her and her family would be killed and her oath would be null and void and it says we would be blameless of this oath so if she doesn't do everything according to what she said she was going to do then she would be to be blamed and then her the thing that they worked out with her so that she didn't have to die or her family would be null and void so there's another example now let's look at in the New Testament Luke chapter number one Luke chapter number one the Bible says in Luke chapter number one I'll give you a second to turn over there Luke chapter number one the Bible says in verse six and they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless so here's also an example of people that are right with God because righteous means right before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances does that mean they're sinless though? I mean people would look at that these work salvation people would look at this and say well yeah they're righteous they're doing all the commandments they're keeping all the ordinances of the Lord they're blameless that means they're sinless no it doesn't mean they're sinless it just means that they're keeping God's law they're keeping God's commandments they're saved they're righteous before God but they don't have anything to be blamed for so now look at verse number seven back in our text in Titus chapter one and I'm going to have you put a bookmark in Titus chapter one and then we will turn to Timothy chapter three here pretty soon but let's look back at Titus chapter one verse number seven so it says in verse six actually if any man be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly so the reason why I said that it's kind of like an umbrella is because when you look down at verse seven it says for the bishop must be blameless right and because so it listed all those things and then it's saying it again bishop must be blameless as the steward of God so for that term it is somewhat subjective and what does subjective mean well subjective means based on or influenced by personal feelings taste or opinion so some another pastor might have a different view on some of the things that I'm saying here the term like I said the term subjective is you know based on the influence personal sometimes personal feelings come into this blameless it's like someone would say well yeah the pastor should be sinless if he sins you know then he's not blameless well that's just ridiculous I mean it's just impossible so that's not that's not what it means but you know there might be differing opinions basically upon what this means but or an interpretation on what they hold you to as being blameless but overall I believe that you must have as a whole as a whole as a pastor you must be defined by these standards okay so you know if you know if I was to say that I'm blameless and I'm the husband of one wife well is that true am I the husband of one wife yes we've been married for 21 years as of today I had no other wives and I'm not planning on having anymore so as of right now in this in this qualification I'm blameless am I not so I am the husband of one wife I can stand behind people would say well according to this particular this particular item of being the husband of one wife yes I am blameless so I mean if you look through these lists you know it says having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly well like I'm saying so if you have this in your you know at you know when people say well hey what are his kids like well are his kids like well are his kids nice are they good do they go to church are they saved you know if none of my kids were saved and I was the pastor of the church wouldn't that would that make me blameless I don't think it would because it says having faithful children so faithful is being you know maybe going to church on a regular basis or whatever or just being you know being able to count on them for things but you know if you're full of faith you're probably saved right I mean wouldn't you think it'd be weird if a pastor doesn't have any saved kids and then I'm the pastor yeah it'd be kind of weird so I would not be blameless in that category so so overall like I said you must have or be by as a whole defined by these standards so that's my opinion on it so if someone said you know is pastor Thompson blameless well am I getting arrested for theft not that you know of no I'm not or other crimes you know if I had some major crime that I committed and I'm the pastor like don't you know and I'm not talking about like being persecuted for your faith or being told that you're you know calling for violence against people or whatever all these people are trying to say all the time which is ridiculous but or major sin as part of my record as a Christian so if I had like this major public sin that you know I committed or something then that would be a mark against me that would make me not blameless you see what I'm saying there'd be a so a blemish is something that's like you know if someone says you have a facial blemish right you might have some kind of a mark or like a birthmark or something you know something like that and so in the Old Testament they were not allowed to give offerings of animals that had blemishes on them it wasn't anything they weren't like bad animals or something they just had a blemish they had a mark upon them that would make them not blameless so what is the other some of the other ones in this list here well in verse number six it says I think it's verse number six yeah verse number six not self-willed and being self-willed is that would be like for me to say well I'm going to be the pastor whether you I meet the qualifications or not so we got a lot of that going on today got a lot of Bible college babies wet behind the ears still haven't even read the Bible cover to cover one time coming out and just becoming pastors being deemed as assistant pastor no wife no kids I mean that if someone you know maybe someone just thinks that it's okay or something but you know it's like there are qualifications look the reason why I'm preaching about this is because there's qualifications for the bishop there's a qualification there's qualifications you have to meet in order to be the pastor of a church and unfortunately in this world those qualifications have gone by the wayside and so that's something that churches like ours make a big deal about because it is a big deal not just anybody can be the pastor of a church women cannot be the pastor of the church single people cannot be the pastor of the church someone that's a novice cannot be the pastor of the church you know say you got saved yesterday I'm called to be the pastor everybody's like well I vote him in amen and then this guy gets up to never preached never went soul winning never read the Bible one day in his life I mean that and I know that's a ridiculous kind of I mean that doesn't really necessarily happen but hey there's people that deem themselves pastors all the time well you know the Holy Ghost called me to be the pastor all right well where's your witnesses where's the congregation that approves of you because where's the pastor that ordained you see I was ordained in case you guys didn't realize that as the pastor of the church because pastor Mendez said that I met the qualifications of being the pastor so he laid hands upon me first he asked if the congregation agreed the congregation agreed and then he laid hands upon me and I became the pastor of the church and our church stopped being Verity Baptist Church and started to be Sure Foundation Baptist Church so if I was self-willed and just said you know what I don't care if pastor Mendez thinks I'm ordainable or not I'm the new pastor of this church that's being self-willed that's a qualification that you cannot be self-willed okay soon angry not soon angry people like you're always angry you're always hateful you're always mean not always sometimes I'm nice that's just not true you know it's just a it's an unfair characterization because you see me ripping face in a Bible you know in a sermon about the Bible or something I'm really passionate about and the Bible doesn't say not to be angry it says not to be soon angry okay so that was that would be someone that just loses their temper really easily over every little thing so are you are you characterized by being an angry person all the time well if you are then you cannot be the pastor right not soon angry loses their temper really easily now Moses lost his temper and people died Moses lost his temper and the Ten Commandments died Moses lost you know but was Moses the bonafide leader did God believe I mean he was the meekest man on the face of the earth so God picked Moses out of all the millions of people in Israel that he could have picked he picked Moses but Moses got angry didn't he and actually Moses lost his temper more than one time so what but was he characterized as an angry man you see what I'm saying like the qualifications of a bishop you know obviously he wasn't a bishop in the sense of a New Testament pastor but he was like the pastor of the church in the wilderness in the Old Testament as a matter of fact he had a mega church millions of people you know hundreds of people underneath him as leaders you know I mean it's it's not an easy job to be a leader and especially the burden that he had to bear you know at one point he was just like just kill me I'm done kill me God you know it's just like I mean sometimes when I feel like I have a rough I just go and read Numbers chapter 11 I'm like okay Moses you know you had it a lot harder okay but but so look at Proverbs chapter 14 let's just look at a verse on it real quick and since there's so much to cover tonight I just I'm not going to go to a whole bunch of different verses mainly just be dealing with Titus and first Timothy chapter 3 but we'll look at some other stuff here Proverbs chapter 14 verse 17 he that is soon angry dealeth foolishly so why would it be bad to be soon angry if you're characterized as someone that's soon angry someone that just loses their cool over every single thing well what's the Bible say they deal with foolishly so why would God not want a man that's always just on a hair trigger and angry about every little thing anything goes wrong you know he's flipping out and throwing things and you know cussing people out or whatever or fighting people or whatever it is you know if you're soon angry that I mean the Bible says you deal foolishly so what happens when you lose it what happens when you lose it well you lose control of your senses a little bit you lose control of what you do and then that's when you can make really big mistakes so that's why God doesn't want a pastor that is soon angry now let's look at verse number seven verse number seven again it says not given to wine not given to wine now I believe that we're supposed to be teetotalers we're not supposed to be drinking alcohol at all the Bible does specifically say that you're not supposed to be drunk okay so drunken or to be drunk on wine is obviously you know you're not sober at that point I don't believe that God wants us drinking alcoholic beverages Nadab and Abihu is an example of people that drank you know and then it doesn't say specifically that that's what God killed them for it says that they offered strange fire but they were but God does say that you know you're not supposed to drink and go into the house of the Lord right after that happens it's like God just doesn't just blurt sentences out to people for no apparent reason in the middle of some kind of a story I believe that that's directly connected to that story I believe that Nadab and Abihu were probably drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage and then when they went in there they're messing around they're supposed to offer the fire in a specific way the incense in a specific way and then God killed them he torched them you know and then pronounced that proclamation you know we're not supposed to be drunk in the house of the Lord we don't allow drunks to come in here so why would it be okay for the pastor to drink alcohol in his spare time and it says not given to wine like someone's just like given to something is like you're always doing it right so literally and in this you know it's I believe that you're literally not supposed to be given to drinking wine but also in the sense that you indulge in only the extravagant and finer things wine is a picture in the Bible of extravagance because not everybody could just afford fine wines and things like that today you'll see if you look at your neighbors recycling bins you'll see that there are a lot of people they're filled with wine bottles aren't they and that's a big problem in this country is alcoholism is what it's called but really it should be called drunkards you know that's the strong word that the Bible uses people don't like that word because they want to say well it's my disease that I have it's not a disease it's a sin okay and so when you're someone that's a drunkard then you're going to indulge in alcoholic beverages or you know even weed and things like that I think that that's wrong to do hard drugs and smoke marijuana and things like that and be the pastor I mean I think that it's directly talking about that but it's also talking about you know just being extravagant with you know given over to these extravagant tastes because it is you know when it talks about wine and lists and things like that in the Bible it's talking about something that's extravagant it was very expensive in ancient times they didn't have modern presses like they do now people had to actually get in with their bare feet and squish the grapes and do a process in order to have it turn into alcoholic wine and even just regular grape juice was very expensive so juice is still expensive now I mean go try to buy a vat of grape juice it's expensive so it's not cheap and it's something that you shouldn't overindulge in right because Paul told Timothy to drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake so what kind of wine is it talking about it's just talking about grape juice why would he say a literal qualification is that you can't be given the wine and then he says here have some wine for your stomach problems that doesn't make sense so but the you know to have to be given the wine I believe does like if I had to have caviar with my dinner every single night caviar is very expensive I mean I don't know how expensive it is I just know I've had it once when I was a little kid and it tasted disgusting and so I've never tried it again but it's like really salty they're like fish eggs or something but they must be good like maybe I just had like cheap ones or something or maybe I was just a kid and I didn't know it tasted good at the time but I was like I put some on like a cracker or something and it was gross but all I'm saying is that part where it's talking about not being given to wine I think literally it's talking about not drinking wine, pastors aren't supposed to be drunkards or drinking wine but also overindulging expensive items and just an overindulging period no striker verse 7 well what would that be talking about well it's talking about not fighting and beating people up physically okay striker you know and like mixed martial arts there's you know there's the wrestlers the jujitsu people and then there's the strikers the strikers are the ones that are trained to kick and punch and that's kind of their main thing to do so a pastor is not supposed to be a striker so I haven't been in a fight since I was before I was saved so have I been in a fight before yes I've been in many fights before but I haven't been in a fight as a Christian and I've been saved for 20 years so over 20 years so I would say that that does not characterize me as a person I'm not characterized I don't drink alcohol I don't smoke pot I don't do drugs and I don't beat people up so I'm not soon angry because if I was soon angry I'd be beating people up you see what I'm saying so like all these things like are qualifications of being blameless in my opinion they fall under a whole banner but at the same time individually if I was if I kept all these other things and then I was like just out punching knocking people out every time I was out soloing and they're like I don't want to hear the gospel like good night you know sleep tight I would be a striker right you know I mean so the next thing is not given to filthy lucre what does that mean does that mean you can't make money pastors shouldn't be paid I know that that gets thrown around a lot pastors are just out for the money what and all that stuff but not given to filthy lucre means money especially when regarded as sorted or distasteful or gained in a dishonorable way so if I was a striker and I was out fighting people for money that would be first of all I'd be breaking the commandment to be a striker to not be a striker and then I would be earning money in a dishonorable way and you know I know that there's people that box for a living or whatever but I personally believe that if I was a professional boxer and a pastor at the same time that would be a contradiction right I'm not supposed to be a striker so I know that people might disagree with me on that but I think that it's pretty clear what it means to not be a striker you know not knocking people out or whatever so I remember when I was a kid I had moved from an old hick school that I was going to it was just different you know back then there was no cell phones and internet and things like that so I moved from the country to the big city I'm wearing wranglers and cowboy boots and like a cowboy looking shirt type thing and I mean I was a hillbilly whatever but when I got to Portland public schools you know they're looking at me people are making fun of what I'm dressed like and I've never experienced this before because that just wasn't the way things were where I went to school you know so I'm getting burned on I don't even realize it half the time but when you come from a different place there's like people just like to pick on the new kids you know what I mean they either like you or they don't and I got picked on a little bit and so eventually I started standing up for myself and I remember I'd gotten in like two fights when I was like sixth grade or something and the guys jumped me at a party they invited me to a party just so they could the guys could like jump me or whatever and they didn't even hurt me but like at school like these guys were like really popular and they wore Keds and they were like super cool and one guy wore a leather jacket and he thought he was all tough or whatever and I dinged him up in the hallway one time because he was like just put you know he just kept pushing me and messing with me I don't want to tell too long but ultimately I got in a couple fights that year and I remember like the next year a girl walked up to me and she was like really getting a lot of fights and I'm just like I do? I got in like two fights or whatever but like it's funny because the two fights I got like that fight got continued at a community center in Sellwood which I don't know if you know where Sellwood is but like the whole school was there watching the fight and then the other fight I got into the whole school showed up too and they all wanted me to get beat up but I beat up their little pretty boy boyfriends and they didn't like that but yeah so I had a reputation for what? For being a striker so as a young adolescent man but I mean so the reason why I said that is because that's what I was classified as and I thought to myself I was like wow people do other people think this about me like that I just going around just beating everybody up or something but I mean if she thought that then I had that reputation didn't I so if I had that reputation now that would make me have the reputation of being a striker you see what I'm saying? So you know that can't be what I'm defined by or I'm not qualified so anyway let's see let's move on here as far as the filthy verse 8 but a lover of hospitality so I got to love hospitality I got to love it you know and do you always feel like being hospitable? I'm sure not everybody does especially women when they haven't cleaned their house they're like husbands are like hey my friends are coming over and it's like what? so that's why it's my qualification I guess but anyway I'm supposed to be a lover of hospitality but hospitality doesn't only have to be at your house it can be at church it can be just an attitude that you have so it basically just means to be friendly and welcoming to strangers or guests so as a pastor I'm supposed to be welcoming to people that come to our church I'm supposed to be welcoming strangers and try to at least get over and talk to them and I do make an effort to do that but I mean or when people come to visit or when pastors come hospitality is something that pastor Amanda has really ingrained into me and I believe that it's right to be hospitable so and not only that it seems like it's a qualification doesn't it it says but a lover of hospitality and so also it says a lover of good men so I should love I shouldn't just love all the bad boys in town and just you know oh I hate all my Christian brothers that are good men but I love all the bad boys in town that's just a weird mentality we're supposed to love men that are good right and that's as a pastor my job should be to love good men and I do so but it's pretty self explanatory I mean it says I'm supposed to be a lover of good men but doesn't say wicked men does it now I love sinners because everybody's a sinner we're supposed to love sinners but it doesn't say I have to love reprobates does it love the reprobates love all the queers bring them into the church put some banners out in the front and just show them how much you love them that's not a qualification homie it's not a qualification it says a lover of good men you know not drag queens so or just evil men in general like that's not that's not what I'm supposed to do I'm supposed to love good men I'm supposed to care for the brethren it says to be sober and again when you're talking combining this with the not giving to wine sober just means not drunk right so we're supposed to be sober not drunk not inebriated or stoned but also it can mean to be serious so I do joke around sometimes and and I have a good time and you know I'm pretty light-hearted about things a lot but I also have you know a very sober side to me where I'm serious about things I'm serious about preaching the word of God I'm serious about soul and I'm serious about the things of God and you know taking care of the church you know I'm sober when it comes to those things I'm not just trying to compare myself I'm just trying to say like you know this is what the Bible expects us to be like this is what the Bible says about being a bishop or a pastor you have to meet the qualifications okay to be just that means based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair so just you know just you know what would what's the long term of that well it's justice do I do I care about things being right yes I do and any pastor with results should care about things being just right and fair or you know what's the Bible talk about a just man you know a just man is a man that is saved Lot was a just man even though he wasn't a very good saved man he was still saved so the Bible talks about being just you know justified just as if I'd never sinned so a person that's just is saved so a pastor should be saved right I mean but what do we have in this world we have a world full of men that call themselves pastors that are not even saved and then they're going around talking about how we need to love people it's like you're not even saved buddy you don't even love people you don't even talk to your neighbor you wouldn't even walk across the street and hand your neighbor an invitation to your church you're you're you're you're nothing you're nothing what the you're nothing that the qualifications say most pastors nowadays think it's okay to drink and teach their congregations to do so you know it's just there's got to be either there's qualifications or there's not and the Bible clearly has them so we need to clearly go by them right so also there's the it says holy and holy is to be dedicated or consecrated to God set apart you know sanctified is another word for it so that means that you know you're dedicated but you know all these lists that I'm reading all these things that I'm reading a pastor must be these things that you must be these things to be qualified well are any of these things on here something that you all shouldn't be doing everything on there is something that every Christian should be able to say yes I'm this way too but the pastor is just the example of this and then sample unto the believers who and then you must like maybe you don't you lack on some of these things or maybe you've already been divorced or you know whatever you can't so if you've been divorced and remarried you cannot be a pastor now it doesn't mean God can never use you again doesn't mean God is done with you it doesn't mean you're a bad Christian it just means you know you made a mistake and you just can't be a pastor you know why and people just get so upset about stuff like this now I remember there was a time when someone was teetering me back and forth on this belief because they couldn't be what they wanted to be they wanted to be a missionary and they were divorced before before they were saved and their spouse cheated on them and they end up getting divorced and so this guy is trying to justify the fact that he that happened before he got saved and he should be able to be he's only married to one wife now that he's faithful to that wife and they've been married for a long time whatever and he was trying to justify to me why he's still qualified and that the church is wrong about that as they're going to try to be a missionary I'm just like but like he kind of had me teetering a little bit on it and I just wasn't really sure but like as I thought about it and studied it I mean the Bible is very clear that you can't be divorced and remarried why is that well you know if you can't rule your own house how are you going to rule the house of God if you can't rule your own marriage you know and it doesn't matter if you were married before you know all the sins that we did before we were saved there were still sins that we did there were still sins we have to be forgiven for the sins after you're saved are still sins and you still have to be forgiven for them so it's like you know if you messed up just serve God in some other capacity I mean it doesn't have to be as the pastor and so then I would promote I'd say you know because some of these things can domino into other things because if you're so self-willed to be this position then you're going to justify what you're not in order to be qualified which makes you self-willed so we just can't bend on these qualifications temperate means showing moderation or self-restraint and let's look at let's see I kind of already went over this but let's see let's look at the second let's look at number two the husband of one wife I want to kind of dive into this a little bit here so the husband of one wife and that's in verse number what six okay look at verse number six again so it says you know the the bishop must be blameless the husband or no excuse me it says if any be blameless the husband of one wife in titus chapter 1 6 so it says the husband of one wife not one wife at a time one wife okay so having faithful children not accused of a right or unruly so the husband of one wife that means one wife okay now here's the thing let me caveat this just a little bit if your wife passes away and you've only been married to one woman and you get remarried to another woman that you don't lose your qualification because of that that would be kind of weird to be blamed for something that you didn't you know that's out of your control right so you can't because the vow is what tell death do us part so once your one your partner passes then that then you can get remarried so let's look at first timothy chapter three verse two first fifty chapter three verse two and keep your finger there in titus one first timothy chapter three verse two says a bishop then what does it say must be blameless the husband of one wife so when it says must be what does that mean to you it means you have to right there's no wiggle room here must be and when it says the husband of one wife you know it's not stuttering means not divorced it means you know obviously it does mean you can't have a plurality of wives right because there's some cultures where that was acceptable but if you were in a country where that was acceptable and you had multiple wives that person would not be qualified to be a bishop period right it wouldn't be like oh i'm gonna divorce all the other ones and keep the one i like the best no you're the husband of one wife and so because god doesn't want any weirdness involved in it either you know so he doesn't want some kind of weird family dynamic because you know god's plan his perfect plan for us is to be married to one spouse for our life and to have children together and then that is the picture of what the family that god is most acceptable of now can there be all kinds of crazy different dynamics in your family and god still loves you and still blesses you and maybe you come from two different families merging as one or whatever it is you know god's still gonna allow you to thrive and have blessings in that situation you just can't be a pastor okay so so again if your wife dies though you can get remarried and as a pastor if your wife dies then you i think have time to mourn you have time to you know find a new wife because i do believe that you do have to be married to be a pastor and there's where someone would say well i don't know if i agree with you on that one well i'm not saying you have to get remarried right away but it says the husband must be the husband of one wife right so obviously god's gonna give you time to mourn and all those things but i do believe that you should be married you know you should be married to be a pastor so because you know you need your helpmate like if you don't have anybody to help you in your ministry you're gonna be in a lot of trouble so unless you're just having like one fifteen minute sermon every sunday and it's like a praise and worship band with purple lights and smoke you know that's not too difficult to deal with but then you have all those people to deal with because you know your church is gonna be a mega church because that's kind of the system that they're built upon so and then let's look at having faithful children number three titus chapter one verse six again it says if any be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly so we kind of know what a riot is because you see them happen in portland every single night where they're breaking people's windows out of their personal businesses and doing all kinds of crazy stuff like that unruly what does that mean well you're unable to rule them they cannot be ruled and so because the pastor is supposed to be a ruler in his home and a ruler in the church and so if you have children that are rioting or unruly you're just unable to rein them in for any reason well you got problems and so let's look at first timothy chapter three again and let's look at verse number four because this is and this kind of goes back into the husband and wife thing also a little bit here but first timothy chapter three verse four says one that ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity so you gotta be able to rule your own house okay and so if you can't rule your own house then you're you have an unruly household right and specifically talking about children subjection means that they're subject unto your rules and gods you know with all gravity gravity is being you know seriousness it's a serious thing verse five for if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church of god and so see how that's a qualification that if you can't even rule your own home then you have no business being the pastor if you can't make people follow the rules they're unruly you got no business being the pastor so now let's look at first samuel chapter two verse 22 and we'll look at some examples of some some young men that were unruly in the bible i know i only got about 20 minutes left here so we gotta hurry but uh we're gonna look at eli sorry eli right here man every time so first samuel chapter two verse 22 says now eli was very old and heard that all the sons did and unto all israel how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and he said unto them why do you such things for i hear of your evil dealings by all this people nay my sons for it is not no good report that i hear you make the lord's people to transgress if one man sin against another the judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the lord who shall entreat for him notwithstanding they hearken not unto the voice of their father because the lord would slay them so these guys these uh sons of sons of eli were the bible says that they're men of belial their children of belial they're sons of the devil so eli is the high priest and eli is like basically like the spiritual leader of israel at this time and so he has sons that are priests also and they're getting the best chunks of meat they're supposed to be that are supposed to be already fried or boiled and they're like taking this hook and hooking the best piece of meat and saying you know if you don't give it to me i'm going to take it from you by force so they're extorting people they're committing fornication with women at the gates at the at the church i mean it's pretty bad and so they they made god so angry that you know they didn't hearken unto eli so you know eli is coming to him far too late i mean they're already you know young men and you know they're you know they're they're serving in god's house but god's very angry with them and they're not even saved so this would be an example of someone that did not rule his own house well his sons are reprobates now look at for uh samuel first samuel chapter eight verse number one so samuel is actually raised by eli and eli actually does a good job raising him but that's not even his own son so but samuel has his own sons and he's a great prophet he's a great judge for god as a matter of fact he's the last judge to rule as a as a judge over israel before the kings and uh says in verse number one in chapter eight it says and it came to pass when samuel was old that he made his sons judges over israel now the name of his firstborn was jol and the name of his second abia they were judges in beersheba so he makes them judges they're his own sons and this is why nepotism can run a little bit wild you shouldn't just pick people just because they're your sons you know he is the spiritual leader at this time and he is the the priest and he's the prophet and he's the judge jury executioner hughes agag into pieces at one point he's a good man he doesn't take bribes he's not covetous he's not a bad guy but you know what his sons don't walk in his ways look at verse number three it says and his sons walk not in his ways but turned aside after what lucre so they turned aside and do what they do the opposite of the way samuel is it says and took bribes and perverted judgment so people come to them for judgment someone slip them a 20 and say hey make sure you judge in my favor or whatever they throw them a shekel you know and so they were perverting judgment you know what god really hates that that's something that really gets god angry you know if you're sitting there just being paid off to judge a situation wrongly but anyway it says then all the elders of israel gathered themselves together and came to samuel unto rama and said unto him behold thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy ways now make us a king to judge us like all the nations so you know god was the one that had picked these judges before and you know they basically samuel took it upon himself to just say well you know what my since i'm a judge i'm gonna make my sons a judge too and this can happen in churches where the pastor just picks their sons because they're his sons to be the next pastor now i don't always think that that's wrong but if the person's not qualified and you're just picking them because they're your son then that's wrong that's nepotism that's what's not right there's a lot of nepotism in this world and a lot of different situations but you know to just pick someone just because they're your son when you know they're not qualified is wrong and so that's what samuel did though didn't he and that's what eli did he allowed his sons to be you know working at the church basically while they're doing all these all these wicked things and allows it to take place so you can't allow that kind of stuff to take place and not check it not have you know some something done about it so you know you have to be able to judge rightly and you know what your children as a pastor your children should walk in the ways of the lord and not turn aside you know and and again here here's you know it doesn't say anything it says here that be the husband of one wife it doesn't say anything about the wife being this perfect you know bible teacher and she's this and she's that it just says you have to be the husband of one wife but should the wife be a good christian absolutely and then it talks about the kids being able to rule your kids see while they're in your home they should be able to be ruled over by you while they're you know children right because it's talking about children so you should be able to rule your children well if you're the pastor of the church and your kids are the biggest brats there then you got a problem that person's not qualified because you know but what I was going to say is it doesn't say that the children have to be sinless okay that's also not being said because if the pastor can't even you know you can't say the pastor has to be sinless because the pastor doesn't have to be sinless the pastor has to be blameless but you can't say that the children have to be sinless either it says that they're subject in subjection so if you if you're correcting them and they're under subjection then they are under subjection aren't they so do you lose the qualification if your children do something wrong but then you correct them and they're in subjection no so people also pastors kids get attacked a lot about things and I've seen this happen in other churches too like and even in churches where you know I thought the kid pastors kids were brats they did get unfairly judged in certain situations that maybe they shouldn't have been judged for though so I mean I just thought that they were rude and just like you'd say hi to them and they just would look at you and not say hi back to me that's rude I don't know but I mean if the kid if they don't say hi to me is that like make him lose his qualification no I don't think it does but anyway so in subjection once again is not sinless it's to bring under domination control or influence to rule well is not unruly exercise ultimate power or authority over or unable to be ruled would be unruly so if they can't be ruled if they can't be in subjection then that means that the pastor is not qualified isn't that right so last thing and then we'll be done here tonight last subject here is number four they have to be above average ability to teach and preach and know the bible okay it can't just be Joe Blow behind the pulpit being the pastor that doesn't know the bible he's read the bible three quarters of the way and then he's up teaching the bible to people that know the bible better than him that's not right look at Titus chapter 1 verse 9 Titus chapter 1 verse 9 almost done about 10 more minutes here verse number 9 says holding fast the faithful word which is what this thing right here the faithful word the bible right as he hath been taught and he may that he may be able to or able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the so look you gotta be able to hold fast this book you know this is this is what we're supposed to be preaching holding fast right hold fast the faithful word which is the bible as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine see you have to have the ability to be able by sound doctrine so if you don't know the bible then you don't know sound doctrine you just don't know doctrine period you might know a few things but you don't know a lot you might know salvation maybe you just have read the bible twice well you don't even really begin to get a full wrap of what it all of the timeline and who's saying what to who and who's right and what to who if you've only read the bible twice you're just kind of getting a basic understanding of the bible at that point you might start to kind of see some patterns and and what not but when you've read the bible tens, twenties, however many times you've read it you know you're going to have a full concept of the timeline when the bible you know when the earth was created who were the writers of the books you know what time periods were these basically these happening when was the second temple when was the first I mean you should know the bible if you're going to be a pastor you've got to know what the bible says so it says in let's turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse number 6 the bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse number 6 not a novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil why do you not want to have some newbie master that doesn't know the bible well because the bible commands you to not be a novice in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and those are the qualifications for the bishop in 1 Timothy chapter 3 so why would you not be a novice well because it says lest being lifted up with pride he fall because what do new people like to do they like to brag about the things that they know but don't you think it's kind of weird that someone that's really new to something would be lifted up with pride like usually you would think well if I don't really know a lot about something that I'm not going to be real prideful because I don't really know what I'm talking about but what a person that would be a novice lifted into the position of a pastor that person could get prideful and go well I'm so good that you know they deemed me to be the pastor and then they get lifted up with pride because they think that something is great about them instead of the fact that they are actually qualified to be the pastor because a novice like in wrestling they have all these different you know kids wrestling right like actual organized wrestling they have I think novice is one of the first things that you are as a wrestler and it's like it seems like it's you know kind of a derogatory term but it just means that you're new that's all it means so a novice is somebody new you don't want to have some newly saved man up behind the pulpit preaching the word of God as the pastor because they're not going to know what they're talking about they're going to know some things like I said maybe they're dynamic maybe they can just they can preach really good and they have a good ability but if you don't know the Bible then you don't know sound doctrine and you're not going to be able to exhort or convince the gainsayers you're not going to be able to teach people the word of God without actually knowing the word of God so you can't be a novice so in wrestling a novice like I said is a person that's new then they have midget and I don't know if midget's a thing maybe they'd change that or something but who's wrestled the little kids wrestling or had their kids wrestle what were the other ones Remy would you remember novice midget I don't know huh oh yeah bantam yeah bantam is one so bantam I think then it starts going by weights or whatever yeah bantam is like a bantam weight or something yeah but anyway novice doesn't mean it's not meant to be a slight against somebody if you're a new Christian there's nothing wrong with being a new Christian you're just new but why can you not be a pastor well because you're a novice and then you don't want to be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil because what's going to happen the devil's going to destroy him then the devil's going to destroy the church so there's got to be a man of God that can actually stand up against the wiles of the devil and stand up and fight for the church stand up and fight for the neighborhood stand up and fight for the city that they live in stand up and fight for God in the place that we live in and just be able to just say you know what I've had enough of this I'm going to preach against this and that's what people get so mad about you know our kind of preaching for is that we're just you know we're always mad about something well you know what there's a lot of things to be mad about out there isn't there isn't there a lot of things to be mad about there is and you know what if people think that God's not mad about these things they're mistaken like well God's not mad about what of course he's mad about it you think he's mad that people are just stealing people's catalytic converters under people's cars all the time and you know shooting drugs in the back in the back of our church or you know just being whores or whoremongers you know all the stuff that's going on in this world all these queers and weirdos I'm so glad that that month's over I want to quit talking about it okay because it irritates me but look someone's got to get up and scream about the things that make God angry someone's got to get if you don't know the Bible at all then how are you going to get up and teach God's people and say hey let's get on get it to get together as a team and win this city to Christ but there's a lot of people out there that would say that this kind of preaching is just like oh man you know you're not supposed to be like that you're turning people away well what are you doing you're not turning people anyway you're just doing nothing so really you're part of the problem why don't you move over pastor and let another real pastor get up and preach to the congregation because you're too scared you're too scared of COVID you're too scared of this people setting up circus tents next to their buildings because they're too afraid that the government's going to shut them down or something it's like hey man we got to get past that got to get past that quit being spooked over something that didn't end up being as big as it was supposed to be okay but we all know it's real okay we all know it's real because we've all had it right never forget two years ago right off preaching conference the struggle was real we all came back infected so look the bishop look at verse 2 Timothy or excuse me 1 Timothy you're already there look at verse number 2 the bible says the bishop must be blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality what does it say there the end apt to teach so you have to have what the aptitude to teach but apt also means ready to teach qualified have the ability to do so so you have to be able to preach Paul is you know the two books we've been looking at mainly is Timothy and Titus because they're pastoral epistles right and so that's where we get the qualifications and like I said I'm getting the qualifications from Titus so I've been kind of going back and forth to the other one so let's look at 2 Timothy and we'll close out here in 2 Timothy chapter 4 it says in 2 Timothy chapter 4 what are we supposed to do preach the word what's he telling Timothy preach the word not preach the opinion not preach what's popular in fact it says the instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine look it's part of the qualifications of a pastor to what preach God's word so I'm I get up here and I preach the Bible you know and if that the Bible just bores you or whatever then that's a problem within yourself but I'm supposed to get up and I'm supposed to thunder forth what God says so to preach the word I'm supposed to be instant in season so when it's popular I preach about it and then out of season when it's not popular so out of season right now would be a winter coat why am I even wearing this coat it's too hot I don't know what's wrong with me but anyway instant in season and out of season so what am I supposed to do I'm supposed to preach the Bible whether it's out of season or not and that is the problem today that almost everything in this book seems to be out of season it's like the fall count you know it's the fall seers catalog or something it's like hey I'm not I'm in the summer right now and it's just like permanently what the pastors are doing they're permanently out of season they're only preaching the things that are in season and what is that love love love that's all they ever preach God's love and I love God's love and I'm happy for the fact that we have God's love and I love to preach about God's love I'm thankful for God's love I'm thankful for the fact that he saved me I'm thankful for the fact that he saved sinners but you know what that's not all there is in the Bible in this big book that you're supposed to read has multiple different things and you know what two thirds of this book is negative and so what would you say that we're supposed to preach some negative sermons yeah like well I feel negative when I come here I know you're supposed to you're supposed to feel negative about yourself and what you're failing to do as a Christian but I also want you to feel positive a little bit positive I want you to be exhorted I want you to be I want you to be you know exhorted I want you to be encouraged I want you to be built up in the faith of course you know but also you need to be torn down and told that you're bad you're bad we're all bad we all fail all week long don't we and then that's when you go to church and you're like what's the pastor going to destroy me about tonight and you're like well that's not the Christianity that I grew up on I know that's the problem that's the problem the problem is is that preachers forgot this verse they like to say it they like to say it out loud but you know it's funny that like I don't remember pastors that I went to because I went to Baptist churches before I started this church I don't ever remember people focusing on this part where it says in season out of season you know why because they were already not preaching things that were out of season at that time because they don't want the controversy they don't want to be called out on the news they don't want to be put in Newsweek because they said that their wife should make them pancakes if they asked them to that literally made it into Newsweek brother Jared Pazarski pastor Jared Pazarski he was making like an off-the-cuff tongue-in-cheek comment about if I came home and my wife made me food and I said you know what I really would like some pancakes instead she should do that because you're supposed to obey your husband right he said I'm not a jerk and I wouldn't necessarily do that he said but technically if I did ask she should do it so like they take that part of it out and just say that pastor tells his wife if she doesn't make him some pancakes that she's not right with God or something it's like that made it to Newsweek magazine that is not like some you know that's a big magazine it's like in the grocery stores and stuff you know I got put on the ADL website the front page it was a good picture too dang it that was a good picture they made me look good but anyway I was like I'm going to use that I keep meaning to changes my Facebook profile picture but anyway Breaking news, pastor says women that premeditate and murder their own children should be put to death it's like doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo it's like when did that become like controversial? I thought all pastors believed that I thought all Christians believed that but apparently it's not believed about so much anymore because it's making the front page of news articles that are like, you know, oh, the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. I just don't understand it. But you know, I do understand it. I understand it because, and this is, listen, this is why we have qualifications. Because there's a lot of bozos in this area and in this country and in this world that refuse to stand up and preach God's word and that's why the pancake articles are getting written. That's why it's controversial for me to say that if a woman murders her own child premeditatedly, I give the verses in the Bible that actually prove it and say it, that if you say I'm going to, you know, premeditate to murder somebody, that it's the death penalty. They're seeing abortion, no, not abortion, child murderers. Well, we call it what it really is. And all these liberal tears, they don't sway me. I'm gonna just keep preaching what the Bible says because the Bible says to preach the word whether it's in season or out of season. And we're supposed to reprove, we're supposed to rebuke, we're supposed to exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. I'll be long suffering about it, but I'm not gonna stop preaching it. I'm not gonna just sweep it under the rug and say, you know what, that's just too controversial. We're gonna lose all of our tithers. We're gonna lose all of our support. Well, last time I checked, we're not like a mega church bringing in, raking in millions and millions of dollars here. So that was never the intention of starting this church. Money has nothing to do with it. You know what it has to do with? Reaching this city with the gospel. It says, look at verse number three. Oh, it was there the whole time. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. That's being done heaps and heaps, heaps and heaps of people heaping themselves teachers having itching ears. How about Joe Osteen? How about Rick Warren? How about all these guys that just, you know, they say, well, what kind of church would you like? Hey, you know what? I wanna have a church that wants what God wants, not what they like. See, because Moses told the people what God told them he wanted, right? God said, God had Moses rule the people and when the people rose up to try to overthrow Moses, what happened? God smoked them. And then they still were like, you killed the people of the Lord. Anyway, it's a different sermon. But look at verse number four, it says, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. That's where we're living right now. We're living in a time where they have turned their ears away from the truth and you can literally just quote them Bible verses and they're like, I don't believe that. Where in the Bible does it say that right here? I don't believe that. Because they've turned their ears from the truth and they've gone from being Baptist and Bible believers to being Jedi Baptist. They've turned into people that want to have, you know, Star Wars Baptist Church, where there's no hate. Yoda is the Jedi master in charge and he's a little short guy that loves everybody and talks weird. But the fact that hate looks, there's a direct correlation between Star Wars and the no hate movement in churches. There is. Well, doesn't the Bible say God's not supposed to hate, you're not supposed to hate people? Why don't you just look up the word hate in the Bible and see how many times it says it? Because it says it a lot. And a lot of times it's God hating somebody. How about all the times when it says detest, abhor, abomination? See, we're living in tough times, folks. And you know what? The qualifications mean something. And we should stick by them and say, you know what? I'm not ashamed to say that I believe the standards that the Bible puts in place for pastors. And look, I know I'm out of time, but you know, there's qualifications. And if you want to be a pastor, you're going to have to meet them at this church of, you know, and obviously we haven't been doing our class for a while, but we're going to probably start that up here in a bit. We'll start back up the class. And you know, if you're interested in being a pastor, you know, I'm interested in training people, but hey, it's not going to be, you'd have an easier time going to Bible college than you would probably getting being ordained here as a pastor. Because at the Bible college, they'll just say, oh, here's your certificate, sir. You're now the assistant pastor of such and such Baptist church, the churches that you went to Bible college from. You know what I mean? That's pretty easy. We had an assistant pastor at a church that I went to, and when he came back from Bible college, his first year at Hyles Anderson College, guess how many times he'd read the Bible while he was there? Zero. Guess how many times he'd read the Bible before he left for the Bible college, and you know why? Because I asked him. Zero. So he's the assistant pastor, and he read the Bible zero times. That's what we're dealing with, folks. That's what Baptists have become. Just not biblical, all right? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great chapter in the Bible, Lord. And we're thankful for the qualifications, Lord. There's a guide for us to look at a measuring stick for men of God that rule the church well. And Lord, it's not an easy job. Pray, Lord, that you would maybe put a burden on the heart of some of the men that we have in this church, Lord, and that you would help them to try to meet the qualifications. Lord, even if they don't want to be a pastor, I pray that everybody in this room would strive to meet some of these qualifications just in their own lives as Christians. And we pray that you would just bless this church, Lord. We thank you so much for all your grace and mercy to us. We pray that you'd dismiss us and take us home safely. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Read the symbols, page 29. At the cross. Page 29, at the cross. Page 10. Oh. At the cross. Amen. At the cross. At the cross. At the cross. At the cross. At the cross. At the cross. At the cross.