At the Core: Spiritual Leadership Dr. Steve Walker

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1 Series: At the Core January 4, 2015 At the Core: Spiritual Leadership Dr. Steve Walker What a glorious way to welcome in the first Sunday of the new year, declaring, at the top of our lungs, what we believe. What a great start. We need to do that every day, not just on Sundays. We need to know what we believe. I want to congratulate all of you. Every single one of you, as of right now, has perfect church attendance in You're doing awesome. I want to encourage you to just keep that up. Good for you. You are one for one. I also want to congratulate myself. I'm going to do this with great joy. Tomorrow marks the thirtieth year of my marriage to my wife, Tammi, and I'm excited about that. I need you to know that I am a blessed man and a very happy husband. I want you to hear me say that with all the sincerity I can. I'm curious. How many of you have been married 30 years or more? Let me see your hands. Wow, what a cool club, huh? Isn't that a great club? Congratulations to you, absolutely. How many of you have been married for 100 years or more? Anybody? Frank, you're close, buddy, I know, but you're not quite there. That's what I'm aiming for, 100 years of marriage. Hopefully, we'll get halfway there. I'll be thrilled. All right. Let's get our Bibles open to 1 Timothy, chapter 3. Let me just kind of recap that 2014 was a year of a lot of criticism and negative press concerning several churches in our area. In one way, it shouldn't shock us that our world in general doesn't have a natural affection for God's people, for us. Jesus warned us that that's the way it would be. We are never going to win the Most Popular award in our culture. Jesus said, in John 15, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." So it shouldn't surprise us that, from time to time, the world rears up and really goes after us. Yet in some ways, the church deserves some of the enemy fire we take on. Listen, if we get off the course of God's Word, we will reap the consequences, especially of a spirituality that looks more like retail consumerism, especially if our organization and structure of leadership looks more like an entrepreneurial startup business. We will take on enemy fire. God promises that. Canyon Hills Community Church 1

2 The very worldly things the church tries to emulate in order to try and stay relevant ironically end up actually exposing our sin and reducing us to the irrelevance we so desperately fear. So at the core of many church struggles is this idea of leadership. Either the leaders will lead us through the enemy fire or they will cause the problem itself, causing us to receive enemy fire. I want to take the beginning of this New Year and I want to remember what's at the core of church life. I want us to focus on God's original design for his church. What will make this different from other message series about the church is that our primary focus isn't going to be on what we are supposed to do as a church, but instead, I want us to focus, for a couple of Sundays, on who we are supposed to be on the inside, on the inside of these walls and on the inside of our hearts. See, before the church gets busy doing good stuff like feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, adopting orphans, and reaching out to a lost, messed-up, and confused world Before we do any of that, we must make sure we don't neglect that, at the core, God has some very, very high standards for church leadership. Today, I want us to see that God expects what he expects of potential leaders in his church, first, in the area of being spiritually qualified, and then also being identified by the way leaders live. The truth is sheep, without loving, godly shepherds, will be exposed to danger. More so, sheep with poor shepherds will also be exposed to danger. So at the very core of God's church are men who are biblically qualified to shepherd his people. What does that look like? Well, Scripture does not leave us guessing at all. We find that in 1 Timothy, chapter 3. We can also find it in Titus, chapter 1; 1 Peter, chapter 5; all over 1 and 2 Corinthians It's everywhere, but for our passage today, we're in 1 Timothy 3. Let's stand for the reading of God's Word. You'll be familiar with Paul's words here, but let's look at them again, a little bit slower, and take our time. He writes, "The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, soberminded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil." Let's pray together, before we're seated. Dear God in heaven, we begin another new year today, just acknowledging that you are still on your throne. We surrender and submit our hearts and lives to your loving providence, right now. God, even in our worst of days, we know you are working out your perfect plan for you to be Canyon Hills Community Church 2

3 glorified in and through us. We surrender, God to your loving mercies and your grace today, which are new every morning. Lord, we need you and we remember there is nothing we can do to make you love us less and there's nothing we can do to make you love us more. Thank you, God. Thank you for your unfailing love. God, we also want to surrender, today, to your authority in our lives. God, we pray that your Holy Spirit will guide us in the truth of your righteous Word for our faith. We ask that your Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin every day, and that he will lead us not into temptation, God, but deliver us from all the evil in this wicked world. God, while we stand here on this first Sunday, we commit ourselves, this year, to rejoice in the hope we have and to be patient in all of our affliction. God, we commit to being faithful in prayer. In Jesus' name, we pray these things to you, amen. Now I don't think a lot has changed since Paul wrote this letter to the church, a couple of thousand years ago. I think the premise here, on the surface at least, is that Christians need encouragement and incentive to lead, and so Paul calls church leadership, in verse 1, " a noble task," a noble thing. Some of your Bibles say " an honorable ambition." Spiritual leadership must be at the core of a God-ordained and blessed church. That's why Scripture spends so much time defining, defending, and upholding righteous leadership. That's why I want you to know what you must expect, what you must look for in each other as we look to the church for solid, godly, biblical, spiritual leadership. You need to expect these things in your elders, deacons, Life Group leaders, and pastors. These are things you should look to, elevate, and expect when it comes to the shepherds of God's sheep. So I'm going to take these qualifications and I'm going to try to group some of them together, just so it's a little bit more manageable in a message form. I'm going to put them in some categories that I think define what these qualifications are actually describing. 1. Spiritual leaders have really good reputations. This may seem super-obvious, but the Holy Spirit saw to it to bookend all 15 of these qualifications with this one idea. If you'll notice in verse 2, he says the " overseer must be above reproach " Now when we see the word overseer, let me remind you, it's describing the same office as elder. Some of your Bibles will say " bishop " Some of your Bibles will use the word shepherd, or pastor. All of those words are the same words describing the one office of leadership. They are synonymous of each other, so when you hear me say the word overseer, elder, pastor, or shepherd, we're talking about the same thing. He tells us here that the " overseer must be above reproach " In other words, he doesn't have any secret skeletons in his closet, which means he has to be involved enough in church for others to listen to him and watch how he speaks, serves, forgives, leads, and deals with conflict in his life. So in order for this qualification to be verified, he can't be a person on the fringes or edges of church life and ministry. Canyon Hills Community Church 3

4 It's dangerous to use the most noble task of spiritual leadership in the church as a means of getting somebody more involved. Unfortunately, some churches actually do this. They'll have needs, openings in their leadership to fill, and some committee will sit around and start talking about people who aren't involved, who aren't busy, and who aren't doing anything. They'll go to them and offer them this noble, honorable ambition of leading the sheep. There could be nothing more dangerous for a church. What would be more biblical and better-thinking is to sit around in a committee and say, "We need to look around for those who are the busiest, who are up to their chins in involvement in ministry and volunteering. Those are the ones whom we should consider as candidates for leadership, because their lives will be observable and we'll be able to confirm whether or not that person is above reproach. Now the other bookend to this " above reproach " is in verse 7, where Paul says they need to also " be well thought of by outsiders " The spiritual leader's relationships outside of church are just as important to verify his character. I believe it's because those outside the church can more easily detect our hypocrisy than I think sometimes we can, inside the church. So his relationships with his neighbors, coworkers, extended family, creditors, and others are just as important in determining true spiritual leaders. God isn't saying here, through the Holy Spirit, that leaders in churches have to be loved by everyone, but at the very least, he is saying they need to be respected by everyone. Elders need to be men who don't separate their church lives from their public lives. Spiritual leaders have really good reputations. 2. Spiritual leaders have intense Christ-like morals. I like that word, intense. They have to be men who can say, with a clear conscience, "Follow my example as I follow Christ." One of the first areas of morality at which Paul allows us to look in verse 2, if you'll see it there He says, in order to be an elder, he has to be " the husband of one wife " Now this isn't a marital status issue. There's plenty of evidence in the New Testament that some of the apostles, elders, and pastors in the early church weren't married. They were single, including Paul himself. Some people think Paul may have been married, but his wife could have either passed away or she could have left him, right after his conversion. He's not talking about marital status. When he says here that he's supposed to be the husband of one wife, he's saying he has to be a one-woman man. He's not a player. He's not flirtatious. He doesn't see every woman who crosses his path as a potential conquest or relationship. It also doesn't mean, when he says, " the husband of one wife " that divorce automatically disqualifies a man from being an elder. It can, depending on the circumstances, but not always, because there is the reality of a biblically-allowed divorce. It's possible that he's divorced because his wife committed adultery, or that she was an unbeliever and she decided she didn't want to be married to a believer, at some point in his past, Canyon Hills Community Church 4

5 and so she left him or walked away. It could be that there was a divorce in a potential leader's background and that happened way before that person ever became a Christian. So I want us to be sure that when we read that qualification, we don't read into it more than Paul has intended. He's not banning anybody and everybody who has ever had a divorce in their past from ever being able to be used of God in leadership. Now, depending on the circumstances, it can, and that's why all of these scenarios must be carefully discerned by the elders before moving forward, and lots of time has to be given in making sure as much of the facts are known as possible. Within this category of Christ-like morals, he also says, in verse 2, the elder must be " soberminded " Some of your Bibles say, " temperate " if you'll notice that. This describes a man who is not given to extremes. He can have interests and hobbies that he enjoys, but if it appears that he doesn't have balance or moderation, this would disqualify him from being a spiritual shepherd of God's people. There's an endless list of possibilities of this. I thought of a couple. I thought maybe it's a person who is really into health and physical fitness. There's not a thing wrong with that, but if it's out of balance and it's taken way too far and it's working out four or five hours a day, seven days a week, and it's just crazy stuff like that, it's not an interest. It's not a habit. It's an obsession, and I think that would violate what Paul is describing here as a person who is sober-minded or temperate. It could be with his or her work. They're so into doing their job well and succeeding that they're working 6-7 days a week. They're working 12-hour days. They rarely ever take a day off or vacation. Hey, they may have a great work ethic, but they are way out of balance and they're not qualified to lead. It could be a whole bunch of things. It could be something as simple as sarcasm. A person may just have this great sarcastic sense of humor. It may not even be a sinful sarcasm, but it's so extreme, every time they open their mouth, they're making some kind of wisecrack or joke, and that would be the sign, potentially, of someone who just isn't sober-minded. They're not temperate with their speech. One thing Paul says we had better be absolutely sure of is in verse 3. He says, "He cannot be a drunkard." He can't be a drunk. Now he's not saying, here in verse 3, there's a prohibition against drinking for people who are leading, but he absolutely cannot be addicted to alcohol, so if he regularly drinks to get a little tipsy, or to calm his nerves, or kind of wind down every night, or if he's drinking all the time, just to even get a buzz, he is not fit to be a leader, because it's a sign of a life that cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says it very clearly. "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit " The implication of that verse is you can't be both. You can't be constantly drinking and filled with the Spirit. These are intense morals. Spiritual leaders cannot have sinful indulgences that undermine their testimony or their trustworthiness, which is what I Canyon Hills Community Church 5

6 believe these three things guard against: " husband of one wife, sober-minded not a drunkard " 3. Spiritual leaders must be self-disciplined. I think this is the third category in which we can group a few of these. When I say "self-discipline," I'm talking about the ability to prioritize the things of deepest importance in a person's life. Someone really smart once said, "Before we can lead others, we must first lead ourselves," and that is exactly what Paul is describing here in this list. He is giving us a list of determining and qualifying that a potential leader has the inner fortitude and strength to lead himself before he can lead others. So in verse 2, he gives us this description of someone who has self-control, and right after that is respectable. The spiritual leader always starts with self-control. He's able to push back on the world. He's able to push back on all those things that are screaming for his attention, things like the news, entertainment, pleasure, and his own image and success. He's able to push and hold those pressures back. Now none of those things (the news, having some nice, clean entertainment, or being successful) are evil, in and of themselves, unless they crowd out the essentials, like loving God with all our heart and strength, because that requires the daily disciplines of prayer, devotion, and worship. Like loving our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ When that gets crowded out, those other things become wrong. We need to have intentional fellowship in our life with other believers. That's very clear. We're going to talk about that as one of the core things of church life, here, in several weeks. Or, the priority of loving your neighbors Loving God with all our heart, loving each other, and loving our neighbors, which requires sacrifice, serving, and considering others as more important than ourselves The spiritual leader is capable of consistently saying no to the insanity in our world, and he pursues these priorities first. In so doing, the leader is able to keep the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life from overtaking him. Not only is he supposed to be self-controlled, but Paul does say " respectable " here, which means his life is not only well-prioritized, but it's well-ordered. He's respectable. He lives at a pace that is not frantic. He lives with an order that makes him reliable and trustworthy, and I believe he lives with a genuine joy that is not dependent upon his circumstances. Those are some of the things that would make a potential leader in God's church respectable. The pace of his or her life, the order of their life, the joy in their life Another thing in this same category In verse 2, Paul says he must be " able to teach " I put this under the category of self-discipline because I believe leaders have to be learners. First and foremost, they have to be teachable. They can't think they've heard it all and know it all. Know-it-alls never make good leaders. Leaders must be consistently reading God's Word first, and then lots of other things to help them understand God's Word better. We always ask potential elders, pastors, or even Life Group Canyon Hills Community Church 6

7 leaders to give us a list of the books they've read in the last 12 months. That is kind of revealing, to see where you park your mind when you decide to sit down long enough to read a book. What is it that you're filling your mind with? Now there are people who read all kinds of weird stuff. It's not necessarily bad. To me, it's just bizarre. Some of the things you people read are just beyond me. That's okay. We have different interests and we have different ways we like to engage with that kind of stuff, but for the leaders, there has to be a balance of spiritual growth and filling their minds with stuff that helps them understand and know God better. Now with that said, we have to be teachable as well, and that's what Paul says here. " able to teach " This is what separates the ministry of the elders from the ministry of the deacons. The elders are required to be able to teach. The deacons are not. Now the deacons could be good teachers; they're just not required to be a good teacher in order to fulfill their ministry. We talk a lot about the differences between these two in the membership class, but for the sake of Paul's discussion here, elders have to be able to teach, whether it's in a small group setting, a one-on-one setting, or a large group setting. It doesn't mean in order to be a leader, you have to stand up in front of a thousand people and be able to talk, not at all. Yet at the root, he is tasked with being able to guard the truth of the gospel, which would include, sometimes, correcting and rebuking false teaching and false teachers in the church. If you want to know how serious Paul gets about false and divisive teaching in the church, just read 1 Timothy, chapter 1, later today or tonight, and you will see the hair on Paul's neck stand up when he starts talking to the leaders of the church on how to deal with that. More often than that, the spiritual leader has to be able to point people to God's Word for help and hope in all circumstances of life. He's not a philosopher. At his core, the spiritual leader of the church is a theologian, helping us to see, love, and know God better. 4. Spiritual leaders are to have gracious personalities. Again, this may seem overly obvious, but God calls for his leaders to be people who actually love and unite Christians. Elders, pastors, leaders in God's church have to be people-persons, and so Paul is strongly implying, in these next few verses, that an elder can't be easily irritated by people. Some of you are. Life would be perfect if it weren't for people in the world, right? Someone's always going to just rub us wrong. We're not saying we have to have that permanent plastic smile on our faces, pretending like everything's always perfect. That's not what Paul is calling for here. You could see that in verse 3. He says, "Hey, spiritual leaders in the church need to be hospitable." They can't be overly private people. They can't be recluses. They should regularly welcome church folks into their homes. They don't have to be the life of every party, but they have to be willing to share their homes and lives with church people. They have to like people and love people. Canyon Hills Community Church 7

8 Then, in verse 3, under this area of having a gracious personality, he's saying, "Elders cannot be violent, but gentle." In fact, the very next thing in that list is that he can't be " quarrelsome " Some of your Bibles say, " argumentative " In other words, he doesn't use verbal or physical abuse or intimidation to get his own way. This is ugly, and this is anti-christian for all of us to be. If he would rather win an argument than solve a problem, he cannot be considered to be a leader. He has to be gentle. He has to be able to defuse explosive situations, not cause them. He needs to be able to seek peaceful resolutions, sometimes within the context of team leadership, because in the church, there's a multiplicity of leaders. If he's on a team of leaders, he may even have to defer to the rest of the team and allow them to trump his concerns, rather than win an argument. For instance, there may be something the elders are thinking about doing or changing, and he finds he's a little uncomfortable with that or a little anxious about it, but he notices the rest of the team particularly feels really good about it or has a lot more peace. He has to notice that they're able to maybe see a little bit further down the road than he, and if it's not sinful, if it's not unbiblical, he will need to allow himself to trust in others so as not to be the person who always has to get his way, even if it's not necessary. Elders cannot be violent. They must be gentle. Then I put this third one in this category. In verse 3, he says, "Elders cannot be lovers of money." We have seen this disqualify many a person in the church, over the last years. I put it in this category, because Paul is talking about motive here. Financial gain cannot be the motive of God's spiritual leaders in the church, whether it's pastors, elders, Life Group leaders, or whatever. Just as important, materialism or the pursuit of money cannot be his passion, or he is disqualified from being a leader. Now it's not a prohibition against a successful or wealthy man being in leadership, being an elder, or even a pastor. Paul is not saying if a person is successful, they're automatically disqualified, not at all. There are several examples in Scripture of men and women who were very successful and even very wealthy, and they were a big part of God's plan to lead his people. Yet we do see very clearly, in Scripture, that if he is very successful and very wealthy, it is usually tempered with incredible generosity and faithful stewardship. That's what delineates the successful, wealthy person's leadership from just being a mere pursuit of money, but instead a passion about the kingdom and God's work. Jesus warned of the impossibility of serving God and money, and that's exactly what Paul is doing here. You have to have gracious personalities. 5. Spiritual leaders have to lead at home first. There's a domestic quality for being a leader, and this is sobering. He's a man who doesn't separate his home life from his church life. I want you to look at verses 4 and 5 again, and hear them. "He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?" Canyon Hills Community Church 8

9 I think this is the most grievous of hypocrisy, when it shows up in the church when the home life is contradictory to the person's church life. The person who says the right things at Life Group or church, but is unloving, harsh, and unforgiving at home, is sinfully sick and has no business pretending to be a leader in God's household. That's why Paul says he must manage his household with dignity, which means his wife and his kids (if he's married and has children) can look to him for godly leadership, and they can joyfully encourage him to fulfill his calling. But if the wife or children are resentful of his church ministry, whether it's justified or not, I believe he must step down or not accept this role in the first place, until that could change. His wife and kids must be led and loved with godly patience, and if they are resentful of his ministry, then I believe he is not quite ready to serve in this capacity. That's what I believe Paul is getting at here with managing his household well. As far as his children who are at home, under his care, are concerned, he says he should be able to keep his children submissive. That reads kind of weird in our culture, because we have so many issues with child abuse and all the other ugliness we have to deal with in our day and age, but the true translation of this is Paul is saying his children cannot be out of control. Dad should be effective at teaching and shepherding his own children to obey their parents, to love God and the church, and respect one another and respect others. That's what Paul is saying here. He's not calling for perfect kids. He's not calling for perfect kids with perfect grades, perfect friends, and perfect spiritual maturity. Unfortunately, that's an expectation that some churches put on their leaders. You need to hear me say, once again, that pastors' and elders' kids need to be allowed to fail, repent, grow, and mature like all of our kids. Yet let me say this as well. If the leader's children need extra attention due to prolonged struggles with life choices, their sin, or their faith, then that leader is better to wait and care for his family first. Amen? That's exactly what Paul wants us to know here. How can he possibly have any effectiveness with other families if he's not leading his own family with dignity? Now as a side note, sometimes, later in life, one (or maybe more than one) of our kids will wander from the truth and even deny the faith. You've done everything you know how, in God's strength, to raise them according to God's ways, but when they become adults, our parenting responsibilities change. Paul is talking about the elder's home here, not the adult child's life or home. Unfortunately, what happens sometimes for pastors, elders, or church leaders, is one of their kids will grow up and move out or get married and move away and start their own life, and then all of a sudden, they just go off the deep end. Paul is not saying that in those circumstances, a church leader is disqualified. There's no way for that church leader, at that point, to have the ability to help correct, change, mold, and shape the heart of that child. They're gone now. They're not within his purview of influence. Now you don't ever stop being a parent. Don't think I'm saying that. I'm just talking about the qualification here. Canyon Hills Community Church 9

10 6. Spiritual leaders cannot be new Christians. This is a category of maturity and knowledge. If you look here at verse 6, it says, "He must not be a recent convert " Unfortunately, Paul gives us no time frame for this, so it's not a number Paul is concerned about. It's more of a maturity thing. The leaders in God's household or church have to have the spiritual maturity to be able to lead with wisdom. Paul doesn't say he has to be a convert for 5, 10, or 25 years. He doesn't give us a number. I wish he did, but I have to be honest with you. I've known 28-year-olds who have the spiritual maturity of someone twice their age, and I've known men, in particular, who have been believers for 30 years or more and they still don't have a consistent spiritual, disciplined life. They don't serve, give, or worship with any regularity. So gray hair doesn't always tell the whole story. I think we need to be careful here that we don't over-qualify someone just because they have a little age and maturity, or we don't under-qualify someone because they might be a little younger than what we think a leader needs to be. So at the core, all of these added together form a solid foundation of godly leadership for God's church. God's churches grow in every way when they're guided and guarded by strong, spiritual leaders who have been tapped by God to shepherd his people. Next, I want to give you, quickly, four common mistakes Christians make when it comes to this list of qualification for leadership in the church. I want you to listen to these, because I don't want you to make these mistakes. Churches as a whole and individual believers can make this mistakes easily and really lose their way. I'll give them to you pretty quickly. The first mistake Christians will make is to water down these qualities and qualifications. Churches will not want to do the hard work of qualifying potential leaders, so they'll pick and choose their favorite qualities so they can pick and choose their favorite men to be their favorite leaders. This is disastrous. The Holy Spirit made sure all 15 of these qualities were in this list for a reason. In our membership class, once again, I explain our process in great detail, how we look for leaders, how mentor leaders, how we prepare them to present them to you for your appointment and approval We do all that in the membership class, but I want you to be assured, before you leave here, that your elders are carefully vetted, mentored, and observed, long before they're ever presented to you as possible leaders in our church. Yet there's a great mistake we'll make. We'll look at this list and we'll go, "Well, that's a pretty big list. I mean nobody does all of those things really well, so let's just make sure they have a couple of those things at least, you know, maybe half of them," and we water them down and it becomes disastrous for the church. They're all there for a reason, and nowhere in Scripture are we given permission to shorten the list. I think a second mistake we make is that churches put these men on pedestals. Some people will choose to ignore the shortfalls or disqualifying behavior of a church leader, and then one of them Canyon Hills Community Church 10

11 falls, and the church or some of its people are devastated and people will leave the church in droves, because they have lifted up the leader way too high. In their minds, they have subconsciously decided they must be perfect. They must do all these things perfectly, and when they don't, the church is devastated. I want to say it's a big mistake. Even though God highly qualifies and calls people to be leaders and shepherd in his church, they are still accountable and submissive to God, and they are still on that journey of progressive sanctification, of continuing to grow in their holiness. So don't ever make the mistake of putting your leaders up on pedestals. Now Scripture is very clear that God's people should show honor and respect where honor and respect are due, especially in the are of leadership. Nowhere are we expected to hold them up as though they are infallible. The Catholic Church makes that huge mistake. The third mistake that happens is Christians exclude themselves from leadership. The biggest mistake you can make right now is that you look at this list and you say, "I'm not one of them. I don't want to be one of them; therefore this doesn't really apply to me." That's so wrong. Don't leave here making that mistake. Don't say, "Wow, that was a great message about what leaders in the church should be." No, when you go to lunch at Applebee's today, and the waitress says, "Hey, what did your preacher talk about?" you should say, "He talked about what I'm supposed to be like, how I'm supposed to be on the inside." You see, every single person in this room is a leader. What I mean by that is leaders are influencers. Leadership is influence. There is somebody in your life whom God has placed in your life whom you influence. Therefore, you are a leader, to some degree. It could be someone in your own household. It could be a little brother or sister. It could be people at work, someone in your classroom, or someone on your team. You are a leader and an influencer of someone, therefore this list applies to all of us. This list would be a great list for New Year's resolutions for every single person in this room. These are descriptions of God's people, and they're qualities to which all of us should passionately aspire, because every one of us is a leader of someone. If God should call you to church leadership, you will be recognizable, because these are the characteristics that describe your life. So don't make that mistake today and go, "Wow, my preacher talked about leaders." No, I'm talking about you, and those of you may eventually someday rise up to be leaders within the church. A fourth mistake I think we (and churches) make is we elevate these qualifications beyond possibility so no man would dare to serve. That's a huge mistake. Paul is not insinuating that anyone who has achieved perfection in these areas can serve. He's not saying that at all. He's calling for us to look for men who are visibly and consistently pursuing and growing in these areas. Hear me say that. Canyon Hills Community Church 11

12 What Paul is saying here is when we start looking for and considering leaders and shepherds of God's people, we look for men who are growing and progressing in these areas of their lives in such a way that we could willingly follow their example and go with them. Nobody achieved these perfectly, and no one will. We're all in process and making progress, but when it comes to leadership in the church, we're not looking for someone who is at the starting point of the Christian life, maturity, and godliness. We want to look for someone who has been down the road enough to where we can see these things progressing and growing in their life. Don't make the mistake of thinking only perfect people need apply. Not at all God knows that in our sin, we could never live this way, so he sent his Son to live the life we couldn't. He sent Jesus to die on our behalf and to rise again, conquering sin and death, and he did this so we would not only be forgiven of our obsession with our own self-glory and our own selfishness, but he died on the cross and rose from the dead so we could be given grace, every day, to live for his glory like Paul has described. Right now, I want us to admit our need for help. I want us to be able to say, "Wow, you mean this list has something to do with me?" Yes! I want us to just bow our heads quietly, before we run. I want you to just take a breath. Be quiet and respectful of those sitting around you, and take this moment of privacy. Would you be willing to say, "God, thank you for a standard of maturity and godliness"? Would you be willing to say, "God, I need your help. I want to be like this. I want to live like this"? I'm going to give you a moment just to do that. Just talk to God, you and him, in your own words. Father in heaven, we give you praise that you do give us shepherds and you give us qualities for determining who you are tapping to lead your sheep. God, I thank you that you give us a view of what all of us should want to live like. I pray, God, that this church will be full of people who don't make the mistake of seeing this list as someone else's qualification, but as a joyful target, a joyful way to live in your strength. God, I ask that you would do the miracle today and make it our deepest passion to live in such a way that if you would someday tap us, God, to be leaders in your church, we would not have to toot our own horns. We would not have to try to convince anyone that we're worthy. None of that would have to happen. We would be recognizable by the way we live and the way we love you and others. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. If you're sitting here right now and you sense in your heart that a relationship with Jesus Christ that's real and personal is missing in your life It may have been a long time since you've been to church. Maybe you're here for the first time in months or years. Welcome, to you. If you want to talk to someone about how to get on track with your faith Maybe it is, for the very first time, to ask Jesus to come into your life and forgive you and save you. Canyon Hills Community Church 12

13 We have some people right over here who will be ready and excited, every single Sunday, after every single service We'd love to talk to you about that. If there's anything heavy going on in your life right now, maybe this week, and if you would like us to pray with you and for you before you go home, please stop over here. We'd love to do that as well. All right. God bless you. We look forward to seeing you next Sunday. Canyon Hills Community Church 13