Shepherding: Leaders: their work and Qualifications

Let's turn please to the book of Acts chapter 20. The book of Acts chapter 20. We'll begin at verse 17.

Acts 20 and verse 17 says, And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, We know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the laying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Verse 27 says, For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the little flock, the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.

Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. And now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.

First Timothy, please. First Timothy in chapter three. First Timothy chapter three, verse one.

This is a true saying. The word there of course is faithful. This is a faithful word.

If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Now we'll take our time reading through this just for our purposes. If a man desired the office of a bishop.

The word office is not there. It may not even be implied. Really what is being said is if a man is ambitious toward overseership, when we use the word office, we give the impression that this is a position rather than a work, but it really is overseership.

He desireth a good work. The bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.

For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. That's all we need to read.

This is probably, I think, the third conference that I've been to since I've been here in Iowa this time, and I intended throughout the course of these three conferences to speak on the theme of shepherding, and I thought I was off the hook. I thought that the Lord took away my exercise until I sat and began to study again. Those of you who are in Ankney will remember that we talked about the good shepherd from John's Gospel, chapter 10.

We looked at the good shepherd in different aspects, but especially the fact that when the Lord Jesus presented himself as the good shepherd, it was in comparison to all of the shepherds in the Old Testament that were good. Those shepherds that God used to bring his people out, right? Moses, who brought his people out of Egypt. We looked at Ezra and Zerubbabel and Joshua, or Nehemiah, and how they brought people out of Babylon.

And we looked at how God himself was a shepherd who brought Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans. And we noticed throughout that that the job of a shepherd was not just feeding and not just tending, but leading. And in the context, the Lord Jesus says, my sheep, hear my voice, right? I lead them out.

And we focused on the fact that not only does a good shepherd lead out, but it is the responsibility of shepherds in a local assembly to be feeding, to be gathering, and to be leading out. But then the next day, we had an opportunity to share about two shepherds from the Old Testament. And in reading in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, we noticed that we come to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

And we noticed that Abel was the first, the first shepherd in your Bible, in the Old Testament. And Abel, of course, his blood cried unto God from the ground. And according to Hebrews, chapter 11, he that being dead, or he being dead, yet speaketh.

And we noticed that Abel's blood, it cried unto the Lord about guilt. The guilt of Cain. But the last shepherd in your Old Testament is the shepherd of Zechariah, chapter 13.

And the shepherd of Zechariah, chapter 13, awake, go sword against my shepherd. And we know that the blood of that shepherd speaks better things than that of Abel. Not just did it speak things that were slightly better, but things that were transcendently better.

Don't they, brethren? They speak of cleansing. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that shepherd speaks of the purging of guilt. Not the condemnation and judgment of guilt, but the purging of guilt.

And you watch it in the book of Hebrews, and the blood of the Lord Jesus is far superior. So we took the good shepherd. We took, if you want a title for my other message, it was the bookend shepherds of the Old Testament.

But then in Heightsville, we had an opportunity to share from Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40, where the entire tenor of the prophecy of Isaiah takes a change with the words, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. And yet we see there that John chapter 10 is really reflected in Isaiah chapter 40, because the porter, John the Baptist, is being prophesied there.

And it is the porter that opens the door for the shepherd to come for the sheep. And we noticed that the shepherd there, he was responsible for feeding the lambs. He was responsible for gathering them.

He was carrying them in his bosom. And he was leading them. And again, that's a reminder to us, not only of the goodness of our good shepherd, but the responsibility of shepherds.

And then I tried to get away with only preaching once in Heightsville. But we did have an opportunity to take part one more time, and we opened the scriptures to Acts chapter 20. And in Acts chapter 20, we looked at one of the two passages in your New Testament, where you will find all three functions of an overseer in a local assembly identified.

They're not always identified as the noun, we understand that. Sometimes it is the verb that is given to give us the function of the New Testament overseer. In the book of 1 Peter, we read there about the elders that are among you, take the oversight, feed the flock of God, right? And in Acts chapter 20, we read about the elders, we read about the overseers, and we read about feeding the little flock of God.

All three of the different functions of the New Testament overseer. That is, they are elders. And we went over this, and I'm gonna go over it again, because it lays for us the foundation of what we're going to go over today.

There are Episcopalians in the Bible. If I had my bottle of water up here, I'd take a drink and let you think real long and hard. The word overseer in our King James version is taken from the word episkopos.

I would venture to say, my brethren and sisters, as you study it, that the only time that you find these men functioning in the local church capacity is when you find them, okay, functioning again in the plurality. There's more than one. We'll get to that when we come to the overseer.

But it speaks to us of their maturity. It speaks to us of their, can I say, their wisdom that is gained from their maturity. Now I'm covering ground.

I'm not forgetting that I went over this stuff already. Okay, I forget a lot of stuff, but I remember this. So if you're smiling because you think I forgot, I didn't.

If you're smiling because you think that I'm covering ground that you already know, well, less too bad. And if you're smiling because you're thinking about something totally unrelated, just keep smiling. But the overseer, when it comes down to it, or the elder, sorry, when it comes down to it, is respected for that maturity and wisdom.

It is expected that they are respected. So when you see the word elder in connection with the local New Testament church, remember they are mature, they are wise, or they're known for their wisdom and they are respected. The other word, of course, is proof that there are Presbyterians in the Bible.

So there's Episcopalians and there are Presbyterians. But that just means that the word from which we get overseer is the word presbyteros, presbytery. And the idea now is not so much their maturity and their wisdom and respect that they have, but it is their responsibility.

It's their responsibility to ensure that the word of God is carried out in the local assembly. I want to reiterate that because I think it's important. It is the responsibility of those brethren who are leading and guiding and feeding and shepherding the Lord's people to ensure that they're not doing it just based on their arbitrary rules and laws that they have come up with, which are pragmatic and seem to be logical in today's day.

Say that again in a different way. You don't make up the rules and then try and guide the Lord's people by those rules. It is the responsibility of the overseer to ensure that God's word is carried out on the local level.

And while we understand, of course, that they are responsible, not just to the sheep, they are responsible to the Lord himself, it becomes much bigger, doesn't it? But you see the elders, the Episcopalians, they are mature and the overseers, the Presbyterians, they are responsible for guiding and leading. But then of course we have shepherding and that's why this is consistent with the theme of shepherding. Shepherding is all about care.

It's all about care. You can come up with the word feeding. Absolutely.

If you follow the idea of shepherding from the Old Testament to the New, all the way to the Book of Revelation, in fact, the last mention of shepherding is the idea of rule. He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron. So shepherding is not just following the sheep and engaging in social activities so that you can keep them in line.

Shepherding involves authority as well, my brethren. I know we don't like that word and we don't like to step outside of our comfort zone with that word, but the brethren who are responsible for leading the Lord's people have authority. Young men and women, remember that.

I know in a conference this size, there's always someone who comes up to me and says, yeah, but what about this guy who did that and did that? Let's see, we don't interpret the scriptures based on the malpractice of the scriptures. We interpret the scriptures based on their context, interpretation, and then sound application. So just because there is failure at some level in an assembly that you might be aware of does not take away from the fact that the brethren who are leading have authority.

It's a God-given authority and it's connected with their responsibility. But primarily the idea of shepherding is to tend to the flock. It is to watch for the sick.

It is to correct those who stray. It is to feed all of the sheep. And it is occasionally to have to carry the little ones and to slow down and to be gentle with those who are with young.

It's a gentleness and a care to shepherding, but you see it, don't you? Now, I want you to remember the theme that we touched on the first day, and that is leading out. We're gonna go over that just for another second because I think it's absolutely practical and it is consistent with what we heard today from our brother Brandon, especially, leading out. Separation from sin is a real scriptural doctrine, a teaching that God wants us to know for our own good, our holiness.

But separation from the world may carry with it a slightly different connotation. But God wants us to be separate from the world. He wants us as his people to come out of the world, to come out of the world's systems, to come out of all that is against God.

He wants us out. And I believe, my brethren, that in 2022, as overseers in a local assembly, God wants you to lead his people out, out of the world. The Old Testament, you will find three different pictures of the world, at least.

You will find what I call the Sodom world. Sodom is a picture of the world in its immorality, in its filth, in its debauchery. But can I say that Sodom is a picture of the world, not just in those things that are outrightly base, but because Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom, a righteous man, vexing his righteous soul from day to day with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

Sodom is a picture for us of the world in its compromise. So Sodom is the world. And you will remember what God did.

The angel of the Lord actually took Lot by the hand. And what did he do? He led him out. Why? Because that world is no place for a believer.

That world is against God. And that world was under the judgment of God. You see it.

When you're reading the scriptures and you see Sodom, you look for the connotations that it is a part of that ungodly, immoral world. And God wants his people out of that world, brethren. And I know you're keen and I know you see it.

But let's not be scared to say it. Now, I'm among friends here today. Eight years ago, eight years ago, as a chubby little fat faced fella, I got off that plane in Waterloo in Iowa for the first time.

Spent nine, 10 weeks in Manchester. I forget how many weeks it was. Still friends with you, brethren.

But you know what I believe. So none of this is a surprise to you. We need to start identifying it so that we can lead them out.

You don't have to be a cranky old grandpa like me to identify it. But you do have to take a stand. And that's Sodom world of immorality.

It calls for the hearts of every one of us. But we need to come out. Of course, we know that Egypt is a picture of the world in a different way.

Egypt is a picture of the world in its self-sufficiency. So the world independent of God. Some of these things I've gone over on different nights, but I want you to get it.

The world without God. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 10, we read that the land that you are going to is not like the land from whence you came. The land from whence you came, you watered it with your foot.

But you're going to a land that God's eye is on and it is watered with the dew from heaven. What was God saying? He is saying the land that I am bringing you to, you have to depend completely upon me for everything. The land from which you came depended upon God for nothing.

And Egypt is a picture of this godless world. It is said on another occasion of Pharaoh, he says, the river is mine. And Pharaoh was responsible, he figured, for all the blessing.

Pharaoh was responsible for all of the engineering. Pharaoh was responsible for all of the effort. And in a society like that, there's no time for God.

And what did God do? He brought them out. He brought them out. Why? Because they couldn't honor God in that land.

In fact, two things just struck me. Number one, why do I put so much time into making notes if I don't read them? Number two is we may not get to the qualifications for overseers, but we'll see what happens. They had to go three days journey out of Egypt.

And the reason they were going three days journey out of Egypt is not just because God wanted them separate from the Egyptians, although he did. But Moses said to Pharaoh, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and shall they not stone us or shall they not kill us? What was he saying? He is saying our value system is not compatible with their value system. Our worship is not compatible with their worship.

Everything we will do to honor our God will be an abomination in their sight, right? Shepherds indeed were an abomination onto the Egyptians. And you can just see as they're going over in their mind, God wants us to do this, but Egypt will reproach us for this. God wants us to have a feast, but Egypt is going to want us to be in bondage.

God wants us to worship in this way with these animals and these sacrifices. And the Egyptians will be so much in an uproar because their values are so different that they will stone us. You see, we play around with the world in our minds and think that the American Christian society is compatible with scriptural Christianity.

When I say American, you know, North American, I'm not down here picking on you, okay? And we start to look at it and we start to say, well, yeah, the world is bad, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, the picture that is painted of the world in the scriptures is absolutely against God on every level, every level. That's why they had to come out. You saw it.

But then there's the Babylon world, right? The world in its religious confusion. And I know some of my brethren can get up here and they could give you the dissertation on Babylon from the beginning right to the end of your Bibles. But I think when you consider the first mention of Babel, the fact that there was a carnal man, Nimrod, natural man, probably brethren, a man who had no time for spiritual things and yet he organized people together to make a tower to get to heaven.

What's that a picture of? That's a picture of organized religion led and developed by keen, good organizers, but people who are not spiritual men. Sometimes they are carnal men. Oftentimes they are the natural man.

And if you don't know the difference, look in Paul's writings, the natural man and the carnal man are not the same man, but they both have no time for things that are spiritual, right? And they build in self-righteousness and in pride to get to heaven. And we know how that ended. God came down and he confused their tongues, but that wasn't the end of Babel or Babylon or Shinar or Ur of the Chaldees, if you will, all the same place.

You trace it throughout the scriptures and you will find in the book of Daniel, they're back in Babylon. They're back in Babylon where Babylon is getting those young men to be fit into its mold. Think about that in terms of the scriptures, my brethren.

I love that these young men and women are here today, by the way. You know what intimidates me about this? You're all smarter than I am. You know what encourages me about this? You have the potential to do so much for God.

But the Babylon world taught those young men with so much potential, Daniel chapter one, the learning of the Chaldeans, all of the different traditions of the Chaldeans. They wanted them to eat like the Babylonians. They wanted them to think like the Babylonians.

They wanted them to worship like the Babylonians. They were trying to press them into the mold of Babylon and conform them to this world. That's what Babylon will do.

We mentioned over there in Marian the other night that Babylon had room for a little bit of everything. And it did. You think about a mighty conqueror, like Belshazzar or like Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar comes down and he attacks this little nation state, if you will. And he takes all of their people and he takes all of their goods and he takes all of their gods and he brings some back. And then he goes and he attacks another area and he takes all of their gods and he brings some back.

And he has a house that is called the house of his gods. And there comes a point in time on the first trip into Jerusalem where he takes captive those young men of Judah. He also takes part, it says part now in Daniel chapter one, part of the vessels of the house of the Lord.

And he puts them in the house of his God. But why part? Why not all? Because in Babylon, there's room for a little bit of everything but there's not enough room for all of God's truth. Now I'm speaking in riddles, I understand that.

So I'm gonna say this more plainly. In the religious world around you, there may be denominations or divisions that accept much of what the Bible teaches. You know what your responsibility is? Is to find a place that accepts all of what the Bible teaches.

That's Babylon with its mold, with its compromise and you follow it again, you'll see all down through right up until the book of Revelation where Babylon will be that religious confusion that is used by the beast in his world conquering power. Just using it by the way, no time for it. But Babylon is right there right to the end.

So what does God want? What did he do with Abram? He called him out, why? Because Abram, if you want to enjoy my promises and if you want to worship at my altar, you cannot do it in Ur of the Chaldees. You can't do it in Babylon. There are some of you who are going to try in a crowd this size.

There are some of you who are going to say, the assembly is too straight for me. Those brethren are too hard for me. Nobody likes me.

Self-pity will lead you to a lot of things my brethren and you'll end up out there and you'll say, well, at least I've got to take, here, it might sound familiar. You know what I believe anyway, so this shouldn't surprise you. At least we'll try and take our kids somewhere.

Somewhere, I was in that with little children and thought, I won't take them there. But if there's a place that preaches, you must be born again, I'll take them there. And you're going to do that.

And you're going to try to find a place that is close and you're going to get mixed up with a bunch of things that are unscriptural and you're going to compromise and you're going to be pushed into a mold and you're going to end up in a place where you can't worship God properly and you can't serve God properly. Why? God wants you out of Babylon, wants you out. He called Abram out, but he took the nation back out, didn't he? He took them out and eventually there's going to be that day come out from among them, be separate.

Say it through God. Which one of these three, you take your pick, does politics fall into? I'll let you think about it for a second. These pauses seem awkward, I understand that.

But when your brain moves slower like mine, it's not half as awkward. Do you know that politics is really the definition of moral compromise? You don't look at it that way, because we've been tainted by the world around us. But to partake in the governing politics of this world would be akin to Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom, compromising with those in the city so that there could be some kind of peace.

Brethren, he was about to give his daughters to those men who were pressing upon his door. Why? Compromise and immorality. And I know you can see it in Egypt, can't you? Because really, the design is to try and bring about change, positive change.

I have no doubt that many of the motives are correct. Try to bring about lasting change. Try to bring about true change without God.

We are going to legislate our way to a better world, right? But in order to legislate, we need to vote someone in. You're a good man, Scott. I spent much time with you.

You read the same Bible I do. You should run because you'd be good, right? And don't try and pretend like those of us who are good talkers couldn't get sucked into it in little communities, right? You get up and you make a speech. I'm protesting against the easements that are coming into our community.

I don't want these, I don't want to lose my front lawn, right? And then everyone says, you should run for politics. Again, this is no surprise to those of you who know me. But it falls into the Sodom world with its immorality and compromise.

And it falls into the Egypt world, the world without God. But here's what's affecting us the most. In fact, this next one may have taken us as local assemblies to the precipice of moral irrelevance in our community.

That's a big statement. Think about it before you say no. The political world is using you, Christian.

It's using you. They know what you believe. They know you are what they would call conservative.

They know where you stand morally. And they're trying their best to appeal to you. They're trying to get you angry at the other side.

If you don't see it, take a step back. They're trying to get you angry enough at the other side so that you'll vote. They're trying to get you to think of the other side as evil so that you're going to vote for the lesser of two evils.

These phrases are not new to you, I understand. But remember, just because you see it all around us doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't paint it as black and dark. Now, brethren, this might be my last day in Iowa.

An entire generation of younger believers are counting on being led out. Lead them out. The qualifications for overseers is an intimidating passage for a man like me because I know I'm speaking to brethren who are spiritually minded.

Brethren who are spiritually minded and who care and they meet these qualifications. I want each one of us to be careful that we're not using this passage to try and disqualify some of our brethren. I don't need to take 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1 and go around and say, see, brother, I know you're an overseer, but we got a problem here, so I'm going to take you off the oversight, right? Can't do that.

This is designed just to help people identify those whom God has raised up for the work. And overseers have struggles. Overseers have families.

Overseers have sickness. Overseers have all of these things. So be gentle.

Be gentle. There are words that you will find in the New Testament of your King James Bible that need a bit of explanation and they have been taken in the wrong way. One of those is the word priest, right? So if you were to look around now pragmatically and look at different areas of Christendom, we should call it Babylon Christendom.

So we look at different areas of Babylon Christendom and there are those who are leading people who are called priests. Now those priests, they will take the role of offering up to God on behalf of the people. So the people come and they sit and he offers sacrifices of whatever kind.

But he also takes the role of representing God to the people, right? So you can't really interpret your Bible based on just your own knowledge and reading. You need me to help you interpret your Bible. Things like that.

That really is a priest in the Babylon world. But a priest in the New Testament is different. In fact, if I could tell you today, you are a priest.

Some of you young ladies may find that surprising, maybe a little bit intimidating, but you are. You are a priest. According to the book of 1 Peter chapter 2, you are part of a holy priesthood.

That is a holy priesthood that offers up sacrifices to God, spiritual sacrifices. But you're also part of a royal priesthood. And that is to show forth his excellencies or his virtues.

So as a holy priest, you are offering sacrifices to God. In fact, the fruit of your lips is a sacrifice. Thanksgiving to God.

Worship is a sacrifice and is part of your holy priesthood. If you want to go a little further now, giving is a sacrifice that is a part of your priesthood, according to Philippians chapter 4. But also now you go out in your community and you begin to represent God to the people. You are showing forth the grace of God.

You're showing forth the mercy of God, the glory of God, the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you are representing the character of God as a witness to the people as a part of the royal priesthood. And a priest is not a clerical term.

You as a believer are a priest. There's another word that's used quite often in the Babylon world. It's the word minister, right? And you're going to find it in the New Testament of your King James Version.

But far from being an official position in a church where you are a leader, the idea of a minister is simply a servant. It's used to translate different words in the New Testament. Sometimes it's a household servant, one who is serving in the household.

Often could be considered an employee, right? There are other who are public servants, but it's just a servant. And they should be engaged in serving the Lord's people in the spiritual context. We could have read a little further in 1 Timothy 3 about the deacon.

But don't forget the deacon is not a special office in the church. The deacon is one who serves, one who serves. In fact, they weren't able to translate that word.

They transliterated it into English. And it's very similar to the Greek word that is used, but it is a servant as he relates to his service. Now, in a special way, according to the passage that we could have read on, what I am doing today is deacon work.

It's a spiritual service. And I would take it, brethren, that when it comes to the deacon qualifications of 1 Timothy 3, it is the spiritual public nature of his service that requires those qualifications. So the person setting up the chairs doesn't have to meet every one of those qualifications, but that's deacon work.

And the person who shovels off the doorstep, which in Canada takes a longer time sometimes than down here, but he's doing deacon work. And the person who is counting the money is doing deacon work. The money may be spiritual money, if you want to call it that, but it's still deacon work.

Deacon is service. But what about this word, bishop? You want to hold on to that one sometimes, right? Well, in the Babylon Christendom, a bishop is an official in an organization who rules over many local gatherings. I don't call them churches because they're not churches.

They are local gatherings. And that bishop has been given authority over many gatherings. But in the New Testament, the bishop is the exact same word as overseer.

So I'm not sure why. Actually, I have an inclination why they chose to use the word bishop. They were trying to use all of the ecclesiastical terms that were there at the time as a command for their translation committee.

But the bishop is an overseer. So you see, a priest, a minister, deacon, the bishop, they're all scriptural when you go to the Bible, but not when you look out there. And what we're about to talk about now are these men.

I'm going to skip the idea in the book of Acts and take a few minutes to go over 1 Timothy chapter three, only to say, my brother, in the book of Acts, you are given, you are given really the seriousness of this work. Seriousness of it. Why? He says, the church, the assembly of God.

So the assembly that you have been called to serve as an overseer in belongs to God. It says, over which, over the which, or in the midst of which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. So God is involved in that.

The assembly is his property. He owns it. And God is involved in that.

He, through the spirit, raises up overseers. But you know that God is involved, Father, Son, and Father, Holy Spirit, and now the Son. Because literally that phrase through the blood of his own is, or through his own blood is the blood of his own.

You don't want to get the impression and you don't want to give the impression that we believe that the Father bled, brethren. That's false doctrine. But through the blood of his own, his own dear Son, he purchased the local assembly.

Do you see the entire Godhead is interested in this little flock. That's the first time I smiled all afternoon, isn't it? The entire Godhead is interested in this little flock. Brethren, 20 years, 20 years.

I want to say 20 long years, but there were 20 quick years. 20 quick years that I've been in a local assembly that God has had an interest in. And you know, some places I go, my brethren, there's two brethren and two sisters and a visitor.

And he almost choked back the tears when you think about how small things have gotten. And then you remember, Church of God purchased with the blood of his own. If you want to have an emotional attachment to anything, have an emotional attachment to the local assembly.

But now we have laid out for us some of the qualifications. I'm going to go quickly over some of these things because all you need to know is what it means without perhaps focusing on it. But in verse number two, it says, first of all, a bishop must be blameless.

Now, it doesn't mean that he has to be perfect. If you find a perfect man, he probably won't be in your assembly, but he doesn't have to be perfect. He has to be blameless.

The idea is irreproachable, I know, but it's when someone makes a charge against him and it's investigated, it doesn't stick. That's all it means. Now, he should be careful to arrange his life so that nobody can bring that charge, but it's just irreproachable so that it doesn't stick.

The husband of one wife quite literally is just a one woman man. He is a man who is faithful to his wife. To be vigilant means to be self-controlled.

I know it doesn't mean that English for English, but the underlying word means to be self-controlled. So here's a man and he is blameless. He's irreproachable.

He's faithful to his wife. He shows self-control. You see, these things should be in all of us as believers, but especially in one who is called to overseership.

He is sober. Now, this is one that I think we all need to take a step back. It's not talking about alcohol in this line.

He's talking about not being extreme in anything, right? We all know that we can be creatures of extremes, right? So if I find that one coffee that I really love, they're at the quick stir where they have the new machine, Scott. You can put, you weren't here last time. You can put as many espressos in as you want and they only charge you for one.

And I go there every day. Is that extreme? I don't know. We can be creatures of extreme, right? And if you find a brother and he's always got a bone and it's a new bone every week and he won't let it go.

He's like a dog with a bone. That's a man who's extreme. He's going to be very difficult to work with in situations on the oversight, brethren.

So you gotta be careful of encouraging a man who's a man of extremes. We want a man who is moderate. Whenever it comes to a good behavior, it's just that he's respectable.

None of these things are really transcendent when you think of it. Given to hospitality. Now we think hospitality is inviting the believers into your home and very practically, overseers and shepherds can use hospitality to tend to and care for the sheep.

But the word really is a lover of strangers. So someone that you don't know that well to invite them into your home. This is more challenging word.

But then he is apt to teach. That is protecting the doctrine. He is able to feed the sheep.

You go on a little further and you find in chapter three that he is no striker. No striker. Now we know brethren, if a man is prone to raising his fists in physical conflict, he needs to be chatted with.

And that man would be disastrous on the oversight. But that's not what's being said here. It's just being said, he's a bully.

He's a bully. So if he doesn't get his way, he tries to intimidate you, right? And if you're not his friend, he'll try to isolate you so that you won't be, how can I say it? You won't affect his agenda. It sounds kind of sinful.

Wouldn't you think? But we have to watch out for the bully. You go on down. And this is the last one I wanna talk about.

He's not a brawler. He's not a brawler. He seeks peace.

In the simplest form, he does what it takes to bring things to peace. And when things are at peace, he doesn't try to stir them up. He loves peace.

Brethren, I think that's challenging for us all, isn't it? Sometimes I think we stir things up because we get bored, right? Well, if you get bored and that's your hobby, get another hobby. Because we need brethren who love peace. And the Lord's people, if we're going to be let out, we need brethren who care.

Thank God for you, brethren. Who care. We need brethren who have courage.

Thank God again for your courage. We need brethren who are able to identify and lead us out. We need brethren who seek peace.

This wraps up my series on shepherding.