The Role of Churches and Leaders in Good Works | Weekend Service | Josiah Smith

A message by Pastor Josiah Smith on Titus 1:5-16. 

Compass Bible Church South Valley is located in Kuna, Idaho. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church go to https://www.compassbiblesv.org/

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Transcript

From Championship Upset To Church Vision

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Well, some of you probably care about this more than others, but this past Monday was the college football championship. And in a lot of ways, it was won for the ages, particularly because of who was in the championship, Indiana University versus Miami. Now, if you know anything about Indiana, they were historically one of the most losing programs in college football history until Kurt Signetti, the head coach of Indiana, took over and just in two years turned that program from the most losing program in history to ultimately this year going 16-0 and winning the national championship. And the question that everyone has for that, whether you care about sports or not, is how did how did you do that? How did you go from the most losing program to, in a sense, uh the best program, at least in recent years, uh there hasn't been a team that's gone 16-0 since the 1800s in college football. And they went 16 and oh this year. So everyone's asking, how'd you do this? And in all of the interviews, uh Signetti always says the same thing. He says, uh there needs to be commitment at the top. Nothing gets done without it. So he says the president and the athletic director need to be on board. And then he says you need to have the right people on the bus, on your staff, and in the locker room. And once you have the right people, he says you have to have a blueprint and a plan and a process in terms of development. And that's uh important. So if I could summarize that, he basically is saying you need to have the right leaders. Everyone has to understand their role, and there needs to be a shared commitment to working together to achieve the goal. Now, much in the same way, last week we started the book of Titus, and Paul gave Titus a very clear goal be zealous for good works, pursue good works. In just 46 verses and three short chapters, Paul mentions this again and again and again. Six explicit mentions of the phrase good works, and then there's commentary before and after. So a lot of the book is aimed at this. And when it comes to pursuing that goal, whether it was Titus on the island of Crete or you today at Compass Bible Church South Valley, we need a couple

Titus’s Target: Zealous For Good Works

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of things to get it done. We need to have the right leaders, and that's what Paul's going to talk about today, the qualifications for leaders in the context of this pursuit. Everyone has to understand their role and where they fit. Everyone has to have a shared commitment to the body, and there has to be a shared goal and a shared commitment of reaching that goal of pursuing good works together. And that's what we're going to see today in Titus chapter one. So if you've got your Bibles, I want you to go there. Titus chapter one, verse five, beginning there. I want you to see how Paul continues to encourage us today to pursue good works and all the things that he's going to tell us that we need to get that done. We need the right leaders. We need to have the right shared commitment. And everyone needs to understand their role and where they fit in to get it done. So Titus chapter one, beginning in verse five. Now, this is a longer section, so we'll take it uh kind of chunk by chunk, but let's begin there in verse five. Paul says, This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instructions and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. I want to stop there because we need to focus on a couple of things. Go back to verse five. This is how Paul begins. He says, This is why I left you in Crete. Now, for good Bible readers, and hopefully we're learning and growing in that each and every day, we should be asking why. Well, he says, This is why I left you in Crete. Well, why? Why did he leave Titus in Crete? Well, I think the why is pointing back to the first four verses, what we covered last week, where Paul is saying that you need to be a part of even his apostolic ministry and him viewing himself as a servant was aimed for the faith of others, the knowledge of others increasing, the godliness of others, and the hope of others. And so we saw all of those things last week. And Paul says, that's why. Those targets, those goals of helping others grow in their faith, in their knowledge, in their love, in their godliness, in their hope, those targets that we're aiming for. That's why, Titus, I left you in Crete. He is saying that faith and knowledge and godliness and hope is the target that Titus is to be aiming for. And how is he to accomplish this? How is Titus on

Why Crete Needed Order And Elders

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the island of Crete going to accomplish and hit those targets? How is he going to help people grow in their faith, in their knowledge, in their godliness, in their hope? Well, the answer that Paul immediately goes into and starts to unpack is it's the local church. And that's why he says in verse 5, this is why he left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order. Now, is he talking about the whole island of Crete being put into order? No, not necessarily. He's talking about the churches that were planted and started by Paul and Titus earlier that were not yet finished. Paul had to leave and he had some other work that he needed to do. And so he said there were some things left unfinished. We need to finish the job. We need to strengthen the churches. And so he's saying there needs to be leaders, it needs to be elders, and the context for faith, knowledge, godliness, and hope to increase is the local church. And that's his encouragement to Titus to begin. So he's like, Titus, if you're going to pursue these things, if you're going to achieve these things, you need to recognize that it's coming in the context of the local church. And so there should be, as a result of that, both for Titus and for you today, a level of commitment to the local church because of the priority that the scriptures place on the local church as it pertains to being the training ground for good works. And that's point number one for us today. I want you to devote yourself to the church to be trained for good works. Devote yourself to the church to be trained for good works. And we already said that we need the right leaders. We need to all understand the different roles that we play, and we need to have a shared commitment to reaching the goal of being zealous for good works. There's a sense of teamwork and camaraderie and coming together to see this accomplished. And we do this all the time in our lives. We we do this, we we hear this talked about. This sort of logic is seen in our everyday lives, the logic of coming together with other people to grow and to see something accomplished. Take, for example, if you've got kids and you've put them in sports, I'm sure you've had a conversation, maybe you've had a thought where you've said sports helps them learn certain things. It helps them learn teamwork. How do you work with other people? It helps them learn to have a good work ethic. They got to work hard. You can't be lazy and be good at a sport. It helps them to learn that or dealing with failure when they don't win or winning well and not being prideful and boastful. And I've even heard people say sports is a metaphor for life and whatever that means. So sports, we get that. We we feel that. If you've got kids in sports, I'm sure you've said that. It's helping them, it's training them, it's teaching them. They're growing in character or whatever the case is because you see the importance of putting someone in a group to help them grow. Even with our kids, our young kids, we we often think to ourselves, well, what do our kids need? Uh there's lots of needs, but one of them is they need to be with other kids. They need to play with other kids. Why is that? Because they need to learn how to share. They need to learn how to share and to play with others, and they need to learn how to play when they don't want to do the play the way that the other kid is playing. They need to learn that. They need to learn it's not about them. They need to learn how to negotiate conflict and they need to learn how to verbalize things and to draw boundaries and say, no, I don't want that, and communicate. And and of course, a lot of that is running back and forth to mom and dad, and it's just tattling. And you know how that goes. But that's the we we see we want our kids to be with other kids so that they learn things and that they grow in certain areas. And McKinsey and I, we used to talk about that. Ebony was our only child for a few years, and we just kept saying, Man, she needs a sibling. She needs to learn that it's not all about her. Um, she's great. I love I realize that that sounded worse, the worse than I meant it. I love my daughter. But she we were like, she needs a sibling, and now thankfully the the Lord has given us

The Church As Training Ground

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the son. Praise the Lord. Um, but we we had that sort of thought, right? We when when something uh tragic happens in the community, what happens? What what what do what do you start hearing? Uh immediately people are saying things like, We need to come together. Uh, we need each other now more than ever. We need to support. How can we help? What can we do? Where's the GoFundMe link? Where is the the the fundraiser? How how can we show up for uh a workday? What what whose house can we clean or who can we move? And the community is always saying, in times of crisis, it feels like we need to come together. And we hear that language, and then things kind of die down, and then we're back into our individual isolated lives until the next crisis comes, and we go, we need each other, we understand this, we get this. The problem that I see, however, increasingly is that when it comes to the church, there seems to be a common belief that it's not necessary, or at the very least, it's not needed. Uh we it might be a nice add-on, it could be something that we commit ourselves to if we really wanted to go harder in our walk with the Lord. But I I can just continue to see a growing perspective that I don't need the church. The church is not important, the church is not where I'm going to grow, the church is not where I need to be in order to increase in knowledge and faith and good works. And I've heard people say legitimately things like, uh, I have an understanding between me and God. Like they've worked out some side contract that gets them out of what the scriptures say. Or I've heard people say things like, Well, I love Jesus, but I don't love the church, which just doesn't work. But we have this perspective, there's this disconnect in our everyday life. We feel like groups are important, learning with others, coming together, banding together. But when it comes to the church, oftentimes we struggle to see, no, this is necessary and this is important, and this is the context for which we are going to grow and which we're going to be trained to pursue good works. That's what Paul says. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, so that your focus could be on the churches, strengthening them, equipping them, and appointing elders, leaders in every town as I directed. And Paul's way of putting what was out of order in these churches or even in these communities was to get the church healthy, to get the church structured the way that it needed to, the right leaders. Everyone knows their role, and they're working towards the same goal of pursuing good works. And we see this not just in Titus chapter one, a letter written to Titus, who's overseeing these churches, but we see this in places like Hebrews 10, 24, and 25. The author of Hebrews says, and let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works. There's our phrase from Titus, good works. Let us consider, let us think about, let's strategize, let's plan for, be intentional about how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together. Do you see how the meeting together is connected to the stirring, the strategizing, the considering is connected to the meeting together? These things are welded in the scriptures, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. The context for being equipped, for stirring one another up is the local church. The context for being trained to zealously pursue good works and see a community be transformed, to see your family be transformed, to see others grow in their walk with Christ that happens primarily in the local church. You need to devote yourself to the local church and see it as the training ground for good works. And we defined good works last week, if you remember, living a life in service to the king. And that's what we're after. That's what we're seeking to do. We're living a life in service to the king. And how do we grow in that? How do we get equipped in that? If you're thinking about it in terms of military terms, how

Four Ways To Devote Yourself

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where's the basic training for that? It's the local church. And we see that in another passage. If you got your Bibles, flip to Ephesians 4. I want you to see this. Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. Paul's uh a little bit more explicit about how all of this works together. Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 11. Again, Paul's encouraging the church of Ephesus at this point to be committed, to be devoted to the local church because it's to equip them for the work of ministry. Look at verse 11. And Christ, he, he, Christ, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers. Now remember what we said at the beginning. We need the right leaders. Everyone needs to know their role. We have to have a shared commitment to achieving the goal of being zealous for good works. And that's what Paul begins with. We need the right leaders. And Christ gave the leaders, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers for what purpose? To equip the saints for the work of ministry. And you could fill in that phrase be good for zealous for good works, to equip the saints to be zealous for good works, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Do you see in the scriptures the local church is the training ground to be equipped for ministry and to be equipped to be zealous for good works? And that's why Paul says, This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, establishing the right kind of leaders, helping everyone to see where they fit in and what their role is and encouraging them to have the right goal, being zealous for good works. That's what Paul is saying. So for you today, what does it mean to be devoted to the local church? And how do you grow in this? What are you aiming for? Well, I have four things very practically. Number one, I think it means simply uh showing up. And that's that's part of the battle. Showing up, being present, being consistent, as Hebrew says, not neglecting to meet together. I know that we all have different schedules, we have different demands, we work different nights and days and and all of those things, but if we're gonna be trained and if we're gonna be equipped, we need to be devoted, and that's gonna require us to show up, to show up so that we can be known by others, we can pursue others, we need to be present. Our uh our presence physically in the body is important. Scripture talks about that. We need to be present, we need to be uh available, we need to show uh that's the first thing. The second thing is when we show up, we need to be looking to serve. We need to be looking to serve, and that that's both in formal ways, but also in informal ways. So I don't just mean, hey, sign up at the back to to serve cookies or whatever. Like we we need we need that. Sign up to serve cookies. But what I what I'm saying is that that's more of a formal kind of service. There's informal ways that you can serve where you are simply going up to others and you're investing in them, you're you're seeking uh to meet their needs. Even this week, our our son was sick and there were people in the church that that made us meals that they they were serving us. There wasn't necessarily on the website a forum that that was saying serve up for the the meal ministry. At least right now we don't have that. It's not a formal thing. That was just an informal way to serve the body. And there's all kinds of ways that you can do that in informally. And so we want you to be serving formally. We think that's helpful and necessary. We we need kids' ministry volunteers, we need student ministry volunteers, we need people on the worship team, we need people for security and tech and all the things that we've got going on here. Those are the formal sides of serving, but we also just need people who are looking to serve the needs of others, and whether there's a ministry position associated with it or not. We're on the prowl, we're on the lookout for how can I serve? Who can I serve? And the and the ways that you serve may look different than what you would anticipate, but we need to look to serve. We're going to be devoted to God's church. We need to show up and we need to look to serve. That's the second thing. The third thing I would say is we need to seek to encourage. We need to seek to encourage one uh another. And that's even what we saw in Hebrews 10, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now, encouragement, I mean much more than just, hey, your outfit looks nice today. That I guess is some form of encouragement. Uh, what I mean by that is uh be ready to encourage someone with the word uh when they're when they're discouraged, when they're struggling, be ready uh to share the hope uh that is found within you from the scriptures. Be ready to remind them of who they serve. Remember to remind them of who their God is. Be ready to encourage, be ready to speak the scriptures to others, to to serve them even in that way. To walk alongside a brother who is who is hurting, to follow up with a sister who said that they were struggling at home with uh parenting. Whatever the case may be, uh look to encourage and specifically look to encourage with God's word. Be ready, just have that the scriptures. on your lips so that when you are together as a body you you can encourage one another hey I was reading this week in the Lamp and Light Bible reading plan or I was just reading something else and I was encouraged by this I wanted to share I wanted to share this with you be ready to share the truth of the scriptures with those around you that's what it means to be devoted we need to show up look to serve and seek to encourage and fourth I would say we need to actively pray we need to actively be praying for this church for the local church and those things that we were talking about last week faith knowledge

Elder Qualifications: Above Reproach

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godliness hope we should be praying regularly this should be a regular part of our prayer list God would you please at Compass Bible Church South Valley would you grow our church in their faith would you grow our church in their knowledge of the truth that accords with godliness would you grow our life group in the hope of eternal life would you give them a greater confidence that you are the God that never lies would you help them to see that you're always on time at the proper time you manifested your promises as it says in Titus 1. We should be praying these things for our church we should be praying for the leaders of the church and just praying for the church in general that God would do what he says he will do in his word. And oh what a church we would be if we were filled with people that were devoted to this church by praying for this church. Or would you help us to grow? Would you just continue to make us humble before the Lord? Would you help us to submit to your word you don't even have to pray for specific people just pray for the church and it gets it gets uh more specific from there your life group the those that you serve with uh and the list goes on but we need to be praying that God would grow us and that he would help us uh to pursue good works and so see the church has the training ground for good works if we're gonna say that our kids learn X, Y, and Z in sports or just playing with each other or whatever, we need to see the importance of no us adults we need we need play dates with each other to work it out to conflict to have conflict resolution to learn how to communicate with one another. I'm just realizing now in the moment we never get beyond what those lessons are needed for the kids. We just need them in different ways as as adults everyone's offended now got real quiet. It's the truth what we need to come together so that we can grow in being zealous for good works. Devoteed for good works. And then specifically Paul has a a chunk of the text where he dedicates to the leaders of the church that's what he says in verse 5 appoint elders in every town as I directed you. Now he's going to give a long list of qualifications. So we need the right leaders not just any leaders we need the right leaders and here's the qualifications that begin in verse six if anyone is above reproach the husband of one wife and that it that's basically talking about faithfulness and fidelity to your wife the husband of one wife and his children are believers that has some different uh interpretations if you look at the footnote in your Bible it'll say either faithful or believer. So you could translate that if if their kids are faithful this in the ESV is translated if their kids are believers. I don't think given the context here and in 1 Timothy 3 it's saying that the children of elders need to be saved in order for them to be qualified. I don't think that that's what it's saying. The qualifier that we're going to see next I think gives us some clear parameters to look at. It says not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. So when you look at that it's more about the discipline that the father exercises rather than the salvation status of the child. So it's the discipline exercised for their behavior they're not given into debauchery or insubordination there's a sense of they're managing their household well. So it's again a certain type of father and a certain type of husband that is needed to be qualified as a leader. And then he goes on in verse seven for an overseer a similar word talking about the uh the same office so uh elder overseer different words describing the same office the office of pastor elder overseer uh different words for the same thing he says for an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach he must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violence or greedy for gain but hospitable a lover of good self-controlled upright holy and disciplined he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it so we have this list of qualifications for elders and again we talked about at the beginning we need the right leaders we need to know our role and we need to have a shared commitment to reaching the goal together. And so what is your role? What's your responsibility if you're not an elder or an overseer what would your role be here in this church? Well point number two I think it should be to rally behind character qualified leaders that promote good works. Rally behind character qualified leaders that promote good works. And let's be honest leadership and leaders has fallen on hard times has it not when you think of leadership even within the context of the church unfortunately you probably think of words like disqualification. And I've been in ministry long enough now to know and to know personal individuals that have personal relationships with people who have been disqualified from ministry. And of course with the advent of social media now we're aware of that going on in in parts of the country and even in parts of the world to a greater degree than perhaps we ever have been so it's in our face disqualification. Maybe you think of lies deception cover ups pride selfishness abuse or the list goes on. And I would say whether it's in the context of the church or just in general every single person in this room has been affected in one way or another by poor leadership big or small. And so we we struggle with that we wrestle with that and we see the structure of elders and leaders in the church we we look at that in a text like Titus chapter one and there can be something in our hearts that that wants to to resist that because we have seen and we can say it we we have seen

Must-Nots And Must-Be Traits

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plenty of leaders crash out we've seen plenty of leaders be disqualified we've seen plenty of leaders abuse their role and not fulfill it and not be character qualified specifically in the church and yet and though that is true and it is true we nevertheless must commit ourselves to God's design. And this is God's design of the church we read it in Ephesians 4 he gave the apostles the prophets the shepherds the teachers for the work of ministry that to equip the saints for the work of ministry there is a design there is a structure and though there has been failure and infidelity in that structure we nevertheless must commit ourselves to God's design I say something similar when whenever I do weddings I always encourage the bride to submit to their husband according to the scriptures in Ephesians chapter six or five to submit to their husband not because he's a great husband or will be a great husband though I certainly hope he will be but because she serves a great God and the same is true for us. We rally behind character qualified leaders not because they are great leaders but because we trust and serve a great God and that's that's the tension we're commanded to rally behind our leaders we're commanded to support them but we know that leaders are imperfect we know that they fail we know that there has been lots of failure perhaps you've been hurt by leaders in the past and so you you must submit yourself ultimately to the Lord and trust that his design is good even though the sinfulness of man has a tendency to corrupt it. And then he gets into the list there of qualifications. So we rally behind character qualified leaders again not because they are great leaders but because you trust and serve a great God look at verse six as he gets into the qualifications he says if anyone is above reproach and that phrase above reproach becomes a big deal because he says it again in verse seven if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife there's fidelity and faithfulness to his wife and his children are believers he is managing his household well and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination for an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. And anytime we're reading scripture again if we're good Bible readers and we see something repeated that should be a neon sign for us to say this is a big deal. This is something that is significant this is serious because twice in two verses Paul says the same thing above reproach. And really I think that stands at the head of all the qualifications because it summarizes all of the qualifications above reproach. And the word reproach we don't use that word often uh basically it means to say sharp things against there's a sense of taunting the Hebrew version of this word is used by David when he's talking about his enemies taunting him where they they are saying sharp things against him. They are mocking him there is a sense in which leaders elders of local churches should not act in such a way where God can be mocked and God can be taunted. God can be there's sharp things being said about God because of those who represent him in the church that's what it means to not be above reproach. And so it may be that in the context of Titus and in churches it may be that leaders are uniquely called to be above reproach and that's the bullseye of this passage. I want to broaden that in the target in general to even you sitting here today it's certainly true that the elders and pastors must be above reproach but everyone has the ability to bring reproach upon the name of Christ. Everyone that's a part of a church has the ability to bring mocking jeering taunting on the name of Christ by the way that we live our lives and that's why elsewhere in the New Testament you are encouraged to live a life in a manner that is worthy of the gospel that you have been called why because if you are a Christian you bear the name of Christ everywhere you go

Hold Firm To Sound Doctrine

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and you can act in ways that bring reproach upon his name and so we need to take this seriously certainly the bullseye is elders in this context elders must be above reproach. They should not act in ways that bring reproach upon Christ that bring dishonor upon his name but there should be a shared commitment amongst the body it shouldn't be well that's for the elders they have to be above reproach but for me what is it rules for thee but not for me no that should not be the case we should all have this sense of we need to be above reproach because wherever we go we bear the name of Christ. Did you know that you share titles with Christ the the gospel of John refers to Christ as the light of the world even Jesus himself says I am the light of the world but in the gospel of Matthew what does he say to his disciples he says you are the light of the world a city on a hill cannot be hidden right salt and earth he's being being salt and light salt on the earth that's what he's talking about he's he's saying you guys disciples you share a title with Christ you bear his name wherever you go and because of that we need to to work to be above recruit approach to live a life in a manner that is worthy of the gospel to which we have been called in the savior to which we serve. So then he gets into the specifics he gives us a list of must nots and must be right must nots he must not be this and must be this instead and we'll go through these quickly but he starts there and he says they must not be arrogant in verse seven he must be above reproach not bringing dishonor on the name of Christ he must not be arrogant he must not make the church in his leadership and his role as a pastor his role as an elder he must not be arrogant. He must not make the church about himself rather than Christ. And this is what we see in Philippians chapter two the example of humility from our Lord Paul says who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking on the form of a servant becoming in the likeness of men and even being humiliated as a as he died on the cross. So a shepherd an under shepherd of the shepherd must not be arrogant must not be prideful. Next Paul says he must not be quick tempered he must not be quick tempered that that's not demonstrating the fruit of the spirit James 1 tells us be quick to listen slow to speak slow to anger and an elder a pastor an overseer must not be quick tempered these are the the character qualifications not uh not someone that is given over to anger that that's not demonstrating the fruit of the spirit of of peace and patience we need to have elders and leaders that are not arrogant and that are not quick tempered next he says that are not drunks they're not drunkards they're not controlled by alcohol or really any substance they're not controlled

Rally Behind Charactered Leaders

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by anything other than the spirit that is to be controlled by earthly things rather than heavenly things to be controlled by wine as Paul puts it in Ephesians rather than the spirit now that that's not a man that's that's qualified someone who is given over to alcoholism is not qualified to be a leader of Christ's church because someone that does that and gives themself over to that brings reproach upon the name of Christ. So they must not be drunkards. They must not be violent they must model the gentleness displayed by Christ our shepherd they must not be greedy for gain they should not be given over to a love of money a love of material possessions being selfish and greedy that is disqualifying for a pastor and an elder because that that signifies a lack of contentment and ultimately a lack of trust and reliance on the Lord. And so those are the must-nots these are what we're looking for for character qualified leaders they must not be arrogant they must not be quick tempered or drunkards or violent or greedy for gain and then we get into more of the positive side they must be hospitable the word hospitable literally means to be kind and welcoming to strangers that they need to be hospitable warm and loving and kind to those that they meet they must be hospitable they must be lovers of good they must be self-controlled upright holy and disciplined they must be these things in order to be qualified to lead Christ's church and these are the kind of men that you ought to rally behind. In one of the commentaries that I read this week the author said Paul has sketched out with these few well chosen words the characteristics that must mark an overseer he must love people and equally love virtue. He must be wise and prudent must live in accordance with God's law must be devoted to God and seek to please him and must manifest genuine self-control. With this blend of characteristics the Christian leader is equipped by God's grace to exercise the kind of oversight that a steward in God's house the church should exercise if we were going to summarize these qualifications for the office of elder and overseer I would simply say being controlled by the spirit rather than the flesh being controlled by the things of the spirit walking in the spirit not gratifying the desires of the flesh not being controlled by the sins of self not making it about them not being arrogant quick tempered drunkard all of these things that are self-centered and that have no mind for Christ in submitting to him that's what we are seeing here. These are the qualifications of elders and what does an elder do what must an elder an overseer a pastor what must they be about what do they do they give instruction in sound doctrine. Look at verse nine with me here's how he ends the qualifications he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give the instruction to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it elders hold firm they give instruction in sound doctrine in sound teaching things that come from God's word not their best thoughts not their best ideas not what they think is right what is grounded in God's word that's what a hell an elder does they hold firm and a part of that holding firm a part of that giving instruction includes rebuking those who are in error they confront error they expose it they set it right and there's a sense in which as a church you ought to if we're going to rally behind leaders you ought to welcome that kind of leader the the leader that confronts error not just out there not just in others but in you as well if the occasion if the occasion necessitated it you are to welcome this think of what the what the proverbs say that faithful are the wounds of a friend. Faithful are those who speak the truth in love. And oftentimes even in the context of a church maybe especially in the church it's easier to

Silencing Confusion And False Teaching

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Avoid, it's easier to dismiss or ignore rather than confront. But an overseer that is qualified and is doing what God has commanded them to do, that will include confrontation. And you got to welcome that. And you I should not be threatened by that. I shouldn't be threatened by that. This is part of God's design to have someone sit down across from you, look you in the eye with love in their hearts, and say, look at God's word. You're not aligned. You need that. I need that. Could be in big ways, could be in small ways, but we need to welcome that. And that's why we have life groups so that we can be that for each other. Iron, sharpening iron. We don't want to run from that. We are to rally behind leaders. Again, because not of who they are, though their character matters, Paul talks about their character, but we rally behind them because of what they cling to, what they hold firm to. And that's what Paul says there in verse 9. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. We rally behind leaders that are clinging to the word and are pointing to the Savior. And if you have leaders that are doing that, your responsibility is to rally behind them and to say, this is someone that is character qualified and that is holding firm to the word. It's not giving in to the winds of doctrine, that is pointing back to the scriptures. All their boast is in Jesus, as we sang earlier. And I want you to see that the bullseye of this passage again is elders and overseers. The qualifications are explicitly laid out for them. But I want to broaden it again. If that's the bullseye, I think applicationally, we can broaden it and say there are different kinds of leaders in any given local church. There's different kinds of leaders. And what I mean by that is here at Compass, we talked about it during announcements, we have life group leaders. And so I think your responsibility should be to rally behind the leaders that God has put in your life, whether it's your life group leader or your pastor, because they are working for your good, if that's what they're doing. If they're holding firm to the word, if they are seeking to encourage you with the word to teach sound doctrine, there should be a rallying behind our life group leaders. There even is the sense of the South Valley Student Ministry, the small group leaders there, uh, that there needs to be a rallying and an appreciation for people in the church that care about your relationship with Christ. We should rally behind that. The life group leaders that are expending of themselves to serve you, to point you back to the word, to hopefully help you grow in your knowledge and your faith and your godliness and your hope. There should be a rallying behind those kinds of leaders because they are holding firm to the word. They are holding firm to what has been taught. So whether it's an elder, whether it's a life group leader, a student ministry, small group leader, a serve team leader, the different kinds of leaders in this church, if they're working for your godliness, if they're helping you grow in Christ-likeness, rally behind them, encourage them, appreciate them, and work to make their job a joy. Work to make their job a joy by seeking to grow as they invest in you. And that's what we see here. Rally behind character-qualified leaders that promote good works. If we're going to hit the target of being zealous for good works, we need to have the right leaders, we need to know our role, and we need to have a shared commitment to what the target is. Now, the last section here, beginning in verse 10, we're going to see some confusion about the target. Paul's talking about good works, being zealous for good works. There's some confusion and some teaching that's muddying the waters for what good works are. And so we need to have some clarity. Let's read it together. Let's look at verse 10. Paul says, There are many who are insubordinate, which by the way, he's kind of connecting this back to. This is why I left you in Crete. We're going

Man-Made Measures Vs. Heart Change

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to establish character-qualified leaders for the good of the church, the good of the communities. And here's another reason why, verse 10. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. So there's some Jewish roots here. They're seeking to observe parts of the law, and typically they picked and chose. Verse 11, they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good works. So there's some confusion. There's some moving of the targets, and we need to clarify, okay, what are we aiming for again? What are good works? Because there's a group of people, at least in this context, that are making it hard to understand which which is left and which is right, which is up and what is down. And there's some man-made definitions of good works that have been introduced into these churches that Paul is saying, you need to cut it out. You need to silence them, you need to stop it. It's confusing, it's wrong, it's man-made, it's not of the Lord. And that's something that even today we ought to be on the lookout for. That's point number three. Watch out for man-made definitions of good works. Watch out for man-made definitions of good works. There's a group of people, they're doing a lot of the same things that the qualified elders are to do. They're teaching, they are uh holding firm to something, but they're not holding firm to the trustworthy word as taught. They are not teaching sound doctrine, they are not doing things without greed. In fact, they're giving in to greed, they're teaching for greedy gain, and they're confusing everyone in the process. And there's these Jewish myths that he says they're getting involved in in verse 14, and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. Now, Paul does not get into the substance of the myths in Titus chapter 1. He doesn't tell us exactly what those myths are, but he does focus on the results of them. He says that there are whole families that are getting upset. They are being taken advantage of. They have been hoodwinked by these teachers, these false teachers, and they are teaching others what is not sound, and they're doing it for greedy gain. So again, we don't know all the specifics of what exactly is being taught, but there is some hints of Gnosticism that we see here. Gnosticism was a prevalent belief during this time, where basically it held that the material world is evil. The material world is evil. And then as a result of that, they did what was called asceticism, which was basically a harshness to the body. They would restrict themselves of certain things, like certain foods, as a means to say that the world, the material world is evil. We're all about the immaterial world, and they would do things, and then they would have a harshness with the body, and they would focus their good works and their definition of good works on the external by just how much they did things or how much they didn't do things, how uh devote they were and keeping themselves from indulging in the evils of the material world. And we see some hints of that in here. That's why Paul talks about to the pure, all things are pure. There's a sense of food being talked about. Uh, there's often in the New Testament Jesus refers to food in connection to purity. So does Paul in First Timothy. And so there's a sense of food being a part of this, but also just uh you could say rituals or whatever else. They are doing these things and focusing on external things rather than internal. They I don't do this. Well, I stay away from that. I eat this kind of food, or I stay away from that kind of food, and they are trusting in their asceticism and all of that to make them pure. But this is a reliance on self. This is a reliance and holding firm on self. It's not holding fast to Christ, it's not holding fast to the word. And Jesus talks about this, he addresses the Pharisees in Mark 7, 5 through 8. Jesus talks about it says, the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, The people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. Man made definitions of good works always seek to control the external at the expense or neglect of the internal. And we see hints of that here. That's why he's talking about the to the the pure, all things are pure. But to the impure, both their minds and their consciences are defiled. It doesn't matter. Because even in Mark 7, Jesus says it's not what goes into a person that defiles them, it's what comes out of them that defiles them. But those who are defining good works in the opposite way, they're saying, no, no, no, no. What what goes into you is what defiles you. It's it's the external things that really matter. And they're moving the targets, and it's a man-made definition of good works. And as a result, there's a disconnect between what someone

Keep The Target Clear And Pray

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says and the way that they live their lives. Look at verse 16. Paul says they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good works. In man-made definitions of good works, there's a hyperfixation on what you do outwardly rather than who you are inwardly. Is what you do outwardly important? Oh, 100%. But don't get things inverted. The gospel transforms from the inside out. And man-made definitions of good works are only ever going to focus on the external and never address the heart, never address the internal. And sometimes the context in which you pursue good works, and hopefully it's the local church, can, if we're not careful, become the standard by which you measure good works. There are certain things that we do as a church that are not explicitly commanded. Life groups, as an example, are not explicitly commanded in the New Testament. I think they're helpful. I think you should be in a life group. I hope you go to the connect table and sign up for one after the service. But if we start using those kinds of things as a measure of good works in others, we're starting to focus on the external at the expense of the internal. And again, sometimes our immediate context becomes the definition or the means by which we measure things. And that makes sense. It's what we know, but we're not going to measure people's godliness and their faith and their growth and their maturity and their holiness based on whether or not they serve at the coffee cart in the back, or whether or not they're in a life group. We hope it's helpful. We trust that it's helpful. I believe it's helpful, but I can't bind you with that because scripture doesn't bind you with that. And so we need to be careful. We need to watch out for this. And you'll see this, you'll you'll feel this. There's a kind of subculture that can get created in any church and the expectations that come with that. And if we're not careful, if we don't identify those intentionally, well, we can start focusing on the outward things more than the inward things. And if we do that, we're in danger of falling into some of the same things that these people in Titus are falling into. We're focusing on the external. We're just about what we don't do and what we do do, and we're not focusing on what's going on inside of us. And so we need to have the right targets. We need to watch out for man-made definitions. We we need to stick close to God's word, and you need to rally behind leaders that hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. Again, whether that's your life group leader, whether that's someone that takes you through partners, or whether it's uh the elders of the church, rally behind those kinds of leaders and devote yourself to the local church and see this as the training ground that's going to equip you and help you grow in your pursuit of being zealous for good works. Let's pray together. God, we're so grateful for your word. We're grateful that it confronts us. We're grateful that your word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. God, we pray that we would be a church that holds firmly to your word, that we'd be a church that has leaders that holds firmly to the word, and that we'd be a church that rallies behind those leaders as we seek to hold fast to the trustworthy word as taught. So help us, Lord, in this pursuit. Help us to never ignore the internal just by focusing on the external. Give us just a caution about that. Help us to always go back and examine things according to what you have revealed in Scripture. And God, would you help us as a church to grow in faith, in knowledge, in love, and in hope as a result of our devotion to this church? I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you so much for joining.