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Colin Smith: But any time in our congregation, there are some folks who are asking these questions. Should I go to seminary? Could it be that God wants me overseas? Should I be in full-time Christian ministry?

But if that is where you're at, let me encourage you with this. The first thing, the first thing for you to pursue is what's right here in 1 Timothy and Chapter 3.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And as we open our Bibles to 1 Timothy 3, we see that it's about leadership. And so Colin, this is a passage that is relevant to each and every one of us.

Colin Smith: Well, it is because although not everybody is a leader, we all have responsibilities within the body of Christ in regards to discerning who should lead. And this chapter really gives to us the things that we should look for in leaders and the things that those who are called to lead must pursue as the things of first importance.

It's wonderful that this is actually laid out so clearly in the scriptures. It's a very important passage of scripture, not only for those who lead but for every Christian person because in this area, we all have responsibility.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's look at that together then. We're in 1 Timothy Chapter 3, the first 15 verses, as we begin a message called Gospel Character. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Please open your Bible at 1 Timothy and Chapter 3, 1 Timothy and Chapter 3. Our aim in this series is to be shaped by the Bible, not only in our personal lives but also in the life and ministry that we share together as a church. We don't want simply to drift with the currents of culture. We want to be responsive to the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit speaks to us through the word.

We've been saying, therefore, that we want to be people who are rooted in truth and growing in love. We want to be drawn by grace, not driven by law. We know that we are sinners who are saved by God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then we have seen last week that God calls us to a global ministry of the word and prayer. We were rejoicing in the fact that the gospel fires mission. Because Christ died for all and it stands to reason that if there is one mediator, there is one gospel. And if there is one gospel, it must be for all people.

And therefore, the question that we come to at the beginning of Chapter 3 really is this: Since the church is called to a global mission of the word and prayer, what kind of people will get this global job done? That's the question at the beginning of Chapter 3.

That's why we're looking today at this great subject of gospel character. I want us to see the character and the competence of an effective Christian leader. And you'll notice straight away that Chapter 3 is all about leaders. If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer—that word could also be translated an elder, means the same thing—he desires a noble task.

We're going to look at what God says about leadership in the church today. Now, most of us are not called to be elders or deacons. So I guess for most of us, the question is going to be, well now, what in the world does this really have to do with me? I want to give three answers so that we know how to apply the scriptures to ourselves because there is something here for every person in the congregation today. In fact, there are three things for every person in the congregation today.

Here's the first: This is going to help us with discernment, that is, what to look for in the appointing and calling and sending of leaders. Who should lead in the church? Who should be sent to the mission field? Who should be called to be a pastor? What are the marks of those who are going to be most useful in the cause of Jesus Christ? Who should we trust? Who should we follow?

Now, these are all issues that are addressed really in 1 Timothy Chapter 3. You should know that with regards to the appointing of lay leaders in our church, the way in which we do this here is through the work of the nominating committee.

And every year, all of us as a congregation, we are invited to submit to the nominating committee the names of people who we think might be suitable to serve as lay leaders in this church. You were given earlier this year that invitation, and many people responded very helpfully to it.

You were also given at that time an outline of what to look for in potential leaders, candidates for leadership in the church. And that outline was taken very largely from this very chapter, 1 Timothy and Chapter 3. So you need to know, and this should be encouraging to you, that those who serve us as a congregation in interviewing and selecting future leaders, lay leaders in the church, are taking this scripture very seriously.

And as we have the opportunity to give input into the work that they are doing as many of us have done again this year and will do in future years, we need to be familiar with what it is to look for in discerning who should serve.

It's good to remember, by the way, that the biblical pattern is never that you give a man a job and then hope that he'll rise to it. That's not how it is in leadership in the church. You don't give them the position and hope he'll rise to the challenge.

The biblical pattern is to look for leaders who exemplify the character and competence we're going to see in the Bible today. And where that is already in place in a person's life, that is the evidence that God's hand is upon them and that they are ready to be trusted with an enlarged sphere of service.

So what we will learn today will help us to grow in discernment. That's its first application. What should we be looking for in the leaders that we elect? What should we be looking for in the pastors we may call? What should we be looking for in the missionaries we may send? What are the characteristics that point to future effectiveness in Christian leadership? So the first aim, discernment.

Here's the second: It's going to help all of us in terms of direction because we're looking at the question of what lies behind the greatest usefulness in Christian service. We're going to identify things that all of us can pursue, cultivate in order to be more useful to Jesus Christ in the future than we have been in the past.

Notice verse one: Here is a trustworthy saying, if anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Paul is saying that to have it in your heart to be more useful to Jesus Christ and to maximize the contribution that you can make to the work of the gospel, that's a great thing. That's a noble thing.

Some of us in the congregation are wrestling with this question right now. At any time in our congregation, there are some folks who are asking these questions. Should I go to seminary? Could it be that God wants me overseas? Should I be in full-time Christian ministry?

It's a wonderful thing that we have folks among us who are asking these questions. But if that is where you're at, let me encourage you with this. The first thing, the first thing for you to pursue is what's right here in 1 Timothy and Chapter 3.

Then I want to sound the trumpet in a loud blast of joy with regards to lay leaders in the church because you know, when Paul talks about overseers, elders, and he talks about deacons here, he's talking about lay leaders.

Folks who earn their living in the marketplace and who give themselves voluntarily as lay leaders in the ministry of the church. And Paul says here that is a noble task. It is a wonderful thing for a person to serve in this kind of way.

I would want that there would be many young people among us who even today you would have it in your heart to say, you know, when I go to college, I want to train to be an engineer and I want to be most useful in my local church.

I want to be a teacher. I want to be in business. Whatever it is. And I want to maximize my usefulness as a servant of Jesus Christ in my church. That's a wonderful thing. That's a noble thing. And Paul commends it to us.

Now, let me just raise one or two other applications so that we're seeing the breadth of this. Every one who is a father here, every one who is a grandfather here, 1 Timothy 3 is for you. Because to be a father means that God has appointed you as an elder in your own house. That's what it means to be a father. You are the spiritual leader of the family God has entrusted to you. So for every father, what we're learning here, this is for you.

For every Christian here—that's going to be the great majority of us, not all of us, but the great majority of us—for every Christian, this is for you. Why? Well, because leaders are not called to a different life from the congregation.

Leaders are called to model the same life to which we are all called. God looks for this character and this competence that we're going to look at today in leaders first because leaders are to be an example of this to the rest of the flock.

But they're not called to something different. They're called to lead all of us in what God is calling us to as well. If you're young, this is for you. If you're in high school, if you're in middle school. So grateful for all the high schoolers and middle schoolers in the congregations today.

In Chapter 4 and verse 7, Paul says, train yourself to be godly. And to all who are young, here's my prayer for the message this week. It is that God will place a deep desire in your heart now, that you will live now in a way that is going to make you the most useful kind of person you can be in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in your future years and in your adult life.

And then just one more thing here. I want to say that if you're disappointed in your own life, this is for you. There will be some folks in this congregation today, and even in hearing the reading and the description of the life that God is calling leaders to, you will say, well, you know, I haven't done what I wanted to do in my life and I am not in the place that I would have wanted to be in my life. Frankly, I wish I could rerun my life and undo some of the things that have happened, the mistakes that I've made.

I want you to hear this. Jesus Christ came to redeem. Jesus Christ came to restore what was lost. Jesus Christ came to recreate what has been destroyed. And what we are learning today can be your future, even if it has not been your past. That's good news, isn't it?

That's what it means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that a man or a woman or a family can indeed in Christ pursue a different track in the future from what has been the character in the past. That's the hope of the gospel. And so I want you to hear what we're being called to here in that context and to say, now the Lord Jesus Christ can lead me into this, and my future can be different from my past.

You realize this is all the wrong way around. You're getting the application first and then the content afterwards. But I want us to hear the content rightly. It's going to help us discern. It's going to help us know what to pursue.

And then one more thing: It's going to help us in knowing what to thank God for—gratitude. And I hope this comes through in the message today. As I have studied this scripture again this week, I've felt both the challenge of it afresh in my own life and I have felt gratitude to God for every way in which I see this character in others who lead in this church at this time.

I'm thinking of our pastors. I'm thinking of our elders. I'm thinking of our board members. I'm thinking of our missionaries. I'm thinking of our lay ministry leaders. And the reason I have been refreshed with thanksgiving this week is that I see so much of what Paul talks about here in the leaders who are serving us in this congregation. I hope you see that too. And as you see it, you will want with me to give thanks for it.

Folks, you don't need me to tell you how many churches have been ruined by the wrong people being in leadership. And so when there are godly people in leadership of a local church, that is something for which all the people of God ought to be thankful and grateful and have hearts full of praise.

Steve Hiller: As Pastor Colin has already said, a lot of application right off the bat. But we're going to come back and look at his aims for this message in just a moment. Our message is called Gospel Character, part of a larger series called The 10 Distinctives of a Gospel-Centered Church. Well, Jesus once asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? And there's no more important question for you to answer.

That's why we'd love to send you a copy of John Stott's book, The Incomparable Christ. It's a reliable guide to finding the Jesus who is like no other, worthy of worship, your confession, and obedience. This book, The Incomparable Christ, is one of Pastor Colin's favorites, and we'd love to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for your financial support. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. Back to the message, here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So here are my three aims: That we will grow in discernment, that we will grow in clarity in what to pursue in direction, and that our hearts may be refreshed with a sense of thanksgiving for the abundant goodness of God to us in this congregation. Now, just one more thing before we get into it, and that is an important observation.

The Bible makes clear to us the principles for leadership but it does not give to us a fixed pattern or structure for leadership. One of the evidences of that is when you look at the qualities or characteristics of elders and then you look in this same chapter at what Paul says about deacons, if you lay them out in two columns side by side and draw lines across between them, you will be struck by how similar they are. The similarities in these qualities are much more evident than the differences, which are relatively minor.

Throughout history, there has been great debate about what is the appropriate structure for a church. Some of you know well that Episcopalians have their bishops and they appeal to 1 Timothy 3 for it. Presbyterians have their presbyteries and appeal to 1 Timothy 3 for it.

And Baptists have their deacons and appeal to 1 Timothy Chapter 3 for it. And free churches have their elders and their boards and will appeal to 1 Timothy Chapter 3 for it. In other words, folks, we could discuss what is the right structure for church leadership for the rest of our lives and we'd never resolve it.

What matters is not the particular structure of leadership within a church, which frankly will vary from church to church and may vary over time as well. What really matters is the quality of leadership at every level of a local church, and that's what Paul is concerned about here. And that's what we're concerned about. And that's what, too, we are grateful for.

So the questions before us, then, are really these: What kind of people should we trust? What kind of people should we follow? What kind of people should lead? What kind of people should we seek to become in order to be more useful to Jesus Christ? And what kind of people should fill us with thanksgiving as we see godly character and fruit in their lives?

Well, let's look then at the character and competence of an effective Christian leader. And let's begin with character. And there are three things, I think, that we are to look for here. The first I've summarized as wise judgment.

You see that in the words temperate, self-controlled, respectable, and not given to drunkenness in verse 2 and 3. Temperate simply means thoughtful. Someone who doesn't make a rash or impulsive decision. Someone who is watchful, someone who is vigilant, someone who is careful in the way that they speak and careful in the way that they act.

To be temperate is developed as you pursue self-control, verse 2, which of course is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in a person's life. Self-control means that with God's help, you over time increasingly master your life, your tongue, your moods, and your passions. And when a person grows in self-control, that will lead them to be held in high respect. That's why the word respectable is in verse 2.

Not given to drunkenness clearly comes in here in verse 3 because drunkenness makes all these qualities impossible. A man who indulges in too much wine loses his self-control and with it, he loses the respect of other people. He is therefore unable to exercise wise judgment and therefore is very limited in his usefulness in the ministry of the church.

So in discerning who should lead and who to trust and who to send and who we should follow, look at the decisions—or the lack of decisions—that a person has made in his or her life. What came of them? Did they bear the marks of wisdom? What in this person's life have they said or done? What positions have they taken, particularly in times of difficulty? Do you see evidence of wise judgment here? These are the questions to ask.

And then secondly, there's the whole area of healthy relationships. Paul speaks in verse 3 about someone who's not violent but gentle. The elder, of course, cannot be weak. The elder has to be able to confront false doctrine, that's Chapter 1 and verse 3, and defend true doctrine.

The elder has to watch his life and his doctrine closely. But while the elder must have the strength to confront, he must have compassion. He must have understanding, he must have sympathy, he must be redemptive in his spirit because he is to reflect the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The elder must not be quarrelsome. That's verse 3. That's a relational quality as well. Have you noticed that there are some people in life who seem to just carry conflict within them? Wherever they go, they seem to pick a fight, they're always in some debated issue over this or that, they have a contrarian spirit.

They promote controversies, that's Chapter 1 and verse 3. They stir up trouble. So in discerning who should lead—because that kind of person in leadership will cause all kinds of trouble for the church—we should ask questions about the relational health of a person. Is this person contentious? Does trouble follow them from place to place?

Steve Hiller: Some great questions, but unfortunately, we do have to hit the pause button right there. But we're going to come back in our next broadcast and pick up this message and continue to look at gospel character. Seeing the character of an effective Christian leader and the competence of an effective leader as well.

Hope you'll make it a point to tune in. If you ever miss a program, come to our website and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen on the go if you have the Open the Bible app. You'll find that for free at your app store.

Or you can order a copy of this entire series on CD. Ask about the 10 Distinctives of a Gospel-Centered Life when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org.

Whether you listen to Open the Bible on the radio, online, through the app, through the podcast, or however you've connected, it's all made possible through your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we'd love to send you a copy of a book by John Stott called The Incomparable Christ. And Colin, what's the one thing that you'd like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, Jesus once asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? And that is the most important question I think that any of us could ever answer. When you settle in your mind and your heart who Jesus is, you've really laid a foundation for your life and for everything else.

You can rest the weight of your life, your death, and your eternity on him. And Peter's answer to that question, when Jesus said who do you say that I am, Peter said you are the Christ.

Now, this book, The Incomparable Christ, really lifts up who Jesus is. How he's presented to us in the New Testament, how he has been understood throughout the history of the church, how he has inspired people through the centuries, and how he will be when we see him in his power and his glory when he returns.

It's a marvelous book. I think it's the best book you can read about Jesus, The Incomparable Christ, and I think that people will be greatly blessed by this book.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for financially supporting Open the Bible this month. You can call and give over the phone. The number is 1-877-673-6365. That might be easier to remember as 1-877-OPEN-365. And our website is openthebible.org.

For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

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