2019-03-10
Pastor Jonathan Falwell
Key Verse: 1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
1 Kings 2:1-4 (NLT) As the time of King David’s death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon: 2 “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. 3 Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. 4 If you do this, then the Lord will keep the promise he made to me. He told me, ‘If your descendants live as they should and follow me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’
1 Timothy 3:1-7 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
If God’s Word clearly tells us that leading our family is even more important than leading our church, how much more important is it that we exceed even the requirements of leading in the church.
1. Blameless
• vs 2a …must be blameless…
• This does not mean sinless, it means that the person deals with their sin in the right way. Confession after commission and turning away.
2. Pure
• vs 2b …the husband of one wife…
• 1 John 3:3 (NLT) And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
• A man of God cannot live his life running after the things of the world.
• 1 Cor. 6:18 (NLT) Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.
3. Calm
• vs 2c … temperate, sober-minded…
• A temperate person is free from the influences of passion, lust, emotion, or personal gain• vs 3b … not violent…
• vs 3c … gentle, not quarrelsome…
• Slow to anger. 1 Cor. 13 description.
• Non-combatant
4. Respectable
• vs 2d …of good behavior…
• vs 3a … not given to wine…
• Paroinois (PYRO-nos) “lingering with the cup”
• vs 6 …not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
5. Honest
• vs 3d … not greedy for money…not covetous
• You can be a person who has money but no one who is captivated by money
• If you’re always running after money, it makes it difficult to run after God.
• Covetous – jealous – greed
6. Godly
• vs 7 … Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
• The testimony of godliness is one of the greatest personality traits that any man or woman could ever have