06 Called and Qualified Men Part 2 - Prospective Elder Testimonies

Now I know that earlier in our scripture reading we read 1 Timothy 3 verses 1 to 7 and I did make a comment that we will not be dividing those verses this morning. I'm going to reference a few verses in Timothy primarily around chapter 1. You can write those down. That's going to be in really the second part of the message because the message will really be divided by two testimonies this morning. So you be in prayer for Jared and Tommy as they will be sharing their testimony here in just a moment. But last week in our message I did two things.

First I taught on the call of the elder there from 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1 and of course I referenced quite a few other scriptures. And in that message we saw that the New Testament scriptures clearly teach and demonstrate that the church is to be led by a plurality of elders or the office of the elder. We saw that the elder has three gifts, three abilities and three responsibilities. The elder governs and leads the church. The elder shepherds or pastors God's people. The elder preaches and teaches God's word in the life of the church.

And we saw this pastoring and this governing gift in 1 Peter 5 verses 1 to 3 as the apostle Peter was writing to elders. He says in verse 2, "Shepherd the flock of God that is among you." You can see the pastoring there, the shepherding there. Shepherd the flock, shepherd the people of God, the church that is among you, exercising oversight. You can see the leading and the governing there. And I love the attitude that he has here, not under compulsion but willingly as God would have you. We saw this gift of teaching and the responsibility of teaching in 1 Timothy 3 in the qualifications for elder.

Paul says, "Therefore an elder must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach." That literally means skilled and equipped to teach. And from Timothy 3 verse 1 we examine the actual call of the elder. We saw that this is an important call. We saw that this is a desirous call. This is a noble call. We also see that this is an exclusive call in that it is reserved only for men. Listen to 1 Timothy 3.1 and listen for those things. Paul says, "The saying is trustworthy." In other words, he's saying this is important. If anyone aspires, there's the desire.

To the office of overseer, he desires a noble and honorable, that work that comes from God. Then I went on to explain how this call is fleshed out by showing us that we see this call in three ways. I explained that this is an upward call in that this call comes from God to man. Paul shows us this in Acts 20 verse 28 when he was addressing the elders there in the Ephesian church. He says, "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock." Notice he's speaking of their responsibility. Watch yourselves and pay attention to the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. So in that verse, we see it's an upward call.

Then I said this is an inward call in that it comes from within the man. We see this in our 1 Timothy 3.1 verse because this is a desire and aspiration that the elder has within and it comes from God. And last I said this is an external call in that it comes externally from the local church. The local church sees this call as valid and true and from God. So the body, the church affirms the call and they commission those being called to elder ministry to the service, to the position, and to the work.

And we see this external call beautifully demonstrated in Acts chapter 13 where the entire church there at Antioch affirmed God's call of Barnabas and Saul to the work of taking the gospel all around the world. And we know that became what is commonly called the first missionary journey. And then as your pastor and along with Brother Keith who is an elder as well alongside me, I put forward two men for elder service in the life of our church. And then I went on to explain how our church is led and governed. And this is very important. As a church we are elder led, but we are congregationally governed.

We are led by elders, a plurality of elders, a body of elders, but it is the members of the church, the body that governs the church. So that means that as your pastor I lead out by putting forward Tommy Audemars and Jared Walters for the position of elder. I am leading our church by saying that I believe that they are both called of God for the work of elder in our church. But you, the membership, the body of Grace Life Brook-Avon, you will vote to affirm their calling or you will not vote to affirm their calling.

And if the body does not affirm their calling, well we will put those things on hold for prayer and we will discern that we need to seek the Lord's will further. Now how will this play out? Now I explained this multi-step process last week, but we all need to hear it again. How this practically will play out. First, last Sunday, February the 1st, I put forward Jared and Tommy as potential elders. And then second this morning we will hear from both men. They will share how God has been working in their lives to get them to this place and this call.

And as a part of that I will share how I see their calling and their giftedness and I will explain the needs and the roles they will fulfill if affirmed in the life of the church. And then third, I called us to pray exactly like we see here in Acts 13. There when God called Barnabas and Saul, we know him as Paul. When God called them to the work of taking the gospel around the world, the entire church prayed for them, prayed for their calling and prayed for the work. And then fourth, I said we'll have a members meeting on Wednesday night, February the 19th, for several reasons. We will have any needed discussion.

We will possibly have some testimony and we will vote as a body. But if the vote is not unanimous, that means they are not affirmed by the entire membership, then we will not proceed. Like I said, we'll put things on hold and we'll seek the Lord here. But if the vote is unanimous, that means the entire membership votes yes and affirming them as elders, then we'll proceed. Fifth, the church body affirms both men. We will have an ordination service where we officially set them apart for ministry exactly like we see in Acts 13 with Barnabas and Saul, just like we see in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy with young Pastor Timothy.

Now at this time, I want Tommy and Jared to come on down. Tommy's going to share first. And after they share, I want to share with you some of the giftedness that I see, some of their qualifications in some ways that I see them serving if affirmed. So I will let Tommy share first and then Jared, after he's through, you come on up. My goodness, it's good to be back. I had to use Apple Maps to figure out how to get here. It's been so long, been under the weather. It is a high honor to be considered as a prospective elder for Grace Life Church McCabe, and it's not only a high honor, it's deeply humbling.

Patty and I have known Chris and Christy and Keith and Teresa for more than 20 years, and they know us well. And I can't express to you what it means to us that what they know of me prompts them, prompts Chris with Keith's affirmation to put me forward as a potential elder in a local church they both love so dearly and have labored over for so many years. But while Chris has put me forward as a potential elder, it's you, my fellow church family members who will have the final say concerning my qualifications for eldership.

Now, Pastor Chris asked us to speak to you this morning about our salvation testimony, how the Lord led us to Grace Life Church of McCavin, and how he has worked in our lives culminating in a call to elder ministry. Well, regarding my salvation testimony, some of you may recall a message I preached here almost two years ago, exactly. It was on February 22nd, 2023, and titled "Rest is Found in Christ Alone," in which I shared my conversion testimony in detail. That sermon is pinned to the top of both my Facebook profile and my X profile, formerly known as Twitter. And of course, it's available in the Grace Life podcast archive.

So please feel free to listen to that message for the full details of my conversion to Christ. And for the sake of time this morning, I'll just say this. I grew up attending Southern Baptist churches and responded to altar calls multiple times. I was even baptized multiple times, but none of that resulted in my conversion. I was full of sin and full of pride, but I repeat myself. Most of the people who knew me would have said that I was a fine, young Christian man, but I knew better. And not too long after Patty and I were married, Patty knew better too.

She was actually born again first, and the change I saw in her was so real and so dramatic that it prompted me to examine my own heart. And as I searched the Scriptures for answers, the Lord led me to Matthew 11, 28 through 30, the first part of which Christ says, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest." Well, it sounded to me like Christ was saying that those who come to him have rest, and boy, I had exactly none of that. From there, he showed me that I was a vile lawbreaker in his sight. I had broken every one of the Ten Commandments more times than anyone could count. Thou shalt not lie. Good grief.

I had lied several times that very day. Elsewhere Christ said, "You've heard it said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman with lust has committed adultery with her in his heart already." Yikes. Guilty. And on and on and on, guilty, guilty, guilty, a hundred times over. And then at some point during the process, when I knew I deserved nothing but an eternity in hell, I cried out for mercy, and in a single moment I was born again. Again, there's more detail available in the message, "Rest is found in Christ alone.

If you need help finding it, let me know and I can point you to it." I will add this though. By his grace, Patty and I have both walked with him ever since then, and that was in 1992. Now, our obedience hadn't been perfect, of course. We've had to deal with sin in our lives, certainly. The old man dies hard. Our flesh is constantly trying to assert itself. But he granted us a hunger for his word that has never waned. And we can look back over the last 33 years and see an ever, ever upward trend of Christian growth, and we are very thankful for that. We're also thankful he brought us to Nolabatkah's church, now Grace Life Church of Berkevin.

And he used several wilderness years and a feed store to get us here. The full story is much too long to share now, but here's the short version. We were fellow church members with Chris, Christi, Keith, and Teresa some 20 years ago at a church where I was ordained as and served in the Deacon ministry. Due to events there, Patty and I departed and spent several years attending another local church where I began feeling the calling was actually licensed to preach there. But it was an unhealthy situation because I was licensed and not ordained. Who does that? I don't know, but that's what happened.

I then bibocationally pastored another local church for a time, more about that in a bit. Then the last church we attended before Nola was extremely unhealthy to the point where we knew we couldn't remain there in good conscience, so we left and began searching for a church home. Then one day as I exited one seed store, Chris Sheppard pulled into the parking lot and we stood there and talked for 20 minutes, almost as if no time had passed since we were last together all those years before. I told him that day I had spent more time and meaningful conversation with him in one afternoon than I had with my former pastor the last two years.

Also told him we'd see him Sunday and we haven't looked back. Regarding my calling, I can say that very early in my Christian walk the Lord was kindling within me a desire to teach. I see now that those were the seeds of a call that he would flesh out later. Funny how he developed that in me though because even though I was devouring scripture as a new convert, I certainly wasn't qualified to teach his word yet. So he put me in position to teach other stuff. He made me a law enforcement instructor.

He began cultivating governing and leadership ability within me by elevating me to the leadership positions within my police agency and later at the sheriff's office here where I was captain responsible for two divisions, uniform patrol and communications. He placed me in positions to deliver presentations to civic groups and sit on decision making boards and other positions of responsibility all while I was steadily learning his word. Eventually, I taught Sunday school, senior classes, youth groups, not all at the same time though and then began filling in for my pastor on occasion.

As I sought opportunities to teach and preach his word, I offered myself his pulpit supply to fill in for pastors who needed to be away and found myself in a little country church in Franklin County who were in need of a pastor. Well they had a need and I was willing to step in so I did so for around a year or so but let's just say it didn't work out. I'll be happy to talk that through with anybody. Part of it was that I didn't understand God was reforming my theology and apparently they did and that didn't work. They knew before I did. But it wasn't what God had in mind at that time.

I had gotten ahead of him there and the result was a painful period in our lives. I later served as an elder, you notice my quotes here, as an elder at the unhealthy church we attended before NOLA that I mentioned earlier but both the words served and elder were defined very loosely. I believe I was qualified at the time but the manner of appointment was unbiblical as was the governance of the church which became a big part of the reason Patty and I needed to separate from them.

I listened to, I was out last week but I listened to Chris's message and I love the way he described that time in my life in last week's message when he said that something to the effect that I knew God was calling me but I couldn't find a biblically healthy environment in which to express that calling. And I remember telling Patty when I heard that, "Oh, that's it. That's it." So that is until the Lord brought us here. Under the leadership of Christ and the under shepherding of Pastor Creus I finally understand what the Lord was beginning to work in me all those years ago.

Here at Grace Life in Brookhaven the Lord has allowed me to more fully exercise my calling to teach, to develop teaching material even, in leading a wonderful small group, facilitating leadership meetings among the small group leaders and more. A number of you here and listening have honored me by asking for counsel from me about any number of things or even just asking me whether some publicly known teacher is reliable or should be avoided. It's very humbling that you would trust me like that. So when Chris was preaching through Elder Qualifications, was it last year sometime? Two years ago, been that long?

And he said to us as a body, "If you think God is calling you to be an elder, let me know." When he said that my heart leapt within me and I couldn't get to him fast enough after the service. Oh, and I wanted to mention this too in reference to the Lord prepping me decades ago for current ministry. Chris mentioned last week that he had brought Jared and me in to work through some difficult church discipline some time ago. And I recall thinking at the time that the crisis resolution and de-escalation skills that Christ developed in me way back in my law enforcement days were so valuable in the midst of that.

I even remember thinking, "I bet this is why I went through all that training." Here's a fruitful exercise I encourage you to undertake from time to time. Even some time looking back on your life, taking stock of the formative experiences, the life changes, and the lessons learned, all of which the Lord used to bring you to the exact place you find yourself today. See if you can trace the Lord's hand in your life, his providential movement of the pieces on the chessboard of your life. I love doing that.

And I can see now so clearly how he arranged my life, how he put me in positions to cultivate certain skills or gifts he'd given me, all pointing toward more and more opportunities for service in the ministry to him and his church. I look forward to serving alongside you all, whatever your decision. Again, it's a distinct honor to be considered as a prospective elder among you. We love our church family and we're eager to serve. Thank you. Good morning. Tommy mentioned it. I'll mention it as well. I want to share our testimony and part of our calling that we feel to elder leadership in way of my testimony.

I grew up going to church, but I never understood church. And I look back on those years and I really wonder how I was in church so much and heard so very little, those things that just kind of bounced right off of me. I have this very distinct memory of as a kid riding in the backseat of the car and going under a bridge or an overpass and somebody had graffiti Jesus saves on the bridge. And I remember thinking as a kid, yes, Jesus saves people who need to be saved, bad people and not me, people who need to be saved. And I didn't include myself in that category.

And when I was around 14, my family moved from North Carolina back to Mississippi to Jones County where my folks were from. And during my 10th grade year, my family, my whole family was invited to a revival one night that was happening at a church in Laurel. I didn't know it at the time. It was Chris Shepherd's home church that he talks about sometimes. I don't remember what was preached that night, but I remember as a 15-year-old kid at the time just being gravely aware of my own sin and sinfulness. I was aware that I was in sin and that God was holy and I was in trouble with the holy God. I was very afraid.

I went up front and there were already dozens of people at the altar and they were counseling a lot of people. And I say this to give you kind of a picture of how these things went and help you understand. There were a lot of people responding and somebody tried to help me, a gentleman from their church kind of pulled me off the side and handed me a card to fill out. And that card had some check boxes on it that said, "Why are you coming today? Are you coming to join the church? Are you coming to you?" I don't remember the language, "Rededicate your life. Are you coming to be baptized?

Are you coming to give us lots of money?" And I think I checked all the boxes because I didn't know. I didn't know why I was there. And the best way I know how to describe that period after in my life was that I just started trying harder. I tried to be better. I tried to do things I thought I should be doing and tried to stop things I knew I shouldn't be doing. I tried to go to church. I tried to read my Bible. And not long after that, I was invited to a church in Ellisville, Mississippi. I'll buy some friends from school. It was a pizza and laser tag youth event.

And afterwards, I was sitting in my truck in the parking lot of the church, hanging out with friends. Christy's laughing already. I was hanging out with some of my friends from school. And I was trying to be so very cool. I turned up my music, my very unchristian music, very loudly. And we had a gym. I was parked outside the gym. And it had those doors with the bar all the way across that you had to push the bar to open the door. And it sounded like a shotgun blast. Somebody burst out of the door. And the youth pastor came running out. And he hollered. He said, "What are you doing? Turn it down.

There are people who live here." That was how I met Chris Shepherd. He was the youth pastor there. I didn't know this until years later. But the other side of the story was Chris and Christy were riding home. And Christy said, "I don't think that tall kid's coming back after you yield at him." But I did come back. And Chris was teaching and preaching week in and week out. And it was all things I needed to hear. And that summer, we took a youth summer, a week-long summer youth camp. They had morning and evening services, preaching and worship. But I remember very little of what was taught because I was still under such conviction.

I had tried to be better and do all the right things, but it had never changed who I was. And I was under conviction, struggling to figure out what God wanted for me, what I was doing wrong. And I read James 1, 5 through 7 and was just gripped by it. "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith and with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord." And that verse, it was the first time I felt like scripture jumped off the page and just hit me right where I was. It described me. I would go to one sermon. At the beginning of the sermon, I would think, "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm a Christian. I'm doing the right things." And by the end of the sermon, I would think, "I'm lost. I'm going to die." And it would go from one end to the other in one sermon. I was like that wave of the sea being blown and tossed by the wind.

And you know, it's one of the more dangerous things for a person that is wrestling with their salvation is people who are trying to help. I went to some people for counseling and I would say, "I don't know if I'm a Christian or not. So what do I do?" And one lady who was our chaperone said, "You know, it's like when you go to bed at night and you're not sure if you turn the light off downstairs. You just need to get up out of bed and go and turn the light off and make sure it's off. You just need to nail it down." Which confused 15, 16 year old me was like, "Nailed down what to wear? What does that mean? How do you just...

It's not a flight switch. You can just flick on and off." I got some unhelpful counsel from some people. And I remember reading James, it says, "If you lack wisdom, ask God." James said, "When you ask, ask, believing God will answer. Ask in faith. Because if you don't, you'll be like a storm toss wave of the sea." And I was gripped by that. I needed wisdom from God. I saw all these people around me making decisions, but I had tried making decisions already and it did not work for me. So I just prayed and waited on the Lord. And on the van ride home, I was praying with one of my friends on the bus. He was praying.

And God just helped me have a moment of clarity that what I needed was Christ and what I needed was to be saved. I didn't need to try harder. I didn't need to turn over any new leaves. I didn't need to double down. I certainly didn't need to nail anything down. I needed God to save me. And I remember just having that moment of clarity and relief because I knew this was the work that God was doing. What I needed was not to try harder, but I needed to... What pleases God is the work of His Son. His finished work on the cross. I took what I knew about myself and I gave it to what I knew about the Lord, which honestly wasn't that much.

Christie was there in the van. She can attest to some of these things. God rescued me from all my failure, from all my efforts to be good enough for Him. And then what I found in my life immediately was that I loved the things that I used to just try to do. I found a love for going to church, a love for God's people, a love for Scripture. Nobody had to beg me. Nobody had to push me out the door. I wanted to do those things. I wanted to serve. God made that difference in my life. So I grew in the Lord and over the years and did my dead level best to be faithful and serve in church.

But I found church life over the years to be somewhat frustrating. And that's... There's a lot in that sentence. There's a lot of history and a lot of years in that sentence. And I didn't always have the vocabulary for what was frustrating about it, but I knew there were things that just weren't right. What I experienced for a long time and what I think a lot of people here today have experienced was life in an unhealthy church. Sometimes it was unhealthy leadership in the church. Sometimes it was bad doctrine being taught. Sometimes it was the absence of doctrine being taught. And sometimes it was weak, ineffectual ministry.

I tried to pour myself into ministry, but there were times when it felt like I was pouring water into a bucket that had holes in the bottom. And you can learn a lot from seeing things done the wrong way in church. And I felt like I got a very difficult education. So I met my wife, Megan, in 2014. I was tuning my guitar, getting ready to lead worship for a small group in the home of some members of our church. And Megan walked in and walked by, and that was the first time I had met her. We went on our first date in January of 2015, and we were married by December of 2015. We got right to it.

And before we started dating, I remember hearing her share in our small group before I'd even asked her out. We were talking about the role and purpose of marriage, and she shared and said, "Marriage is for holiness, not for happiness." And I thought, "Man, I don't know what that means, but it sounds really good when she says it." So after we got married, we struggled with church life. We still continue to struggle with church life. Some issues in unhealthy churches, we researched, we visited, we studied, we asked questions, we examined our doctrine, and we finally plugged into a local church body in Jackson.

And it was the first time I saw healthy elder leadership in action in a church that I belong to. When we joined, we met with the pastor several times, and then met with one of the elders of the church over dinner in their home, and we shared our testimonies. And I remember he asked something along the lines of, "Tell us what brought you here." And I shared. Megan remembers the things I shared. I don't know how much I unloaded, but I unloaded some things on him. And afterwards, he just looked at me and he said, "Did all those things really happen?" I said, "Yes, sir." "Yes, sir, they did." It's been a long road getting to where we were.

Those people got to know us. They wanted to hear about our walk of the Lord. They wanted to know what our giftedness was, where we saw ourselves serving. And then a pastor came to me some time later and said, "I want you to teach the small group that meets in our home." He wanted me to teach his small group that he'd been teaching. That's a hard act to follow, and you have to be the guy that follows the pastor teaching the small group. But I was honored, and I did it. He said, "You can pick any book of the Bible that you want.

You can teach it." And I picked Hebrews, and that probably says some things about me, maybe being a little naive, but I taught through the book of Hebrews. And then later he came to me and he said, "I want you to teach what you've been teaching to our adult Sunday school class." And I did that as well. And then later on he came and he said, "I want you to fill in for me on a Sunday morning." And I did that as well. I got up to teach, first time ever, put on my suit, got up there. It's like a cat on a hot tin roof, just nervous as could be. They'd handed out the outlines. Our church used outlines, and the papers had already gone out.

And I was five minutes into preaching. One of the elders said, "Jared," and I was like, "Oh man." I said, "I've said something heretical already, and he's stopping me." He got up in the church and called out my name. He said, "I don't think we got our outlines." I was like, "Oh man. I'm pretty sure you did, Ron. You can sit back down." And then it went on from there. But I do distinctly remember that. I thought, "That's it. The jig is up. He's calling me out for heresy." I started to feel my call to elder leadership around this time, and I talked about it with my pastor. We read some books. I talked about it with Chris through the years.

I remember reading the Nine Marks books, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, and just being gripped by his description of that word "espire." Not being just a feeling that you have, but an action, a reaching out, an action to it, a reaching for it. And what else he said that gripped me was, "With the exception of giftedness to teach, every man in the church should aspire to the qualifications of an elder." And that was where I was. I was aspiring. And around that time, Megan and I started to talk about another calling that we had was coming to be a part of this church. We'd come here and there to lead music with Keith or when Keith was gone.

I had done 16 years worth of youth camp ministry with Keith and Chris, so I knew them very well. And they were aware of that call. And I remember we sat down with Megan and I said, "I feel like a calling for us to move to Brookhaven." We were living in, I think, Ridgeland at the time, around that area. And she looked at me. She said, "I've been feeling the same thing." So God was doing that work. We decided to move. It took about a year longer than we expected because of some issues that JP had before he was born and after he was born. But then we got here finally.

And I remember we pulled in the driveway and there were folks from our church in the driveway. I knew I was going to get teared up there. There were people waiting for us. Teresa was there. She had a... It meant a lot to us. Tommy didn't cry. Why do I have to cry? It meant a lot to us. God called us here to be a part of this church and this work. We'd kind of been watching from afar and we'd been hearing the vision, a calling that God had to move this church. It meant a lot to us. And when we came, I think JP was the only baby in the nursery. It's a little different now. Isn't it? It's a little different now.

And we are so blessed to be here in a church where we can invest for a lifetime. We're blessed to be in a church where we can entrust our children to be taught the gospel. And that's a short statement. But man, there's a lot behind that. A lot of frustration in a lot of churches we had to walk away from because we couldn't entrust our children to the church to be taught the gospel. We're so blessed to have a church where ministry is meaningful. We're so blessed to have small groups where we can grow together. We're so blessed to be a part of a healthy church, a network of local churches like Anchored and Truth.

Thank you all for letting me share. Thank you, me and both. Before I transition into what I want to share real quickly, I want you to notice behind their call, them expressing their call to elder ministry, notice what you heard. A life changed by the gospel. Listen, if you've never been changed by the gospel, if you've never run from your religion and your religious pretense and been converted to Christ, please come to faith in Christ. Religion won't do it. Coming to church won't do it. Coming to small group won't do it. Giving a lot of money won't do it. You can do all those things externally very well and still not know Christ Jesus.

If you've not come to faith in Christ, come to faith in Christ. No doubt, as Tommy and Jared were sharing, some of you in your heart of hearts were wrestling with conviction that you know you're really not converted to Christ. You're never going to have the peace. Never going to have the hope in life and in death. You're never going to find true contentment in serving God in the church until you first come to faith in Christ. Thank you for sharing, me and both. Last week, I did share that this morning I would start the qualifications of the elder from 1 Timothy 3, verses 2 to 7. We just don't have time for that, honestly.

So I move that over into next week. But I really studied in prayer and wrestled quite a bit this week about some things that I had on my heart and some things I wanted to say. And I want to share with you five areas of their lives, five areas of their lives where I have thoroughly examined these men and where they have demonstrated giftedness and qualification. Now, church, I want you to see something. Sit on the edge of your seat and perk up and listen up. The church will never rise above its leadership. It is impossible for the church to rise above and beyond its leaders. I want to repeat that.

The church will never, ever rise above its leadership. It is impossible for a church to rise above and beyond its leaders. And that is why the Apostle Paul put young Pastor Timothy there at the church at Ephesus. Among other things, Paul charged Timothy to straighten out bad leadership and leadership problems in the church because these things were hindering and hurting the life of the church. And I want to point out that Jared and Tommy, both, have been very faithful in qualifying in the areas where certain leaders in the Ephesian church were unfaithful and disqualified. Now I'll be real quick here.

First within the Ephesian church, certain leaders were teaching false doctrine. We see that in verse 3 of chapter 1. He says to Timothy, "As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach different doctrine." Here scholars tell us that the false teachers were few in number, but their damage was great. Their influence was great. And then later on in verse 7, we see that these men had somehow presumed to be teachers in the church. And we see that Paul said that they taught a different doctrine.

You see that phrase, a different doctrine, which means they taught doctrines that were different than Paul and different than Paul had instructed Timothy to teach. And church, I want you to say something. I want you to know that I have examined Jared and Tommy these past two years and even well beyond. And both Tommy and Jared are solid theologically, and they are very balanced theologically, and they are very well studied. In my preparation of this, I automatically thought about our church statement of faith. I have my own copy. It's one of the first ones. I keep it with me in my satchel, in my office. I use it. I reference it quite often.

This is what we teach, and this is what we believe. And what I'm trying to show you is we are unified wholeheartedly here in our statement of faith. We are unified doctrinally. They don't believe and teach different doctrines. I've seen that through the years. Second within the Ephesian church, some were into vain discussions, vain or fruitless discussions. Listen to verse 6, chapter 1. Paul says certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion. This may seem odd to us, or even unimportant, but this refers to discussions and debates that are purposeless. They have no logical or spiritual edification.

That means that their preaching and their teaching had no godly end. It just produced endless debates, endless discussions. In Luke Church, you may not see the seriousness of vain discussions and debates, but this can bring great, great division in a church and death in a church. I have seen it. There are always some who want to debate this and that. They want to discuss this and that. And those discussions and those debates always go round and round, round and round, and they have no end. And in my experience, usually these things are pertaining to matters of the Christian conscience or they are pertaining to theology and doctrine.

Let me repeat that. In my experience, usually these things that go round and round, round and round, they are associated with matters of the Christian conscience and things that could be of what we would call doctrine and theology. I've seen people come into the life of the church and they're always wanting to debate Calvinism, Calvinism, Calvinism, certain parts of Calvinism, and they want to talk about it and they want to debate about it and they want to discuss it and they go round and round, round and round. I've seen people come into the church and they always want to debate healing and healing ministry. Can God heal today?

Is that for another time? They want to debate speaking in tongues. There's a long list of doctrines that people can come into the life of the church. They want to debate and discuss and debate and discuss and go round and round. Some always want to debate and discuss things like if Christians are commanded to homeschool, what a Christian can or cannot do on Sunday, specifics about how ladies and girls should dress. Those are all matters of the conscience. You live those things one way, I may live them in another way, but there's some they want to debate those things and go round and round.

Again, you may not see the gravity of this matter, but this is life and death. This will destroy a church if it's unleashed. An elder must not allow vain, fruitless discussions and debates in a church. They must never allow it. And I have had many, many discussions about fruitless discussions and debates with Jared and Tommy, and they both understand the destructiveness of these things and they are well beyond that snare. Third, some in the Ephesian church were misusing the law, the Old Testament law, and they misunderstood the gospel.

Now, I won't read those verses because of time, but we see that in chapter 1, verses 7 to 11, but this is what we have here. There were some Jewish false teachers in the church who were wanting to impose Jewish circumcision in keeping the Old Testament ceremonies on the church as necessary for salvation. And these false teachers were a menace to the Ephesian church, the Galatian church, and the Philippian church. But at the root of their error was not just a misuse of the Old Testament law, but a total misunderstanding of the gospel. These false teachers failed to understand that sinners are saved by grace through faith and not of any works.

They would not have agreed with Paul in Ephesians 2 and 8, where he said, "For by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift from God." And look, church, Tommy and Jared certainly do understand the gospel. They know it. They believe it, and they preach it, and they know how to apply it in a person's life. And this is something that we cannot assume or take for granted. There are many people who look good, and they don't truly understand the gospel, the implications of the gospel, and how to apply the gospel in the life of the church and in individuals' lives.

And then forth within the Ephesian church, some of the false teachers were women. This may surprise you. Some of them were women. Now here I want you to turn to or make note of and look at later, chapter 2, verses 11 to 12. Paul says to Timothy, "Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet." Now scholars say that it appears that within this church there were women who had stepped out of bounds, and they were putting themselves forward by teaching men and leading men. And what Paul does here is this.

First he explains that a woman's role in the church is to learn and quiet submission. She is to be submissive to her husband. We studied those things in Ephesians 5, and she is to be submissive to the leaders of the church. Then second, Paul explains that women are not to teach nor to exercise any governing authority over a man within the church. That's clear. Now church, I know that to some those views are antiquated and very, very offensive. But this is what God's Word says. It doesn't get any clearer. It's obvious. And either we accept God's Word as authoritative and binding or we toss all of it out. We don't do that here.

And look church, Tommy and Jared understand women's roles in the church, and they understand that if they are affirmed as elders, their wives are not co-elders. They're not. My wife is not co-pastor. And as a matter of fact, before I progressed in putting Jared and Tommy forward, I met with them and their wives. Brother Keith and Teresa were there. And I went over the role of an elder's wife from these verses that I've just read in 1 Timothy 3 and other verses, and I made sure that they understand the role of an elder's wife. And they testified to both me and Keith that they understood and accepted those things.

But then fifth, within the Ephesian church, some teachers were just literally in sin. We see this in chapter 5 verses 17 to 20. I want to read these verses because here we have the biblical prescription for church discipline for an elder. But listen to these verses. "Let the elders who rule, manage, govern well, be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching." That's my job, my role. The scriptures say, "You shall not muzzle and ox when it treads out the grain." And the laborer deserves his wages.

"Do not admit a charge against an elder except on evidence of two or three witnesses." Let me read that again, verse 19. "Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those," this would be elders, "who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all," that would be the church, "so that the rest may stand in fear." Here we see church discipline and the church discipline process for an elder who is in sin. The process is simple. But scholars tell us that one of the biggest problems that plagued the Ephesian church was the low standard and inadequacies in their elder leadership.

And it was Timothy's job to straighten out those things. Well here Paul gave Timothy the process to deal with sin in the life of an elder. And scholars tell us that many of the so-called pastors and elders were played with sin that needed discipline, correction, and some needed to be removed. As a matter of fact, Paul had removed two prior to appointing Timothy as pastor. And look church, I have talked with these men, both Jared and Tommy, for hours over these past two years. And I have questioned them many times in regards to sin in their lives. And I have gotten very, very personal.

I have met with their wives, along with my wife, and I have asked their wives face to face, eye to eye, if there are any sins, there's any pattern of sin in their lives, secret sin. And I got descriptive. If there were any sins in their lives that would hinder them in ministry and disqualify them. I mean the list just gets longer and longer of those ministers famous who were disqualified because of secret sin. I think about Ravi Zacharias who kept such grievous sin secret for so many years and it didn't really come out till he died. I mentioned Steve Lawson last week.

It was that long ago that the famous Southern Baptist pastor and leader, Johnny Hunt, was outed as being involved in secret sin. Now I harp on this because teachers are not perfect. Pastors are not perfect. Elders are not perfect. No, but we cannot have patterns of sin and secret sin that are disqualifying. And as best I know how, I've examined these men thoroughly here. And look, church, look at what I'm showing you. The backdrop of the call and qualifications of the elders seen here in chapter 3 verses 1-7 is the terrible pastors and elders that were there in the Ephesian church. Do you see that?

The backdrop of the call and qualifications that Paul gives for the elder as seen in chapter 3 verses 1-7, that backdrop is the terrible pastors and elders that were there in the Ephesian church. Jared and Tommy do not believe and teach different doctrines. They do not propagate endless, unhelpful discussions and debates in the life of the church. Jared and Tommy do understand the proper use of the Old Testament scripture in law, and they understand the gospel, and they know how to use it. They both understand the role of women in the church, and they both are not harboring unqualifying sin.

And I pray that if they are harboring unqualifying sin, that it comes out. Now next week we will divide deeply into these qualifications from verses 2-7. Now at this time I want to explain how and where I see them serving as elders, if they are affirmed, if they are affirmed by the body. First of all, I want us to see that these are lay elder positions. This is a question that someone asked me this past week, a good question. These are not paid positions. We see and understand that there can be vocational elders who lead the church, that's what I do, and some who are not vocational, and they are not paid.

But second, let me show you where I see them serving. And they have been serving in many of these responsibilities already. I see them both serving in small group ministry, but I also see them serving more in an overseeing, in a governing way. They are both very skilled teachers, and they understand and believe in our small group ministry philosophy, and they have demonstrated that for quite a while. So I want to work with them, and I want to hand over some of the governing decisions of small groups, and I want to work with them together to make small groups be even better. Than they are now.

I see them both continuing to serve on the financial team. They truly understand the ministry of the church and how God uses money in the life of the church. And as the pastor of Grace Life, when I lay out my vision and direction of the church, they get it. They get it. They are on board, and they have the ability to put God's dollars and cents along with that vision and along with that direction. I'll give you a great example. This past year when I was explaining to the financial team that I wanted to take some of our budget surplus monies and carry it over to a future fund for a building, immediately they got it.

Their eyes lit up, and they understood that vision of how the money should relate to that. Now this specific need relates more to Tommy. I see Tommy continuing to lead out in our belevolence ministry. As a matter of fact, a while back, some benevolent needs came about, and I did not have the time or the ability to deal with those things. If I remember right, I was out of town, maybe on vacation. So I asked Tommy to organize some benevolent guidelines, and he brought in a couple of people immediately to help, and they took care of things. And that needs to be continued, that ministry does.

One area of need that you may not see is personal accountability to the pastor. Look church, your pastor is a sinner. Your pastor is a sinner. Your pastor has strengths and weaknesses, and your pastor needs accountability. The elder model that I have put before you is this. For years I've put this out there. I am the lead pastor or elder, but I am to be a leader among equals. I am to be the lead elder among a body of elders, and I need God called, God equipped elders around me to support me, to pray for and minister to me, and to correct me and rebuke me if it is needed. Now Brother Keith has been mad all these years.

But I want you to hear that. I need God called, God equipped elders around me to support me, and to pray for and minister to me, and to correct me and rebuke me. And if I get off in the sin that needs to be dealt with, there is a pattern here in 1 Timothy chapter 5 that I read earlier to deal with it. And they are capable. They are very capable. In regards to that need, I want to read a verse. I want to read Ecclesiastes. This is what I need. Chapter 4 verses 9 to 12. This is what Brother Keith needs as well. Ecclesiastes 4, 9 to 12. Some of you know these verses.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work, their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?" And here's the climax of that teaching.

"And though a man might prevail against one who is alone to withstand him, a threefold cord is not quickly broken." And look, church, this pastor that stands before you, I need God called elders around me to support me, to pray for me, to minister to me, yes, to partner in ministry with me, but to correct me and to rebuke me if I need it. Because I sure don't need to be alone, and I don't want to. One area that I see these men leading as elders is helping in the work of church discipline. I have talked about this some, shared quite a bit last week. They have assisted me along the way through the years.

But look, church, both men have been tested in a couple of very tough cases of church discipline, as well as some cases that are not so tough. See, not all church discipline is really, really hard. Both Jared and Tommy have proven themselves very capable and wise in the work of lovingly working to bring a professing brother or sister to repentance, and if need be, taking an unrepentant church member through the process of church discipline all the way.

One area of service that is a part of small group ministry and a part of church discipline, a lot of this overlaps, is assisting and counseling and helping other brothers and sisters who are struggling with sin, sometimes just trying to navigate life. There have been times I have asked Tommy or Jared to just meet with someone for help in their walk with God. There have been times I have asked Tommy and Patty to meet with a couple for the very same thing. I have seen them open up their home to people in these kind of circumstances, and they are very capable for the work. And I've done the very same thing with Jared and with Megan.

Now this is not an exhaustive list of where I'll see them serving and helping if they are affirmed. We desperately need some help in the area of bylaws and some other policy matters. Of course, that will come in due time. Now I want to close by showing you what we have before us. We have the informal and the formal. We have the organic and the official, the instinctive and the plan. Let me repeat that and then I will explain. What we have in all of this is the informal and the formal, the organic and the official, the instinctive and the plan because I have been very slow and patient and methodical in my pastoral leadership here.

And because I have tested these men for a while in elder type ministry in the life of the church, both Tommy and Jared have informally function in certain ways and certain capacities as elders because I've put them in areas of ministry and leadership. Their abilities and call have come about and have been made known organically. And many of you have instinctively seen this and you have instinctively affirmed it. Ever since last week, I have heard affirmation, just spontaneous affirmations. Oh, I see it. I see the men been instinctive.

But as your pastor, I'm putting Jared and Tommy forward for the church membership to affirm their calling formally, officially and in a planned out manner. So this is how we will progress. This is our process. I've mentioned this already, but it needs to be repeated. This Sunday, they were the 16th. I will take us through the qualifications of an elder seen in Timothy three verses two to seven. Then Wednesday night, February the 19th, we will have a members meeting. We may have some discussion if needed. We could have some testimony if needed. And then we will vote as a church to affirm these men as elders are not.

And again, church, we are elder led, but congregational, govern. And I want to close by making a very, very serious and important statement as your pastor. I trust the work of the church in all of these things. Think about that. As your pastor, brother key feels the same way. I trust you. I trust the body and I trust the work of the church in these things. I don't have to manipulate anything or anybody. I just trust the work of the church. Now let's pray. We'll sing a closing song of worship. And then I will close out by giving some instruction about how the voting will take place.