Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily

Bible podcast. Hello. Just change it up, man. I feel like we're just, we're like that old married couple. We just have our routines. We always sit in the same spot. We always go to the same restaurants. Always singing the same songs. Shake it up for me, man. Come on.

But that takes so much effort from you. Like I watched the expression on your face to just that dry. Hello?

Yeah. That's that's that's it was meant to be funny. So I'm glad that, um, hit the target. You did. You hit the target dead on.

Yeah, it's Wednesday. This is a, the final Wednesday night before the break for student ministry.

Yeah. And for a. I guess that's it. Huh? Nothing else really well. This is the time that people take time off at the work and yeah. It's closed down. So yes it is. We're we're meeting tonight. And then we're off for two weeks. So we take Christmas off and we take new year's day off. That's good. Yeah. Like, that'd be a problem if we decided to meet. Yeah,

yeah. Or I think last year it was Christmas day and new year's day. And we're now on Christmas Eve and new year's Eve. Oh, that's what it

is. Yeah. That's

what Sunday was. That's what Sunday? Sunday was Christmas Eve last year. That's right. Cause it was crazy. Cause we were trying to figure out what do we do with Christmas Eve services? Yeah. Yeah, we have Christmas Eve this year, by the way, in case you were wondering out there, like, are they going to do anything and I can knock them down, we're going to do it. Uh, yeah, we're going to gather at 4:00 PM at founders classical academy. In fact, Uh, this past Sunday, I was so proud of our church. We had probably 15 to 20 people on all. After, uh, services were over, go out into the neighborhoods surrounding the church and pass out invitations to our Christmas Eve services

array.

Um, one of our parts of our vision is we want to be a church that is engaging the world and the world around us is it starts with RGD. And our Judea is our Jerusalem brother is the neighborhoods in our immediate vicinity of our church. Should we kind of targeted those? We hit about 2000 homes. Um, so, you know, my son, Luke, who was out with us, he was like, I think we'll get about 50%. So if we get 50% out of that, Sure if he's a prophet and that comes true, then man, you better change our theology and expand the, uh, the ability for us to host those people. We don't have room for, for a thousand more people on, uh, on Sunday morning. But, uh, you mentioned

anything about your theology though,

you know, Hey, if God brought a thousand people, I, my theology might be challenged. I'm not saying I don't want it. God, if you, I mean, you're listening, so I'm not saying I don't want it. I'm just saying. Um, that would challenge my theology a little bit. Campus Bible church assembly of God. Yup. IOG you'd be able to help us fit right into that, that transition. Yeah, I would. Yeah.

I would, I would welcome. In addition, Mr. Uh, our, or our addition to the assembly of God, there's still the second largest denomination. I think it's crazy. Last time I checked, I know this other Baptist are up there, but they're, they're uh, they're they're growing what's number one. Catholics, I think. Uh, I think they're still

considered the number one. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. That Catholic church has right by our school. Uh, they're always busy. It's

always packed. I drive by all the time. Sometimes we're really early because of our permitting in the morning. And I just think, man, these people are showing up super early.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's, they've got a ton of services there too. They do. Yeah. Anyways, uh, December, we've got Christmas events coming up Christmas Eve, December 24th at 4:00 PM. Compass Bible church, AKA founders, classical academy, Frisco, Texas, be there or be square. Yeah. Then this year we're doing Christmas Eve services on the 24th. So it'll be sure to mark that in your calendar. Yes. Yeah. We're not shifting. Yeah. I heard of a church recently. I don't know which one, honestly, I don't. I'm glad I don't, because I may start praying some, the perpetrator imprecatory Psalms, but they have decided to cancel the service after Christmas Eve. So the 29th there, they. They're like, yeah, we're not meeting as a church on the 29th. We're giving our staff. A weekend off. Wow. Uh, yeah, that's one way to say, to respond

to that. I'm thinking. I appreciate the heart behind it. I really do. I think that's, uh, I think the, if, if it's, if it is the idea, like, Hey, we want to give our staff a break. I get that. I appreciate that. Um, but again, as we say, sometimes it might be right. Hearted. Wrong-headed right.

Yeah. If you want to strip down the service to give a good portion of your staff the weekend off, or make it more bare bones to, to do.

I mean, we can do that. No, no, we couldn't. We couldn't, we really could not. We would have to, even with our skeleton crew, we would still have a lot of people that would need to serve. Yeah. So again, if, if it's staff focused. Then I understand the desire to do that. Cause you're always going to have to have staff to support that. But if it's the church. I mean, even then, I think we have, we have a large volunteer crew. Yeah. So it depends on the distinguishing between staff and people, or how are they looking at that? Well, we're not canceling church.

I don't. We should canceling church at any time in as long as I'm behind the pulpit. Careful what you say, brother. I careful if it's in my power. Okay. Well that, that is still, I would say, be careful if it's in my power, I don't see us doing that. Anyways, we're not canceling church. We'll be there all the way through December and into the new year. In fact, pastor rod is going to be preaching the first Sunday out of the gates in the new year. So a marquee calendars for that. January 5th. It sounds right. Yeah. So, all right, let's jump into first, Timothy. This one's interesting. Uh, the, the background we're a little bit more fuzzy on the background of this one than we are with some of the other pistols that we've been reading. Uh, in part, because we don't know all of the contexts that, that led to this, we anticipate this was written sometime between 61 66. A D so towards the end of Paul's life, uh, but it's difficult to connect this epistle with anything that took place in the book of acts, aside from the fact that he's charging Timothy to remain at emphasis here in the opening part of it. So we assume this is after the third missionary journey has concluded, which leads to the later date during Paul's imprisonment. Although this isn't a. Uh, prison epistle. So, um, th the background's a little bit more fuzzy also you'll note that this is Paul's letter to Timothy, uh, not to the Timothy ans this is not a letter written to a church. This is a letter written to an individual, and he's writing this letter as he will say, later on in the epistle to. Uh, help Timothy understand how the church ought to operate and how people ought to behave within the church itself, which he calls the pillar and buttress of the truth, the ultimate support of the truth. And so he opens with some personal note to Timothy here, instructing Timothy to stay there in Ephesus, because he's concerned for the purity of the church there. Uh, there are some people creeping in false teachers as well. Some divisive people, some people that want to argue over some things that quite honestly. Aren't worth arguing over in. Paul's saying instead. Uh, we need to call them back to the purity of the gospel and the aim of our charge. Verse five is love, and this issue is from a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith. And that's what he's calling Timothy to possess as he combats. The false teachers. Now, these false teachers, most likely Judaizers, he's saying in verse eight, that when it comes down to the law, Remind remind them and re remind the people there that the law is good. If it's used in accordance with its purpose. And the purpose is to reveal sin and to point people to Christ. And so you had the Judaizers coming in and they were emphasizing the law for a sanctification. The law for justification and Paul saying, this is wrong. Timothy charged them not to do this. Uh, because they are refuting their, their standing in, in contradiction to sound doctrine. And so he opens this letter by a charging Timothy saying, Hey, Timothy, you've got some work to do to put some things in order there in emphasis. After this, he gives a little bit of his, uh, abbreviated. Um, Testimony, his elevator pitch testimony, if you will. And we should all have one of those, by the way, you've got your testimony, which is your, uh, your story that you're going to get from the baptismal tank. This is your three to five minute, Hey, this is what God has done in my life. And here's who I was. And then I got saved and now here's who I am. Uh, the elevator pitch testimony is, is a much more abbreviated form where you may have a minute with someone you're picturing getting in the elevator and riding up to the next floor with that person. How are you going to communicate the gospel in a, a short succinct way? And that's what Paul does here with Timothy by reminding him of his past and who he was, and the fact that God saved him in that God saved him not only to save him, but also to be, to use him now for his glory. As an example of the patients that he displays to those that are wayward in that is in a. They're inverse, uh, 17, 16. Um, and then he ends in verse 17 with this praise to God and praise to Jesus. Uh, in, in that is the culmination of him reflecting on what God has done in his life. So then he charges Timothy. Uh, to do what he needs to do to wage the good warfare, to hold the faith with a good conscience. And so he's the strong language Paul is using here in, in other words, telling his young protege Timothy here, this is not going to be easy. What you're being tasked to do here. Chapter two. Then he gets into how we should be thinking about outsiders and, and praying for others and praying for people in positions of power. And he says there that we should verse to pray for Kings and all who were on high positions. Notice that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. I think as, as Christians, sometimes we think, well, we should welcome and expect persecution. In fact, I preached on that not long ago, a couple of weeks ago, out of John 15, the world's going to hate you. And yet here we see that the desire to be able to live a peaceful and quiet life is not a bad desire for us. And so church, if you're out there going well, I'd rather. Uh, have the right administration in place that preserves our freedoms that allows us to continue to be the church, the way that we've been the church, and even to improve upon that, that's a good desire. In fact, Paul's commending us to pray for those things that we should pray for leaders that are going to be. Uh, favorable towards the church church in, in those regards. Um, and then he gets into a little bit of, of what it looks like now for, uh, worship in, in, within the body of Christ. Now he's, he's gone from praying for outside to now. What does it look like inside? And specifically with prayer, he's saying I desire them, that men in every place should pray lifting holy hands without anger, curling. The women, he says they should adorn themselves and respectable apparel with modesty. Uh, and then he says in verse 10, With what is proper for women who profess godliness. Now we're going to have to distinguish something and PR I want to get your, uh, your con comments on this as well. And, and as we talk about these issues, cause they're big issues here that he brings up. There is something that is cultural in the context here. And that would be, I would argue. What constitutes something that is proper for a woman who professes godliness. I think that may change from generation to generation. Now there are extremes on that, that no matter what the generation. You walking into church and a bathing suit is not going to be appropriate. Right. But. There's going to be other modifications. And that's just an extreme example. And even that there's probably, you could argue different ways on that. But there there's other things that culturally are going to change. How a woman styles, her hair, the jewelry, she wears, things like that. Uh, that is going to be more culturally bound, but where he goes next on a woman's authority in the church where he says, I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet. He then connects that to something that is trans cultural. That is. Is it something that transcends time in culture and he says it in verse 13 for Adam was formed first, then Eve that itself is connected to, uh, the, the creation order. And so that's why today we are still complimentarians in the sense that we would say that, that, that still is binding. We may say a woman has a little bit more freedom to interpret the, what is modest versus immodest, according to the standards of the culture. Generally speaking with this command for a woman, not to exercise authority or to teach them in that because it's connected back to creation order. I think that one stands in stark contrast to the other.

Yeah, amen to that. I would say that one of the challenges of doing church today well, and being a church member is asking the question, uh, is what Paul's saying here. Am I applying that appropriately by how I show up to church? Uh, I mean, I didn't even think about some of the simple things that we take for granted. We're a pretty casual church by and large. We don't demand that guys wear suits and ties and things like that. And other churches, it would be wildly inappropriate to show up the way that we show up on Sundays. Because they would be offended by that. Right. They would ask questions like don't you honor God, don't you fear God, or you not Reverend about who he is and yada, yada, yada. Um, and, and those kinds of things can become, uh, can become a snare for church members, because this is the way it's posed to be. It's not just the way that we choose to do things. It becomes not just a matter of tradition, but a matter of. Uh, life and practice sin and righteousness. So here. Uh, the, the way that a woman dresses. Um, in the way that a man dress is important to Paul and it should be important to us then, so that we're dressing in a way that fits, that is appropriate. What is proper, what makes sense, given the context. Uh, but when we get to Adam and Eve and the deception that was under gun, you have something of a change because he, again, he argues from the beginning of creation to say, this is normative going forward. The challenge with this here, I think is the next verse where he says she'll be saved through childbearing. I think that one of the best readings on this, I mean, there's several, by the way, there's multiple ways to read this. No, one's going to look at this by the way, in verse 15 and say a woman is saved, made right with God, by having a child. Um, we know that to be the case, because this is a nowhere else taught. So Paul's meaning then must be limited not to salvation justification, but some other sense of the word. Um, which the word sewed zil can be applied to multiple, uh, To multiple different kinds of salvation. One could be like a rescue or the preservation of someone or something. The word has a little more flexibility than we tend to understand it. So when she, when he talks about safe, they're childbearing. My thought here. Is that. It has, is going to sound like a cheap shot. I agree with the Reverend Dr. MacArthur. And talks about the stigma. And that makes sense because she's the one who deceived, she falls into sin and consequently, there's something of a stigma of being a woman like, oh man, It was my great-great-grandmother who fell on the sand because she was deceived. Uh, I think maybe Paul is saying, look, she can be safe from that stigma by raising God, the offspring. At least that's how MacArthur presents it. I think that's one of the options. There's about four or five more. That's a good one.

Yeah. And it even, I would agree with you in that. That view. And I guess by extension Dr. MacArthur in that, and even the fact that this is pulsing. Uh, of the, of the women, of our moms, of the wives in the church. I mean, their influence in the home is, is massive. It's, it's great. You have an opportunity ladies to have a great impact on those that you're raising there in the home. And that is not something that is insignificant. Our world has almost made this pejorative, this, this idea of being at home and raising your children in like that. That's something that some. A woman should be ashamed of it because it's a place where she's not being maximized in her gifts and talents and brain power is not being maximized. Listen. Th that is a lie from the enemy. And, and what's true instead is that this is a good thing. And. We're not saying a woman can never work outside the home, but those of you that do, uh, feel good about that and be pleased with this, that, that God has given you a responsibility there. I think you're right to, to overcome that, that stigma by doing something that is certainly worthy of praise and excellent. Think back to the Proverbs 31. And that woman is, is honored for doing what he's talking about here in, uh, in first Timothy chapter two. Chapter three. Then we get into some more fun stuff. Qualifications for elders and qualifications for deacons. Uh, the, the qualifications for the elder and the deacon. These are. Crucially important. Um, it's important for the church to make sure that, that she is wise in the men that she interests in these positions, specifically men in the office of an elder or an overseer, a Bishop. All three of those things you used interchangeably here. Oversee your pastor elder. Uh, these are qualifications. If the man fails to measure up to these qualifications, then he is not fit. Excuse me. He is not fit. Uh, for office and we have seen a lot of people. There have been some, some pastors who have fallen spectacularly. Uh, in different areas in the public eye and they have quote, unquote, been restored to ministry. And yet what we would understand is with a lot of these. Maybe not all of them, but with a lot of these qualifications, if a man fails. In these, this area, he is going to find himself in a position where he's disqualified permanently from ministry.

Out of all of these qualifications that you read in first Timothy three, which would you say would be the most counter-cultural in other words, I mean, there's, there's things here that probably most people would say, oh yeah, that makes sense. Or any of these, something that stand out as exceptional. Are unique to the Christian called a leadership. Uh,

just the. Self-controlled. You know, um, that's a good one. Yeah. Sober-minded uh, is just going to quote all of them. No, I'm just, I'm just thinking. Those two back-to-back right. I mean, we could say the husband of one wife. Th the purity culture. I like that. That's. That's going to be counter-cultural for sure. But even just sober mindedness, the ability to not run to one extreme or the other and not panic when things in the world shift and, and to, to stay focused in. And of course that implies not being drunk as well, but it's more than that. I think self-controlled man, we live in a world that totally lacks self control. So there's a lot of these that I would put in that category.

I thought one would stand out to you, especially, but let me just quote it to you. Um, Th the, the teacher, the qualifier qualification for the overseers to be someone who's not quarrelsome. Yeah. Someone who's not looking for a fight and Christian Twitter, and I guess Christian in general. Uh, the algorithm, the formulas are really favor someone as a pugilist, someone who likes fighting somebody, who's scrappy, someone who likes working fights, someone who really enjoys stirring up controversy. And I think that would define a lot of leaders, even leaders within the church who otherwise are godly. Uh, but may not be qualified because they're the kind of person that just likes to pick fights for one thing or another. Kinda gets back to what we were saying about even how you show up to church. If you're trying to show up in a way that's non-confrontational or offensive in the wrong ways. And I guess that's an important distinction. He's not going to lay down when the sheep are being attacked. He's not going to lay down when Jesus is being, uh, Being dragged to the mud. Yeah. But he's not trying to pick a fight. It's not as disposition.

Right, right. Yeah. When you look at the qualifications for pastors and for deacons, there's a lot of overlap there. The one that that is, is noticeable, that stands out is a qualification for pastor that's not there for the deacon is the ability to teach, to preach. Um, an elder or pastor should have that, that capability. And in our church, our polity is such that we do have elders. We have a plurality of elders, and yet our elders are our pastors. We. Uh, our elders are our vocational pastors. Those that are, are part of our pastoral team. Um, and we believe that that's the case because we, we don't necessarily see anywhere. Biblically speaking where there's a mandate for late eldership it's, it's permissible. There's nothing wrong if a church has leadership, but, but we don't, don't see anywhere in scripture where it mandates. Hey, you have to have lay elders in. Uh, in operation and there's a couple of reasons why we do this. And one of the reasons is this. Uh, as, as, as having your pastors as, as being full-time elders and your elders as being full-time pastors guarantees that when we are gathering together to make decisions for the church, Uh, th that, that is where we have spent all day long. That's where we live. We live in the matters of the church versus being somebody who perhaps is a dentist or lawyer for 50 hours a week. And then they're going to show up at an elder meeting and weigh in on spiritual shepherding matters. That really hasn't been on their heart because they've been having to think about everything else going on in their job. Again, that's fine. And in some men are able to do that really well. But we feel like that. The default is man. It's a benefit to the bride of Christ to have her pastors and elders doing this. Full-time to be able to, to make these decisions for the health of the body of Christ. At the same time together and being on the same page. And then the other thing too, along those same lines is we think this man, if we've got a guy who's elder qualified and it has all of these abilities laid out here in first Timothy three and Titus chapter one, as we'll see tomorrow. And then we want to look at him and say, man, we want to get your full-time in the church. We don't want you being a dentist anymore. We don't want you out being a lawyer anymore. We want you over here doing the work in the ministry. Full-time so those are a couple of reasons why our polity is the way it is.

Yeah. One practical benefit that I'll mention is that when you do that, when you buy someone's time like that, you're you're saying, look, you. You belong to the church. The church is now your, your mission, your work, and the bride benefits from a highly available elder. Someone that can show up almost any time of the day or night, because he's free by the work to do that same thing. And not to mention if you're getting the best of the best and the church should have the best. Um, the th the world has enough lawyers. The world has enough doctors. We need the best people in the amended. We need the best people in the church working for the church of laboring for her, so that Christ might receive all the glory that he's do.

Amen. And this still is a plurality. And let me be abundantly clear on that. This is not a pastor is CEO model. This is not me hiring, you know, a bunch of, yes, men. You've heard me defend that before and talk about that before. This is a team and we make decisions together as a team. And as we hire more pastors down the road load willing, they will be added onto our team and they will weigh in and make the informed decisions for us along with the church. So. Uh, this is not a closeted board that that is not looking for accountability. We have accountability. We have accountability external to the church as well, as well as. The brothers and sisters in Christ that we serve are part of our accountability as well, to do that with excellent. So that's part of who we are as a, as a church deacons deaconesses women can serve. As, as deacons. We hit that recently with talking about Phoebe. Uh, we believe Phoebe is a, an example of a Deaconess. And again, one of the reasons why they're not exercising authority, they're not preaching and teaching in the same capacity there as an elder. And that's one of the differentiators there. Uh, chapter three ends. This is where we find out that he's writing. So that one, no. May know how to behave in the household of God, the church, the pillar, and buttress of the truth. So Paul is concerned with the purity of the church, and that's a lot of why he's writing to Timothy. Chapter four, he's warning him saying, Hey, some are going to depart. Some are going to swerve. This is not going to be an easy road Timothy in front of you. And that's part of the reasons why you got to make sure that you've got these qualified men in leadership positions to help you with this. Uh, you Timothy, as he goes on in chapter four and you need to be a good servant. You need to be faithful. You need to pursue godliness. You need to, uh, pursue that, which holds eternal value. Again, bodily disciplines, some value, but, but godliness value in every way, because it has. As a worth it for eternity there. Uh, combat false teaching through, uh, through what is preached, um, He goes on. Set an example. And this is the famous verse that if you've grown up in the church, you heard your youth pastor preach on, on this passage on, on first Timothy four. Uh, 12 on being an example to other believers. In other words, age, doesn't disqualify someone from being in that position. As long as they have a relationship with Christ there.

And neither does it qualify somebody all. It works both ways. It's not that you're not too young necessarily, but you're also not, you don't graduate into a state of maturity just because you're a certain age.

Totally. Yeah. Yup. Yeah, and that would be good. Your spiritual maturity works like physical maturity. If you just naturally became a more spiritually mature quickly. Quickly

Lord Jesus. I always tell my kids grow up. Automatic. Yeah. It may seem like that because your body grows, but your soul doesn't do that

at any state. And that's why in verse 16, he warns Timothy. He says, keep a close watch on yourself. And the teaching, you've got to always be careful not to kick it into neutral. In other words, that you've got to be careful on that. Uh, chapter five, he gives some housekeeping, housekeeping instructions for the church, including how to talk about supporting widows. And he, he, it's interesting here he classifies who is qualified to be supported by the churches of widow and. And who's not qualified. He says, if there's a young widow in the church, somebody who's lost her husband at a young age. Um, it's not the church. That the church won't come alongside and support for a time being, but they also need to understand that. That she's probably gonna want to be married again. And even potentially is Paul telling to me that she should be married again and encourages that. But those widows that are older, they need the church to come alongside. So he's talking about these things here and he gets back to elders and verse 17. And he says there that, that those, that, uh, that rule well should be considered worthy of double honor. And then he talks about the ox, not muzzling, the Oxford, it treads out the grant. Again, the concept of vocational ministry there. And. And the fact that that exists and there's a paradigm for that. Uh, verse 22. Of chapter five, do not be hasty in the laying on of hands. If we go back to first Timothy chapter three, those qualifications, we, we need time with people to test them, to see. Do they measure up to this and, and before we lay hands on somebody and say, Hey, this is, this is the guy because we, we like him. He's got a great smile. And he showed up here and let's, let's make him a pastor or because he's got this education or that education. We want to be careful if this is going to be somebody shepherding the flock. So don't be Hasting laying on of hands. That's what he's talking about there. Chapter six. Uh, again, warning against the potential of a false teaching in what to do there and just not to be quarrelsome, you brought that up. Uh, pastor Radha. He, he talks about that again. He says there's an unhealthy craving for controversy amongst some in a craving for a coral about words. Uh, I mean, God goddess from that so that we don't fall into that. Get godliness with contentment instead. That is great gain. And then he encourages him at the end to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness, and talks about money here. In this text again, it's not the love of money, but it's, it's the it's not money itself. That's evil, but the love of money, that's evil. All of these things, just a lot of good things in there. A lot of, a lot of ground to cover in this book, but pastor, rod, anything I missed that you want to hit on specifically?

Just one small thing here in chapter five. I just want to point out to you in verse 18. Uh, Paul is quoting Jesus here in verse 18. When he says for the scripture says. Then he quotes an old Testament passage. He shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages. That is him quoting Jesus in there. That's Luke 10, seven. So. At this point. Uh, whenever Paul is writing, be at the early sixties or beyond. Paul has already acknowledging that there are things that are written that are scripture that are on point or on parallel with the old Testament scriptures. And you see it here in verse 18. So when someone tells you that we didn't have the Bible for the first 300 years of our, of the church history, that's, that's, uh, in a technical term bologna. Yep. And it's not true. So, yeah, just, I want to point that out to you. We'll see that a couple of other places as well.

I agree. Yep. Hey, let's pray. And then we'll be done with this episode. God give us gallery leaders of our church. Uh, both now and in the decades to come in the future. Should you Terri and not return for your bride before then? I got to, we pray that you would grow our church. That that's my heart's desire. Even as we're looking at turning the page into a new year, I prayed that 20, 25 would be a year of growth for our body. That you'd bring people. Uh, bring lost and, and see them saved through the witness of our people here at our church and in brought in and baptized. And I got raised up more people that will be deacons and pastors, ministry directors, ministry leaders, and pastors in our church. Especially that we would be strong that we would be a healthy pillar and butters for the truth. And so we desire that we long for that and we pray that that would be true in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Ki bring your Bibles to new again tomorrow. For another edition of the daily Bible podcast. See you then.