Flaky Fleeces and Lame Litmus Tests

FLAKY FLEECES AND LAME LITMUS TESTS

TEXT:

1 Tim. 3:1-7

Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

INTRODUCTION:

(This sermon was part of a series on 1Timothy)

A. DIFFERENT NAMES FOR PASTOR IN THE NT

1. Elder - This speaks of his wisdom and maturity.

2. Bishop - This speaks of his authority as an overseer.

3. Pastor - This speaks of his responsibility to care for the flock

4. Preacher - This speaks of his duty to proclaim the counsel of God.

5. Teacher - This speaks of his duty to instruct the body of Christ.

6. Servant - This speaks of his call to minister to the needs of others.

7. Steward - This speaks of his duty to tend to God's business first.

B. THE BIBLICAL CRITERIA

1. Biblical criteria helps us objectively choose leaders

2. It may surprise some of you to know that there is actually a list of Biblical qualifications for a pastor.

3. We are to use Biblical criteria as the standard for pastors.

4. Sadly, there are many who have other methods.

5. Some of those misguided methods are:

Judging a pastor based on his popularity

Judging a pastor by how much money he brings the church

Judging a pastor based on outward appearances.

7. The Biblical criteria can be divided under three headings:

A pastor should be a Godly man

A pastor should be a good Family man

A pastor should be a good Church man

I. FLAKY FLEECES AND LAME LITMUS TESTS

A. UNBIBLICAL STANDARDS

1. Some people want to establish their own standards for pastors.

2. Usually, these are people who don't like the pastor and are looking for a way to judge and condemn him.

3. They want to toss out the Biblical standards.

4. They want to introduce a new set of standards.

5. It's sort of like playing a board game such as Monopoly with people who keep changing the rules as you go along.

6. It can be extremely frustrating for a godly pastor.

7. I call these unbiblical standards lame litmus tests and flaky fleeces.

B. FLAKY FLEECES

1. Some get the idea that God is telling them to judge their pastor based on a flaky fleece...

2. They put out a fleece by saying, "If the pastor doesn't do this certain secret thing that we are thinking of, then it will mean that he's not of God..."

3. A fleece is what Gideon used because he did not have a Bible.

4. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to use fleeces.

5. We have a Bible and we don't need fleeces.

6. In fact, those who use fleeces will eventually get fleeced.

7. I mean, if you use fleeces to make decisions then someday, someone will eventually take advantage of you.

8. If you use fleeces, the devil has an opportunity to use it.

9. Flaky Fleeces for pastors have nothing to do with the Biblical Qualifications for a Pastor as established in 1Tim.3.

10. A flaky fleece has nothing to do with sound doctrine.

11. A flaky fleece has nothing to do with any moral failure.

12. Those who use flaky fleeces would have already condemned the man of God over any moral failure if there was one to be found.

13. Since they can't find any moral failure in him, they establish a new, unbiblical criteria for judging the man of God.

14. They set up some unknown and unspecified flaky fleece...

15. If the pastor doesn't pass, then he's supposedly "not of God"!

16. If he doesn't show up at some certain meeting, then they say "he's not of God."

17. Forget that the pastor may know nothing about the meeting.

18. Forget the fact that the pastor was never told how important the meeting was to these people.

19. Forget the fact that the pastor may have had a thousand legitimate reasons for not being at the meeting.

20. Forget the fact that it might have been a bad time