Sermon Series: Choosing Church Leaders God's Way

Becoming an Endangered Species 

1 Timothy 3:6-7

PSBC 11/21/99 

In a nutshell: The positions of leadership in the church are demanding. People who lead must be people of spiritual maturity and integrity. Without these two things, leaders can become easy targets for the devil's attacks.

I. Introduction

A. Joke

Bill Hill was a Montana hunting guide. He tells the story of one day when he was tracking game. It happened that he wandered into a Federally protected area. Suddenly a huge grizzly bear came charging at him. It took just a split second for Bill to cast aside the fact that he was in an area where grizzly bears were protected, and he brought his rifle up and shot the bear dead.

When he was brought before a federal official, he was asked to give a statement in his defense for killing an animal on the endangered species list. And he calmly said, "When I saw that bear come smoking down on me, I didn't have any trouble in deciding who was the endangered species."

B. Transition

Well friends, if you're a Christian who is serious about maturing in your Christian faith, then I have news for you–you're on an endangered species list. The Bible says...

1 Peter 5:8 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

And the people Satan especially likes to target are the leaders of a church and those people in the church who are seriously stretching their lives to mature in their Christian faith.

As we found out last week, the church is called God's household–it is His most precious possession. And I hope your are coming to realize that by negatively affecting the leadership of our church, Satan can diminish our total church effectiveness in this Coachella Valley, and the world.

That's why it is so important to have at the "frontal lobes of our brains" the idea that we must choose church leaders God's way. Because if we don't have people who can stand against Satan's attacks, we won't have much of a church or much of a ministry left.

C. Final message in this series

So, we have come to our last message in this series--Choosing Church Leaders, God's Way.

So far we have looked at the character God expects of His leaders, the personality God expects of His leaders, the home life God expects of His leaders. Finally, today we will look at the reputation God expects of His leaders.

Our message comes from...(p. 1847 in church Bibles)

1 Timothy 3:6-7 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.

In these two verses, Paul identifies the two key areas where the devil wants to attack church leadership in regards to their reputations. It is in the areas of spiritual maturity and integrity. These two things will form the outline for today's message.

II. Leadership requires spiritual maturity

Verse six zeroes in on the issue of spiritual maturity. We'll consider that first . To do that I want to examine the two key words that Paul uses in this verse.

A. Word Study

1. Recent Convert

The first key word is the Greek word "Neophutos" which is translated, "recent convert". From this word we get our English word, neophyte. This is the only place in the entire Bible that this term is used. It literally means "a newly planted plant or tree".

Illustration: Each year, during the early spring, my dad and brother plant onion bulbs that were grown the year before from seed, with the idea of getting what we called "big onions". During late June and early July, the big onion plants on our farms in Illinois and Indiana usually look their healthiest. The green stalks are growing thick and tall and proud. And at the ends of these stalks are the flowers where new seeds are being produced.

At this stage, the plants look developed, and healthy. But if you would pull an onion plant out of the ground at this stage of its development, you'd be very disappointed with the results. What you'd find would be the residual of the old onion bulb. You'd have some strong roots, but the onion itself--the fruit of this plant--would be small, puny and not something that anyone would want to buy or eat.

How could a plant look so healthy, yet be so lacking in substance? It's because the plant hasn't reached maturity yet. An onion plant only becomes useful when it reaches maturity. Maturity comes when the nutrients gained from the initial growth-effort in the plant's life-cycle are brought to bear on producing the fruit.

Now friends, that's the way it is in the Christian life. We all go through a spiritual life-cycle. At first there is the visible evidence of regular church attendance, taking a public stand for the faith through baptism, looking for ways to help in the church's life, studying the Bible, and having regular times of prayer with God, etc. Everyone can see these things, and they look good–and they are good. But we can't lose sight of the fact that these things are not maturity. They produce maturity, but doing things that bring about maturity, aren't the same as Christian maturity.

However, when regular church attendance, Bible study, helping where needed, praying, etc. start to affect the attitudes and values and decisions of a person's life, then maturity is taking place. When maturity is happening in a man or woman, the things we have studied in this chapter become second nature–they are the results. No matter what chronological age a person is.

That's why the things listed in 1 Timothy 3 are so important to every one of us. They just aren't the qualifications for leaders in the church–they are the evidences of Christian maturity in each of our lives, as we all seek to become more like our Lord, Jesus Christ.

2. Conceited

The danger that Paul tells Timothy regarding putting someone in leadership before they are at a mature stage in their Christian development is that they can become conceited.

The word "Conceited" literally means, "grabbing at smoke". The idea is that an immature Christian, put into leadership before he or she is mature, will have the tendency to make decisions based on the "smoke" of pride, not on the substance of humility. And God will not work through prideful leadership. In fact, He despises it in His church so much that He promises to get rid of it like He got rid of Satan from heaven.

B. Same Judgment as the Devil

To illustrate this, Paul refers to the example that the prophet Isaiah records, regarding Satan's fall. Look at these verses on the screen...

Isaiah 14:12-14 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."

Notice the use of "I" in these verses. This is the thing Paul is warning about. Here's the danger of immature Christians in places of leadership–Immature Christians will always operate on their own resources, not God's. -That leads to pride. -And pride leads to decision making based on issues of recognition, control, ambition, personal agendas--which are diametrically opposed to God's values.

And Paul says, that when a leader in God's church starts operating under the same values that Satan operated under when he tried to take control of the universe away from God, then the same results will happen... Look at the next verse in Isaiah 14...

15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

That leader who leads in pride will eventually come crashing down!!!

C. What's So Wrong With Pride?

So, what's God's hang-up with pride? Why does God hate it so much? The paragraph on the front of your bulletin illustrates this very well. In fact, I think this is so important, that I've had this taped on the inside cover of my Bible for the past 7 years, to serve as a reminder...

"It is my pride that makes me independent of God. It's appealing to me to feel that I am the master of my fate, that I run my own life, call my own shots, go it alone. But that feeling is my basic dishonesty. I can't go it alone. I have to get help from other people, and I can't ultimately rely on myself. I'm dependent on God for my next breath. It is dishonest of me to pretend that I'm anything but a man small, weak, and limited. So, living independent of God is self-delusion. It is not just a matter of pride being an unfortunate little trait and humility being an attractive little virtue; it's my inner psychological integrity that's at stake. When I am conceited, I am lying to myself about what I am. I am pretending to be God, and not man. My pride is the idolatrous worship of myself. And that is the national religion of Hell!" (Howard Butt, "The Art of Being a Big Shot")

God wants us to be men and women who go beyond merely following a list of "do's and don'ts" for our Christian distinction. He wants us to move toward a godly nature, controlled by godly values. Then live in humility and dependence on Him. That's spiritual maturity!

III. Leadership Requires Integrity

Now, on the same par as spiritual maturity, Paul places the concept of integrity. That's the issue in verse 7...

1 Timothy 3:7 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

The word for good reputation is the Greek word, "Marturia", from which we get our word, martyr.

Illustration: One of the most inspiring examples of martyrdom in the history of the church was the martyrdom of Polycarp (a north African church leader) in 155 A.D. He was burned at the stake for his faith when he was 86 years old. He had been arrested by the Roman authorities and brought to the arena for execution in front of a cheering crowd. The proconsul didn't want to carry out this execution of this wonderful old man, so he pressed him hard and said, "Swear, and I will release you; curse the Christ." And Polycarp answered, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?"

A person who has a good reputation (a marturia) stands with God, no matter what. In other words, that person has a faith in God that is characterized by integrity when viewed by those outside the faith.

How do you stack up? Could I go to where you work or where you live and ask your co-workers, or you neighbors, "What do you know about _______________. -Did you know they are a Christian? -Do you know that they claim to have given total allegiance to Jesus Christ? -Did you know that they put a high priority on the words of the Bible to guide their life? -How are they stacking up? -Have you observed any inconsistencies in their lives between what they say they believe and how they live?

Friends, that's having a good reputation with outsiders. That's Marturia.

Next, Paul tells us two reasons why this integrity with people outside the faith is so important...

B. Two reasons

1. "...so you will not fall into disgrace..."

The first reason is so you won't bring reproach or disgrace on the cause of Christ. This is serious business to God. Look at God's indictment against Israel who said one thing, then did another...

Romans 2:23-24 23 You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

Israel was meant to be a light among the nations, instead it caused people to blaspheme God. God will not tolerate that!

God expects every believer's life to be a positive testimony to the circle of influence He's given them–that is especially true of those who lead–we are example setters for the rest of the church...

You see, God cares about how non-Christians view Christians...

1 Pet. 2:12 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Your life brings one of two things to God's reputation: it either brings DISGRACE or it brings GLORY–there is no middle ground.

2. "...so you won't fall into the devil's trap."

A second reason why integrity with those outside the faith is so important to God is so...you won't fall into the devil's trap.

Illustration: (Get a mouse trap). You know how a mouse trap works... You put some attractive bait in the center, then when the mouse goes to grab the bait, the trap springs, and catches the mouse.

That's one of Satan's strategies for the church. He wants leaders in place who aren't totally committed to Christ–by that I mean people who give in to the temptations of operating on an immature human level rather than a mature Divine level. When he has that in a church, then he springs the trap, and renders the leader, useless, and weakens the church.

Let me tell you three traps that can snap shut a leader's usefulness in God's Kingdom...

a. First, is the trap of discouragement. Discouragement happens when we experience the consequences of believing and acting as though we or some other person is indispensable to God's plans.

Bob Logan, in his book, Beyond Church Growth, wrote this about his early days as the pastor of the church he started in Alta Loma, CA...

"So, I got on my knees, and from the depths of my heart I cried out to God for help: "Lord, I'm not sure what I'm doing here, but I think you have brought me to this moment. I don't have the faintest notion how to accomplish the idea you've put into my head. But you have put something there, an ideal, a vision of what your Church ought to look like.

"Until now, Lord, I have considered myself to be the builder of this church. But from now on I recognize and confess that you are the Builder of your Church. Please show me what to do."

The attitude of that prayer, is the only way I know to overcome the trap of discouragement for a church leader.

b. Another trap is what I call, "busy-laziness". Busy-laziness is the temptation to take the path of least resistance. You see, a "busy-lazy" leader would rather do something insignificant, than confront a problem or difficulty in the church that may be unpleasant.

Illustration: One of the most difficult situations I have ever dealt with was to confront the man who hired me at my church in Upland, with evidence that he had been involved in an affair with the church secretary. Fortunately I didn't have to do this alone. I did this with the help of my Superintendent and other Conference leadership. But this man denied the allegations (despite the evidence), he refused to admit any wrong doing, he turned four families in our church against me. He led about 20 people from our church to go with him to another church. He and the people who sided with him maligned and lied about me in the community. It wasn't until just two years ago that I was proved right, when this man was caught in another affair with his best friend's wife.

For four years I had to wait for God's promise to be fulfilled...

Psalm 37:1-2 1 Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; 2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.

I know first hand that non-confrontation is always easier than confrontation. But growth doesn't take place in a church or an individual unless sin is confronted. Mature leaders can't "wimp-out" when they have to face tough issues. Leaders have to do what has to be done, not matter how unpleasant it is.

c. A third trap is to give in to public opinion. I love this quote from President Harry Truman...

"How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if he had taken a poll in the land of Israel? What would have happened to the Reformation if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn't polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It is right and wrong leadership."

Right leadership in the church is built on only one thing–an uncompromising loyalty and commitment to the Word of God as our guide. Only mature leaders will have the courage to stand against the temptation of compromise in order to please public opinion.

IV. Conclusion

Listen friends, being a leader in God's church is a stretching process–the same can be said for growing in our faith. I hope you've caught the idea that they are one in the same. We all need this stretching in our lives in order to useful men and women in God's Kingdom.

Let me close with a poem written by an anonymous poet that captures this process...

When God wants to drill a man And thrill a man And skill a man, When God wants to mold a man To play the noblest part; When He yearns with all His heart To create so great and bold a man That all the world shall be amazed, Watch His methods, watch His ways! How He ruthlessly perfects Whom He royally elects! How he hammers him and hurts him, And with mighty blows converts him Into trial shapes of clay which Only God understands...; How He bends but never breaks When for good, God undertakes; How He uses whom He chooses And with every purpose fuses him; By every act induces him To try His splendor out-- God knows what He's about! -Anonymous

Amen.