There's two skills required of a pastor, and only two skills. There are a lot of character qualities that are required, but only two skills. No. 1, he must be able to teach. No. 2, he must manage his household well. Our churches are filled with biblically disqualified pastors.
Titus Chapter 1 makes it clear. If you do not have faithful children, and if your children are accused of rebellion or dissipation, you are disqualified biblically, and you hear that - and I know we hear that and we go, "Oh, brother, that's harsh. Nobody's perfect." Listen to me. The same passage says - and here's what boggles my mind, same passage, same paragraph - must not be addicted to wine.
That says he must not be a drunkard. He must not drink in excess. We say he can't drink at all. Listen to me. I'm not a drinker. I'm not promoting drinking. I've never had a drink, but this is what I want you to hear tonight. Not drinking is easy for me, and it's easy for most of you, 'cause most of you never drink, and you stick your chest out and pop your collar 'cause you don't drink. It means nothing to you unless you've been an alcoholic. It is not hard for you to do.
Discipling your family is a different story, and it amazes me that in the same paragraph we take one of those requirements and raise it and the other one and lower it. You wanna know why our families are in turmoil? 'Cause most of you, when you got hired at the church that you're at right now, they never even met your family.
They heard you preach and voted on you, when the Bible says if you're not discipling
your children in an exemplary fashion, you're not worthy of being called a pastor. From the top down, we are wrong on the family, and we are losing the culture war one family at a time, and we have gotten so pathetic that now there's a euphemism in our culture called a PK.
Why do we use that term as a euphemism? Because pastors' kids who live like they were raised by the devil has almost become the norm. If the church is a corporation, that's completely acceptable, because all you have to do is stand at the top of a machine and make sure that people go in one side of it and out the other and that there's more of 'em going through the machine next year than this year. But, if the
church is a family of families and if God is serious about families being expected and equipped to disciple their children, then the people who stand at the helm had better be exemplary husbands and exemplary fathers. Until we believe that, we'll continue to lose the culture war one family at a time.
Titus Chapter 1 makes it clear. If you do not have faithful children, and if your children are accused of rebellion or dissipation, you are disqualified biblically, and you hear that - and I know we hear that and we go, "Oh, brother, that's harsh. Nobody's perfect." Listen to me. The same passage says - and here's what boggles my mind, same passage, same paragraph - must not be addicted to wine.
That says he must not be a drunkard. He must not drink in excess. We say he can't drink at all. Listen to me. I'm not a drinker. I'm not promoting drinking. I've never had a drink, but this is what I want you to hear tonight. Not drinking is easy for me, and it's easy for most of you, 'cause most of you never drink, and you stick your chest out and pop your collar 'cause you don't drink. It means nothing to you unless you've been an alcoholic. It is not hard for you to do.
Discipling your family is a different story, and it amazes me that in the same paragraph we take one of those requirements and raise it and the other one and lower it. You wanna know why our families are in turmoil? 'Cause most of you, when you got hired at the church that you're at right now, they never even met your family.
They heard you preach and voted on you, when the Bible says if you're not discipling
your children in an exemplary fashion, you're not worthy of being called a pastor. From the top down, we are wrong on the family, and we are losing the culture war one family at a time, and we have gotten so pathetic that now there's a euphemism in our culture called a PK.
Why do we use that term as a euphemism? Because pastors' kids who live like they were raised by the devil has almost become the norm. If the church is a corporation, that's completely acceptable, because all you have to do is stand at the top of a machine and make sure that people go in one side of it and out the other and that there's more of 'em going through the machine next year than this year. But, if the
church is a family of families and if God is serious about families being expected and equipped to disciple their children, then the people who stand at the helm had better be exemplary husbands and exemplary fathers. Until we believe that, we'll continue to lose the culture war one family at a time.
It's like my ice-cream and chocolate analogy to sin. It's really easy to thump your chest about being thin when you don't like ice-cream and chocolate. It's so easy to wag your finger in the face of your plump brethren and say, it's so easy not to eat it! Just stop eating it! BUT you really haven't overcome ice cream and chocolate. You just never liked it. To the one who LOVES ice-cream and chocolate, and eats them in moderation (and not at all) that weight loss victory is WAY more precious. It MEANS something when they pass up the ice cream. It's a sign of strength!
