Titus 3:8-11
Date: November 19th, 2023
Speaker: Samuel Crites
Scripture: Titus 3:8-11
Exegetical Outline
Main Idea of Text: Paul tells Titus to insist on sound doctrine and put out those that are divisive for the good of the Church.
3:8: Paul tells Titus to insist on these things (the transformative work of the Gospel).
So the people will devote themselves to good works.
They may experience the goodness of God.
3:9: Avoid useless controversies.
They are unprofitable (do not lead to good works).
They are worthless (do not allow us to experience the goodness of God).
3:10-11: For the divisive person, warn them once, then twice, then put them out of the Church.
Main Idea of Sermon: A senior pastor leads for the good of the Church.
They insists on the Gospel.
Teach toward good works.
Experience the goodness of God.
They avoid foolish controversies.
Unprofitable – Do not lead to good works.
Worthless – Does not allow us to experience the goodness of God.
They lead the Church in the hard work of unity.
Dealing with divisiveness.
Lead the Church in discipline.
Introduction:
Does a Church need a Senior Pastor? We have talked a lot as a Church and even in this sermon series in Titus that the Scripture teaches the Church to have a plurality of elders. That is the way this letter began. Paul told Titus that he left him in Crete so that Titus might put things in order and appoint elders, plural, as in, more than one.
In Acts 20, Paul is finishing his third missionary journey, heading back to Jerusalem. He was in a hurry because he wanted to be back in Jerusalem before Pentecost. But he had a great desire to meet with the Church in Ephesus. So he stopped in Miletus and called the elders of the Church to come meet him so that he did not have to travel to the city. He doesn’t just call the senior guy out to meet him, but all the elders of the Church at Ephesus.
In verse 28 of Acts 20, he charges the elders with this:
Acts 20:28
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
He doesn’t give this charge to one man. He gives it to all the men. They are all to be overseers of God’s flock, because the Holy Spirit himself has put the church under their charge. Paul seems pretty clear that all of the elders are bound to the same charge because they are all equally responsible for the care of God’s people. Let be very clear, Mosaic Church is praying toward and hoping for the day where we will have a plurality of elders made up of both staff elders and non-staff elders.
But why do churches also have senior pastors? Is there biblical justification for a senior pastor and what do we even mean by senior? Is he equal to the other elders? Does he have a special job that no one else has? Should the other elders defer to him in decision making? How do you have equality among a plurality of elders if one elder is more senior than the rest?
Our sermon text this week sheds light on all these questions. Let’s read Titus 3:8-11 and consider what Paul is charging Titus to do.
Titus 3:8-11
8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
This whole letter has been an exercise of godly authority. Paul has been exercising his authority as an apostle to leave Titus behind to help the Church. He has been instructing Titus as a father instructs a son in how to care for these young churches. Now, he is closing the letter by charging Titus to use the authority that Paul has given him for the good of the Church. To lead the whole Church, including the elders. Even as elders are established in every town, Paul still intends Titus to lead in a way that only he can lead, to be a leader of leaders for the good of God’s church. The main idea of our sermon is this: a senior pastors leads for the good of the Church.
We will see three ways that Paul intends Titus to lead as a senior pastor. First, as a senior pastor he is to insist on the Gospel. Paul tells Titus to trust on and insist upon the Gospel. It is so easy for a young church to lose sight of the most important part of their ministry, the part that actually gives their ministry any life-giving power. In the busy season of being a young Church, the people are in real danger of losing sight of the Gospel. The “these things” that Paul wants Titus to insist upon is the Gospel he summarized in verses 3-7 of chapter 3. When the senior pastor insists on the Gospel, stays focused on it, and does not allow the people to become distracted from it, the result will be that the people grow in good works and they flourish. A leader that wants good for his people will insist that they live under the grace of the Gospel. This is the primary job of the senior pastor.
Second, a senior pastor should avoid useless controversies. They could come in many forms, but however they come, we will know they are useless because they distract from the Gospel. Where the Gospel leads to good works and the ultimate good of the Church, useless controversies are unprofitable and worthless. Young churches and, especially young pastors, are vulnerable in this area. There are lots of great ideas at the beginning of anything that is new. A godly leader does not become mired in useless controversies and helps the people stay focused on the Gospel.
Lastly, a senior pastor leads the Church in the hard work of unity. Unity is not the constant state of the Church. The Church is either in a constant state of becoming more unified or becoming more divided. We have to make a conscious effort to fight for unity. This is hard work. Paul calls Titus, as the senior leader, to lead the Church to deal with divisive people. When someone is being divisive, the leaders of the Church are to train the people to warn them multiple times and if they refuse to be corrected, the Church is to put them out. Church discipline is the hard job of Church members that want a unified Church, and it is the leader’s job to help the Church do that difficult job.
Authority is enemy of our day. Everywhere we look, we are told that authority can’t be trusted, especially senior pastors, and for good reason. The Church is not immune to the abuse of authority or senior pastors that take advantage of God’s people. However, God’s word tells us something different than the world. It tells us that godly authority exercised rightly in the life of the Church is for our good. It leads to our happiness and flourishing. In Titus 3:8-11, we are going to see that a senior pastor leads for the good of the Church.
A senior pastor insists on the Gospel.
Before we consider the first thing Paul says to Titus in verse 8, perhaps we should ask a more general question. Is it biblical to have a senior pastor? As we discussed in our introduction, we have spent a lot of time considering how the New Testament teaches that all churches are to have a plurality of elders in the Church sharing the authority and responsibility for God’s people. There must be equality among the elders if the plurality is going to function they way that God intended it. So it would seem that having a senior pastor or a senior elder contradicts what we have seen to be the clear teaching of Scripture, because seniority contradicts equality. How can they all be equal if one elder is more senior than the others?
There is no single passage of Scripture that I can point to where the church is commanded to have a senior pastor. There are plenty of clear commands that the church is to have a plurality of qualified elders and members, but none where a senior pastor is required. So, before I make the case for a senior pastor, I think it is important to be honest and say that the Bible does not demand it. I would go so far as to say that if a church decided not to have a senior pastor and only wanted to rely on their plurality of elders, that they would be well within the bounds of biblical faithfulness to do that. When it comes to the issue of having a senior pastor, I think there is liberty based on what Scripture teaches.
However, consider three things that give us an indication that having a senior leader, like a senior pastor is wise.
First, it seems to be the biblical pattern. For all the authority and prominence God gave Moses when he led the people of Israel out of slavery, he served as one of many leaders. In Numbers 11, Moses appoints 70 elders to share in the burden of leadership. Moses was not an autocratic leader, but a leader of leaders.
It seems pretty clear from the Gospels that Jesus’s 12 apostles were all meant to lead the Church in the early days after his ascension. But it is also pretty clear that Jesus had an inner circle of three: Peter, James, and John; and among those three, it seems that based on what we see in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter was the leader of the leaders.
When Paul wrote the first and second pastoral epistle to Timothy, he wrote them to Timothy, not the other elders. Not that the other elders were not important, and it is not as if it was a personal letter, but he wrote those letter to the Church at Ephesus through the leader of their leaders, Timothy. I could go on with more examples, but it seems that throughout Scripture leadership is something that is both shared and something that ultimately finds expression in one individual.
Second, having a leader of the leaders keeps the vision in the minds of the people. Proverbs 29:18 says:
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,
but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Now, this passage gets misused all the time. We are not talking about a man-made vision. This proverb is not saying that we need a clear mission, vision, and values statement in the Church or people are just going to wander out of the Church. No, it is saying, in the Church there needs to be a clear, constant, and audible proclamation of God’s word so the people do not forget who they are and who they belong to.
And that is not merely a pulpit issue. It certainly is a pulpit issue. The Church needs the clear teaching of God’s word constantly preached from the pulpit, but it is not merely that. It starts in the pulpit, but it cascades through every aspect of the Church’s life. A clear vision of the Gospel must come out of the mouth of the primary speaking in the Church, but the Church must also be led in that vision; and it is wise when the voice of the church and the leader of the church are the same man.
Thirdly, it is human nature to look to a leader of the leaders. Every senior pastor I have ever talked to that has a plurality of elders has told me that one of my primary jobs is to elevate the other elders in my Church. I will constantly be fighting to give away authority and leadership to the other elders and attempting to elevate them in the eyes of the other members. That is not because the other elders are deficient or even less capable of leading. It is simply because the more a group of people sees a leader, the more they will expect that leader to lead. It is simply human nature. On every team I have ever been on where a clear leader was not defined, every single one, a leader will either step into the vacuum or the group will force someone into the vacuum.
Having a senior pastor is not a must have, but it is a wise-to-have, and if it is a wise-to-have then we should ask ourselves: what does that guy do? Let’s see the first thing Paul has to say about senior pastors in verse 8, namely that senior pastors are to be the one in the church that insists on the Gospel. Look at verse 8 with me:
Titus 3:8
The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
Insist on what things? Sometimes, one of the most exegetically difficult decisions to make is to identify what a pronoun refers to. In this case, Paul says there is a saying that is trustworthy and whatever that saying is, he wants Titus to insist on it when dealing with the Church. So what saying that is trustworthy that Paul is referring to?
Look up briefly at verse 4. It says:
Titus 3:4-7
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
What do we call this wonderful story of God’s kindness? What word do we give to the message of the saving power of Jesus Christ in the life of every Christian? What is the saying that is trustworthy and worthy of being insisted upon in the Church? In verses 4-7, Paul has just summarized for us the message of the Gospel. It is the gospel that he is telling Titus to insist upon within the church.
Which is interesting, because he says that the gospel being insisted upon in the presence of those who have already been saved by it will produce in those people two things: a devotion to good works and the flourishing of the people. Look at the “so that” in verse 8. Titus is to insist on the Gospel, “so that” God’s people will devote themselves to good works and, because the Gospel is inherently excellent and profitable. It is good for you. You need it.
Did you know that the Gospel is not merely the thing that you needed for salvation but also that which is essential for ongoing sanctification? Meaning, that if you're going to grow in holiness and Christ likeness you must constantly be taught and reminded of the message of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power it has in your life. This is the job of the senior pastor. This is the job that Paul has given to Titus.
But I go back to the question, why does Paul tell Titus to insist on the gospel? It must be that in a young church it's very easy to lose sight of the gospel. I don't know about you, but as I reflect on the last 13 months that we have been a church, I think of many things in my own life that have distracted me from the gospel. There are a lot of decisions that must be made in the young church, there are a lot of theological questions that must be answered. It is challenging to find agreement on these things. Everyone of us came to this new church with experiences, theological convictions, and expectations, any combination of which could become opportunities for us to lose sight of what is truly important, of what truly unifies us and brings us together.
The senior pastor is the one leader of the leaders that must constantly be fighting for course correction. He must be preaching and leading with the Gospel as the center of all that he does. When he clearly preaches the Gospel and leads with the Gospel, the people will flourish and good works will be easy. It will flow out of them because the message of God’s grace is flowing into them.
The senior pastor avoids foolish controversies.
If the senior pastor is to be so laser focused on the Gospel as the vision of the Church, then the second thing Paul says to Titus, this young leader of leaders, is that he cannot become mired in useless debates. The senior pastor must avoid foolish controversies.
Paul gives us some examples of what the senior pastor is to avoid: useless controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law. Now some of these examples are not things that are going to ensnare a senior pastor in our day and age. None of you are keeping lists of genealogies and quarreling about your ancestry. We aren’t fighting over whether Christians have to keep the Mosaic law or not.
But there are fights to fight in our day. Some of those fights have to be fought and some of fights must be avoided. When it comes to the senior pastor, Paul tells Titus to insist on the Gospel because it leads to good works and the flourishing of the Church. Insist is a strong word. It is meant to have a slightly combative tone. To insist on something is to hold the line defensively first and offensively when necessary.
But not every discussion or debate is a fight for the Gospel. In fact, most have nothing to do with the Gospel, most are unprofitable and useless. The debates and quarrels are unprofitable because, unlike the Gospel, they do not lead to good works. There is no pay off from them. They are useless because they do not make the Church flourish.
So let’s put this in language that we have used before. Theological doctrine can be split into three tiered categories. First tier doctrine are the doctrines that are necessary for the Gospel. They are the core of the faith and the essential things that make us Christian. Doctrines such as the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, the reality of sin, etc. They are the doctrines that we are willing to die for. These are the doctrines that should consume the majority of the senior pastor’s time as he constantly insists on the Gospel in front of his people.
Second tier doctrine are the doctrines that we must agree upon in order to fellowship together in the same Church. These doctrines that are essential to worship. We do not die for second tier doctrines, but we are willing to divide over them. When it comes to these doctrines, we must find a church with whom we agree in order to be able to faithfully worship with them.
The third and final tier of doctrine is doctrines we are free to disagree on. They do not affect the essence of the Gospel and they do not change the way that we worship. First tier – Die for, second tier – divide over, and third tier – disagree over; die, divide, disagree.
These tier doctrines are the most common and I think these are the types of doctrines that Paul has in mind when he tells Titus to avoid foolish controversies. And it is so easy to become bogged down in such things. There are so many theological rabbits that seem worth chasing, but when it comes to the senior pastor, such debates can only have a net negative effect on the Church. Two things happen. First, when the senior pastor becomes embroiled in useless controversies, he loses the esteem of his people. There is nothing that will make people lose respect for their leader faster than seeing their leader squabble over useless controversies. This would have been true for Titus, and it is definitely true today. Second, and the far greater offense, it means that the Gospel has been left behind. The one that is to be insisting on the Gospel for the benefit of God’s people, that they might grow in good works and Christ likeness, is being distracted from his primary duty to become ensnared in things that do not benefit the Church.
I am not saying that second tier and third tier issues are not the responsibility of the senior pastor. He certainly has a duty to teach on and protect the integrity of these lesser doctrines. But Paul is telling Timothy that he should be very cautious, for the sake of the Gospel and the good of the Church, from being unnecessarily entangled in debates and quarrels over such things.
The first thing Paul teaches young Titus is to insist upon the Gospel. It should be the beginning, middle, and end of his pastoral ministry and leadership efforts. If no one else is thinking about how to keep the Church focused on the Gospel, the senior pastor should be thinking about such things. In the same way, the second thing Paul tells Titus is that a senior pastor should be warry of useless controversies. They distract from the Gospel and will lead the pastor down a path toward ineffectiveness.
The senior pastor leads the church in the hard work of fighting for unity.
Which brings us to the last thing that Paul teaches Titus about being a senior pastor. The senior pastor is to lead the church in the hard work of fighting for unity. Let’s reread verses 10-11:
Titus 3:10-11
10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
In high school I played football. One of my head coach's Favorite sayings was that if you're not improving you're getting worse. I would modify that for the church to say that if we're not becoming more unified as a body then we're becoming more disunified. There is no standing still. There is no steady state of unity that exists in the church. It is something that we have to be constantly work hard to cultivate.
My Grandpa Martin had a great garden. He was known for how beautiful and lush his backyard was. One of the images that will always define my memories of my grandpa is seeing him sitting in his back yard, among his flowers, enjoying the sunshine and peace. What most people didn’t see was that the peace he enjoyed in his garden came at the cost of constant effort. He was constantly working to pull weeds, replace plants when they went out of season or didn’t grow properly. I learned this lesson firsthand because as I got older he had me and my brothers out there working on his yard all the time.
The church is like that garden. Right now, our garden is little more than a cleared plot of land with some neat flower beds and adolescent plants. We are growing, but it isn’t something that is going to win the yard of the month award; but it is ours and we love it. Our ability to enjoy that garden is dependent on doing all the work that needs to be done: pulling weeds, spraying for pests, finding the right place for all the plants to grow and flourish. The one who knew all those things that needed to be done in the garden was my grandpa. He gave me the list, and I did them.
In Titus 3, Paul is telling Titus that he is like my grandpa. He has to be the one looking out for the unity and cohesiveness of God’s garden. The senior pastor is to be the one leading out in dealing with divisive people. These divisive people are the ones in the Church that can’t avoid the useless controversies. Not only does Paul warn Titus not to be a quarreler, but he tells him that it is his duty, as the leader, to deal with such people. He is to warn them once, then twice, and then have nothing more to do with them.
Look at the reason that Paul gives. He says that such a person is warped, sinful, and self-condemned. That seems to be a pretty harsh charge, but consider the flow of the passage. Paul says that the Gospel is the preeminent thing in the Church. It should be insisted on by the senior pastor, he should be careful not to become snared by anything that would distract him from that message, and the implication is that neither should anyone else. If a person has been warned that their pet theological convictions are distracting the Church from the essence of the Gospel, not once but twice, what is that person actually saying about the Gospel? When they are unwilling to set down their obsession with whatever they think is so important for what God says is the most important, what do they truly love? Who do they truly follow?
This is why Paul says that they are warped, sinful, and self-condemned. By their own actions they are rejecting what God has said is good for them and necessary for their growth and progress in the faith. They are saying that they know better than God and the Church. By their own actions, they say that they follow themselves and not God. Paul’s accusation is serious, because rebellion and an unwillingness to submit to the warnings of the pastor are serious sins.
The process of dealing with disunity in the Church is called church discipline. What Paul tells Titus is that it is his job to lead out in it, but ultimately, church discipline is something that must be carried out by the Church. Turn with me to Matthew 18:15-20. Notice the similarity between what Paul tells Titus and what Jesus teaches his disciples.
Matthew 18:15-20
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Both Jesus and Paul prescribe a three-step process. Step 1: when a brother sins against you, go to him alone and tell him of his fault. If he listens, praise God. He has shown the humility that we should expect from every mature member of the Church, and you have won him back to the Gospel. Warning number one.
Now before we move on to the second step. Most Church members have never done this. They typically do one of two things. They ignore the sin and justify it in their own minds so that they do not have to go through the awkward task of confronting a brother or a sister. Or, they call the pastor and try to get him to do it. If you call me with an issue with another member, I want you to know the first question I am going to ask you: have you talked to them one-on-one? Now, I am happy to help you think through how to do that and to advise you on the things that you should say, but I will not do step number one for you. You have to do that yourself. In God’s providence, he ordained that you would be the one to find the sin or be offended by your brother. It is not for me to rob you of the opportunity to grow in your faith by dealing with the difficult task or the joy of potentially seeing them repent when you confront them with their sin.
But, if the brother or sister ignore or refuses the first warning, the next step is to take a couple others with you. In our context, I would say this is the point at which you should involve the elders. I will be happy to go with you, as well as potentially one or two more. The goal of the second warning is twofold. It increases the pressure on the offending party to confess their sin, and it establishes the charge of rebellion against the correction of the Church on the witness of more than one person. This escalation should warn the brother or sister that their sin is serious and that their church is going to take their sin to be serious.
If they refuse even that warning, then the last step is to take the issue to the church. If the brother or sister will not listen to the gathering of the entire church that is speaking with one voice on the issue, then they are showing a level of rebellion that has risen to the point where we can no longer honestly confirm they are a believer. In Paul’s words, they have condemned themselves, because they have hardened their hearts against the body of Christ. Jesus says they are to be as a Gentile or a tax collector, meaning, they are to be put out of the Church.
Christ gives us the hard duty of discipline because we are finite. We cannot see into the hearts of men and know with perfect certainty who is and who is not a Christian. All we can do is listen to what people say with their mouths and see how they live with their lives. This is our burden when they come to us as members; we do our best to assess the validity of their testimony. But this is also our burden when they leave us through Church discipline. Being accepted into membership does not make you a believer, and being disciplined does not make you a non-believer. Membership is the passport that recognizes your citizenship in the kingdom and discipline is the removal of that passport.
This is exactly what Paul is teaching Titus in Titus 3:8-10. When people are causing division in the Church, it is the pastor’s job to lead the church to deal with the disunity. The disunifying member is sinning against the entire church by disrupting the peace of the garden of God, and it is leaders job to represent the church to that member as the offended party.
Brothers and sisters, this is no easy task. Discipline is not something that any member, least of all the senior pastor should relish. It is bitter medicine that must be swallowed if the church is to continue to be healthy. But it really is a struggle for life and death. The life and death of the Church. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul teaches the church that sin is like leaven. A little bit of leaven will turn the entire church into leaven. If the Church is not willing to deal with the sin of disunity, they will not survive. They will be torn apart by strife and division. If I gave some of you the opportunity, you could speak for a long time on the churches that used to exist in this town that no longer exist, because they were unwilling to deal with sin in their body. Churches whose names most people have forgotten because they lost sight of the Gospel and lack the courage to fight for it.
Mosaic cannot be one of those churches. But I can only lead in that conviction. I cannot do the work for you. Matthew 18 does not say bring the offending member before the elders. It says bring them before the church. It is your duty, as the body of Christ, to deal with the divisive member among you, to cultivate the unity that will bring our Church peace and prosperity in Christ.
Conclusion
In our sermon text today, we have seen that Paul charges Titus as a leader of the leaders. It seem implied that a senior pastor that leads his church well is a blessing to his people. By insisting on the Gospel, he will lead his people to good works. They will flourish because the Gospel is refreshed in their lives through the power of the Holy Spirit as they are reminded constantly by their senior pastor what Christ has done for them. In order to insist on the Gospel, the senior pastor cannot become mired in useless controversies. They are unprofitable and useless because they do not lead to good works. Which all members should take to heart. As their pastor focuses them on the Gospel, they themselves should become less quarrelsome and divisive. If anyone does disrupt the peace of God’s people, then the senior pastor must lead out in the difficult job of discipline. He warns once, then twice, then brings the divisive person before the Church to be put out if they do not repent. This is for the good of the Church and the preservation of the Gospel.
As we close, I want to return to the way that we began. Is a senior pastor good for the Church? I think Paul clearly says yes. There is a kind of leadership that the Church needs that cannot be done by committee. In other sermons, I have emphasized the exact opposite point. There are kinds of leadership that the Church needs that only a plurality of godly, qualified men can offer.
But this sermon has considered the senior pastor and the authority he wields in the life of his people. And for some of us, that makes us itch. The idea that anyone has authority over me in my life is almost insufferable. We have been so trained by the culture that we have grown up in that the concept of submitting to anyone but God himself makes you grit your teeth.
But God has placed authority in your life for your good. In the context of the local church, he has placed elders and the senior pastor in your life so that you can flourish under the persistent teaching of the Gospel.
At the end of his life, David’s last words are recorded in 2 Samuel 23. Listen to what he says:
2 Samuel 23:1-3
Now these are the last words of David:
The oracle of David, the son of Jesse,
the oracle of the man who was raised on high,
the anointed of the God of Jacob,
the sweet psalmist of Israel:
2 “The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me;
his word is on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel has spoken;
the Rock of Israel has said to me:
When one rules justly over men,
ruling in the fear of God,
4 he dawns on them like the morning light,
like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
David said that a man who rules under the authority of God, justly among God’s people, is like the dawning of a new day. He is like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that falls on the earth. The product of all of those things is growth. When godly authority is exercised in the lives of god’s people, justly and with fear before the Lord, the end result is that God’s people flourish.
Church, pray for me, and every elder that follows me until the Lord returns, that we would be just such men. Not for our benefit, but for yours.
Let’s pray.