The One Word Every Pastor Needs

0:00 I see preachers today and churches today that are letting go of some things they should never let go of. They should hold fast. Sometimes they say, well, this thing will get a crowd or, well, a circus will get a crowd. Now, we ought not to be arrogant, dogmatic over incidentals, but there's some things we ought to be bulldogmatic about. WHEN I WAS A YOUNG PREACHER, SOMETIMES SOME OF THE OLDER PEOPLE WOULD COME AND PUT THE ARM AROUND MY SHOULDER AND SAY, NOW SON, GOD HAS GIFTED YOU, BUT YOU'RE A LITTLE DOGMATIC. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IS LIGHTEN UP A LITTLE BIT, BUT SON, AS YOU GET OLDER, YOU WILL MELLOW. DO YOU KNOW WHAT MELLOW IS? THAT'S THE STATE THAT SOME PIECE OF FRUIT GETS JUST BEFORE IT ROTS.

0:56 I'm not talking about being arrogant. BUT I WOULD TO GOD WE HAD ACROSS THIS LAND. I MEAN, IN EVERY PULPIT, THINK OF THE CHURCHES THAT WE HAVE ON THE STREET CORNERS OF EVERY MAJOR CITY. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN AMERICA IF THIS LORD'S DAY MEN OF GOD AFLAME WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS WOULD OPEN THE WORD OF GOD AND SAY WITH PASSION AND PURITY AND POWER, THUS SAITH THE LORD. THE The Adrian Rogers Pastors Podcast is a wellspring of biblical encouragement, specifically for those called to preach the word, love the church, and lead with integrity. Listen now and be strengthened for the road ahead. Take your Bibles and find the book of Titus.

1:51 Back toward the back of the New Testament, we're going to study in the Word of God what God's Word says about a pastor, a preacher. The title of the message tonight is God's Pattern for a Pastor. Now, what we have in the book of Titus is Paul, who is writing a letter. He's writing a letter to a preacher boy. Paul had won Titus to Jesus Christ, and as a matter of fact, had steered his life and helped him to go to that particular place where he was to be a minister. And what Paul is telling Titus is this, if you're going to be a preacher, be a good one, and stand fast. Don't waver, because he was going to a very hard place. A little boy had an old horse, more of a nag than a steed, and a man was making fun of the boy's horse, and he said, Son, can he run fast?

2:49 He said, No, sir, but he can stand fast. Now, what we need are some preachers who can stand fast. Now, Titus had his pastorate in a place called Crete. Now, Crete was an island off the coast of Greece, a narrow island that had a ridge of mountains running through it. It was occupied primarily by fishermen and people who were not well-educated. It was perhaps what we would call today the backwoods, although it was an island itself. And Titus was a little discouraged. He was having some tough times, and the ministry is not always easy. And I have been in ministry long enough to know that sometimes you can get in difficult times and sometimes tough times.

3:47 And if you're not sure that you're called of God, and if you're not sure that God has placed you where you are, you might want to go back. You might want to get out of that situation. And that's not just true about the ministry. You can be in a difficult job. You can be in a difficult marriage. You can be in some sort of a situation. You say, now, God, get me out of this. Now, what Paul is doing, he's writing to Titus and saying, Titus, bloom where you're planted. Stay where God has put you until God moves you and understand that the situation is not what is going to give you joy and happiness. TO REJOICE IS A CHOICE THAT YOU CAN MAKE ANYWHERE. I LEARNED THAT WHEN I CAME HERE. ALMOST 30 YEARS AGO, UH, YOU PEOPLE EXTRACTED ME FROM FLORIDA. AND, AS THEY SAY TODAY, FLORIDA.

4:46 I was down in Florida, happily pastoring a church, and Joyce and I were there when the Bellevue Pulpit Committee intercepted us, and we went through an agonizing time trying to ascertain the will of God for our lives, and we felt that God wanted us to come here, and so we came, and we came in the fall of the year in September, and it began to rain. and it rained every day. Every day. Every day. Rain for a week. Rain for a month. Rain for another month. Rain for another month. Every day it rained and it began to get dark at 4.30. I walked out of the office one day at 4.30, ready to go, and it was dark. I said, what's happened?

5:39 Where'd the day go? And upon a time, Brother Morris Mills, I was driving out of my driveway early in the morning to get down to the old building downtown, and there was ice and snow on the ground. I'd never seen snow. Well, I'd seen it in books.

6:03 First time I saw snow on the ground, I thought it was grits. All over the ground. and I was driving a car and there was a little layer of ice there. Moving in a strange car in a strange community, driving on strange precipitation and I went around a corner and the car just slid up against the curb and I put it in gear and pushed on the wheel and it just went, and never moved. Try it again, never moved. I sat there and I looked around there were no leaves on the trees. The sun wasn't shining. And I thought, this is not my car. This is not my neighborhood. This is not my house. This is not my church. I don't like it. And God spoke to me that day. And God said, didn't you say you believe that I called you here?

7:02 Yes, sir. Don't you believe you're in the will of God? I'm where I put you? Yes, sir. Then why do you say you don't like it? Shame on you. And I said, you're right, Lord. I choose to like it. I choose to like it. I will like it. I choose to rejoice. And from that time on, I have. Just as simple as that. You can choose your emotions like you can choose your friends. To rejoice is a choice. If it is not a choice, why does God tell us to rejoice? if we are simply victims of whatever may be around us. In any circumstance, you can rejoice.

7:58 Now, here was Titus, and he was wondering, am I really where God put me? And so Paul is writing to him. Let's go down to verse 4. Paul, to Titus, mine own son after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, now he's going to give the requirement for an elder or a pastor or a bishop. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless. as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, that's a euphemism for money, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision.

9:29 He's talking there when he says the circumcision, he's talking about the Jewish community there, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of them own selves, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. Now, plain English, that means idle gluttons. This witness is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. I'm going to stop reading there. There's so much more that I could read. But this is what Paul is saying that a minister ought to be. Now he says, Paul, Titus, I sent you there for several reasons. Look, if you will, in verse 5, he says, For this cause I left thee in Crete.

10:29 Now what reasons did he leave Titus in Crete? Well, number one, he wanted him to set things in order that were not in order. To set in order, he says. The word to set in order literally means to mend a bone, to put in place a bone that is broken. It's a metaphor that sometimes churches can be broken. Sometimes churches can have problems. One of the pastor's requirements is to be a spiritual physician in orthopedics. who can put things together. He's to be a mender of things. So he is to, with tender, loving care, care for the flock, and when things are out of order, he is to put things in order.

11:23 Verse 5, that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting. And number two, he says, Titus, I'm sending you down there to ordain elders to do for others what I did for you. A good preacher is one who reproduces himself. One of my greatest joys that I have as being the pastor of this church is to ordain young men like Les and others and send them out. And folks, we have them all over the world. Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ here and on the mission field as one of the marks of God's hand upon a church. And you ought to rejoice every time we come to an ordination service. What a joy that is when we can replicate ourselves. Now, to appoint elders, that's what he says, to ordain elders. What is an elder? An elder is a pastor. Have you ever been around a church where they call their pastor elder so-and-so?

12:20 Well, you could call me elder so-and-so. That doesn't mean that you mean that I'm an old man. An elder speaks of someone with spiritual maturity. Timothy was an elder, but he was a young man. Titus, we believe, was a young man, but he was an elder. Paul told Timothy, who was an elder, let no man despise your youth.

12:44 An elder is not somebody who has attained many years chronologically. An elder is somebody who has spiritual maturity. Now, and also he's called a bishop. Look in verse 7. He's using the word bishop and elder interchangeably. Verse 7, for a bishop must be blameless. The word bishop, it comes from the Greek word episkopos, means an overseer. So a man for the ministry is to be a man that has maturity and management. A preacher has to be able to do more than preach the word of God. He has to oversee or look over the flock. He has to be a man spiritually wise enough and astute enough to do that. Now, I want to talk to you, therefore, about the kind of leadership that churches need.

13:43 Does that mean that God expects more of the minister than he does the laity? No. The standard for a Christian is the same for everybody. What God is saying, however, is that if you are to lead, you're to be one that meets the standard. It's not saying that those who are not ministers have a lower standard. What he is saying is that those who are ministers are to meet the standard that every Christian really should meet. That's what he's saying. Now, look, if you will, in verse 6. if any be blameless. Now a minister is to be blameless. It doesn't mean that he is to be sinless because all have sinned. If any man says that he hasn't sinned,

14:33 the apostle John says he is a liar. This does not mean sinless. It means blameless. It means that nobody can point a finger of accusation at him and say that there's something in his life that is not right, that is wrong, something that needs to be set in order. It means that the man of God ought to so live that no charge can be made against him.

15:08 Well, you say, Pastor, then I'm going to look you over and see if there's some charge I can make against you. Remember what I told you, it'd be far better for you to go look in the mirror and see if some charge can be made against you. this is not saying that a minister is held to a higher standard. It is saying that a minister is one who should meet the standard that every Christian should be held to. No one should purport to lead who does not live what he preaches and preach what he lives. So many times I have young preachers come to me. It's almost amusing. Joyce laughs at it at a convention or somewhere, and they'll come up and they'll say, Pastor Rogers, I've just been called into the ministry or I'm at my first church. Would you give me a word?

15:59 Would you give me something that will help me in my ministry? Like passing in the hallway, I can just give some incredible something, some memorable thing, but I have pretty well distilled it down. And so if they want a word, I give them a word. I'll tell you what that one word is. It is integrity.

16:21 Integrity. Now, integrity in doctrine, integrity in morals, integrity in home life, integrity in business life. But integrity, that's just another word for saying blameless. And you're to live with integrity. Now, the three areas of integrity that Paul pointed out to young Titus.

16:47 You stay there in Crete. Don't throw in the towel. Don't let up and don't back up, but have integrity in these three areas. Be blameless in these three areas. Number one, at home. At home. The minister needs integrity in his home life. Notice verse six. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. Spiritual leadership begins at home. If the pastor cannot lead at home, he should not try to stand behind a pulpit and export what he's not doing at home.

17:36 He is to be a man of God in relationship to his wife. Look at it again. having one wife, the husband of one wife. What this literally means is that he is to be a one-woman man, or a one-woman man. He has eyes for his wife and his wife alone. You know, people can tell whether or not you're one-woman man. I had a preacher one time say to me, Adrian, do you, do you have women coming on, do you all the time? I said, no. He said, well, I do.

18:22 So what do you do about it? What should I do about it? I really didn't tell him everything I thought. But here's what I thought. You're sending out some kind of signals. A man of God ought to be so holy that women would be afraid of him.

18:44 Afraid of him. In that manner. There ought to be no hint, but that he is a man of one woman. and may God give us more preachers who like this and more laymen. Don't get the idea that, oh yes, that's the way a preacher ought to be, but that's the way you ought to be.

19:08 A one woman man married to your own wife. And he, as a matter of fact, Peter says to all of us, you husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. as being heirs together, the grace of life. Your wife is a part of your ministry. Joyce is a part of my ministry. And you're also to give leadership to your children. Notice it says, having faithful children. I make no apology for putting my family before this church, putting my wife before this church. You can always get another pastor. I've got one wife. I'm going to keep her all my life. and yeah, if you go and clap, clap. Now, I don't say that arrogantly, but my chief responsibility and your chief responsibility as a bishop is to the family, to the home.

20:15 Your home will preach as much as any message that you'll ever preach behind a pulpit or on the ball field or any place else. And so, like Noah who got his children into the ark, we'd get our children into the ark. Now, no man, be a preacher, anybody else can control his children. And a pastor can have children that will break his heart, and you can have children that will break your heart and still be blameless. But you are to lead your family as a man of God. And so, uh, you're to have integrity in the home. Now, Les, I want to just give you three or four things, and I give this to all of us, the way to do that. Number one, be an example.

21:01 Don't preach one thing and live something else. I have four children, all love God. They're not perfect kids, because they had to play with the deacon's kids. But I don't stutter to say, and I'm not ashamed to say nor afraid to say, that all four of our kids know their parents are not hypocrites. They know that we're not one thing at church and another thing at home. Be an example. have family worship. That's so hard to do today. Have a family altar. Take time. Sometimes it's a hassle.

21:54 Sometimes we used to have family worship and I felt like we needed worship more after we had family worship than we did before we got started. But do it. It's worth it. Be creative. Make certain that your children are in the house of God. But I'm not just talking about dragging them to church. Make church the most exciting part of their life and you be enthusiastic about it.

22:21 Let them love the house of God. Get them in a good Sunday school class under a godly teacher and tie them, lash them to the throne of God in prayer. Our children are grown, but Joyce and I still pray for them by name every day, every one, and for our grandchildren. and just tie them to the throne of God in prayer. The man of God needs to be blameless in his family life. Not sinless, not perfect. None is sinless, none is perfect. But don't be blameworthy. Number two, he is to be blameless in his personal life. Begin now in verse 7. The bishop, for a bishop, must be blameless as the steward of God. And then he mentions some characteristics that he is to have. Number one, he's not to be self-willed.

23:19 You know what self-willed means? It means self-pleasing, living for yourself rather than for the good of all. If you want to live for yourself, don't get in the ministry. Not self-willed. not soon angry. Soon angry means somebody who loses his temper, with a hair temper. Temper is such a good thing, that's the reason you ought not to lose it. A minister who doesn't have temper is something wrong with him. If there's some things that don't move you to anger, you're different than Jesus. Jesus was moved with anger when he saw the weak exploited, when he saw the house of God made into a den of thieves. The book of Ephesians says, be angry and sin not. You know the only way to be angry and sin not is only to be angry at sin.

24:18 But have your temper in control, not soon angry, not flying off the handle. Many a pastor has forfeited his ministry or hurt his ministry. by not being able to control his temper, not given to wine, no striker. What does that mean? The word striker, literally the Greek word means ready to wound. Don't be trying to hurt somebody. Sometimes people use the pulpit as a place to unload on people.

24:59 There's no place for that. I found out that in the pulpit you can say almost anything you want to say no matter how hard it is if it comes out of the word of God and the people know you love them it may hurt but the pulpit the ministry is no place for a person who has a desire to wound or who wants to be a bully not given to filthy lucre what that literally means is he's not a money grubber. That's what the New English Bible says. That's the translation of it. Not a money grubber. Of course the pastor ought to be paid. The Bible says the elder that rules well is worthy of double honor, like an honorarium. Nothing wrong with that. I'm so grateful that this church cares for our family in a very wonderful way. But the ministry is the highest calling it is the worst profession. No one should ever enter the ministry for gain. Now, those are negative things. He mentions some positive things. Look in verse 8. He's but a lover of hospitality. That means he enjoys guests. He loves people. You can't be in the ministry without loving people. You can't be spirit-filled without loving people.

26:27 By nature, I don't think I would love people. If Jesus had not saved me and filled with the Holy Spirit, I would want just a few friends, and the rest of the people could buzz off. That's the way I am by nature. But I can tell you that since Jesus came into my heart, I love people. Not just in the abstract, but really. I love people. That's the supernatural work of God. But it's the chief requirement for a man of God. He is to be a lover of hospitality and a lover of good men. Now, actually what this verse says is a lover of all that is good. He goes beyond men. Of course, he's just to love that which is pure and just.

27:20 He's to be sober. He's not talking here about alcohol. It means he's to be sane and sensible. I hear churches, sometimes pastors talk about these people, these people, these people. And he himself is a ninny. And he doesn't have good sense. He doesn't think straightly, straight. And he's not sober-minded.

27:51 It doesn't mean that he can't have humor or enjoy life, but he is to be a man living with the sincerity and the soberness and the urgency and the emergency of the hour. He's to be just. That means he's to be right with others. And then he is to be holy. That means he's to be right with God. And then he's to be temperate. That means he has his own life under control.

28:24 And so what Paul is saying to Titus is, Titus, be blameless in your home life. life. Titus, be blameless in your personal life. I remind you one more time, what he says to Titus, he says to every mother's child, he's just simply saying, Titus, you're to be one that holds the standard if nobody else does. All right? Thirdly, you're to be blameless in your pastoral life. Begin reading now in verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcisions, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake and so forth.

29:33 Now, What Paul was saying that was true in Crete is true in America. There are many churches that have lost their moorings. They need a man of God who will hold forth the word of God and not let it go. Holding fast. I see preachers today and churches today that are letting go of some things they should never let go of. They should hold fast. Sometimes they say, well, this thing will get a crowd or, well, a circus will get a crowd. NOW, WE OUGHT NOT TO BE ARRGANT, DOGMATIC OVER INCIDENTALS, BUT THERE'S SOME THINGS WE OUGHT TO BE BULLDOGMATIC ABOUT.

30:32 When I was a young preacher, sometimes some of the older people would come and put their arm around my shoulder and say, now, son, God has gifted you, but you're a little dogmatic. What you need to do is lighten up a little bit. But son, as you get older, you will mellow. You know what mellow is? That's the state that some piece of fruit gets just before it rots. I'm not talking about being arrogant. but I would to God we had to cross this land. I mean, in every pulpit, think of the churches that we have on the street corners of every major city.

31:31 What would happen in America if this Lord's Day men of God aflame with righteousness would open the word of God and say with passion and purity and power, thus saith the Lord. America could be set right almost. days, weeks, or months. Hold it fast. I have in my study a bulldog, a little soft, cuddly bulldog made out of like a toy. Joyce bought it for me one time. Because at a convention, somebody stood up and said, well, Adrian Rogers, he's like a pit bull with a bar of steel in his mouth. He just won't let go.

32:26 Well, they meant that critically, but Joyce kind of liked it. And she bought me a bulldog. It's in my study. I've had it for years. And one thing I like about a bulldog, his nose slants backward. Have you ever noticed that? Do you know why that is? So he can hold on and still keep breathing. That's right. So he can still breathe while he's holding on. He says here, again, look at it. holding forth or holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he made by sound doctrine. Look at the word sound. Do you see the word sound there? Do you know what that word literally means, sound?

33:20 It has the idea of health. Actually, it's the word we get our word hygiene from. when Jesus would heal somebody, this same word would be used. Well, how would it be used for healing? He's been made sound. We talk about a person who has sound health, for example. And so you're to have sound doctrine. That means healthy doctrine. I found out through the years that if you hold forth the word of life with sound doctrine, it will have a healing effect. It's the word that we get our English word hygiene from. Uh, there, there's a catharsis, uh, to the Word of God. It, it'll make, uh, churches wholesome. And, and I'm going to wrap this up, but I want to just say three things the Word of God will do in your ministry, my ministry, our ministry. Number one, it will come for it. Notice what he says here, uh, holding forth the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may by hygienic doctrine, healthy doctrine, both exhort.

34:50 That's the first thing it does. It will comfort. It will exhort. The Word of God exhorts. It builds up. Some churches are built on negative preaching. That builds up fear and guilt. rather than faith. We're to exhort. I hope when you leave the house of God, whenever I preach, that you feel stronger. That somehow you have been exhorted to be a man of God. There's so many people who come to church on Sunday morning. They're broken. THAT'S THE REASON WHEN I SAID TO BEGIN WITH THINGS NEED TO BE SET IN ORDER LIKE BROKEN BONES.

35:45 I'VE LEARNED A LONG TIME AGO THERE'S A BROKEN HEART ON EVERY PUE. And people need to be exhorted. They need to be fired up. They have knots in their soul that need to be untied. The Word of God will comfort and the Word of God will convict. Look in verse 9 again. Both to exhort and convince. The word convince literally means convict the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. and they they're subversive, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses. And while you exhort, you also have to, you have to preach it straight.

36:39 The devil wars on a church. The devil war on Bellevue Baptist Church. I was just, came out of my study in channel 24 at six. I caught it because I knew it was going to be on. and they've done a story on Bellevue. That's a pretty good story. I mean, they treat us right. Maybe you'll see it in the evening news tonight. But all it does is make us, give us a higher profile.

37:06 And there will be people, Satan always opposes a work of God. But the worst opposition many times is not from without the church, but from within the church. but I found out that the word of God not only does it comfort, it convicts and if you keep the pulpit straight, true, pure it deals with opposition.

37:35 One of the worst things in this world is to see a preacher with fear in his eyes. I tell young preachers, you go to church you go to that church to stay the rest of your life and leave in the next 15 minutes. either way, but preach the Word of God. The Bible will comfort, it will convict, and it will convert. Look, if you will, in verse 11, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, THAT THEY MAY BE SOUND IN THE FAITH. I'VE BEEN ON THE TRAIL LONG ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT I KNOW THAT I KNOW THE BIBLE WILL GET

38:32 THE WORLD, THE JOB DONE. I'VE SEEN DRUNKARDS MADE SOBER. I'VE SEEN HARLOTS MADE PURE. I'VE SEEN BRUTAL PEOPLE MADE GENTLE. I'VE SEEN THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, I'VE HEAL BROKEN HEARTS, BROKEN HOPES, AND BROKEN HOMES.

39:00 WHAT A WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL BOOK WE HAVE. INTEGRITY. BE BLAMELESS IN YOUR HOME LIFE, BE BLAMELESS IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE, AND BE BLAMELESS IN YOUR PASTORAL LIFE.