Good to see you. If, if you've got a Bible, go
and get that out, get that open. If you don't, that's OK.
We will have every word of the biblical text on the screen for
you. So just keep your eyes either
here or there. We are in the book of Titus.
Everybody say Titus. Lovely voices this morning,
Titus. We are spending 18 weeks
together in this little book, exploring every nook and cranny
of it. And this is week, I think 6.
And so we have been taking our absolute sweet time.
And this morning we are going to be in verse 9, what Paul is
doing in the book of Titus is he's instructing Titus, who is
operating kind of as the chief leader on this island called
Crete, over these new young fledgling churches that have
sprung up. And he's teaching Titus how to
build a church. And so that's really the way to
read this book best is it's really just a manual for how in
the world do you do it? How do you be a church?
That's why we called this sermon series How to Be a Church.
And to quote the Brad Pitt movie Moneyball, it's hard not to be
romantic about the church, who the church is, what the church
could be. The church is the hands and feet
of Jesus. The church is the bride of
Christ. The church is the community of
the people of God. One theologian referred to it as
the loveliest place on earth. The New Testament calls it the
pillar of truth. Eugene Peterson called the
church a colony of heaven invading the world.
It's a hospital for sinners, not a museum for Saints.
It's a beautiful place and it's hard not to be romantic about
the church, but we also have to remember that the church is
primarily made-up of sheep. That's one of Jesus favorite
illustrations for what you are. What I am and what this is, is
we are sheep and who like sheep, wolves.
So by necessity of the very character of what a church is, a
flock of sheep wolves are attracted to the church.
And so that's what Paul is going to start talking about.
What do you do with these wolves that pop up, these people who
intentionally want to devour and destroy the church?
And as we think through this subject of what?
What is a wolf and what are they out to do?
And how do you spot them? How do you not harden your heart
so that you become one? We will invariably talk about
the relational and social hardships that are part and
parcel of belonging to a church. Somewhere along the way, we'll
even teach ourselves. What does it look like to drama
proof the church? And after 40 minutes of teaching
and preaching, if the Lord has put something into your heart
that helps us drama proof this church, that'll be a win.
Amen. So let's hear from the Bible
first. Go ahead and stand if you're
able. So in verse 9, this is a
continuation of a thought unit that Paul already started all
the way back at verse 5. He's he's telling Titus, the
first thing you got to do if you want to build a church is you've
got to find, develop, train elders, pastors, overseers, find
these people, make sure they've got these character
qualifications. And then Paul pivots in verse 9
from character qualifications to the one skill or competency that
these elders must have. He says in verse 9 he must hold
firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able
to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also to rebuke
those who contradicted. Why, that doesn't sound very
that doesn't sound very nice. Paul.
I thought Christians were supposed to be nice.
Well, he says, for there are many who are insubordinate,
empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the
circumcision party. They must be silenced.
Why? Since they're upsetting whole
families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought
not to teach, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own,
said Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
This testimony, Paul says it's true.
Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the
faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands
of people who end up turning away from the truth.
To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and
unbelieving nothing is pure. Both their minds and their
consciences are defiled. They profess to know God.
There's an appearance of spirituality, but they deny Him
by their works. They are detestable,
disobedient, unfit for any good work.
Do you ever just read a Bible verse and think, man, I would
love to preach on that? That's not how I felt about this
one. Heavenly Father, would you make
this text come to life? I have had to.
I have had to spend an inordinate amount of time in my
prep this week focusing on my own heart.
This this text has made me I want to preach passive
aggressively and with bitterness and our church deserves better
than that. And so I just would you make me
pure of any other motive. Would you, would you purify my
heart so that I don't make this sermon about my experience with
with the church because that would not ultimately be helpful,
Lord. So just purify my heart and help
me help me preach from, from a place of, of purity of
conscience. And I just, I just want to
preach in a way that even with a text like this that I didn't
want to preach that nobody wants to hit nobody signs up for a
sermon on this Lord, and yet it's hearing your words.
So it, it needs to be preached. And so I pray that it would be
preached in a way that yes, is helpful.
Yes, that leads to clarity, but somehow, some way would it lead
to greater joy in Jesus. That would be awesome.
And that's what we ask your spirit to do.
So it's in the precious name of Jesus that all God's people
prayed. Amen.
You can have a seat. Insubordinate, empty talkers,
deceivers. What's actually going on here?
OK, so what's happening is these are young churches, which means
that they're really, really fragile and new.
And they're on this little island called Crete.
And Paul's instructing Titus on how in the world do you shepherd
these communities? How do you take these young,
immature communities and make them into a church?
And he says, Titus, go find, build and install pastors and
then make sure they've got the right character qualifications
and then train them to drama proof the church through good
doctrine. And one of the great things
about preaching this text is that I don't have anybody in our
church in mind. So I don't have to like stand up
here and be like I'm preaching responsibly to some wolf in the
church. I'm actually just preaching
proactively from the text. And so that makes this a little
bit of an easier sermon. But the basically the gist of
this is, is Paul Tantitis drama proof the church through elders
who have good doctrines. Very practically, this seems to
be what's going on in in this text.
People are creeping into these churches and these particular
people that Paul is referencing, they're they're viruses.
They're viruses. I know that's strong language,
but Paul uses strong language. They are people who are allergic
to health and they thrive off of drama.
Again, Paul's language is probably stronger, right?
Insubordinate, empty Tuckers, deceivers.
Jesus uses the term wolf to describe these people.
Jesus's own words in Matthew 7 quote, Beware of those who will
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous
wolves. In fact, Jesus goes so far as to
say that the pastors who do nothing to protect the flock
from these wolves are not good pastors.
In fact, Jesus says they're not pastors.
This is what Jesus says. He says, quote, he who is a
hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep, sees
the wolf coming, leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf
snatches them and scatters them. So Jesus says the pastor who
does nothing to protect the sheep from the wolves, and he's
not even a pastor. Jesus says he's he's just a
hired hand. Yikes.
So let's go deeper and let's get a more accurate picture of who
these people are. Exactly.
The thing that's happening in these churches is this
self-righteous self appointed leaders.
Always beware in the local Church of a self appointed
leader. Somebody who appoints themselves
a pastor, appoints themselves as a leader, has not gone through a
process, has not had eyeballs of other elders and pastors
training them and just says, you know, I feel like a pastor.
So today I'm a pastor. self-righteous, self appointed
leaders. What they're doing in here is
they're rising up and they're preaching a false gospel.
This is what Paul's were hinting at when he uses the phrase in
verse 10. He calls them what?
Especially those in the circumcision party.
So what exactly? What's going on here is these
are people who are preaching a message that is contrary to the
gospel of Jesus. They're the circumcision party.
What that means is that they're going around saying no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no. I don't care what Paul says.
A person is not saved by faith alone in Jesus, which is the
gospel. Amen.
That's the biblical gospel. You're saved by faith alone in
Jesus, apart from works of law. These wolves are coming in.
They're saying no, no, no, no, no, yes, you got to believe in
Jesus. He got that part right.
But they also have to do Old Testament works of the law,
believe in Jesus, yes, but also you need to get circumcised.
You probably should not eat certain types of food.
You also have to do all of these ritual cleansings.
And if you can juggle all those responsibilities, then you can
earn salvation. They're taking the gospel,
they're preaching a false gospel by adding things onto it.
This is key. I need you to hear me.
Anything added to the gospel, Jesus plus this Jesus plus that
Jesus plus you got to earn it through obedience, Jesus plus
works of the law. Anything added to the gospel is
not a simple addition to the gospel.
It morphs it and transforms it into a different gospel, a false
gospel. OK.
Anybody who adds anything to faith alone in Jesus is
preaching a gospel contrary to the biblical.
It's it works this way. I've used this analogy in the
past. You guys didn't like it.
I'm going to use it again. It's like a really good bourbon.
OK, If you have a really good bourbon and you decide you want
to make a cocktail with it and you add stuff to it, it's not a
simple addition to the bourbon. It spoils and dilutes the
bourbon. Yeah, that's right.
I thought you guys were Baptists.
So. I mean, so I've heard Joseph
told me. That's what happens when you
make a cocktail like that Now, it cuts, dilutes the the purity
of the thing. That's the way the gospel is.
Any addition, no gospel cocktails.
You can't mix the gospel with earning your salvation.
It dilutes it into a false gospel.
That's what's going on here. That's why in verse 14, Paul
describes it with a little bit more detail.
If you got your Bible, look at verse 14.
He says these are people who are devoted to Jewish myths in the
commands of people who turn away from the truth.
I studied John Calvin on this about 500 years ago.
He said, you know, it's they're making up frivolous myths that
are really attractive to the carnal mind in order to keep the
minds of people in a state of suspense without ever leading
them to Christ. So we don't know exactly what
myths they're making up here, but they're obsessed with all of
these old Jewish myths that aren't in the Bible.
And it's, it's what might actually be going on too, is
the, the main myth that happened in in Crete was actually the
myth of Zeus. So huge myth in the ancient
Roman world. One of the reasons why the Roman
world hated Crete, this little Isle and island.
And one of the reasons why Paul says that their own poet said
that they're evil and liars and lazy beasts is because they
claimed and told the rest of the world that Zeus was actually
born on the island of Crete and died on the island of Crete and
that they had Zeus's tomb. It was their way of trying to
say, hey, we have something special to Rome.
And the rest of the world was like, bro, what are you smoking?
Zeus? Zeus is immortal.
He didn't die there. And so on Crete, you actually
have a bunch of Zeus worshippers, which makes me
believe that maybe one of the myths they're bringing into the
church is, yeah, you should worship Jesus, but also Zeus.
But yeah, I make your church about Jesus.
But damn media, it's not going to hurt to also throw a little
bit of Zeus worship in there. And it Paul's like, no, no, no,
no, no. That stuff is leading you away
from Jesus. And that's why Paul's main
exhortation, his main strategy to drama proof the church is to
what? Install good pastors who have
good theology. Verse 9.
He says they have to hold firm to the trustworthy Word as
taught. He's talking about the teaching
of the apostles, which is the New Testament, so that he may be
able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also rebuke
those who contradict it. That's why at, at Frontier,
we're not perfect. Our elder team is not perfect.
We've got 3 elders right now. We're going to install three
more in a couple weeks. It's going to be great.
But we have a rigorous, rigorous, rigorous elder
development program where we need to make sure that we're all
on the same page with character and, and also with theology.
Like it's, it's notorious in the city of Des Moines how rigorous
our process is. It's like 12 to 24 months of
ongoing training. I had a pastor in the area come
up to me randomly in the coffee shop a couple months ago saying,
what are you working on now, Cole?
Another boot camp to beat the crap out of your elders, right?
So like it's notorious for being really, really robust.
I was talking to a pastor from Waterloo a couple of years ago.
He was like, what's your elder process?
And I was like 25% of the way through explaining it.
And he goes, what, your pastors read books for you guys?
And I was like, brother, they don't just read books.
They write essays too, and have to defend their doctrinal
positions to the other elders. He's like, how do you get?
I just want anybody with a heartbeat, with a pulse that
will share some of the eldership load with me.
How do you find these people? And I'm like, I don't know.
I honestly, I think part of it is like when you have a high
standard for elders, that's who you tend to attract.
And so when you say, hey, we're not going to lower the bar on
theology in this church, I don't care how smart you are, I don't
care how sparkly or good looking you are, we're not going to
lower the bar for theology. So you're going to spend 12 to
24 months studying, debating, thinking about theology.
It's going to be brutal. What good elders do when they
hear that is I want a piece of that.
What wolves do is they go, no, no, no, I don't want I don't
want to process. I want a really quick ladder
when I can rise to the top. So you can't skip this part like
it's God's word says they must hold firm to the trustworthy
word as taught right in verse 13.
He says they need to be able to rebuke those who preach a false
gospel sharply, sharply. Strong words doesn't sound nice.
And yet the qualification character wise for elders is
they need to be kind and gentle, but also they need to know when
to hold the line. Tough and tender, gentle but
rebuke wolves sharply. Why such strong words silencing
wolves, rebuking, why such strong words for this?
And this is the key. I want you guys to hear me here.
It's because of the nature of these wolves.
When we're talking about wolves, when Paul's talking about empty
talkers and deceivers, Paul is not talking about grouchy church
members. OK?
You just have to deal with grouchy church members.
I told one for I was like one of my buddies who's a pastor.
I'm like, look, not everybody who's a pain in the rear end is
a wolf. Sometimes sheep just crap a lot
and you got to pick it up. That's just part of that's part
of being a shepherd. So I've heard these are not
faithful church members. They're not church members who
disagree with pastors. You guys are actually welcome to
disagree with pastors in this church as long as you don't seek
to actively undermine them. He's not talking about people
who have questions about the way the church operates.
That's normal. That's just being a good church
member. He's talking about people who
are allergic to health, thrive off of drama, and take a dark
pleasure in the destruction of the church and her leaders.
Go deeper with me. Here's where it gets unnerving.
And Titus, these wolves are doing it.
What's their reason? Look at verse 10.
They're doing it for, quote, shameful gain.
In other words, their spiritual predators who are praying on the
fragility of these young churches.
Now, we don't know exactly what type of shameful game they're
seeking. Some theologians out there think
that the shameful game is financial.
So in other words, they're seeking financial compensation
for performing these ritual ceremonies that they're saying
that people need to do in order to be safe.
So if these guys are right, it would look something like this.
Hey, now you have to believe in Jesus and get ritual cleansing
for all the meat that you eat. And by the way, as God would
have it, I can also be the person who cleanses that for you
for a small charge. It could be.
It could be that I don't personally, I don't think that's
it. I think the shameful gain
they're seeking isn't financial, though it might be.
I think it's actually just followers in an honor shame
culture. People really liked having
followers. And So what these wolves do is
they see these young, fragile churches that lack elders right
now, by the way, as an opportunity to gain themselves
new followers. This is what wolves do.
They profit from division. And since they benefit from
division, what do they stir up? Division.
Be aware of anybody who benefits from division.
People who benefit from division will also stir it up.
Look at verse 11. There seems to be a deliberate
strategy. Even they are upsetting whole
families. In other words, they seem to be
strategically targeting family units, bouncing around
methodically from family to family.
Seeking what? Bouncing around from family to
family, trying to find out who is willing to carry their virus
and spread it. So think, think here.
I need you to hear me. Just hear Guy hear this again.
These are not cranky church people.
These are people who have the appearance of spirituality, but
who are secretly, inwardly malevolent.
If I had to guess based on the text of exactly what this looks
like, what Paul's talking about, I think it's something like
this. These are people in Creep who
are putting on a spiritual mask, going from family to family,
saying, hey, can we get coffee? Like the Lord has just laid
something really heavy on my heart and he wants you to hear
those. You got brother, sister, you got
to know. Oh man, God's telling me to say
this to you. And I don't get any pleasure
from saying this, but I just, I need you to know that Paul is a
liar and that you can't trust him.
OK? He's, he's not preaching a true
gospel. He's just preaching 1/2 gospel.
It sounds great that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus.
It's just not true. It hurts me to have to say this
about Paul. We should pray for Paul.
But Paul's, Paul's wrong.
Paul's wrong. Faith in Jesus isn't enough.
You also need to get circumcised.
You also can't eat meat. You also have to do ritual
cleansing. Paul's Paul's a liar.
We should pray for him. Do you see the spiritual mask
there? That's why Jesus literally says
that the wolves will be dressed in what?
Sheep's clothing? What's that look like?
Probably close to what I just said.
Lots of religious spiritual mumbo jumbo with the aim of
making your relationship with your church toxic.
And again, I know you didn't sign up for this sermon, but
just come a little bit deeper with me.
Edwin Friedman, he wrote a legendary leadership book,
Failure of Nerve. I quoted every other week.
He's not a Christian, so he has a different word.
He doesn't use the word wolves to describe these people.
He uses the word virus and Friedman makes 10 observations
about the similarities between the way that these people
operate in organizations because he says they're any organization
or multiple human being. Viruses are attracted to that.
And so he makes 10 observations about the way these people
operate and the way that biological viruses operate.
I'm going to spare you. I'm not going to give you all
10. I'm going to give you 5 of these
observations. And as we walk through these,
maybe, just maybe just resist the temptation to picture other
names and faces and just self assess and just ask yourself,
hey, are these are these things true about, about me?
And they're fantastically, I think, astute observations.
Friedman says #1 like viruses that have no outer membrane, in
order to protect their integrity, these people tend to
be easily hurt injustice collectors wherever they go, who
are always given to victim attitudes #2 like viruses who
have a parasitic quality to the way that they bond, these people
bond in parasitic ways too. They tend to idolize their
leaders. This is the best church ever,
man. Paul's the best leader ever.
Paul is awesome. They idolize the leader until
the unrealistic expectations fail, whereupon they crucify
their gods. This is the best church.
Paul's the best, and then Paul accidentally has to reschedule
his dinner appointment with them.
And then they're like pulse, pulse the worst.
There's a parasitic quality to the bonding #3 like viruses that
are limited to either being turned on or off.
These people tend to be entirely unable to relate to people who
do not agree with them on everything.
If there's not 100% agreement about everything, there's just
an just unwilling to even engage in a relationship #4 like
viruses, they tend to ooze into, if not directly interfere with
the relationships of others. Why did we see this in Titus?
What's the strategy in Titus? In Titus they are strategically
targeting family units, actively working to upset them, losing
into the relationship. This is an old strategy.
This is precisely what the serpent does in Genesis.
What does the serpent do in Genesis?
He oozes between Adam and Eve's relate.
You got to read like when biblically literally.
Not trying to be hyperbole here, but biblically, when you read
about the character of Satan, you have to recognize that
Genesis to Revelation, Satan is literally a drama queen like
that. Like that's his, that's his MO,
he's a drama, that's what he does.
He seeks to find a relationship and inject drama into it.
Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, right?
Your relationship with the church in the New Testament
agents of division, these people ooze they you know, you know,
you might be hanging out with one.
If you always hang out with this person and you leave with a
smaller, darker, diminished view of the church.
There's they want want to spoil your experience in the church.
Which brings me to the fifth and most important observation I
think Friedman makes, which is number 5.
Like viruses, they find light and truth, the element that's
most healthy to other forms of life.
They find light and truth to be toxic to their nature.
In other words, they are allergic to health.
Like they hate being around healthy environments.
They hate being around healthy people.
If there's not drama, their lives don't feel satisfying, so
they have to stir it up, right? They find they find health
repulsive. When you experience joy around
these people, your joy feels like a condemnation to them.
So it elicits bitterness rather than joy.
And they try to cut you down when you're in the presence of
somebody, when they're they're allergic to health.
So that when they're in the presence of somebody who's like
passionate about Jesus, their responses, Oh, it's just because
she's a fake, you know, actually worship Jesus so passionately on
Sundays because she's performing like they'd find it alert.
They're toxic to be around health.
Oh, he's he's a good worker or he's a good husband.
It's because he's a normie. Like viruses, they thrive off
darkness the way that viruses thrive off of bacteria.
So again, if there's not drama, then life feels boring.
And so like that empty talkers and Titus, they make it their
goal to go around and stir it up.
And our, our church has been very fortunate.
I think we planted this nine years ago and we've had a
really, really drama free church for the most part, for the most
part, But still, it still happens, right.
And I, in my opinion, this is the hardest thing about being
part of a church is that you can't, you can't stop the church
from experiencing drama. You can't like just think of it
this way. Imagine you have a home that you
love and you're building it, and it's your home and you take
responsibility for it and you want it to be a beautiful home.
So what do you do? You you study as much as you
can. You try to pick out the exact
right artwork to hang up on the wall.
So your home looks beautiful, right?
You You get exactly the right furniture, and you strategize
about where to put it and how to organize it so that people feel
comfortable when they walk into it.
You study the dietary habits and needs of your family, and then
you stock the shelf with exactly the right groceries.
You spend all this time planning it, but imagine that as you're
building your house, there's something different about this
house. Unlike other houses, this house
you're not allowed to put a lock on the front door.
Can you imagine that you're building a home, but you can't
put a lock on the front door? What's that mean?
That means that while you're working your rear end to make
this home beautiful because you love it and it's yours.
Anybody can walk off the street and walk through your house and
eat your food, screw up the furniture, make a freaking mess,
and then walk out and do it to the next house.
And what's that mean for you? If it's your church, If it's
your home, it means you're stuck cleaning up the mess.
It's like a house with no lock, right?
In that same way like the church, you can't put a lock on
the front door and say, OK, welcome to Frontier.
No dramatic people allowed, no sinners allowed.
You can't do that. You can't do that.
And as a result of that, anybody can and will walk into this
church that you're praying for, laboring for building, and they
can say whatever they feel like saying, spread whatever gossip
they want to try to spread. And then they can just freaking
leave whenever they want. And it leaves you to do what?
To clean up the mess, reorganize it and keep building it.
And that that just it happens and a church, you've experienced
it. If you haven't experienced it,
you will experienced it. And it's really hard.
You get left with the mess and you got to clean it up and then
keep building. That's what belonging to a
church is like, right? Like every faithful church
member knows this pain. Somebody comes into the church,
you disciple them and you invest your time and your energy into
these people. And then you, you spend time on
a daily basis lifting them up before the throne of Jesus,
praying for them. And on Christmas break while
you're at your parents house, you take out and you take a 2
hour phone call to help them work through their issues.
Because you love them and you're investing them.
You're giving them your time and your energy.
You want to see them become like Jesus.
And then suddenly you discover that for the past year they've
been undermining you and spreading gossip about you
behind your back to everybody besides you.
For the last year you experienced that.
And when you do, you need to know two things.
Number one, it hurts and #2 you can be healed by Jesus from
that. It hurts.
It's going to happen. You're going to invest in
somebody and they're going to turn around or they're just
going to walk out with the middle finger and you're going
to be like, gosh, all right. And you can't put a lock on the
front door of the church and say, no dramatic people, no
sinners allowed. If you do that, you become a
dead, legalistic church who only lets people who think, talk, and
look exactly like themselves into the church.
Is that an option? No, it's four centers.
It's four screwed up people. Can't put a lock on the front.
You can't stop the drama from happening.
Here's what you can do. You can, number one, drama proof
your church to the best of your ability.
And then #2 you can have a strategy for healing when you
experience it. Let's talk about the first
thing, drama proofing the church.
I'm going to be really practical.
I'm going to be really specific here.
I'm going to give you 1 tool. It's it just one tool that if
you use it as a church, it is actually incredibly simple and
incredibly effective to drama proof the entire church.
Simple, practical, and effective.
If you're a note taker, write this down.
Write this down, write this down.
If you're just a remember, remember, remember, remember.
Here, here it is. Here's my tool.
When a person sits down with you and begins to undermine the
credibility of a person in our church, Let's be hypothetical.
Let's let's say Broseph Johnnifro.
Yeah. Yeah.
You sit down. Oh, gosh.
Is that why the name is familiar?
So somebody sits down and starts to talk about Broseph Johnnifro,
about concerns undermining the credibility of this person in
the church, bringing charges against them, are intentionally
seeking to destroy your trust in their leadership.
When you are in that conversation, which is heavy,
please, please, please ask them one question.
And this is the tool I want to give you and it's effective and
it's simple. Ask them one question.
How was that conversation with Broseph about that?
Tell me about what was it like talking to Broseph about these
concerns? And if that individual says, oh,
I actually haven't talked to Broseph about it yet, what I do
is I tell them I can't have this conversation with you until you
have that conversation with Broseph first.
I'll go with you. I'll sit with you in the
conversation. I can mediate if you need me to.
But until you have that conversation with Broseph, the
New Testament forbids me from having this conversation with
you. And the reason why this is so
effective, why this question, it's so effective?
Because what it does is it actually discerns the motive of
the person's heart. So if the person's concern is
really a godly concern about Broseph's heart and health, what
they'll do is they'll hear you say that and they'll go have
that conversation with Broseph and you'll know that was a
genuine godly concern. I've had probably, I would say
just shy of 10 conversations with church members over my last
nine years who came before me with a legitimate concern about,
about my leadership where with a soft spirit, right?
They've, they've said, Hey, brother, I just want you to
notice. I've, I've seen this thing in,
in your life. Can we, can we talk about this
thing? I've, I've noticed and every
time those conversations have been an extraordinary blessing
to me. I've walked away from those
conversations thinking, I think that person was right.
I think I got to work on that. I'll bring them before the
elders and be like, hey, have you noticed this pattern in my
life? And then you, it's such a
blessing. So if you genuinely have a
concern about a leader, why would you hide that gift from
them? It's such a gift to have those
conversations. And if a person hears you say,
hey, have you talked to Broseph about that?
And they go, oh, no, I shoot, I should.
What does that tell you? It tells you that that's a
genuine concern. However, if that person is not
willing to have the conversation with Broseph, what does that
tell you? Tells you that his concerns are
less motivated by his love for Broseph and probably more
motivated by a dark pleasure to spoil your relationship with
him. And there are people, I'm sorry,
you just I wish, I wish you could come to a different
conclusion. I would like to read the Bible
and come to a different conclusion.
You can't, if you can't read the Bible and come to a different
conclusion. There just are people out there
who experience a sick joy in destroying healthy communities.
Not most people. Most people are awesome right
there, image bearers of God. They're fun to be.
They want you to be like Jesus sometimes, right?
Some sheep poop a little bit and that's part of it.
But like, most people are awesome.
But like, Paul's not talking about hypothetical people.
There needs to be like, I I Della made me laugh so hard a
couple weeks ago. We were driving in the car and
we were listening. Don't judge me to blink 182.
Really loud. Yeah.
Blink 182. And for the first time in human
history, it was a situation of the child rebuking the father
for listening to Blink 182. So we're listening to Blink 182.
I can't even remember what the lyrics were.
The lyrics were something about a girl named Josie.
And I don't know, it's Blink 182.
So it's probably like, oh, Josie sucks.
I don't know what, something like that.
And I was listening to it. I was just listening to it.
And this squeaky, beautiful little voice in the backseat
goes. I turn the song down.
So I turn the song down and, and Della goes, what did he just
say? And so I, I think he said that
Josie sucks. No, no, no, no, no, no or
something like that. And and she goes, Josie is my
friend. Do you think he's writing about
my Josie? I was like, no babe, I don't
think Blink 182 from 18 years ago was writing about your 4
year old buddy Josie. So no, it's OK.
He's not talking about that, Josie.
And she goes, she goes, she goes, Dad, I never want to hear
that song again. It's like, OK, OK, so I shut the
song off. But sometimes you there's just
songs that get sung and played that you need to shut off.
What is that in Della's heart? That's relational love and
maturity. Sometimes you just need to shut
off songs. All right, so let's like map
this out a little bit. Suppose this person has a
concern with this person. Suppose that person has a
concern with Broseph. And so they go and have the
conversation with Broseph. You know what that is?
That is a godly friendship that they're both really lucky to
have. Amen.
Now, let's suppose that's not what happens.
Let's say that person has a concern with Broseph and they're
kind of nervous about having that conversation.
So they go over here to have this conversation.
This person says, hey, what was that conversation like with
Broseph? And they're like, I haven't had
it you're yet. You're right.
And they go have the conversation with Broseph.
That is a godly relationship. Sometimes you just have some
relational incompetency and you're like, Oh yeah, you're
right. I should probably should talk to
Broseph about that. That's totally cool.
That's just part of being a church.
Now suppose they have a problem with Broseph.
They go over here and this individual says hey.
I can't have the conversation with you until you talk to
Broseph. And they go, oh, yeah, OK,
totally. And then they go here.
No, no, no, I shouldn't have this conversation with you.
And then they go here, and it doesn't take here and it doesn't
take here and it doesn't take here.
And they get a little reactivity and they get a little bite.
And that person's like, oh, wow, this is a big deal.
Oh, man. So they keep going back there,
increasing momentum. Oh, wow.
We should start a blog. You're right.
We should do right. If if that's the strategy, I
don't know what to tell you. Like that Looks.
It smells like a wolf. Sounds like a wolf.
I don't know what to tell you. It looks like a wolf, right?
Targeting family units individually.
Upsetting whole families, right? These types of things, they
don't happen often, but when they do, they're heavy for
church members. Church members want to they want
to have an experience with church where church is the place
where they learn about Jesus and become more like Jesus.
And yeah, we sin and we need to forgive one another, but like,
it's where I learn about God. They don't want it to feel like
another middle school dance full of gossip.
And so it just gets heavy when this happens.
And so Paul's instructions are elders, you've got to step in
and protect people, right? The exact thing is silencing
them. I like we are a low control
environment. Like I'm going to be honest with
you, our elders, we're not controlling people whatsoever.
But at the very least, like we can't be faithful to the
biblical descriptions if we're not at least willing to have a
conversation with somebody practicing this and saying, hey,
do you even think that this is a good fit?
Right. We like, we don't, we don't,
we're not going to carry around torches and like, put muzzles on
people. Like sometimes.
And I've probably I've only had this conversation two times in
nine years where I've had to sit down and say, hey, so there's
been this pattern. I love you.
I want what's best for you. Do you want to have this
conversation? Is this church even a good fit?
It's OK if it's not a good fit, but it can't turn into like a
middle school dance. And you know what?
We also need to round out the opposite impulse, right?
If one impulse that needs to be rounded out is, oh, let's be
naive about people and never think that somebody's a wolf,
that you can't live with that naivety.
On the other side, though, you also don't you don't want a
church filled with trigger happy people either, like trigger
happy pastors who call everybody who disagrees with them a wolf.
That's not good either. That's the opposite error.
Like there's also a type of leader who gets too much
pleasure labeling everybody who disagrees with them as a wolf.
And what he does is he weaponizes biblical texts like
these against everybody who disagrees with him and wants to
challenge him. If somebody disagrees with
something he said on the Sunday sermon, he says touch not the
Lord's anointed. Or if somebody doesn't think
he's the greatest leader and as God's gift of planet Earth, he
calls him a wolf, that's not good either.
Unhealthy pastors, when they weaponize these texts, they end
up crying wolf so that you can't even see it, right?
And sometimes they use these texts to always avoid
accountability. So also beware of pastors who
always cry wolf because look at Paul's intention here.
He doesn't. He's not trying to.
It's not a power struggle. He's not trying to protect the
power of the elders. What's his?
What's his MO? It's not to help leaders avoid
accountability. What is it?
It's never, never, never when it's healthy.
It's never, never, never about power.
Verse 13. He wants these churches to have
soundness or wholeness and health, soundness of faith.
It's about the health of the church, protecting the wholeness
and the soundness of the church, right?
Drama proofing the church helps the church not get trivialized.
Some people's faith, it gets chewed up and spit out, not by
arguments, but through just the triviality sometimes of the
Western church. It's like, man, these all these
guys care about is gossiping about each other.
I thought these were the people of God.
And sometimes it's that the trivialization of a person's
faith that makes them have a negative experience with the
church. And so that's the point of drama
proofing is to make sure we can stay focused on Jesus.
So you can't keep drama from ever happening in the church.
He can drama proof it though, to keep it from spreading so it
gets dealt with. But that means that if you're a
part of a church, I hope you are.
If you build a church, I hope you do.
I hope you spend the rest of your life building an imperfect
church for Jesus. That means that by virtue of the
fact that it's a flock of sheep, you're going to get bit by a
wolf. Some of you have, some of you
will be, all of us will be. And so that like the question
is, OK, wolf, OK, what do I do when I get bit by a wolf?
I've got 30 minutes of preaching to do.
I'm going to do it in 6 minutes. What do I do when I get bit by a
wolf? Sister, brother, I want you to
remember the saying that hurt people hurt people.
That is mostly true. One Christian theologian said it
better. He said pain that does not get
transformed gets transmitted. You hear that?
So the first thing you have to do is you got just let it hurt.
Like when you invest in somebody and they turn around and bite
you or they just peace out with the middle finger to the church.
When that happens, I'm telling you it's going to hurt.
Your job is to not harden your heart.
Just a lot of pastors don't have the courage to say this.
I'm going to say it. Just let your heart hurt for a
season. Let it hurt.
Let the thing hold your heart in your hands.
Just let the sucker bleed out a little bit.
Let it sweat out the toxins. Hold your heart before Jesus.
Like a cookie without gluten, just falls apart.
Poetry, bro, you need to study it.
Just let it fall. Just let it fall apart, right?
We're there. I should spray it out.
You just got to let it fall apart, man.
But hurt people hurt people. So let it hurt.
And then after a season, don't be a coward.
Do not harden your heart. Do not avoid people.
Do not start every relationship with an unfair level of not
trusting people. So you've got to be courageous.
Hurt people, hurt people. Pain that doesn't get
transformed gets transmitted. So once you've allowed your
heart to hurt, your next most important thing is that if hurt
people hurt people, which is true, you need to know that the
gospel is literally the good news that I hurt God heals
people, hurt people, hurt people, but I hurt God heals
people. So your responsibility after
that is to go before Jesus, take your pain and just give it to
Jesus. Like I just love this about
Jesus. I love this about Jesus.
Jesus is the God who knows pain. There's no relational pain you
can experience. There's no social pain or
betrayal you can experience that you could bring before Jesus.
And ever hear Jesus say, what's that like?
He has experienced it all. He's experienced the wrath of
God being laid on him. He's experienced betrayal of his
closest friends. He's experienced being spat upon
and rejected by the very people that he came to save.
He knows every iota of relational pain you could ever
go through. And this is the strange thing
about Christianity. Just test this, OK?
The strange thing about Christianity is how comfortable
suffering and pain is within the framework of Christian theology.
It is so comfortable within the framework of Christian theology.
Like the thing about I could never, ever, ever.
I couldn't. You cannot convince me to
believe in a distant, abstract, nameless, faceless God who's way
out there and doesn't know what pain is like.
I would never trust that God. By definition, that would not be
a God. If there's a God who doesn't
know what pain is, like, he's not omniscient.
And if he's not omniscient, he's not God.
And so like, if you have a distant, abstract, nameless,
faceless, yeah, sure, God probably exists and then you
experience pain. I guarantee you that what that
pain is going to do is you're going to go, oh, how can God be
real in a world where they're suffering?
What pain does, if you have a relationship with a distant God
is it makes you question the existence of that God.
Jesus is not a distant God. He's not a God who's way out
there. Jesus is the God of the cross.
He is the God who was crucified. He's the God who knows what
nerve pain feels like. He is the God who, when you look
at Christ crucified, that's not a one time event.
That's his nature. It's a central revelation of who
he is. That's what he's like.
If you know a God who is close to you and suffering for you and
knows pain, when you experience pain, which I hope you don't,
but you will, when you experience pain, it doesn't make
you question that God's existence.
It confirms that God's existence because in the pain and
suffering, you don't say, how could God be real in a world of
suffering? What you do is you say, oh, my
suffering proves the existence, that Jesus is real.
The world's filled with suffering because I worship a
God who suffers. And so, strangely enough, what
pain and suffering and relational pain does if you have
a relationship with Jesus, as it doesn't drive you away from him,
it drives you to him. The very pain that you thought
would destroy you actually increases your joy in Jesus.
The very pain that you thought would make you question the
existence of God actually drives you so close to Jesus that you
could. It has been pain and betrayal in
my life that has made me feel so close to Jesus that I swear to
God I can close my eyes and I could picture Jesus and I feel
so close to him that I can, I can literally lean forward and
rest my head on his chest and feel his heartbeat extinguish on
that cross. I picture him.
He's not nameless, He's not famous.
He's not, he's not nameless, He's not faceless.
He's not way out there. Picture a 1st century Jewish man
hanging on a cross, nails through him, spit dripping from
him, experiencing the wrath of God, crying out for God,
experiencing pain and betrayal. And I swear, when you do that,
when you picture that man on the cross, the voice of the
universal human experience will whisper, If God's not like that,
then God can't even be real. When you picture a man suffering
on a cross for you, I guarantee you the voice in your heart will
say that must be what God is like.
That's what God is like, and we'll drive you closer to Him.
It's so strange. The wound that you thought would
kill you becomes the very opening through which Jesus
administers Greater Julian, Him. It's the cracks that let the
light in. It's the wounds that I hope you
don't experience. I just know you will.
It's the wounds that invite the joy in.
The very pain that sought to destroy you actually serves your
joy. And I'm going deep here.
I'm going deep because when you experience relational pain,
sister, I need you to have a gospel big enough that it makes
the pain serve your joy in Jesus.
So what's going to happen if you commit to building a church,
being a part of a church? It's going to be great.
We're going to have a lot of fun together.
We're going to laugh together. We're going to eat together.
We're going to talk about Jesus together.
You're going to get bit by a wolf.
You're going to put yourself in danger to wolf attacks.
But here's my promise to you. By the grace of the Great
Shepherd, the God who suffers, you'll survive them, Amen.
And the Great Shepherd will heal you and it'll increase your joy
and Jesus will build his church. And Satan, that great and mighty
drama queen, will not prevail against him.
Amen. Heavenly Father, I pray that you
would you would make us a church that is drama proof.
Can't put a lock on the front door because it's your church
and it belongs to you. And so we got to be open to
messed up, screwed up people who don't have good friendships and
don't know how to have good friendships.
And maybe they're just socially immature sheep who don't know
how to handle conflict, or maybe they're wolves.
So, oh Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, give us the wisdom to know who's
a sheep that just you need to be prepared to do a lot of cleaning
up and who's a wolf. Give us the wisdom so that we
don't need to live with suspicion because I would hate
if the thing the sermon, this sermon, I would hate it if the
main thing it did was fill people with suspicion.
People should not be filled with suspicion.
Our first impulse towards other people should be like, wow,
image bearer of God. How awesome, man.
I would love to see them become more like Jesus.
I want to pray for them. That should be our first impulse
with people. And so, Lord, would you help us
hold on to our tenderness and softness of heart and also give
us the courage to know when to say, hey, this far and no
further. That is a that's a social
spiritual maturity that only the Holy Spirit can give.
So would you give that to us, Jesus?
It's in the precious name of Jesus that all God's people
prayed.