Orthodox sound guy who has a daughter himself and was just very concerned, that part of the wedding ceremony where they ask the question, who gives this woman to be married to this man and the dad says, I do, or her mother and I do. He says, I take that very seriously, and I'm not just going to go handing over my daughter to. to just any old guy, so he wrote a book on this is what a guy must be if I'm going to hand my daughter over to him and entrust my daughter to his care for the rest of her life, and there's a long list of things that you see on the screen that he, is saying that a man must be if he wants to get his daughter. Well, in a way, that's what 1 Timothy 3:1 through 7 is.
this is God's word, and this is God writing a book, essentially, a short one, but the title of it is what he must be if he wants to pastor my people. And I want you guys, as we've been telling you over the last couple of weeks, to feel loved by God. God loves you so much that he is not going to just entrust you over to the care of just anybody. But God is very exacting, very demanding.
In terms of what he expects and requires of those whom he is going to entrust you over to the care of. And so even if you're not an elder and never will be an elder, still, you can listen in and just enjoy being loved by God, as he so obviously cares for you. also, let me just say, another thing, about this passage before we get into it, for today. You need to know that, we've been taking a little, quite a bit of time in this passage and maybe more time than you would want to take.
but this passage, 1 Timothy 3:1 through 7, is absolutely critical to the life and the well-being, of a church. A church will rarely, if ever, rise above its leadership, right? And so it's absolutely critical that we as elders be what God has called us to be. But you also need to know that if we as elders have any strategy for church growth, First Timothy 3:17 is a key part of our vision and our strategy for church growth....
