Being Blameless

BEING BLAMELESS

TITUS 1:6

This morning I would like begin my sermon by telling you somewhat of a tragic story. There was once this elderly women named Wilma. Now Wilma loved her pet dog very much. One day Wilma awoke to find her dog on the ground not moving and a little stiff. She immediately called the vet who told her to bring the dog in right a way! Wilma tell as she was told and brought the dog to the vet. After examining the dog the vet broke the news to Wilma, "Your dog is dead". In between sops she asked the doctor if there was anything more that he could do. Feeling sorry for her he stated well there is one more thing I could do.

He left the room and came back a shore time later with the big gray cat in a cage. The vet let the cat out, it proceeded to walk over to the dog, sniffed it head to toe then went back into the cage. The doctor looked at Wilma and said, "Well that settles it for sure, your dog is dead!".

Satisfied that the vet had done all he could she asked the vet how much she owed him. He stated that will be $330. Wilma was shocked! "What! $330! For what?"

Well the vet said, "$30 for the office visit, and $330 for the cat scan".

Now it what be very difficult to some how fit that into today’s sermon so I am not even going to try.

A few weeks ago we discussed leadership. I believe that while I was away David also preached on that particular subject. You may recall that Titus is given the task of assigning elders in the local churches. These were to be local men, Titus was to train some of the men who were already in the church to be leaders of that church.

We also made mention that each one of us, that each one who has made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is to some degree a leader. Some of you are leaders at work, those with children are leaders, as you are to lead your children in bring them up to follow God. We are all leaders in the sense that we are called to lead others into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Up until this point we have looked at some general things concerning leadership, today we are going to begin to get into specifics of what a good leader is, or the shall we say the qualifications of a good leader.

Please turn with me to our passage for today, it comes from Titus chapter 1 verse 6, that would be page 1032 in your pew Bibles.

Now remember in verse 5 Paul has called on Titus to "set in order things that were lacking" in the church on Crete, and to "appoint elders". In our passage Today Paul begins to give the qualifications for elders or leaders in the church.

"if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination."

Here Paul lays the groundwork for what a qualified leader in the church ought to be and in a broader sense we are given here standards for living the Christian life, something which applies to all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus for salvation.

What Paul is basically saying is that if you want to have a healthy church this is what you must look for in a leader, because it is these things which that leader must teach to the church. It is these things which the leaders must give as an example.

So Paul is not saying that the leaders are the only ones responsible to have these qualities but that these things must be passed along to the people. That is what a leaders does, he leads, leading the people of the church into blamelessness, being a moral example and so on.

Now the reason I am stressing this fact is that I do not want anyone to get the idea that these qualities or traits do not apply to them.

You see we will all be held accountable to God by these standards, not just Harley and I, but everyone in this room, whether you are saved or not. Because these are not man’s standards these are God’s standards. If you want a healthy church, if you want a healthy home life, if you want to impact this community for Jesus Christ then these are the qualities you need to have, here Paul gives us the way.

Another thing that I want us to realize before we get into the particular of this verse is that every saved man in this room should desire the position elder or the case of this church deacon. Every one of you!!!!!!