Ingredients Of A Godly Man

Ingredients of a Godly Man

I Timothy 3:1-7 & Titus 1:6-9

I admire those whose talent lies in the culinary arts. More importantly, I like to eat. I do not profess to be a cook.

Like most men, I can grill, and that’s all.

During Kim and my first year of marriage, we were going to have hamburgers. I had seen someone add some extra ingredients to the hamburger and they tasted great, so I tried to repeat their success.

As Kim will attest, they were horrible. They burned, fell apart and tasted really nasty.

I know you cannot tell it from my slim physique, but I married a great cook. Not only quality, but quantity too.

My only claim to fame in the kitchen is my BBQ sauce.

I love BBQ - I could live on Fat Boys & Bono’s BBQ.

While growing up my mom & I would mix things together to make the best BBQ sauce, till (in my estimation) we discovered perfection.

I combine 5 “secret” ingredients and when done, Umm good!

If I take out even 1 of t/ingredients, the BBQ sauce isn’t complete.

But when all 5 ingredients come together, the end result is great.

I would like to take this thought and apply it to to our subject today.

The next two Sundays hold such great importance in the life of our young congregation.

We will be selecting Cornerstone Christian’s very first Elders.

Now I realize that everything we do this year is a first, and thereby it is important & significant, but this election is even moreso.

The men selected by us will be setting in motion the direction of the congregation. They will be men that future Elders look to as blazing the trail and setting the standard.

My intention is not to scare the men on the list to the point they choose not to remain on the list, yet I fully understand the dramatic impact Elders can and should have upon a congregation.

My experience with Elders stems from 6 individual congregations & the men that served there are as diverse as the cities accross the land.

Many of the men to whom I answered as a member or as a miinister, were men who lived an exampliarly life.

There were some that I could say, “I would like to be just like them”.

Some Elders were great shepherds and gave spiritual direction to the church, others did neither.

I do know this. The Elders set the tone for the congregation.

If they are Godly men who serve faithfully; then almost without exception, the congregation will be Godly and faithful too.

That’s why its essential that we look to the scriptures for guidance and direction in the selection process.

This year is an election year. It is possible that the man elected to be our next president will not be the best man for the job, or the most qualified, though, he will be, by electoral vote, the most popular.

Selecting Elders is not by popular vote. It is selecting men that desire to be an Elder and have the right stuff to be a Godly Elder.

Today I want to look at the ingredients that make a Godly Elder.

Next week I will look at the example of Jesus as a servant-leader.

When Timothy & Titus were given t/responsibility to help the Christians to mature in their faith & to help select men to lead, they were charged w/seeking men who had both the desire & t/qualifications.

Paul got beyond generalizations, to those specific characteristics that are marks of a man of God. Here is a person who has become a man of God thru a process of spiritual growth & development over a period of time. He’s learned to reflect Christ in his total life-style.

Paul did not say to look for men who are abundantly gifted or skilled. Instead, he stressed a man’s reputation, ethics, morality, temperament, habits and spiritual maturity.

In talking with a group of youth ministers several years ago, we talked about a congregation that was about to hire a man who had been fired by another church because of a serious immoral lifestyle. The churches reply to the man’s known problems was, “we don’t care about his personal life, as long as we see results, numerical growth.

By looking at the qualities in the verses that Justin read, we will be able to discern the type of man that God desires to serve at Cornerstone.

Then upon that basis, we ask you to prayerfully consider the men that have these qualities.

I have grouped some of the synonyms together. Have 19 Points.

Also, this won’t be an in-depth look at these qualifications just an overview. I encourage everyone to spend time studying these 2 texts during the coming week as you consider your ballot.