We are privileged as a church to ordain two men to gospel ministry this evening. I'll never forget the missionary that we met in Togo many years ago for Southern Baptist Convention. And they regularly gave in their church to their missions program, but they never really saw any missionaries. Well, someone in their church became a missionary, and we met her, and she told us a story about how in their fellowship hall, they used to have a picture of Jesus, but when she became a missionary, they took the picture of Jesus down and put her picture in its place. I give that very quickly just to say there are a lot of churches who don't get the privilege of doing what we get to do tonight. This is a huge blessing that God would raise up from among us men to do pastoral gospel ministry. Al Carper and Paul Horner have been brought through the process of requesting and then the confirmation for ordination. They asked for this. While their wives are not being ordained this evening, we all need to remember that the weight of ministry Al and Paul do will be shared by their wives and to a different extent by their families. So let's not forget their importance this evening as well. The requirements God has given us for those who desire this task or this work of being a pastor are found primarily in two passages, 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 7, Titus chapter 1, verses 6 through 9. Both of those passages focus primarily on character qualities. Pastors and non-pastors alike are exhorted to have these qualities in their lives. However, pastors must demonstrate a significant level of what I will call mastery. These things have to these qualities of character must be very obviously demonstrated in their lives. They can't just have one or two or a little bit here and a little bit there. These qualities need to be characteristic of who they are in their lives. The only two things these men must be able to accomplish or to do are to teach effectively in their daily, teach effectively, and then to manage their homes well. Everything else is primarily a character quality. For our time this evening, though, I would like to look at a different passage in 2 Timothy chapter 2. in order to go through and be thorough in everything about what a pastor's supposed to be able to do and the kind of man he's supposed to be would take a whole lot longer than we have time for. So I've chosen to look into 2 Timothy chapter two for another passage that deals with pastors and what they need to be able to do and the kind of people they need to be. So 2 Timothy two verses 24 and 25 is where we're gonna focus. But I would like to begin, for the sake of context, in verse 20, in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Now, for the sake of not skipping over those two primary passages, I'm very quickly going to read 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 7. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, pastor, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard nor violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, non-believers, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. That, for the sake of those character qualities, they are basically repeated in Titus chapter 1, verses 6 through 9. But now, I'd like us to turn our attention to chapter 2 of 2 Timothy. And I'll begin, for the sake of context, because I really want to think more properly about just verses 24 and 25. Verse 20, now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable use. Hmm. Any kids here who would like to come sit down here on the floor? We do it all the time. So come on down if you're a kid, and let's look at something together, all right? We're talking here in 2 Timothy 2 about vessels for honorable use and vessels for dishonorable use. At your house, you've got this kind of thing. It could be a bucket. It could be a pot or a pan. But what you're talking about is something that's used. And some of those we think of as honorable. We like those, they're good. And some of them we think of, well, I use it, but it's not very honorable. So what I'd like to do is to have you imagine with me on a day like today, it's chilly and rainy, that maybe your mom or your dad says, would you like me to fix you some soup, a nice big soup? pan, pot of soup or chili. How many people like, let's say, chicken noodle soup? And how many of you would rather have chili? OK, so either one will work. I got everybody, I think, voted there. That's good. So now, your mom says, I'm going to fix this chili for us. I'm going to fix this soup for us. And what she does is to say, Look at this. This is the pot I'm going to fix your chili in. Look at that. Now what is that? My grandkids watch their mom and dad fix meals and they are all into fixing meals in the backyard with mud and rocks and leaves and stuff. That's what we've got here. OK? Wouldn't you love to have your mom fix your soup in there? We've got some jokesters down here. OK, I have two pots. Which one do you want your chili fixed in? I don't believe you. I don't think so. OK? So what we're going to say is that this, thank you, this is a vessel for honorable use. And this one is dishonorable. Now, let me ask you this. If you were to come to my house and I were going to fix you the chili, would I honor you by fixing it here? No, I would not. That would be very dishonorable. What would that say? I really don't care about you. I don't care if you eat dirt and stones instead of soup. That's not honoring you, right? If I wanted to honor you, I would use a clean pot. True? If I came to your house, would you... Now, don't you say this, because I know what you're going to say. If I came to your house, would you fix me some soup in this pot? In this one? I don't either, but I think I could probably pour some Campbell's in here or something. Honorable use? Dishonorable use. Now, we could use this one, but what would we have to do first? What? Clean it out. We'd have to clean it out. We'd have to get rid of all this nasty mess, and then we could use it. But if we don't clean it out, it's dishonorable to use it. I would dishonor you by fixing you food in this pot, okay? And that's not just for kids, that's for Al Carper and Paul Horner too. Thank you. My son actually built them a counter with a sink in it so they could play out there, and they love it. And since I needed a good object lesson, I was very glad that they had just done that. OK. Now, being a clean vessel honors God. For a pastor to be useful, He needs to clean himself up. Now, this isn't with the understanding that Christ has saved him, that Christ has made him a new creature. This is not him doing it on his own. However, as we serve God, whether we serve him as an official position, like pastor or deacon, or whether we just serve God because we love him, we still have to be active. Our relationship with God is reciprocal. He does something. He says something to us. We respond, either by what we say or what we do. And then he responds to us, and we respond to him. That's how personal relationships work, and that's what we have with God. So if we would be useful vessels, useful tools, then we need to be sure that we are clean. Clean in Christ, born again, useful to him. But at the same time, we need to do the work necessary to keep ourselves clean. We're going to talk, or the Spirit through Paul is going to say some specific things about being clean here in these verses as we get into verse 22 and 23. But I would remind Al and Paul, keep yourself clean because God can use a dirty vessel, but it doesn't honor him or the people that he would use you to minister to if you are not seeking to walk with him to keep your life clean and pure. And as I speak these things, I'm speaking to all of us on pastoral body as well. So it's not just these two men who are having the finger pointed at them. Verses 22 and 23 say this, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. We'll stop right there for a moment. We're supposed to flee certain things. Timothy is a younger man, and so Paul speaks to him and says, flee youthful passions, strong desires that would pull you away from Christ, that would make you an unfit, dishonorable vessel for him to use. Then what are we supposed to do? As we work at our salvation with fear and trembling, we should flee those passions and then pursue righteousness, chase right things. Pursue doing the right thing as opposed to pursuing that which would be less than pleasing to our Lord. Pursuing faith, doing those things, taking those pains that cause me to build my trust in Him and not to trust Him less. Pursue love, pursue giving of myself, giving of ourselves for others. That agape, one-way love, no matter what you do, I'm going to love you. I'm going to serve you. I'm going to give myself for you. Pursue that. Chase it. And pursue peace. In a few minutes, we're going to talk much more about interaction as pastors with the people that we serve and minister to, and pursuing peace. in relationships is absolutely necessary, Al and Paul, as pastors. If you don't, you're going to have a lot of trouble, and if you don't, you're going to bring a lot of that trouble on yourself. OK. Doing all of this along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, in other words, in community, You're going to be in a local church. You're going to be ministering to people. You're going to have connections with people. So these things that we're supposed to do are not done in a closet by yourself. There is an individual aspect of it, but you do this in community. You help people. They help you all together, serving and following the Lord Jesus Christ and obeying his spirit through the word. We must also have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. The word foolish basically carries the idea of going flat, like a flat tire. Once the tire is flat, it doesn't go anywhere. It's no longer useful. It's a problem. You have to repair it. Sometimes my wife used to make a pound cake, and she made it in a, I think you'd call it a bundt pan. And she was really nervous because if it didn't sit upright and look good, if it fell in the pan, she was beside herself. Didn't bother me. It tasted the same. But maybe there are some cakes that if they fall, they don't taste good. They don't look good. They don't taste good. That's what this idea of foolish is. Reject foolish controversies. Now, what would a foolish controversy be? Well, they may come in many shapes and colors. The problem is that we can get caught up in them very, very easily. He also says that these things are ignorant. In Paul's day, the wealthy families or well-to-do families would have a tutor. come in and train their children, not just in math and English and stuff like that, but how to live life. Prepare my child for life. So this was beyond tutoring in the way we think of it. This was a train-for-life kind of tutor. Well, what this ignorant means is, or really kind of points toward, is someone who acts like they've never had any training in their life at all. They're ignorant. They don't know anything. They haven't been trained. Nobody has poured into them. So these controversies are like flat tires that don't work, like untrained, ignorant situations. And if we get caught up in them as pastors, and it's easy to do because people in the community will bring these things to us. What do you think about this, pastor? I read this article. I saw this post. What do you think about that? And you can tell that what they want you to do is to pick their side. And what Paul is telling Timothy is, don't get caught up in those things. There are times to stand and fight. But these ignorant, flat tire controversies that are not gospel focused, that are just things that people fuss and argue about, he says, reject those. Don't get caught up in those. And warn the people who are getting caught up in them. Stay away from those things. That is how you will help keep yourself clean, making yourself a useful vessel. So the reason for this strong admonition is that they breed quarrels. Serious conflict. The word can be used of physical or non-physical, but it's clearly very intense and bitter. Conflict between people. People who are on outside of the church with people on the inside. But many times, and the most difficult ones often, are the ones with people in the church. people who may be in the church but not really born again, or people who are born again but they haven't grown enough to figure out how to stay away from these controversies that they don't need to get into and shouldn't get into. It's a sense of conflict. It's the idea of people who want to engage in a war of words as though they're in hand-to-hand combat with one another. Flat tire, untrained characteristics in these controversies are only going to breed quarrels, struggles, hand-to-hand combat. Don't get involved in those things. Stay away from them. And tell those who are caught in them that they need to get out now. Verses 24 and 25. really where I wanted to get and maybe this is just because of my experience in ministry, but he goes on in verses 24 and 25 and he says this, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone. Paul and Al, you must not be quarrelsome. You must not be pugnacious. You must not try to win the battle. You must try to win the person. But you have to remember that these people are your opponents, the verses say. These people oppose you. They are attacking you. They will attack you unless you agree with them. And when they do, What are you supposed to do? The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but on the contrary, kind, gentle, mild, easy to approach. And you're supposed to act like this toward whom? To everyone. Lost people, weak brethren, lost people in the church who think they're saved and they're not. You're supposed to be kind, gentle, have a mild spirit and character towards these people who are landing punches on you. He goes on and says, you need to be able to teach. To teach whom? These people who are punching you. The title tonight is Truthing in Love. Tell these people the truth, which is going to make them punch you, which is going to make them attack you more. But do it because you love them, not just to win a battle or a fight. And to do this with gentleness, This is not meek and mild. It is strength under control in order to reach a goal. It's strength under control in order to reach a soul, the person who's attacking you, the person who is caught up in these quarrelsome controversies. Avoiding the controversy while being strong and gentle enough to engage the one who attacks you. I was once told a story. I didn't see this, but a friend of mine long, long, long ago, before I was a believer, said that he saw a fight between two men. One of them was rather large, very strong. Obviously, you didn't want him to land any punches. But he was kind of slow. And his opponent was a younger man who was much quicker. So the younger, smaller opponent jumped in and would land a punch and back away, and the big guy would swing and miss. The younger one would jump in and hit him again, back away. The big guy would have another slow punch and miss. And finally, the big guy got tired of it and pulled his shirt up over his face. so that he could lure the smaller, quicker guy in close enough, because he's got his face covered, I'll be able to really pound him a couple of times here, but that means I've got to get close enough to hit him. The older guy, the bigger guy, I'm sorry, his purpose was to do what? To take the punch so that he could get close enough to this guy to grab him. Now, that's a negative picture, okay? But that's what we're talking about. People who oppose you, who attack you, who, as it were, land punches. Because what they'll do when they talk to you and their maneuverings and their politics, it's going to hurt. It may be very costly to you, to us as pastors. But when that happens, we have to get close enough to engage so that we can get them to listen. to understand and hopefully to repent from their heart. That's what we need to do as pastors. That's the job that pastors are called to. That's a part of it. It's not all of it. But that's one of the most difficult aspects of being a pastor. Al and Paul and brother pastors, I think this has to be the most difficult aspect of what God has led us to do. Avoiding the controversy while being strong and gentle enough to engage the one who attacks you in or with the controversy. Winning the heart and the mind of the rebel instead of just winning the battle. It's Jesus on the cross. accepting and remaining under the evil that we placed upon Him or that His Father placed upon Him for us, as God's wrath was poured out on His own Son for our benefit to win and redeem our rebellious souls. That's a big part of your job, of my job, of our job. So Al and Paul, you came to the pastoral body here at HP and requested that we ordain you to this kind of ministry. And through the careful process that we go through, we have found you are worthy as to your character, your giftedness, your skills, your tools, your background, your training, your abilities. And we're thankful that you're joining us in an official sense in pastoral ministry. May the Master who has shown us how to do these things, the God of peace, equip you and us along with you, with everything good, that you and we may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.