 All right. Good morning, everyone. Good to be back. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer and we will start our session. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you Lord for once again giving us the opportunity to study your word and Lord, even as we study together, we pray for your wisdom, for your revelation and our heart and our spirit. God, that everything that we study Lord, we will we will look God learn it, walk in it and Lord, just help us Lord to enable us to be obedient to the word of God. Lord, we thank you for this time. We commit each one of us into your hands. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay, so we got into the ministry of the pastor. So last week, last class, we talked about Jesus as our example. We saw aspects of the shepherd, right? We talked so much about the shepherd and we looked at a lot of verses where even in the Old Testament, the shepherd, the chief shepherd being a person who cares, who knows, who speaks, who leads and you and I as his sheep are called to hear him and even as we shepherd people, we must be able to walk in these attributes, right? So let's get into chapter 10. Do you have your notes with you in chapter 10? Right? Is there anything on the notes? There's nothing, right? Okay, so as I say, responsibilities and rewards of a pastor from the three episodes, right? Only references. Okay, so what we'll do is in chapter 10, chapter 10 is the pastor in the early church, right? Sorry, because I'm using the older, the pastor. Jesus as an example. Okay, yeah, that's what we completed last class. Okay, the next chapter is in the early church. Yes, so in the early church, are there notes in your... No, notes. Okay, so what we'll do is actually these are the notes that we are still updating. And so I'm going to send the details and we'll update this notes for the next semester. But what I'll do is I'll share the document for chapter 10, a Word document. So I'll also post it here on the classroom so you can go through it, right? So let's look at the responsibilities and rewards of a pastor, right? Now we know that every role comes with responsibilities, right? And the Apostle Paul is talking... He puts a lot of emphasis on these responsibilities. In these three epistles, first and second Timothy and the letter of Titus, right? So these three epistles, first, second Timothy and the letter of Titus. Now these three are called the pastoral epistles. Why? Because Timothy was in Ephesus, he's pastoring the church and Titus also was pastoring the church. So in all of these three epistles, we're going to pick up a few responsibilities and also the rewards of being a good steward of God, right? Just settle down. So what happens to me when there's too much of distractions, I lose my train of thought. You got what you needed? You got what you needed? Okay, roles and responsibilities. So let's just break it down. We'll read first Timothy chapter three was one, two, maybe 13. Yes, one to 13. And even as we read this, we'll just read it one time and then we'll break it down, right? We'll see each role and each responsibility. So this is just a background. Now Paul is writing to Timothy who's already in the church and there are already overseers, there are already deacons, there are already leaders. And now Timothy is young, he's gone into the church and he's like leading over them, right? So he's like the senior leader in the church and there are already bishops, deacons, overseers. So Paul is writing to Timothy and saying, you walk by these responsibilities that I give you, right? So very important. Let's read. First Timothy chapter three was one, two, 13. Go ahead. This is a faithful saying, if a man desires a position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife, tempered, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach. Not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous. One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, less being toughed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as a devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest they fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not devil-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money. Holding the mystery of the faith with the pure conscience, but let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own house as well. For those who have served well as deacons, obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Right, okay, so we're going to break down this whole portion that we've read, okay. Now, the central task or the central responsibility of a pastor is to minister the Gospel, right, to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. That's the central, right, so that is number one. Now, as we are doing that, there are other things involved, right, as we are proclaiming the Gospel. Let's look at the first, just I'm just going to, I'll share the document with you, right. So, even if you, you know, even if you miss out on anything, you can always go back and read it, right. First Timothy chapter four, in verse 14, let's read that. Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying one, laying on of the hands of the eldership. Do not neglect the gift that has been given to you by the laying on of hands. Now, we've established the first responsibility is to present the Gospel of the message of Jesus Christ, wherever they are going as pastors, they must be able to teach. The second responsibility is not to neglect the gift that God has given, right. What is the meaning of neglect? When we say the word neglect, it only means to put a side, right. Okay, this is something that I don't need for now, right. There's a saying, right. What we take for granted, people are praying for, right. We take for granted food, but people in other countries are praying for it. Lord, when will I get my next meal, right. So neglect is something that is very easily, it can very easily happen to us, right. We can just neglect situations, people, we can neglect things in our life, right. Spiritual disciplines can be neglected very easily. So Paul is saying, Timothy, don't neglect the gift. What was the gift? The gift of being a minister of God, of being a pastor, don't neglect that gift which God has given you, because that gift is given to you by the laying on of hands, right. So each one of us have gifts in us, right. And when we look at it, we say, hey, I must not neglect the gift that God has given me, right. So number one responsibility of a pastor, not to neglect the gift, right. Yes. No, so we're talking about don't neglect the gift of God that is given to each one of us by the laying on of hands. So for example, somebody has called you for a pastoral role, right. And you feel that, okay, that's what I want to do, right. So you've got, you know, in Bangalore, what we do is we have something called as a commissioning service, we talked about that, right. So we all stand, we commission you. So now you know, you are on the role of a pastor. So don't neglect that gift, right. Meaning what? As a pastor, what must you do? That's what we're going to talk about all of that. You have to read the word. You have to pray. You have to seek God. You have to live a good life, a holy life, all of that. We'll see that. But the gift is there inside you. Now, if I neglect that gift, I will not be fulfilling the roles and the responsibilities of a pastor. You get what I'm saying, right. Now, it's not like only people pray over you and say, you're a pastor, then you're a pastor. You'll know sometimes, even when you're 15 years old, you may know it. You may know you're calling at a very young age. It's not like you have to wait for somebody to do it, right, pray over you. But there's a gift that God has given. So don't neglect that gift, right. Then let's look at the next one, right. The spiritual leader is entrusted with the standard of sound teaching, which the leader is to God with the help of the Holy Spirit. So the third aspect is sound teaching. Now, let's read 2 Timothy, chapter one, verse 13 to 14. I'm going to take verses from all three episodes, okay. 2 Timothy, chapter one, verse 13 and 14. 2 Timothy, chapter one, verse 13 and 14. What you heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Third responsibility as a pastor is to, we saw the first one, right. First one is to present the gospel, right. That's the central task. Two is to not neglect the gift. Three is to make sure that you're preaching and teaching sound doctrine. Now, why is Paul writing this? It's interesting. During this time in FSS, there were different kinds of doctrines that were coming up. People who came up with their own ideologies, own thoughts, own reasonings. I remember Corinth, Athens, Ephesus. These are all places where it's part of Asia Minor, right. So there was a lot of new ideologies, new theologies coming up. So Paul is saying to Timothy, as a pastor, make sure you do preach sound teaching, right. And we talked about the different kinds of teachings that are happening around that are affecting the body of Christ. There are many, many, many false doctrines, own ideologies that have come up, right. Now it's very easy, especially people who are eloquent in speech, right. You just have that way of talking to people, right. Or they're very good at talking. The command over English is very good, right. It's very easy for these people to come up with their own, you know, ideas, own strategies, own thoughts. It's very easy. People who know how to twist the word, right, deceive through their speaking, right. And it's an ability that people have. Have you seen people? They know how to speak. They can speak for one hour. You give them a topic, they'll speak for one hour, right. Give them half an hour to prepare, one hour they can speak. Why? Because they have that gift in them. But Paul is saying, Hey, make sure that your preaching and teaching is sound doctrine. It is not made up. It is not ideologies. It is not something that you prefer to speak or you don't like to speak, speak sound doctrine. That's why Paul goes on later and he says, preach the word in season and out of season. He says that in second Timothy. Preach the word in season, out of season, whether you like it, you don't like it, whether you are feeling like it, or you're not in the mood, preach the word in season and out of season, right. So this is very important, right, that we omit ourselves to sound doctrine. Next one is First Timothy chapter one and verse 11. Another very important responsibility. One verse 11. First Timothy chapter one was 11. That conformed to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. Which God has entrusted to you. Now being in the pastoral role as a minister of God, remember that we have been committed to his trust to minister the gospel. So God is trusting us with the responsibility that he's giving us. God is trusting us. Can you think of that? God trusts us with the ministry. So for example, if you're called to be a pastor, right, God is trusting you. He's trusting me with the responsibility of being a pastor. And we looked at it, even when you look at the life of Jesus, did he trust his disciples? Yes. When Peter denied Jesus, he still trusted him. He trusted in all the disciples, even in Judas, right. Jesus trusts us in the ministry that he has given to us. So as a pastor, I must be committed to that trust. Yes or no? Now the first thing that comes to our mind when we say pastor is sometimes we feel it's such a good thing, right? Oh wow, everyone is calling me pastor. It feels nice. Initially it feels nice. Oh wow, pastor. Finally, people have recognized the calling that I have. That's good. I always say this, when I first joined, nobody called me pastor. I didn't care about it also. It didn't matter. The gift is recognized by people. You don't have to tell people, hey, call me pastor. You don't have to say that. The gift is recognized by people. Now Paul here, he's saying, the gospel of our blessed Lord, which is entrusted to you, right? It's like children. God entrusts children to us. Is God looking after our children? Yes, but he's entrusted the children to me. If I say, hey, God is looking after my children and I don't give them food, what happens? I'm a bad parent. But God said, the children are his. Let him feed them. God will say, hey, I've entrusted them to you. You have to look after. So when God is saying, Paul is saying here, I've entrusted the message, the gospel to you. So you be faithful in what you're doing. Yes, right? So what is it that we must do as pastors? Keep preparing for sermons? It's not the only thing like our life, our personal life, when nobody is watching, when the doors are closed, what is our life? That is entrusting. God is trusting you. God is trusting you when you are alone. God is trusting you with the people in your church. Sometimes, when we talk to at ABC East, when we talk to the church folks, there's a fear. They are asking things like, how can I improve my life? What should I do? How can I grow spiritually? They're asking things, when will I receive my healing? I've been praying for the past five years. I've been looking out for a job for the past five years. My family is in this situation and it feels so suddenly all that, you feel, oh, man, pastor. It's good to, when people call, do you see the responsibility? God has entrusted the work to us. And of course, God gives us the grace. I'm not saying it's a fearful thing over, pastor. I don't want to become a pastor. No, there's a responsibility involved. We need the Lord to minister to us. If I have to minister to people, I must be able to spend time in God's presence. I must be able to heal from God. It is the anointing of God that can bless people, can minister to people. And so, what God has entrusted in your hands is the gospel and the ministry of being a pastor. He's entrusted it to you and me. We must be faithful in doing what is right. Let me talk about the other things, the practical aspects. This is very important. Every time you stand right now, I know now you're in Bible college, but even in the small things, remember that God has entrusted it to you. Every morning, I'm sure you have a roster to preach. And so, when you prepare, you know you're going to preach. Remember that God has entrusted something to you. The roster is made by the pastors here. But God has entrusted you to preach the gospel for that 10-15 minutes. So, how much we must be prepared, how well we must go back to God's word and be faithful to the teaching of this word, right? Everyone with me? That sound doctrine is very important and the entrusting of what he has given you. Now, that could also be the other gifts. Now, that we're talking about pastors, we're just looking at that. But there are other gifts as well. He's entrusted you as a worship leader, evangelist. He's entrusting you with, you know, it could be a settle group being faithful in that, right? Okay, let's go to the next one. Now, let's read 2 Timothy chapter 1 was, I don't know, there's 3 to 14. Okay, hold on a second. Okay, read 12 to 14, 12 to 14. 2 Timothy chapter 1, reading from verse 12, that is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame because I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day. What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Jesus Christ. Right, let's go ahead. God, the good deposit that was entrusted to you, God, it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Right. The next point I would like to talk about is, now Paul is setting an example. He's saying, this is what I have gone through. The next point is that as pastors and ministers of God, another important responsibility is to know that we must not be novices. The meaning of the word novices is somebody who's inexperienced, right, or somebody who's, you know, not looking to grow, laziness, right? Just being a novice, right? If you're doing something for five years, you better be good at it, right? So for example, if you're playing an instrument for five years, you have to improve. If you've not improved, something is wrong. You're not learning it the right way, right? You're still inexperienced, right? So Paul is saying here, he's saying the person who's chosen to be in a role of the pastor should not be novices, but they must be in a place of experience, they must grow in their experience, grow in the things of God. So what I'd like to share here is this growth, this spiritual growth that has to happen, how does it come? How can spiritual growth come for us? Spending time in God's presence, yes, reading the word, what else? Praying in tongues, okay, receiving the help from the Holy Spirit, learning from your mistakes, right? We all make a lot of mistakes, learning from mistakes and Paul is saying to Timothy, don't be a novice. Don't be in a place of just being the same, you know, stagnant, grow, keep growing. Don't be saying, okay, remember the initial letter he says, Paul is saying, don't let people look down upon your youth, right? He's a young man, right? So he's saying, don't look at that, grow to your level of spiritual maturity. And here he's writing, he's saying, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse deceitful and then when you go on, he says, but you grow from infancy to spiritual maturity. It is the responsibility of a pastor to grow in the things of God. None of us can say, hey, I've done it all. If the church is becoming 100, 200, 500,000, 5,000, 10,000, still you have to go back to God's word. We can never say, okay, church has grown, now I know everything. No, we have to go back to God's word. Don't be a novice. We got to grow from strength to strength. Remember what apostle Paul says in his in his letter, he says that I may know Christ Jesus. That was his vision. Can you think of it? Apostle Paul, towards the end of his life, that I may know Christ Jesus. You don't know Jesus? All you don't know Jesus for what you have done? You know him more than anybody else. More than all the disciples, you know him better. Even though they walked with Jesus, the revelations that he has written, you know Jesus the most. But he's saying, but I may know the Father and grow in the things of God. So as pastors, we must never, ever take ministry as the center and then look at all of these other practical aspects as secondary. And what we do in our private shows in public. So don't be novices. That's another responsibility. In preaching and teaching, pastors must give themselves wholly through the scriptures. Their attention is focused on the gospel that is entrusted to them. Some of the verses you can read it later on is 1st Timothy chapter 4, 15, 16, Titus chapter 1 and verse 9. Now the reason even Titus is involved in this is because Titus again was pastoring the church in Crete. And he was again a young person who was leading this church. Okay, let's go down now. Pastors are not to be ascetics. Now the word ascetics means people who discipline themselves severely. You know, these Buddhists and these people who are monks and all of that, they go to a certain level of discipline. They don't eat. They don't talk to anybody. They don't communicate with anyone. They don't want to see anyone. Paul is saying, don't be ascetics. Don't be people who are, you know, away from people around, be around people. Let's read 1st Timothy chapter 4, 3 to 7. 1st Timothy chapter 4 was 3 to 7. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from fruits. Let's just start with 2 so that you get a context there. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine, which you have carefully followed. But reject profane and old wives' fables and excise yourself towards godliness. So here again, you see verse 3, they forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know of the truth. So basically Paul is saying, now these new ideologies, these new teachings will come which will say you should not eat this, you should not do this, you should not do that, you should not get married, you should not have children and all of these things. As a pastor, as a leader, don't be ascetics, meaning don't be in a place where you're always to yourself, being too going overboard in our teachings. Now remember, ministry is about people. If there's no people, what ministry can we do? Can we do ministry? We'll be ministering to ourselves. If there is, there is no people, there's no ministry. There'll come a time when ministry is going to end, right? Ministry will end, all these five-fold functions, all of that will end. But ministry is about people. So Paul is saying, as a leader, don't be in a place saying, I will make sure that I am like this and I will teach this to other people as well. No. That's why in the initial chapter and chapter 4 verse 1, he says, I instruct you Timothy, don't follow the doctrines of this, being ascetics. So very important, he goes on there. If you point these things out to brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus. So we don't be like that. We teach others as well, right? Again, this comes under the whole aspect of sound teaching, but it's more of a practical thing. Now, for example, if I am a pastor and I say to my congregation, you know what, I don't believe in eating every day. I should fast. Every month I should fast 21 days. Now, that's good. That's good if you're able to do it, but don't impose it on people, right? Don't say now, you've heard of some people and I've heard this happening around where there are, you know, congregation believers who are unwell and then the pastors say, you're unwell because you're not fasting and praying. Now, the poor person is unwell. He has to eat, have the medicines, right? There's nothing wrong in having medicines. You say you're not fasting enough. You're not praying enough. So that's why you haven't received your healing. You don't have faith, right? Now, what is that going overboard? Are doctors important? Did Paul suggest doctors? What did he say to Luke? Luke is the doctor, right? And he says to the others, he says, have some of those, during those days, wine was a way of healing the stomach, right? Have some of it so that you can be healed of your stomach pains. So there's nothing wrong. But when we go overboard and then there's another group of people who say, go medicines at all. If we have medicines, we don't have faith in God, right? And then that's the teaching, right? Because now healing has been, there's no more healing now. So no medicines. When God is ready to take us, He will take us. Now, all of these may not sound ascetic, but they are wrong. God has placed doctors. God has given doctors wisdom to come up with medicines. They are important. But we know that God is the healer. We can always pray. Now, for example, you know, we all get fever. We all get my kids. Everyone go through, right? Cold, cough, fever, all of that. What do we do first? Don't run to the medicine first. One prayer. Father, I thank you for healing. I thank you that you are the healer. While you're giving the medicine, you pray, God, this medicine be a catalyst to bring healing. Done. Now, you've done both. It's not like, oh, sorry, what actually worked? No, God can work in anything, right? Whether it is His own or through the medicine. He can do it. That's all. When it comes to these kind of understandings, Paul is saying to Timothy, don't be that way. It don't say, it says, for everything God created is good. It could be even food. Remember for food, what he says, food sacrifice to idols, right? And he talks about certain foods that you don't have, foods that you can have, right? So it's very important that we follow these things, right? When we're teaching it, when we're preaching it, we don't go overboard. Stick to the word of God, right? Let's get to the next one. And then we'll come back to chapter three and we'll pick up points from there, right? So self-discipline is important as pastors, but we are to discipline ourselves, discipline people within our congregation as well, right? Sound doctrine is what we heard. Okay, now we'll get into some of the practical aspects. Let's get to chapter three. I just wanted to share those points. Chapter three, if anyone sets his heart to be an overseer, to be a pastor, he desires a noble task. Now, the overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife, okay? Or the wife of one husband, whether you're a pastor, male, female, one, right? It's good. That's the principle here, right? To temperate, temperate, being able to control your thoughts and your emotions, able to control yourself, especially, you know, there are times when people will come and share with you so much, emotionally you'll be like, oh man, what is happening? Why is this happening? And in this pastoral role, you have people who will share all their feelings, all their emotions, right, to be temperate, to be self-discipline, self-controlled, respectable. Now to be self-controlled, how do we be self-controlled? How can we be self-controlled as ministers of God? Now the devil is not saying, oh, he's a pastor, I will not bring temptation. Is he saying that? The devil is saying, hey, you're a pastor, double, double promotion for you, double temptations for you, right? So how do we be self-controlled? Again, go back to the word, go back to praying, spending time in God's presence, asking the Holy Spirit to minister, to cover us, to anoint us, right? All of this enables us to be self-controlled, right? There will be times when the enemy can come in in any way, right? It could be through media, through technology, through people, through images, any way the devil can come, right? Sometimes we wake up and we feel tired, hey, I don't want to do this. It's not a give up. But then you say, no, I need to control my emotions. I need to know that, yes, God is with me, doesn't matter what I'm going through, being self-controlled, right? And these are abilities that we must gain over time. We pray, we ask God, respectable. We've heard of that saying, no, give respect, take respect. No, even if you don't get respect, you give respect. That's what Jesus did, being respectable, respecting people. Now, we must understand that ministry is about people. We know that, but we're called to respect everyone, no matter what their occupation is, their gender, what is this, standing in culture and society, respect everyone, right? Hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness. Now, able to teach all of that is, we've talked about it even in the part of a pastor, of a teacher evangelist. Same thing goes with the pastor, not given to drunkenness. Have you ever wondered why this has come here? These are the responsibilities of a pastor and Paul is writing, not given to drunkenness. Now, we understand that he's talking to a group of people who have come out of this whole gentile way of living. Maybe some of the leaders have already become believers there. They're already leaders. And so Paul is saying, not be given to drunkenness. It's very important that we understand that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And the most hurtful thing for God would be for a minister of God to continue in sin, to continue in whatever they're doing in sin and not have conviction. That's the most dangerous place for a pastor to be in. Yes, imagine a pastor, and I know of certain pastors, I don't know, name, but there are certain, there are pastors who drink, they feel it's okay to drink, right? And they come on Sunday, they preach, they preach very well, right? 10 point sermon with DPT, everything. Go back home, drink again and sleep. Now, sometimes the congregation knows, sometimes the congregation doesn't know. It doesn't matter to them. Now, what's wrong in that? Is it glorifying God? Is it something that God is pleased in? Remember, God has entrusted the gospel to us. He's entrusted the ministry to us. And he's saying here, avoid drunkenness, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not starting a fight every time. And not, last one here, not a lover of money. This list is quite a list, right? Not a lover of money. Money is something that can take us away from God's call. Yes, imagine when you start small, it's okay. But as you grow, money can really change and alter the course of our life. Not only in ministry, but anything else. You can alter the course of our life. Is money good? Yes. Is money needed? But not a lover of money. We're not doing ministry for money. And I remember, I think one of the frames here said, if God's given the vision, God will also make the providence, right? God will also give the supply. If you do God's work, God's way, God will provide for it. We don't have to follow money. Money is not the leader of ministry. God is the leader of ministry. God knows how to provide. He knows how to do it, right? So as pastors, we must be careful. Now we may say, we may say, hey, no, I'm not a lover of money. We never know how the enemy can bring those thoughts into us. So we must be able to control ourselves. We must be able to guard our hearts, guard our minds against the things of the enemy, right? Now we'll go on. He must be able to manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. Imagine a pastor, he's able to manage the church, but not able to manage his family. Imagine the pastor, that he's, you know, he's able to manage everything in the church, administration, preaching, teaching, life groups, everything is able to manage. But his own house, he's not able to manage. The children are jumping all over the place. Children are not obeying him. When he says something, the children are saying, no, I don't want to listen to you. Or he's not able to manage the things at home. What does he use? So Paul is saying here, he should be able to manage his household. Right? So he goes on, if anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's judge? Right? Six, verse six, he must not be a recent convert that is a novice, or he may be conceited and fall under judgment. He must also have a good reputation with the outsiders so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap. Now, a reputation is something that is built over time. Yes, it doesn't come overnight. It comes through hard work, comes through dedication, it comes through self-discipline and going through many ups and downs. When you look at all these organizations around us, these multi-million dollar companies, what are they? They were all small companies, but over time they gained the reputation. Look at companies like Amazon, and they all started wet in a small room like this with three, four people. They didn't say, oh, Amazon, three people, wonderful company. No, after maybe five, six years, 10 years, oh, there's something called Amazon where you can go on. This is just an example. I'm not promoting Amazon, but you can go online, purchase things. Oh, reputation came over time. Here, Paul is saying, have a good reputation as a pastor, meaning even if your neighbors see you, they say, hey, this guy, this person, he goes to church and he's very different. He's not going to follow the things of this world or he's not going to come with us and do all the things that we are doing. There's something different about him. They may not call you pastor, but they know if you're going to church, somebody who's a believer, have a good reputation in front of them. Reputation is built over time. Deacons likewise are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in wine, not pursuing dishonest gain. Verse seven, verse nine, they must keep hold of deep fruits of the faith with a clear conscience. Conscience is something that hurts. What is conscience? Why did Judas kill himself? His conscience can tell him you betrayed the Son of God. Jesus is on the cross because of you. Conscience. When you're a little child, you steal something and after stealing, the thought is always there in my five rupees. I stole five rupees. That thought is still there. It's lingering. How much ever you buy with that five rupees, you've already finished eating it. I'm talking from experience. You've finished eating it, but I hope nothing happens to me. Conscience. It's there for all of us. And so he's saying here, keep your conscience clear. A deacon must be a husband of one. Again, he repeats the same thing. Those who were 13, those who have served well, gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Jesus Christ. And so these are some of the responsibilities as a pastor. And even when you look at 2 Timothy, he talks about running the race. There would be an eternal crown for you. To Timothy, he says, you must be blameless. You must be obedient. You must be willing to take correction. So all of those practical aspects also are there, willing to mentor one another. Do not have a good testimony. Do not lie. Do not cheat. It goes on. There's a huge list there. And we all know of all of these attributes, and we must walk in these attributes. But I want to close by saying this. If God is called any one of us as pastors and pastor of ministry, do not try to do it on your own strength. If you're doing it on your own strength, you can only go so far. After that, you cannot. You just cannot. It's not possible. It is only through the grace and the strength of God that we can be fruitful in what we are doing. So I want to encourage you. What God has entrusted to each one of you. It may not be the pastor on the road. Whatever he has entrusted to you, be faithful in that. Be faithful in doing what God has entrusted with these attributes in mind. And God will take each one of you to places. He will use you. He will anoint you. And you will see that the anointing of God will begin to make a difference. People will recognize. People will notice. You will see the fruit in your life. You'll see the fruit in your ministry as well. Amen. And it's such a joy. We're not coming by works. We're coming by the grace of God. All right. So we'll stop here. Next class, we'll look at some of the rewards that we have as obedient, faithful servants of God. Right? Okay. Right. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day ahead. See you all.