1 Timothy 3:3-16 | Episode # 1201

May 25, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

1 Timothy 5:3-16

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. He says, not given to wine. Now that and I want to hear, don't you hear me? This is going to hurt your Baptist. My Baptist, but all the Methodists going to be happy with me and the Presbyterian is going to be good to go, okay? Church Christ and Baptist, they going to be out with me today, okay? It says not given to wine, meaning wine is not controlling you. He doesn't say don't drink wine. He says, in fact, we know you go, well, Pastor. It says not giving much wine. Paul told this same fella, drink a little wine for your stomach. So he can't be saying don't drink any wine. Then tells him later to drink wine. I mean he'd be a double minded if he said that, right? So he can't tell Timothy not to drink a little wine for his stomach and then later on say don't drink any wine or vice versa. He's saying don't be given to it. It doesn't control you. I want you to notice alcohol is an important role here. Not that you do drink it, but that it does not have control. Listen to me, I might drink a drink once a month or so. If I'm in the presence of a bunch of legalist Christians, I probably am going to drink just being real with you. If you're going to live in legalism, you want to do that? I'll break the law right in front of you. Your law, not God's law. You with me, okay? But I'm never going to have more than two and usually only one. Why? Because I'M not going to allow wine to control me. I don't like wine anyway. It's either going to be beer or whiskey. Okay. Just letting you know. All right. I mean, I'll drink it, but anyway. Preacher drinks. Yeah. I was a teetotaler, and I told all my youth that drinking alcohol was a sin. Not knowing that all their deacon fathers were drinking. Yeah. So I was ruining them. I was ruining them because I was placing a law on them that wasn't scriptural. And then their fathers were destroying that law and destroying their faith. So I quit doing that. Not violent. I love the word. Pugnacious. You ain't a brawler. That's what it says. You ain't a brawler. You don't get in fights. Not greedy for money. Didn't say. Not wealthy. Didn't say. Didn't have any. Didn't say. Couldn't make any. Not greedy for it. Meaning. Just like wine doesn't control you, money doesn't control you. Okay. And let me tell you something. If you're good at making money or you got a lot of money and you're a believer and you feel like money's controlling you, but you know how you get rid of it? Same thing you told the rich young ruler. Sell it all, give it to the poor. Come, follow me. You're going, well, I'm going to give all my money away. Well, you're apparently real good at making it. Just give it away. Let God be in control. He'll give you some more back because you're pretty good at making it. What? Let me tell you something. I think the Apostle Paul was. Was the rich young brother. He could make money anytime. He's a great tent maker. Tents were like, you know, were like the RV of the day. He was good at making it. He could make money anytime he wanted to make money. Okay? When Jesus told him to sell everything, give it to the poor, didn't mean that Peter wasn't going. Paul wasn't going to be wealthy at some times. In fact, sometimes he's going to be in need, sometimes he's going to be in plenty. He says that in scripture. Am I right? But he also worked. He worked. By the way, the idea of a clergy class is not found in scripture in the sense of that's all you do. And I can promise you this. If you're doing ministry at some point in time, something's going to go off rails and you're going to have to do something else at some point in time, at least for a while. And we all know that. Okay? So you. You probably ought to be good at being a tent maker or whatever you good at. Get good at doing it. Okay. By the way, you also very usable that way. Right? He says not violent, not greedy for money, Gentle but gent. Notice gentle, not arguesome, not a quarreler. Okay. And not covetous, meaning you don't want other people's stuff. That's one of the big ten, by the way, too. Okay. So he says you're gentle. That was tough for me to learn as a young pastor. I was definitely a bull in the china shop. I mean, I definitely was, you know, the. Break it all and let's fix it after it's broke. Amen, Drew. I was that, wasn't I, Huh? I mean, I'd go in there and just spit and yell and break everything in the room and then let the Holy Spirit come try to fix it. He says you got to be gentle, you got to be not quarrelsome, and you got to be not covetousness. Not covetous. Those are qualifications. And if at any point in time you see yourself not qualifying, that means the Holy Spirit's revealing that to you. Let's get it corrected. You can qualify quickly. If the Holy Spirit's revealing your disqual, your unqualifiedness. He says it says here, one who rules his own house, well, that means to preside, be the leader, protect, meaning, battle that which comes against it and preserve you. Preserve your family. Having his children in submission with all reverence. I mean, we've got a. We in our. In our. In our Christian ideas. We've got. We've got. We've got a whole name for children of pastors. We call them PKs, preachers, kids. And they're all going to jail. Well, that's evidence that he's not. He's not. He's not leading his house. And let me say this. If a pastor loves the church more than he loves his wife and his family, he's out of line. He ain't married to the church. A lot of preachers want to be married to the church. That's God's wife, you adulterer. He gave you a wife to love. You love her. He's going to love his wife. You're pastoring it. You ain't the husband. That's a great. That's a. That's a great understanding. And by the way, church ain't a business. A woman who's another man's business is a prostitute. So if you're going to treat the Church like a business. You treating her like a prostitute. And by the way, I'm getting away from that shrapnel's coming, okay? I ain't been around that. All right. He says. And he gets into it. He says, for a man who does not know how to rule his own household, notice preside, protect and guard his own household. He will not take care of the church of God because he doesn't know how to. If he doesn't know how to have a right relationship with his family, how's he going to have a right relationship with God's family? So if you run into pastor that can't do that, he's disqualified for right now. He needs to get busy about his family. Just the way it is. Can he qualify himself quickly? Yeah. Get up there and repent and get right. Yeah. Remember all these, if you'll notice. How did I. How'd I not be pugnacious? Quit fighting. How do I not be quarrelsome? Quit arguing. How'd I stop coveting? Quit looking around what everybody God gave everybody else. Start looking for what God gave you. Sees the way to get fixed. Can I be disqualified and qualify myself? Yeah, in fact, you ought to qualify yourself. He's made you qualified. Walk in it. Now. This is hard. It's really hard. And it's hard as. Because we. Paul's good at it. He's doing it right with Timothy. Us pastors. Us. And I'm going to tell you, we're trying to learn how to do it as pastors, even here. And we all got. I mean, there's. You come to the pastor's Bible study And there is 200. Well, when Terry was here, it was 300 years of ministry experience. But now it's 200 years of ministry. Ministry experience. But, but, but there's hundreds of years and it's hard to handle the novice. It is because we won't let. Let me tell you something. We want novices. We want all the young people that have callings to start acting in the callings and growing the call. I want it. We. Let me, let me. Let me tell you, we hunger for them. We want to disciple them. We want to help them. I want. Listen, I'd love for 10 years to look around. All us old gray heads to look around. There'd be 20 preachers that can just wear it out. I'd love it. I mean, I'm telling you what. I'd sit there and listen to it. I'd make services just so I could hear it. But they can't be A novice because they don't know what they're doing. We got a whole lot of novice novices running churches. Not a novice lifts being puffed up with pride. And boy, that, that, I mean, don't that name it, huh? They get puffed up with pride and fall into some condemnation as the same condemnation as the devil. And boy, those falls are hard. And what's so, what's so devastating to me when I see that happen is that they really are gifted and they really are good. Okay, but, but, but you go, well, how do you keep from being puffed up? Well, your sins ever before you. And you don't. You don't start acting like you're sinless. Let me tell you something. Somebody who's come face to face with their sin and dealt with it and, and, and are dealing with it is very qualified to be a pastor. Somebody who don't think their **** stinks. Is not qualified because he's going to fall and he's going to fall hard. It's going to be painful. That's why I make sure, I tell you what I struggle with. Why? Because it makes sure that you, you might trying to be puffed up. Don't be putting me up on that pedestal. I'm not a mediator between you and God. I'm just a traffic cop. Go that way. Head that way. Here's where Jesus is. Go. Okay. Because he's the mediator between you and God, not me. And a young man who realizes that is very powerful, but an office struggles with it. Moreover, he's got to have a good testimony among those who are on the outside. You know, I tell you this, my dad had several flaws, but man, he had a good testimony with folks because he loved folks and he's good with folks. I benefit from that. In this area, everybody who knew my dad loved my dad because my dad loved them. Now, he might cuss them at some point in time, but he loved them. You know, he might blow up over something, but he loved them. Let me tell you something. Love will cover up a multitude of sin. It will. And so if you're, if you're, if you got a good testimony, that means you, you're doing the loving God and loving your neighbor thing really well. And by the way, I mean, wouldn't that be something? We definitely want our pastors to have? Elders, bishop, all them words. Okay. Wouldn't be. Won't be something that we would have. Yeah, yeah, we want to be, be that way. Lord have mercy. I can't move fast enough Now I want you to listen to me because it's going to. This is this next qualification, the qualification of a minister, okay? Or a servant leader is going to add a group of people to it, okay? Now there are going to be some folks out there who don't like this because women can't be in ministry. They got to be quiet and shut up. We don't dealt with that. Right? Okay. All right. And by the way, if you don't like it, just too bad. Let me name you some women leaders in the Old Testament. Deborah, she was a judge and a prophetess, huh? Esther Ruth, books named after them. Esther was a queen. Rahab was a prostitute who became the great grandmother with many more greats on it of Jesus. Deborah, I've already told you, Priscilla, let me make sure I'm dealing with him in the Old Testament. Miriam, by the way, it's quite obvious that the leadership structure of Israel was Moses, Miriam and Aaron. Miriam was quite clearly a leader of the people. She had a year of the people. Let's move to the New Testament. Priscilla and her husband Aquila are quite clearly leaders in the church. Okay? Lydia was the first convert in Europe and led the church in her area at the start. No way to get around it. Andronius and Janus, with Janus being mentioned In Romans chapter 16, verse 7, were leaders in the church too. And quite clearly she had a leadership position. But now the one that is the. She's the ace in the hole. And remember God, take all the scripture and put it right there, is Phoebe. Paul writes his main theological book, Romans, the one he actually pinned his name to. Okay? I think he wrote Hebrews too, but he couldn't say he was the writer of Hebrews or the Hebrews wouldn't listen to him. All right, But Romans, he writes this 15 chapter theological treatise that explains Jesus in context of the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is beautiful, it is rich, it is powerful. And then when he goes to the end where everybody, you know, names all the people that helped him and all the important people, Romans chapter 16 starts in verse one and goes for two verses more than anybody else. And it calls Phoebe a decana, a minister, and he specifically tells them to help her do her ministry. Do not be a burden or a hindrance to her doing what she was called to do. Now, ain't no way to get around that. You can translate it something else so that you can get around it. But I know the Greek and I can't get around it. He says, phoebe a decana She's a minister. And then he specifically tells them to help him help her minister and don't be a problem. That's what he says. Isn't that what it says many of you are looking at right now? What is this? Phoebe was a deacon. Sorry. All the deacons want to be the deacon board. All us men meeting together. Well, Phoebe's got to come. Sorry. And of all the deacons in the Bible, she's the one mentioned, probably the most, other than Stephen. So there she is. So knowing that. Likewise, meaning there's qualifications for deacons. They must be reverent. That means God fearing. They're not reverends. They're reverent, okay? They fear God, not double tongued. They say what they say and they mean what they say. Not given to much wine. Did he say not drinking wine? He said, not given to much wine. These are the servant leaders, he says, holding the mystery of the faith with the pure conscience. Meaning they hear God's revelation and they hold on to it and they never let it go. Boy, that's. That's a lot of people in the church, ain't it? In fact, I'd say to you that that's, that's, that ought to be everybody in the church. And if you start reading these qualifications, you go, anybody can be this. And the answer is everybody should be this. But let's. He says, he says, holding the mysteries of faith with pure conscience. But let these also first be tested. Meaning don't just throw them in the job, test them. Make sure they know what they're doing. By the way, when somebody starts a ministry, we test women. I'm. You're not just going to walk in your pastor. I got a ministry to do. I don't even know who you are. No. Now, five weeks later, I might go, that sounds like something fun. Ten weeks later I might be going, let's go, let's go, let's go. What are you waiting on? Okay, but they got to be tested first, he says, then let them serve as ministers being found blameless. Notice I'm using the word minister being found blameless. Now here's the key. He doesn't do this with the pastors. He talks about managing their household. But here he's going to give qualifications for the women. Why? Because they're going to be women ministers. And by the way, that's the word gune. So I can say, likewise, the women or their women. Cana. He says likewise. Their women must be reverent, same as the man, not slanders. Now why you gotta bring that up. Well, women like to talk. I mean, we don't discuss that, hadn't we? Right, so just quit talking about folks. Men, you know, you stop grunting at folks. And women, quit talking about folks. Okay? Not slanders. Temperate. That's that sober mindedness again, right? Faithful in all things. Meaning. They're people of faith. Their actions are people of faith. Okay, Pastor, can if the man's not a minister, can the woman be a minister? Well, where's Phoebe's husband? Now, I gave you two examples where they were ministers and they were doing it with their husbands. But Phoebe's not mentioned a husband. And what about women that are not married? Can they be ministers? Absolutely. Absolutely. Can a man who's not married be an elder? Sure. He just can't have two girlfriends, right? He's only. He only can have one girlfriend. He says let deacons be the husband of one wife. Now notice he's going back to the men. Notice women don't have multiple. Well, they might, but they don't want to go to church much. Okay. And you don't talk about a woman that got no discretion if she's got two men. I mean, one is a pain, two is a problem. I mean, that's just the way it goes. All right, Husband of one wife. Now notice, ruling their children, their whole household. Well, why is it bringing that up again? Well, it's bringing that up again because men have to learn to be leaders in their households. And if you're going to be a minister and you've got a family, you. You got to be the minister of your family. Same as the. Same as the elder. Why does it mention women got to be good mothers and wives? Because if they got a good husband, it ain't hard. You're the problem. But we're not going down that trail. I done dealt with that. Right? I've never seen. Look, look, if a man got sold out for Jesus and his wife didn't want to, they're going to be gone. She's going to be gone before you know it. But I've never seen a woman whose husband sells out for Jesus, who doesn't totally benefit from it and become powerful herself. They do it now. Is it in their own way? Sure. Is Kathleen like me? No. It wouldn't be good for her to be like me. I don't need two me's, okay? Two me's would be terrible. I need a me and a her. She needs to do what she's called to do. I do what I'm called to do. But wives, wives always benefit from a sold out husband. Always and rarely do they not take advantage of it. Men, their wife can be sold out as all get out and they sitting there like a not, not on a walk. And we've seen that all the time, right? He says for those who serve well as deacons, obtain for themselves a good standing, meaning their feet are planted firmly and they know who they are in the kingdom, they're powerful. Okay, Pastor, if you got a deacon and an elder and they're having a fight at the bar, who wins? Spiritually speaking, you know, they shoot thunderbolts at each other. These are not, listen to me, just like a husband and a wife. The husband is over the wife, but they're of equal value. So also the elders are over the ministers, but the ministers are of equal value. And I will tell you this, a church that doesn't have strong ministers won't be a very strong church. So there has to be ministers who are doing the ministry. They obtain for themselves a good standing and a great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. They got, I mean they're, I mean there's a lot of ministers that are better at being Sons of Light or Daughters of Light or Children of Light than pastors. And we know that. I mean that that's not even an observation. That it requires a whole lot of thought. How many people do you know out there in the world who are doing ministry, who are better light shiners than the pastors? Sadly, I dare say that if you went around town and started naming the Children of Light because of their ministry, not because of their title, you'd probably find a whole lot more ministers and a whole lot more women than you would find pastors. And let's just be truthful and honest. I'm the leader of this church. But the truth is we got ministers that are better light givers than I am. And a lot of them are women. They just, are they better at it? Sometimes I'm ashamed of myself. I, I, I, and I, I don't, I don't say that. I, I don't say that lightly. I mean, I've, I've had people, ministers in this church, women ministering in this church. And I'm sitting there thinking, what in the world am I doing? I got to get it on. How am I going to lead them? I got to get out ahead of them, start running faster, faster, faster. Pastor, He says these things. I write to you though, I hope to come to you shortly. What he's saying is I'm telling you this and I hope to come and help you, but you need to know it. He says, but if I'm delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of truth. So he's saying is, you got this. How you gotta lead, you go, pastor. Well, what does that mean? That means if you want to, if you say, pastor, how do you know how to lead? Timothy, that's how I know how to leave. That's why this is a book that I've probably read 30, 40 times in detail. Gotta know it. He says, you know, not only it's the ground of truth, it's without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. And then he gives us one of these things. And by the way, when you see these, and you're gonna see them, especially when he's talking to churches in Timothy, they're sayings that in the Greek are easy to remember because remember they don't have the word. So he's going to give him one of these sayings. He's going to put it in here. It's one of these sayings that's a saying of the early church, by the way. It also gives us light into an understanding of what the early church believed about theology. So when somebody says, well, they just came up with that in 348 and the Constantinian peoples and you got together and they decided Jesus was God. No, no, no. How'd I know? Well, about 40, 50 A.D. paul wrote a letter to Timothy and he gave them a saying that is a saying of the early church, by the way. He does this a couple of times. What's the saying? God was manifest in the flesh, John 1:1, justified by the Spirit, meaning he was made known to everybody by the Holy Spirit. Okay, Seen by angels, meaning not just people. Everybody saw him fallen and not fallen. Preached among the Gentiles. What is he saying? That the gospel wasn't just for the Jews, it was for the Gentiles. This is a saying of the early church, believed on in the world, meaning that there were people who trusted in Jesus in the world and received up to glory. So Jesus was God because he was manifest in the flesh. He was made known as God by the Holy Spirit. He was seen by the spiritual and the physical. He was preached to the Jew and the Gentile. He was believed on by the world, meaning people throughout the world believed him. And then he was received up to the right Hand of the Father. Those are heels to down. Those are. He's giving him a compact teaching of faith. That would have been a saying that the early church would have used, and they'd have said it over and over again to each other. Why? Because it nails down precepts of the faith that are very, very important. And it does it just simply and directly. Those are all. Every one of those has healed it all. Every one of them. Now, there's a lot to download with that. Okay. And if you say, well, Pastor, I don't understand how we do these things, I'm going to tell you the reason we do it. I'm going to point you to this. By the way, the pastor's Bible study is met for now, two or three years, and we're halfway through Second Timothy in three years. So I'm not just doing it to y'. All, I'm doing it to them, too. Okay. All right. And the reason we're going into detail is as we go through it in detail, we all find ourselves in a Japanese car in one Accord. Okay. And so we're in. Yeah. And Philip drives it to the Bible study. It's the one we all get in. Looks like a clown car. You ought to see me trying to push Jimmy in and get you and leave me room to get in. All right. Why do we do that? Well, we do that so that we can all be on one page. So that when we're dealing with things, if y' all will notice, when we're dealing with things, it's hard to get in between two of us. You ain't going to get in between two of us. We brothers. We ain't playing no gangs. And by the way, when we back you up, we ain't playing no games either. God called you to do something. We're going to fight for you because you're a minister. We got to help you with your ministry. We got a responsibility for it. And so that's how I see things. Now you go, what about women pastors? Well, I just, you know, I didn't go into detail about it, but I kind of let you see that it doesn't really. I'm trying to figure out how that works itself out. Okay. All right. I. You know, maybe you could. And like I. I've always said there are depths to understanding, and I might one day be convinced of it. But I can tell you this. Kathleen ain't going to be on the billboard. Pastor. Pastors Chad, Harrison and Kathleen. Okay, that's not happening. So just letting you know, she's out on that, all right? And you say, well, then you're misogynistic and women can't be in charge. That's not true. That is not true. When we have our staff meeting, there's almost as many women at the staff meeting as there are men. Okay? Why? Because they are lead ministers in our church. They've been the ones showing up, making things happen. And if I had a meeting of those who are functioning in their calling as an elder and those who are functioning in their calling as a past, As a. As a minister, usually when we have those meetings, there's more women here than men, and that's the ministers, okay? So if you want a title, make sure you know what the title is. Make sure you're qualified for it, okay? And get busy doing it. And if you'll do it long enough, you won't care what the title is. Just being real with you. I am a pastor shepherd, elder, bishop, per capus, whatever, Episcopal, something, octopus, porpoise, okay? That's who I am. Am I. Am I the head pastor? Well, I mean, if it's got to come down to a decision, somebody's got to make it. Yes. But let me tell you something. If I've got to ultimately make the decision, something messed up, because there are a lot of folks make good decisions that I never even hear about. They handle things. They do things. Ministers doing things, pastors doing things, they just say, chad, I just want to let you know, this is what I did. And you know what I say? Praise God. And when Pastor Terry died, I sat down with all of them and I told them, hear me today. I am the lead pastor of this church, but I do not have to lead it. Please take my job. I anoint you with power. Go do it. I will do what I'm called to do. You do what you're called to do. And when we get to heaven, we'll all get rewarded for it. So truth is, I am just, as a judge, as a husband and a pastor. I'm just a figurehead. Tell you the truth, Kathleen runs the house. Pretty doggone good. Libby runs the office. Pretty doggone good. And for that, Stacy ran the office. Pretty doggone good. Notice there's women in charge everywhere I go. And then when I get here, truth is, there's a lot of godly men. They're taking their role, but there's a whole lot of women doing their job, too. And I'm just a figurehead here. If you don't know the truth, when I get to heaven. I am a little worried. Jesus said, well, they did all the work. You just stood there and took it. That's why when I see somebody working hard, I go, I better get after it. She's wearing me out. Amen. It's good to know that it's good to function in a church where people have freedom. And I want you to hear me. You have freedom to be all you can be in Christ. I encourage it. In fact, I recommend it. I'd love for you to do it. Amen. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.