Below is an example of how to use the PPGR Preaching System to save time crafting focused, clear messages that are rooted in a specific text, address a problem with the human condition, tether the text and theme to the cross, and provide redemptive application that is grace-driven and Spirit-empowered.
Text: 1 Timothy 3
Keyword: shape
[P] Aspiring to the office of elder/overseer requires a life increasingly shaped by the gospel internally and externally, whereby sanctified areas of integrity, self-control, and gracious leadership are visible in the church and the broader community (1 Timothy 3).
[P] Sadly, our human tendency is to prioritize worldly achievements, positions, status, and charisma over simple gospel-shaped character and spiritual maturity.
This misalignment can lead to leadership that is not grounded in humility and service but in pride and self-promotion, causing harm to the church’s unity, witness, and effectiveness.
[G] Thankfully, the cross addresses this issue by offering us the ultimate model of eldership in Jesus, who didn’t just hold the office of Christ, but lived it unto death.
Though being in very nature God, he did not consider his status to be used to his own advantage.
Instead, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross, substituting himself in judgment in place of his sheep.
From this perspective, the defining truth of every elder’s life should be the grace of God in the cross of Christ.
[R] When someone receives such grace, the gospel begins to reshape their values and aspirations.
Therefore, I suggest churches encourage those to aspire to the office of elder whose lives are increasingly defined by the kind of grace that results in humility and kindness more than worldly achievements, positions, status, and personal charisma.
Those things are not wrong in themselves.
But we want leaders who are willing to die to any other righteousness that would dare compete with that which is theirs as a gift in Jesus.
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