Leading Servants

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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We are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series,

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Blueprints for a Healthy Church, following the plan from the book of 1 Timothy. Let's listen in.

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Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Recast Church. As Dave said, I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here, and I'm really glad to be back with all of you.

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A couple of announcements for those of you that are newer around here. I recognize that some of you have been here maybe just a week or two or three.

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There's a connection card that you received when you walked in. That's kind of a way to take a next step in regard to the church and getting information here.

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And so if you're willing to fill that out, turn it in at the welcome table out in the lobby on your way out.

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There's somebody there to greet you, and then they will give you a t -shirt in exchange for that if you're willing to share your information with us.

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We don't spam your inbox if you share your email address, but we do send out a weekly email so you can take advantage of that.

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And then you received an offering envelope when you walked in. We don't pass an offering plate. We want your giving. The primary thing about giving, we want it to be between you and God, and so we don't want anybody to feel coerced or feel any pressure.

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You can recycle that. There's a basket out there to recycle it. If you choose to give, we just ask that you put it in that envelope and slide it in a slot in the welcome table out there, and just so that you know how to give if you decide to.

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And then the last thing that I want to make as far as announcements here is that we do have a brand new app, and that is really the primary way that we're communicating and pushing out information to people now is through the app.

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Sign -ups for activities are on the app, and so if you have an

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Apple device, you can go to the Apple Store and type in Recast Church there and grab that app, and you'll get the information that you need there.

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It's also on the Google Play Store if you have an Android device, and so take advantage of that. And how many of you have already downloaded the app?

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I'm just curious. Excellent. Hopefully, you're finding that useful, and like I said, keep using that, and you'll see that there's sign -ups and stuff there.

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It's really good to be back after a couple of weeks being gone. I was up at Camp Bearcow volunteering and serving.

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Most of you know that Lynn and I met up at Camp Bearcow as counselors back in the day. When I say back in the day, that's 90s to me.

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Back in the day means it's something different to every one of you, and more and more as I hang out with some younger people, I'm like back in the day for them is like so totally 2000 or something.

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But no, I go way back, way, way back into the 90s and even earlier 80s.

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But yeah, we had a great time up there. Recast became a member church of Camp Bearcow way, way back in 2019.

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2019 for some of us feels like a long time ago. It feels like that's like a lifetime ago considering some of the things we've endured in the last couple of years.

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But we support the camp financially by supporting Jim and Rachel Bennett, who are on full -time residential staff up there.

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We had an opportunity, Lynn and I had an opportunity to interact with them while we were up there and just check in on them and see how they're doing.

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Bearcow does not pay their full -time staff. They're like missionaries who raise support, and so that's one of the reasons that our church supports them.

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And so it's super encouraging just to bring you back a good report of good things going on up at Camp Bearcow. This is our home though.

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We love you guys. We miss you when we're gone. And so it's really good to be back up here. I'm going to try to preach to you this morning.

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It's been a few weeks, so we'll see if I'm rusty. You guys can give me a score after. No, don't do that. But anyways, stick to the word.

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But after the service, just so that you know, following the service, we're going to have a moment to go back and get kids. Anybody who has other plans, you can take off and leave if you want to.

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But we're going to have a parent dedication immediately following the service. Go back, collect kids as quickly as possible.

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Kind of come back up in here and sit in these two sections up here. And the parent dedication is going to take about 15 minutes just so that you can kind of prepare yourself and plan accordingly.

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As many people from the churches can stay for that, it just is an encouragement to those families participating in that. But this morning, we're going to be looking at what could at first glance appear to be a pretty routine text of scripture about the qualifications for deacons in a church.

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And it could actually just kind of feel like a little bit of filler, a little bit of kind of like taking out the garbage or just kind of like the detail work of what it means to be a church.

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And to be quite honest, I can imagine that some of you would feel like this passage doesn't apply much to you in your daily reading.

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So if you encountered this passage and you're reading through the Bible in a year, I can understand why you might be tempted to breeze over this quickly and just move on with your day.

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Kind of going, well, I didn't get a whole lot out of that for myself because I'm not a deacon, I'm not an elder, I'm not a leader in the church.

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But maybe you hope, maybe you're one of those people who just kind of honestly hopes to avoid being in any kind of leadership role.

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And so you think these qualifications really don't have much to do with you. But as we dig in to the text today,

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I want to highlight what I believe God wants to show to all of us in this list of qualifications.

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I think he has something for us in all of scripture. It speaks to all of us at the place where we live.

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And God is, here's the big picture point that I think all of us can grasp from this, regardless of our title, regardless of where we've been or where we're at right now.

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And it's simply this, God is much more concerned with character than with spelling out specific job descriptions.

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He's much more concerned with character and the way we live than with the function of our lives or the things that are done.

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You see, the reason I bring that up is that we don't know very much at all about the duties and responsibilities day in and day out of a deacon in the ancient church, in this early church.

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At the time that Paul is writing this, we don't really know much at all about what they did. As a matter of fact, we don't have any clear example of what a official deacon in the church did during this time.

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But we do certainly know that they needed to be exemplary in their connection with Jesus Christ.

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To serve in the church required a vital, obvious, visible connection with Jesus Christ.

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What we see in this list, and really two lists, we looked a few weeks ago at the list for elders, immediately before this text, and then this list today about deacons, and what we see in these lists are meant to be a life lived out in connection to Jesus Christ, our head.

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A life saved, we're to observe in our leadership and those who are serving the body, a life saved and being saved.

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A life justified at the cross and being sanctified by the Spirit, walking with the

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Spirit day by day. A life set apart for His purposes. And keep in mind that as we're reading this passage here in just a moment before we come to worship, that this is a qualification list for a servant in the church.

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Deacon means servant. And so let's open our Bibles or our devices to 1

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Timothy 3, verses 8 through 13. And again, I love the opportunity to remind you every week when we come together and we read this, that this is

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God's holy and precious word, a word that desires to transform us and change us if we would just believe it and trust it as true and set it forth as the guiding principles of our lives.

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Again, 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 13, follow along. Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double -tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

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They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first.

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Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers but sober -minded, faithful in all things.

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Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their households well.

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For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word that just clarifies so much of life for us and really mines down into the areas of our lives that can easily be given over to ourself, given over to the world.

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I thank you that you do single out and call out individuals to be exemplary servants within the church, leading servants, deacons.

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I thank you that you call all of us in our various capacities to serve. And we don't, it would be very easy for us in our minds even today to just think, okay, this is pushed off on leaders.

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This is pushed off on those who are qualified. And Father, I pray that you would speak to each and every heart here today, whether feeling qualified or disqualified from this list of things, that you would work on us by your spirit, identifying and putting a finger on areas that you desire for us to change.

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But most vitally, we desire that everyone here in this gathering would be connected to Jesus Christ, our head.

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The only hope that we have is not for reform, not for fixing these areas of our lives, not for correcting it or attending church well or giving more or giving more of our time or serving better.

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But that only comes after saving a salvation experience with Jesus Christ that comes by faith in him alone.

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So Father, I pray that you would be uniting our hearts here together as a church in your saving work that you desire all men and women to believe, but then also to live it out, having been saved by you.

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So Father, as we have an opportunity to sing praises to you together, I pray that you would unite just as our voices mingle.

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Let that be a metaphor for the mingling of lives and the doing of life together in worship of you.

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We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Yeah, and you can go to be seated. And then at any point during the message, if you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts while supplies last in the back, take advantage of that.

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And those of you maybe that are newer here, the restrooms are out the double doors down the hallway on the left -hand side if you need to use those.

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And then keep your Bibles open to 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 13. We're going to walk through that passage.

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That's one thing that we do every week when we gather together here at Recast. I don't know what you come to expect when you come and visit a church, but we walk through passages of scripture.

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And hopefully by the time that you leave here, you have a better understanding of at least this section of God's holy word.

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And so that's one of my goals week in and week out. I pray for understanding that leads to faith, that leads to a changed life.

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And so that's really the goal. The Greek word that we see here that really is the focus of our morning is the word deacon.

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It's used over 100 times in the New Testament. It carries very little meaning other than some kind of churchy word to most of us.

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But it carried in the Greek language in that ancient culture, it carried a meaning outside of the church that was very significant having it brought into the church.

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It was very clear in its meaning and it was menial in its meaning. Meaning that really it was kind of a little bit of a word that had the notion of a servant or a slave attached to it.

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Basically, for our purposes to understand what this word means, it means servant. And we might do better to keep that word, the word that we translated into English, by inventing, by the way, the word deacon comes over straight from Greek.

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It comes from the sound of the Greek word diakonos. You can hear the D and the K in there and it comes from that.

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But we've emptied the word kind of of its broader cultural understanding by inventing a word or creating a word that just tails on the

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Greek word. And so it can become quite a very churchy word that misses the commonness of the word in the ancient world.

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And this is not a church word. It was a word that simply meant servant.

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So let's cut to the chase before we look at the qualifications of one who serves in this way. One who would carry the title servant to the church.

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And we see that word used again throughout the New Testament in several places to be a servant, holding the title servant of a particular church.

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But to cut to the chase, we need to remember who we serve. We serve Christ, who on the night he was betrayed, took up a basin and a towel.

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And he knelt in humility, washing his disciples' feet. And our

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Lord stooped low to serve others. And he calls us within the church to serve one another as well.

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And so that's the fundamental place that we need to turn when we understand the idea of service within the church, or the title deacon, servant, is to recognize that Jesus himself served us in that way.

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Served his followers in that way. But from this passage, we see that God will call some specifically to be exemplary servants.

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How many of you go ahead and raise your hand if you knew that within the body of Christ, you're called to serve? We talk here about growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service, believing that maturing in the

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Christian life means that each one of those areas in your individual life are expanding.

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That's what we desire for each and every one of you. That you're growing in faith, that you're connecting with God through his word, believing it, trusting it, and living it out more and more day by day.

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That you're growing in community because we believe that faith alone is not how God designed us. He desires us in community to grow together.

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And that looks like, you know, working through our difficulties, and loving one another well, and serving one another when we're down and all of that.

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But then that last component is extremely important, and that's growing in service. Growing in the areas that he has gifted us so that we can indeed bless one another.

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Everybody, Paul likened it to a body. The apostle Paul said that the church is like a body with different appendages and different parts.

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And each part, when it's functioning well, how many of you like it when your body is functioning well? Isn't that a good thing?

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When your hand is getting along with your eye and it's not poking your eye out or whatever. Like when your body is getting along and everything's functioning right, that's a good thing.

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And that's kind of that image of a call to service. Each one of us having a role to play.

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But there are some who are called out, according to this text, to an exemplary type of service.

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That's why I titled the message leading servants. They're still servants. Servant is the noun, leading is the adjective.

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They lead us into service. They have some responsibilities. Some will be leading servants who show others the way into deeper service for Jesus Christ and for his body.

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And the bar is raised high, according to this text, raised very high for the integrity and connection to Christ for one who would be what

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I would like to call a capital S servant among servants in the church. And so many of these things we find listed as qualifications.

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By the way, I want to clarify, are expectations of all believers. So when we read it, we're not all off the hook because, oh,

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I'm not a, I don't hold the title of deacon. And even some of the list for elders, we're not off the hook on those things.

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It's not like, oh good, I don't have to be a one woman kind of guy because I'm not a deacon.

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Or I get to bad mouth others because I'm not a deacon. Or I get to get drunk every weekend because I'm not a deacon.

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We'll look at that. And all of these things are, so why are you sitting here listening to this? Why don't I just pull out the deacons and talk to them about this, right?

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Because all of us need to take on this message. It's revealed to all of us. It's something for all of us to work through together.

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And by the way, the fact that this list of qualifications is expected of all believers leads me to conclude that these are listed for the purpose of being exemplary.

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Some are called out to be exemplary in these areas. The one who has been granted a particular area of heading up service in the church is to shine out these qualities to all of us.

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So let's jump into the list. The first thing that we see there in the text is that deacons, like elders, the same word that was used for elders, they must be dignified.

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In other words, they should be easy to respect. It should not be difficult to honor one who is called out to serve the church in this way.

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And by the way, this doesn't preclude a sense of humor. It doesn't mean they can't be funny. It doesn't mean that they're required to always be dignified and noble in the way that they talk to everybody.

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Like, oh, deacon so -and -so. That doesn't what it means to be respectable.

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But hear me carefully, church. We are looking for people who are going to lead ministries who are ethically and morally respectable.

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Does that make sense? Ethically and morally respectable and dignified in the way that they hold themselves out in these various areas that we're going to be looking at here.

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The second thing that it says in the text, not just dignified, but they are to not be a negative, not be double -tongued.

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Now, that's a word that requires, it's kind of like when you hear double -tongued, you kind of think, oh, I get it. I know what he's talking about. And then you're like, wait a second, what does he mean?

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Like, do you know what I mean? Like, I mean, how many of you just have a definition of double -tongued in your mind? Probably very few of us.

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Like, it's just not a word that we use very often. But this is, I want to point this out. The Greek word that's used here was used in multiple places in a bunch of ancient documents.

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So we kind of have an understanding of what they meant when they said double -tongued. And it means, by the way, that's a literal translation of the word.

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It's the prefix that means two and the word that means tongue. And that's this word combined and mashed together here.

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So it means to have two tongues. Well, what does it mean to have two tongues? Well, nobody really has two.

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And so what in the world does it mean? Like, okay, you know how a serpent has like, and you could get kind of weird on this and go, serpent has a split tongue, don't be like a serpent or something like that.

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That's not what it means. A person who is double -tongued, this is about relationship more than it has to do with our speech.

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Now, certainly it attaches itself to our speech, but to not be double -tongued is a way of relating to people.

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Let me explain. A person who is double -tongued is a person who plays favorites. Well, how so?

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Well, they would speak to different groups in different ways. They have one tongue, one way of speech, one language for one group, and one language and one type of speech for another group.

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That might not be clear enough. So let me just say, to the rich, they speak with dignity, with respect, with flattery, with kindness, and with hope for what?

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Some favors. For some favors. Maybe a little bit of a loan once in a while, or how about just a gift?

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But how would one who has a double tongue speak to the poor? Harsh, rude, unkind, demeaning.

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Why would they have two tongues? Because they are broken in terms of their relationship to others.

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They stand to gain something from the rich, and they don't stand to gain anything from the poor, so they have two ways of speaking.

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Does that make sense? Hopefully that clarifies what is meant by, the person who is a leading servant in the church is not to have a double tongue, is not to have two ways of speaking.

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But they just shoot straight with everybody. Does anybody know anybody? Like when I think of that, there are some people who come to my mind that are straight shooters, that are just a breath of fresh air.

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Anybody have somebody like that? They just say it like it is. Let the cards fall where they may. I'm not saying harsh or rude.

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I'm just saying they speak the same way to everybody. And of course, it's ideal if it's nice, right?

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They speak the same way to everybody, and it's kind. It's nice. That's what we're looking for, by the way. Not a single tongue that's mean doesn't meet the qualifications.

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So don't think it's like, okay, all I have to do is make sure I speak. If I speak to meaning of the poor, then I'll speak to meaning of the rich too, and I'm all good.

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But it's still the focus of this instruction here is about the way we relate to others.

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Not looking for favor, not looking for gain. A leading servant also is not to be addicted to much wine.

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It doesn't say they can't drink wine. It says they're not addicted to much wine. They are not out getting drunk, even socially not getting drunk.

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And there are some misunderstandings. I want to clarify this because I like to take up topics when they come up in the text.

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And so this has been something I've been waiting for, the topic of drunkenness, to come up in the church so that I could address it.

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Because over 12 years of ministry here, I've encountered a common question and a common thread that's been kind of interesting.

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And it kind of has come to me in a surprising way. But I've encountered people over the years here at Recast who

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I've had conversations with them, and they've said, you know, Don, I do get drunk, but I'm actually kind when

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I do. I don't get mean. I don't get belligerent. I don't sin when

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I get drunk. I actually get kinder and kind of nice, chatty and fun.

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Have any of you ever had a friend that said something like that to you? I'm sure it's not you. But has anybody ever had anybody who's kind of excused that on the basis of like,

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I don't get seductive. I don't get rude. I don't get easily seduced or anything like that.

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I'm just more chill and fun. And so I just drink to have fun.

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Drunkenness is a sin, full stop. I don't define that line for you.

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But I think you have a pretty good definition for yourself. And I encourage you to honor Christ in this, whether a deacon or not a deacon, whether an elder or not an elder.

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Sinning while you're drunk is an additional sin. It's a double sin. It's adding on top of the sin already committed.

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You're drunk. The standard of scripture is being controlled by the spirit rather than being controlled by the spirits.

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I doubt that that's original to me, but I actually came up with that this week. But somebody else has said that before me.

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There's nothing new under the sun. A qualified servant of the church does not get drunk full stop.

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Everybody good with that? You guys good on that? Okay. It's important. The leading servant is also in control.

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They're in control of what they drink. They're also in control regarding their relationship to money. They are not greedy and would not accept dishonest gain.

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This is a way of saying that they are not readily enticed by get -rich -quick schemes or anything that smells like dishonest business practices is going to put them off.

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They're not interested and easily enticed by any type of financial gain at all.

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The promise of financial gain would not be a way to draw them into sin. And what I mean by this is just you can imagine how in church leadership, it's kind of important that those who have leadership type roles are not for sale.

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Isn't that important? That's really, really super important in a church. They're not for sale. They can't be bought.

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Their favor, their vote, their opinions, their thoughts, their theology cannot be bought. I think that there's something going on in a shift in America.

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This isn't in my notes, but it's a little side note. And that's just simply that I think that in churches right now, a lot of the slide in America actually comes from pastors who are kind of soft for sale.

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They're not putting themselves out there and say, buy me. But what they're afraid of is losing numbers.

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If you preach a certain way, you stand to make more space for others. Do you know what

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I'm saying? If I preach in a certain way, there's a likelihood that some of you are going to be offended.

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And some of you are going to leave. And what does that mean for the church finances? And all of those kind of thoughts that can come down on a leader.

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And I think we're seeing that. I think America is reaping the whirlwind of sowing toward greed.

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And that fear of, oh no, I might offend somebody. And it just, what it does is it doesn't look like, oh,

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I need more money, so I'm going to preach this way. It looks like I'm not going to say this because I don't want to offend anybody. And eventually, we're not talking about the things that scripture says.

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You get what I'm saying? That wasn't in my notes. I don't know why God wanted me to say that, but that was in there, not in there.

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So if that wasn't good, God, please strike that out. So I don't know. I'm not judging. I'm not trying to judge other churches.

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I'm just saying it's a tendency that I see in our culture. And I, raise your hand if you see it. Do you see it? I mean, is that unfair?

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And okay, you guys are seeing it too. The person who is a leading servant in God's church is not for sale.

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Verse nine highlights the place of the gospel in the life of a leading servant of the church. And I love this.

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They are to hold to the mystery of the faith. Now, mystery is a weird word that sounds like, oh no, we haven't got it figured out yet.

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Mystery in the New Testament is a word that means something that was hidden for long ages now revealed. So when you see the word mystery, that Greek word is not just like a mystery novel where we don't know how it turns out in the end.

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It's something that was hidden for long ages that's now revealed. And that's the picture that we have here.

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And they are to hold on to the mystery, the revelation of the faith. And hold is a really super strong Greek word.

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Like, if you want to hold on to something, there's a couple of Greek words for it. If you want to grasp tenaciously so that it has your fingernail marks in it at the end, then you use this word.

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This is a tenacious clinging to something, desperately holding on for dear life as it takes you where it wants you to go.

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It being the Holy Spirit where He takes you where He wants you to go and clinging to this mystery of the faith.

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The mystery of the faith, by the way, defined is the good news that sinners can be declared righteous through faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us on the cross.

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How many of you find that a glorious, something that was hidden for ages, revealed at the cross of Christ?

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How many of you are glad for that mystery revealed? Hold on to it tightly. Regardless of your title, regardless of your position, regardless of any aspirations that you have to be in a leading role in the church, cling to that.

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We want people directing areas of service within the church with a tenacious grip on the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the results of that strong grip, according to the scripture here, is a clear conscience produced by that faith.

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And I want to just ask you, how do you get a clear conscience? How many of you have wrestled, just being honest, my hand is up because I'm in agreement, how many of you have just wrestled over the course of your life with a clear conscience?

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Why? Because we're sinners. All of us. So how does a person get a clear conscience?

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Does your conscience get wiped by attending church? Does your conscience get wiped by taking communion?

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Does your conscience get wiped by giving to the poor or by giving to the church? How does your conscience get wiped?

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I would suggest to you there's only one way and it is by remembering the mystery of faith. That your sins were reckoned as Christ's sins.

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He took those on himself so that you could go scot -free. Amen? Oh, the mystery, the revelation of the greatest and grandest of all truths, right?

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And that results in a clear conscience. So you don't want somebody in leadership in the church who's wallowing in their sin, trying to fix it themselves, trying to recover from their sin.

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You want somebody who understands a clear conscience through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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And is appropriating that, is believing it, is trusting it, is walking in it, is strengthened by that.

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My only hope in ministry is that my feet are firmly planted at the foot of the cross where my forgiveness has been established.

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Why would I ever stand up here and speak into your lives? That's just, honestly, that's just mind -boggling to me aside from the cross.

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Without the cross, this would be a complete futility and a waste of our time. Getting it? I mean, it's only on the basis of the cross that I have any kind of clear conscience to be able to step up in front of you and say anything.

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Verse 10 shows that a deacon should have a time to be tested and to prove themselves in their role as a leading servant.

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The standard of blameless there, that's an overwhelming word. Blameless can be quite intimidating.

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But it has to be understood in a relative sense. Blame and accusation don't easily stick to the one who is qualified to serve the church as a deacon or in that exemplary role, exemplary way or exemplary role.

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By degrees, the person in the role of deacon or deaconess will not be easy to take down with pot shot types of accusations.

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As a matter of fact, the person taking pot shots at a deacon who's qualified according to these areas is going to be mud on egg on their face.

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The one making the accusation is going to be the one who's going to look silly in the end. You getting it? That's that kind of image of blamelessness.

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Now, when we get to verse 11, I'm going to do something that I don't like to do. And I don't do it very often because I absolutely love the

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ESV. I love the ESV translation of the Bible primarily because it's very readable. It usually takes a word -for -word translation and it doesn't do a lot of interpretation for us.

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Like the NIV would tend to be more interpretive and all of that. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to disagree with the

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ESV translation of verse 11. Where in verse 11, you see it say this. Let a woman...

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No, wait, we're a wrong verse, a wrong chapter. Verse 11, their wives likewise must be dignified.

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Not slanders, but sober -minded, faithful in all things. I would see that as translated, the women likewise must be dignified.

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Now, why would I do that? Well, unfortunately, some part of Bible translation always requires some level of interpretation.

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And the reason for that is that languages don't completely mesh up. So there's not like a single word for this and a single word for this.

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So when you're going from Greek to English, you have like, for example, four words, four primary words in Greek that mean love.

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And you have one primary word in English that means love. So when we're talking about how we love a hot dog or how we love

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God or how we love our wives or our husbands or anything, we talk about love, right? And that's just kind of a really mixed up word.

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But in Greek, it's more defined. There's a certain word for love for a wife. There's a certain word for love for God. There's a certain word for a love for a hot dog.

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And you wouldn't cross those over. And so what happens here in this text is that the flexibility of the language is demonstrated from Greek to English.

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The Greek word gune. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. And it doesn't really matter if you say it with confidence. Everybody just believes you anyways.

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But gune is the one Greek word used for both women or woman and wife.

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Woman and wife. It's one word. Usually, context would make the meaning clear.

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And it often does. And then frequently, the word wife would actually have a possessive pronoun.

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As crass and as crude as it might be to our ears, Linda in Greek would be Don's woman.

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That'd be possessive. That's just the way they said it, okay? You can go misogyny. You can go like freak out. And that's probably going to be like a clip that somebody's going to record.

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And they're going to have me out there. Yeah, pastor in Michigan says that his wife is his woman.

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Cancel me. But I have a feeling you guys are going to show up anyways. So we'll keep doing this thing.

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But so you guys get the gist of that word is different, right? The way that it's used matters.

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And so here in our text, it's not super clear what Paul meant to say. But the

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ESV complicates things. They complicate things by adding the preposition. Do you see it in the text?

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Their wives. Well, that's not in the Greek. They interpreted it. They added the possessive pronoun in there to clarify their stance or their view, which

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I don't agree with. And I'm going to explain to you why here in just a second. But I think that Paul actually means to communicate to us directly through this verse that women can indeed hold the office of deacon in the church.

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And he does so intentionally here in verse 11. Kind of what seems to be an interruption.

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And he does so because in verse 12, he's going to clarify two qualities or qualifications for the office of deacon that require you to be male.

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So he's going to speak directly to male deacons here in just a second. So he says, oh, by the way, don't forget the women also have to be qualified in the same way.

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What women? The women deacons. In other words, verse 11 exists for the express purpose of making sure we don't assume a woman cannot hold the office of leading servant in the church.

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And he has to be specific here because he's actually already prohibited women from the office of eldership.

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So the assumption would be, as you go through this qualification list, was that women are not allowed to be deacons unless he says otherwise, which he does here.

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The women, the women deacons, need to likewise be qualified. And here are five reasons I think this is about female deacons.

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These will go quick. First is that the early church had female deacons early on and understood this passage to permit it.

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So from a very early date after the writings of Paul and after the apostles and the churches spreading, they had female deacons in those churches.

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The second thing is the word likewise is used to compare parallel things. So the way that chapter three goes is it goes elders, qualifications, likewise deacons, qualifications, likewise female deacons, qualifications.

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It would be very different if it was elder qualifications, likewise deacons, qualifications, and their wives, likewise, qualifications.

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It takes it down a tier. And the way that the Greek construction works is that those things should be parallel that are with the word likewise.

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It seems quite likely, this is the third, it seems quite unlikely rather that Paul would have referred to the wives of deacons without even a mention to the elders' wives, elders being the leaders in the church, deacons being the servants.

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And if you believe that what the ESV is saying, then he's strapped a bunch of qualifications on the servants' wives, but not on the elders' wives.

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Is anybody kind of with me on that? Like that just seems a little bit strange that for the leaders he wouldn't single that out. Fourth, in Romans 16, 1, there's a clear indication that there were female deacons even during this era of the church that Paul worked with.

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There's a lady named Phoebe who was a deaconess of the church of Sancreia. She's mentioned by name in holding that office.

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So we have a female already holding that position. And the fifth thing is the flow of the text makes the interjection of female deacons necessary.

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The reason he's mentioning it at all is very clear because he goes back to males being a one -woman kind of guy and managing their households well.

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And if he had skipped and not said verse 11, we would have increased confusion and actually probably an assumption that women could not hold this office.

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So he had to say this here in order to clarify. But before this ambiguity rattles anyone too much, know that either way

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I would encourage the wives of elders and the wives of deacons to consider this list of qualifications put forward for the benefit of the whole church.

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And as a matter of fact, I want to remind you that these qualifications are exemplary and meant to encourage all of us toward growth in Christ in these areas.

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The reason that they're held out as examples is because all of us ought to be moving toward these things.

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His injunction to female deacons in verse 11 serves to summarize all of the things that were already said to men, deacons above, they also, he says, should be dignified.

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They also should not be bad -mouthing others or tearing them down. They also should be sober -minded, able to direct their passions in all things.

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And the end of verse 11 catches the women up on all the qualifications. Here, they're directed toward female deacons to be faithful in all things.

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In other words, all of the things that have already been mentioned. In verse 12, having established the open door to women, serving in the role of deacon, he goes back to men and says that a leading servant must be a one -woman type of guy.

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We talked about that a few weeks ago with eldership, but it's worth mentioning again. This means that a person qualified to serve in the church, a person called to lead in the church is not a womanizer if he's single.

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He's not in the grips of pornography if he's single or if he's married. If he's married, he's not adulterous.

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His eyes are not easily drawn to lust. I think we kind of know that. It's not particularly focused on the one thing.

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We get into all kinds of debates about whether a person could be divorced. We can talk through that maybe privately if you have some questions about that or whatever.

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Whether or not it's all about polygamy or something like that. I don't believe that that's at all his intention. He's looking for a specific type of guy to lead in the church, and he's using the phrase one -woman type of guy to not clarify, but actually to generalize a type of guy.

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You get a picture and an image in your mind of a one -woman kind of guy? I hope you can imagine that.

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A one -woman type of guy is a guy who's just upright in his treatment of women all the way around.

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So that's totally key. And then in line with this, he's good at managing the management of his children and his household.

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Note carefully what the text does and doesn't say. The emphasis is on his managing well. It's the type of management that he has, not on the outcome.

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A servant in the church does well by his family. And what I mean by that, that it doesn't focus on the outcome, is that it's not sufficient to have a family who, through fear of this man, shows up to church spit -polished and always up to snuff because they're terrified of dad.

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Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that kind of a leader in the household that everybody's afraid of, and they do exactly his bidding at all times because they're afraid of him?

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It's not managing your household well. The word well is the quality of the management, the type of leader that he is in the household.

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He manages them well, which is similar to back in verse 4. You can glance at it if you've got a device open or the Bible in front of you.

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But back in verse 4, the elder is to manage his household well, which is defined as with dignity.

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Speaks to the way that he leads his household. He leads his household with dignity, with kindness, with mercy, with grace, leaning in and listening.

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Men, let this be a challenge to you. If you're in the position of the head of a household right now, take this one on and think about it and consider, am

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I leading well? Am I leading like a tyrant? Am I always demanding my way? Am I loving?

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Am I caring? Am I concerned for my family? Interestingly, verse 13 then, as we kind of wrap things up here, it holds out two rewards for those who would serve the

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Lord and his church well in the role as male or female deacons. First is the reward of a good standing.

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The generic nature of the word good standing there leads me to believe that it is both a good standing before the church.

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In other words, if you lead well in this role, the church is going to respect you. You'll have good standing in the eyes of the church, but also in the eyes of further the watching world.

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The watching world will know that we are Christians by our... Anybody got it? By our love.

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They will know that we are Christians by our love for one another. And the way we serve one another will be a significant evidence of our love.

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How will they know that we love? Because they will watch the way that we care for one another when somebody's down.

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When a sheep gets hurt, the church rallies. When somebody's in a place of need, we rally, we pray, we provide meals, we support, we're there.

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And I've had that happen over the years. We've had a secular workplace identify and note, wow,

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I can't believe what your church is doing for you. We want to be that kind of church, right? Where your workplace is impressed when you go through a hard time and they're like, wow, your church.

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Your church has showed up and took the reins and is providing meals and is caring for you.

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We want to be that kind of church. So a good standing before the watching world, a good standing in the church.

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But second is the reward of confidence and assurance in the faith. Those who serve the Lord well have a front row seat to the watch what

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God can do show. Have you guys seen it? Have you ever been in a position or a season of ministry where you had a chance to just see

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God show up and just knock everybody's socks off? Just wow and bedazzle everybody?

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I found out in my high school and college years as I was kind of forming my ministry ideas and philosophy of ministry and all of that,

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I found that my faith grows when I'm in a season of serving others. My faith grows when

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I'm in a season of serving others. Matter of fact, I think you could map the emotional ups and downs of my life by overlaying the timeline with my seasons of more intense service to others.

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The more I serve, the more joy and gladness I have in my soul.

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The less I give of myself, the more inward I focus, the more depressed and down I become. Anybody testify to that in your life as well?

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Seasons of giving of ourselves often lead to seasons of joy and gladness.

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But be careful because I'm not prescribing service now as a medication for you to get out of your funk.

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I'm merely identifying that confidence in the faith comes to those who love him enough to serve him and his people well.

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Don't convolute this as our tendency is in our culture right now to figure out how can I fix myself?

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How can I solve this problem in my own heart? Okay, Pastor, Don said serve, so I better get serving because one more thing to try to get out of my own funk.

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Don't make this about serving yourself. That ends up turning the whole thing on its head. I want to feel good, so I'm going to serve others.

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Just serve them because you love Christ. Serve Christ and his people because you have a firm grasp on the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience, as verse 9 says.

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I don't want this to be watered down in my application at all, but this text exists to explain the type of qualities we are to expect from those who serve the church in an official capacity.

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That is true, that is the point of the text. These are standards for people like Eliza Talmadge, our children's director, or for people like Mark Downing, who's in charge of our outdoor maintenance, or people like Aaron Garnott, who heads up our hospitality team and was here making coffee this morning.

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We do not, by the way, have a publicized list of deacons. I don't see anything in scripture that identifies that we should.

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They do not form a board, but they are indeed a vital part of our church, and that leads to my first application.

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Look around you. You can identify them. My hunch is that you've already met them. You can identify many of their faces in your mind as people who have served you.

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So look around and identify who are serving the body well, and then let me encourage you to take the next step.

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Thank them. Commend them. Be part of that reward of being in good standing.

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Just say, thank you for making the coffee. Thank you for being here to hold the door for me. Thank you for taking care of my kids back there.

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Just talk with them and thank them. Commend them. Let them know that you're praying for them, but only if you're really praying for them, but pray for them.

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The second application is consider what role God has for you in serving here at Recast. He has a role.

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Not if he has a role for you. He has one. If this is your church and this is where you attend, then there's a place for you to plug in and get using your skills.

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Now let me encourage you to jump on the Recast app and click. You can click on the service tab. I think it's also right directly in the news feed.

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Like it'll be one of the first things that you see when you open up the app is a volunteer application. You could fill that out right online through the app.

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It's a good way to get plugged in using your gifts to serve God through serving his people, and it's a good way to begin that process of identifying why has

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God brought you here? What role do you have to play here? My confidence is that you do have something. The third thing, and lastly, it's quite possible that some of you, maybe even many, feel intimidated by this list of qualifications, and it just might feel like a relief to some of you that you're not an elder.

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You're not a deacon. All right, let's move on. But rather than look at this as a, at least

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I'm not an example to others. How about we turn this around and turn it into a search me, Holy Spirit, and show me what you desire to change in me.

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Let this press into your life in a way that says, would I be qualified? Would I be disqualified?

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Think that through. And then if this discussion of these qualifications has highlighted some gaps in your relationship with God, let me encourage you to seek some help.

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First, turn to his word. First, dig into his word, but also set up a time to meet with me or an elder or Spencer.

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And most importantly, pray for God's grace to overcome sin in your life. But hear me carefully.

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This is vital. Do not sit in disqualification based on this list alone.

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Satan wants to isolate you. He wants you alone.

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God wants to heal us together in community. Find some people you can talk with and share this with and get on a journey because we all are on a journey.

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And for those of you who are on the stage of your journey where you're walking with Jesus Christ, you've received his forgiveness through faith in his cross, and you've asked him to be your master and your

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Lord, and you desire to serve him, there's a desire in your heart to serve Jesus. Then let me encourage you to go to one of the tables during this next song to remember his sacrifice for us.

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And we're going to take a cracker to remember his body that was broken for us. And we take the juice to remember his blood that was shed for us.

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I'll recast our hope is not in mighty leaders who are sinless and perfect examples. We only have one of those.

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There's only one. So let Jesus be Jesus and let all others be his projects.

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Some are called to be exemplary leading servants, but all of us are called to serve.

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So let me encourage all of you to go out from here trusting Jesus regardless of what role or title that you've been given.

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God desires each and every one of us to serve him with great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the calling that you place on our lives. And I recognize that although this passage certainly zeros in on those leading servants who take some particular roles and responsibility over areas of ministry, you call all of us to serve.

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So Father, I pray that you would help us first to take an assessment. Here as we come to communion, the fundamental question, do we belong to Jesus Christ?

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If there's anybody here who has not asked Jesus Christ to save them, have not confessed their sins and asked him to be their

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Lord and their master and their savior, then Father, I pray that they would do that first, that this would not be a fix -it project where they hear this message and think, oh,

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I've got to come in line with a bunch of things that this church is telling me to do. But Father, that you would most importantly clarify to them the cross, the great sacrifice.

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And then for those of us that belong to you, I pray that as we take communion together, that this would be a reminder of the place where our hope and trust is established so that we can indeed serve others with something because you have saved us and granted us a clear conscience.