Those Who Serve Well

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Amen.
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You can take out your Bibles and remain standing, and turn with me to Acts chapter 6 and verse 1.
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And we're going to read chapter 6 of Acts, and then we're going to turn our attention to chapter 3 of 1 Timothy, and look at both of these passages today.
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It says in chapter 6, Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
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And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
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Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
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But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
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And what they said pleased the whole gathering.
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And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.
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These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
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And the word of the Lord, or rather the word of God, continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
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And now turning our attention to 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 8.
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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, then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
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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, for those who would 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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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the truth of the word, and I pray today that as I preach that you would first fill me with your spirit, keep me from error.
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May it be that at this moment your word speaks, that I would decrease and that your word and your son would increase in this place.
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And Lord, as we look at the subject of what it means to be a deacon and who qualifies for that role, I pray that you would open our minds and our hearts to the decision that has been made today being fulfilled in the calling of two new ministry leaders in the church.
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And I pray for these men, and I pray that today they would understand afresh what they have been called to do, and that we would understand afresh what we have all been called to do in Christ.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.
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You may be seated.
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Well, if it were not already obvious by my prayer, and by the prayer that I gave earlier in the service, we have a very special opportunity this morning, one that does not come around very often, the opportunity to see two men being commissioned to the position or the office of deacon.
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And I must say from the outset that this is handled differently in different churches.
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In fact, if you go out into certain fellowships, certain communities of the faith, they have different positions and hierarchies even among the deacons.
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There are things called junior deacons, and there are things called archdeacons, which is the higher up deacons than just the normal deacons.
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You see those, such as in the Roman Catholic tradition, you'll see positions of deacons.
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And in certain churches, the position of deacon is held almost as a position of status.
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And certain people only fit that position when they have met certain social requirements.
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Maybe they're a business owner, or maybe they're politically very connected.
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And so to establish themselves more firmly as religious men or godly men, they'll be put on as the deacon of the local church.
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And then they'll sit on a board of deacons that makes decisions on behalf of the church.
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And that board becomes almost like an elder board in certain churches where it's almost just a position of decision making.
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And we have a melting pot here at Sovereign Grace.
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Some of you have been here since this church started as Forest Christian Church in 58.
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So some of you have been here that long.
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Only a couple of you.
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I'm looking at Jack and Shirley.
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But most of you didn't come from that long ago.
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I know Paul and Pat Foskey and a few others have been here for quite a long time.
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But most of you came out of other churches.
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And some of you have come from the Southern Baptist Church.
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Some of you have come from Presbyterian churches.
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Some of you have come from independent churches.
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And so it stands to reason that when we have such an eclectic group coming from such varied backgrounds, that there would be questions as to what are the roles of these men that we're doing, and what is their purpose.
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And from a biblical standpoint, is this even necessary? Because in a sense, a deacon, the word in the Greek simply is a person who serves.
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It's a servant.
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And in a sense, aren't you all called to be servants? I mean, in a sense, we all are called deacon, in the sense that we all are called to serve another.
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What did Jesus say? He said, I came to you not as one who came to be served, but as one who serves.
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And when He sat down before His apostles on the night before His crucifixion, and He took out that bowl of water, and He took that cloth, and He girded His waist, and He sat down at their feet.
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What was Jesus doing at that moment? He was deaconing His men.
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And He was serving them, because that's what He was doing.
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He sat down at their feet, and He began to wash their calloused, sore, tired feet.
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And He rubbed them with the hands that created the universe.
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He rubbed their feet.
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And Peter said, no, don't do that.
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I can't let you wash my feet.
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And Jesus said, no, I must do this, and you must receive this.
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Because this is what I came to do.
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I came to serve so that you would see what it means to be a servant.
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And so that you would emulate me in that service as believers.
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So, beloved, in a sense, we all have a commission from Christ to be deacons.
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We all have a commission from Christ to serve.
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And yet, even knowing that, the Bible makes a point that there are certain people within the congregation of the faithful who are gifted for the purpose of service.
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Their heart and desire is to serve God's people.
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Their ministry of life is a ministry of life service to others.
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And they are examples of service to the church.
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Years ago, I taught the series, Biblically Functioning Church.
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And I made a point to make the distinction between the elders and the deacons.
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That the elder is the teaching office of the church.
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And the deacon is the serving office of the church.
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And I made a point to say the elders are the ones who, by scriptural authority, are given the prerogative of decision making.
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They are responsible to decide things like our doctrinal direction, and seeking purity in the church, and ensuring that we're on the right track, and that the program of the church is following scriptural principles.
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But I think that what happened is I think I introduced a confusion, and maybe even an error.
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So I want to be clear about something this morning.
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Deacons are not a teaching office in the church.
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That is true.
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But deacons is a leadership position.
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Because it's leading by example.
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It's a servant leadership position.
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Because we're all called to serve.
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But you men who are deacons are called to lead the service charge.
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To be the example of the servants in the house of God.
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So there is leadership invested in the deacon.
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Not teaching, and I'm not saying that our deacons can't teach.
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Mike taught for me Wednesday night.
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Adam has taught for me on several occasions.
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I'm not saying deacons cannot teach.
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But it's not a requirement to be a deacon that one have the ability to teach.
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We're going to talk about some of the requirements a little later.
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But ultimately, we're all called to serve.
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Not everyone is called to teach.
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But we're all called to serve.
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So why choose men? Why choose people to be in the position of deacon? Because we need examples.
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And we need leaders of service in the congregation.
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We need men to look to and say, Yes, that guy is what I am wanting to do too.
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He's leading me in the direction I want to go.
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And in that sense, it is a leadership role.
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It's leading by example.
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So this morning, we're going to look at these two texts.
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And we're going to say, Okay, where did the office of deacon come from? What was it established for? And who qualifies? And I know that some of you have heard me teach on this before.
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And I'm not going to belabor any of it.
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But I want to remind you.
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Because in a way, it's something that we should always remember.
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And I know in some churches, if you go in and you heard a sermon on the offices of the church, it would be, you'd be right asleep.
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I hope that's not the case today.
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I hope you focus on what I'm saying.
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Because this is important.
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The life of the church is important.
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And some of you young men, some of you young men in here, God may be calling you to this.
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He may be calling you to this life of servant leadership.
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And this may be what is in the years to come for you.
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And it doesn't have to be young men either.
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Some of you not so young men, never would I say old.
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But some of you not so young men who maybe haven't yet stepped forward and said, I want to serve.
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So let's begin.
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Let's look at Acts 6 first.
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This is the prototype of the deacons.
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It doesn't say in this text that these are deacons.
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But I believe, as well as many others who have studied this text, that this gives the prototypical reason why the deacons were chosen.
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It says, now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number.
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And remember what the increase was for them.
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If we get a new family every few weeks, or maybe every couple of months, we get excited, that's an increase for us.
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Remember what they were seeing people saved daily.
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There was a work of the Spirit going on daily.
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It was amazing.
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How many people got saved at Pentecost? 3,000, right? In just a few months time, it's expanded to 5,000 people.
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And so there is a lot of believers.
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There's a lot of people.
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And just like in any situation, there's going to be complaints.
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Isn't that the truth? I would have thought, I paused for an amen.
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Anytime you have a group of people, there's going to be complaining.
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It's sort of like the guy who they found on the desert island.
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And he had three huts built.
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And they said, well, what is this? What are the three huts? He said, well, that one's my house and that one's my church.
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And they said, what's the third one? He said, what's the church I used to go to? Because we complain, even with ourselves.
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So it says here in the text, it says, A complaint arose by the Hellenists against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
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Now really, this is sort of a racial issue.
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Because the Hellenists are the Greek-speaking Jews.
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Greek-speaking Jews, they're not Hebrew-speaking Jews.
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They're the ones who had adopted more of the Greek culture.
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And the traditionalist Hebrew-cultured people did not associate well with the Hellenistic-speaking people.
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And there wasn't so much of a bond there.
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And so even within the church, there were still divides over things that didn't matter.
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Just like today, look around you.
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Is there any truth to the fact that we have very little cultural diversity? You know, the church is still the number one place of cultural non-diversity in the world.
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It really is.
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There are very few churches that really make the mix well.
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We should.
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We should be reaching out.
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We shouldn't limit ourselves to only people who are like us.
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But the reality is, oftentimes, it's a great divide.
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And even here, we see cultural diversity.
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The Hellenists are feeling like they're being mistreated.
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They're feeling they're being neglected in the distribution of daily food.
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What's happening here? Remember, most of these people have come out of their homes.
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And they have gone out of their families.
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And they're serving Christ.
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They don't have anything.
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So the church is providing for their needs.
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People are selling property.
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People are selling goods.
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And they're distributing things within the church.
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So make sure nobody goes without.
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But there's a group of people in the church, the Hellenists, who felt like they were being mistreated.
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It doesn't say that they necessarily were.
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But that was the complaint.
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And sometimes, that's the reality.
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It's what we think becomes the reality.
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And they thought, you know, they felt there was a complaint because their widows are being neglected in the daily distribution.
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And the twelve, that's the twelve apostles, some in the full number of disciples, said it's not right that we should give up the preaching of the Word to serve, the Word of God to serve tables.
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Now, I've tried to make this clear over the years that there is nothing in this church that I am too good to do.
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I've scrubbed the toilets.
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I've mopped the floors.
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I have lit the stove more times and dangerously than I can.
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That's a whole other story.
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Jack and I both have laid on our backs with our hand underneath the stove trying to get that pilot light lit.
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There is nothing in this church that any elder or pastor is too good to do.
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But there is a job that we have to do.
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And the job that we have to do is lead by the Word.
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And that was the job of the apostles.
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And their point was, we can't neglect that for this.
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We can't minister to every single need by ourselves.
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We need help.
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We need some people who will stand up and say, okay, I'm going to help lead this.
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So that you can do what you need to do.
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I will do what is needed to be done.
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Because this is not a small issue.
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This is something that could have divided the church.
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We need people to help.
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So the apostles said that.
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They said, therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good reputation or good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
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I love that.
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They only chose seven men for 5,000 people.
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Now, I'm not saying that we know the exact number.
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But we know that's the number it had reached.
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We don't know if a lot of them had been dispersed or whatever.
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But there's a lot of people here.
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They only chose seven though.
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They didn't need 14 floodgates of deacons.
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What they needed was seven good leaders.
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They didn't need to appoint everybody to the office of deacon.
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They just needed guys who were willing to stand up and say, okay, we're going to go this way.
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You guys are going to get in line.
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We're going to do it together.
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A good leader and a good manager among men will get the men to do what needs to be done.
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And that's what's happening here.
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It's not...
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He didn't go around and say, okay, pick 100 deacons for every 1,000.
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Or 10 for every 100.
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He said, pick out seven men.
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And some people make a big deal of the number seven.
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Because in Scripture, there's a...
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Seven tends to relate to completeness.
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Like there's seven days of creation.
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That's when it was complete.
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Seven tends to hold a specific reference.
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But I don't get into numerology.
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So I want to be careful.
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But they chose seven men of good reputation.
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And we will appoint them to this duty.
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What duty? Well, he doesn't say what duty, but we know what it is.
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The duty is the duty of service.
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And he says in verse 4, But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
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And what they said pleased the whole gathering.
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And they chose...
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And it goes through the list of names.
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And what's interesting about the list of names, the seven that were chosen here.
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You know what's interesting about these names? They're all Hellenists.
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All of these are Greek names.
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So who's the problem with? The Hellenists.
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Who felt like they were being neglected? The Hellenists.
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So who are we going to pick? We're going to pick the guys out who we know are going to make sure that this bridge is crossed.
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There's not going to be any issue.
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We're going to pull these men out, these Hellenists, and we're going to use these men to ensure that this complaining, this problem doesn't continue.
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So there's wisdom in the choice here.
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There's wisdom in who's getting put in this position.
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And we see verse 6.
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These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
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Why lay hands on someone? Because we're going to do this later.
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The elders are going to come up.
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The two men who are being commissioned as deacons are going to come up, and we're going to lay our hands on them.
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Why? It is a picture of the Spirit's work.
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Commissioning men to service.
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When I was ordained to the ministry, I remember it very interestingly because Darrell, my predecessor, he put the chair right in the middle.
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You guys remember that, Jack? He put the chair right there.
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And I sat there for the whole service.
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Not just the commissioning part.
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The whole service.
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And the president of my seminary came and preached the sermon for my ordination.
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He was a sweet man.
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Dr.
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Powers.
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And he looked at me the whole time as he's preaching 1 Timothy 4.
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Preach the word.
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In seas and out seas.
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I'll never forget the message.
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He just really kind of just looked at me.
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But it was very much, there was this focus because afterwards the elders came, and they laid hands on me.
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And in laying hands on me, what they were saying is we are entrusting you to this duty.
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We believe God has called you to this duty.
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And by laying hands on you and praying over you, we are saying to the community of the faithful that we trust you to do this duty.
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It's a statement of confidence when you lay hands on someone and pray over them.
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It's a picture of the Spirit working in them and working through you in them.
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It's an important moment.
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I believe in ordination.
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I know there's a question about that.
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And some people think that ordination to ministry is unnecessary.
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And I've heard people even make the argument I don't need man to call me to ministry, I just need God to call me to ministry.
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And there's a sense in which that's true.
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That man doesn't make you a minister and man doesn't make you called to the gospel, ministry, or to deacon or anything else.
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It's God who calls us to that.
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But there is an affirmation of the fellowship.
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There's an affirmation of the faithful that you are doing what God has called you to do.
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And that's what the laying of hands is.
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The elders laying hands, the church praying together.
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It's affirming the call.
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And we see that here in verse 6.
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So we see now the purpose.
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The purpose is that the church needs servant leaders.
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The church needs people who will go out and say, Beloved, here is the service that needs to be done and we're going to blaze the path.
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We're going to lead.
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We're going to do the things that are needful so that all of the responsibility of the church does not fall on the one individual who is the pastor or the elders, but that the responsibility of the church is held by all.
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Because this is something else you need to remember from this message.
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The responsibility of ministry in the church doesn't fall on the elders, and the responsibility of ministry in the church doesn't fall on the deacons.
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The responsibility of ministry in the church falls on you.
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Ephesians tells us that the reason why God gives us preachers and teachers and elders and these things is to equip the body for the work of ministry.
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So why have elders and deacons? For leadership.
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The elders ensure doctrinal purity.
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They ensure that the program of the church is in keeping with what the Word of God says.
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They ensure that the teaching and the preaching is correct.
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And the deacons stand out and say, and we need to be doing this, and we do it together.
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I do not expect that just the deacons would visit the hospitals.
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I expect us all to visit the hospitals.
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I don't expect that just the deacons would provide counsel because we're all called to counsel one another.
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I don't expect that the deacons would be the only ones here on a work day providing the physical needs of the body, not the body, but the physical building.
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But we all should be doing that.
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You understand? So we see the call of the deacons and their purpose.
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Their purpose is to ensure that the elders, which at this time would have been the apostles, were not left as the only leadership in the church, the only place in the church where people could go for direction.
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So now let's look who qualifies for such a role.
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Go over to 1 Timothy.
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In 1 Timothy, which we call one of the pastoral epistles, it's called that because it gives us information on the pastoral ministry.
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We see in 1 Timothy 3 the qualifications for leadership in the church.
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And boy, if there is a section of Scripture that has been debated, it's 1 Timothy 3, beginning at verse 1.
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The very first sentence of verse 1 leads to debate.
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It says, The saying is trustworthy, if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
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That word overseer is episkopos.
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It's where you get the word episcopalian.
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You guys are familiar with that because that's a denomination we think of the episcopal church.
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Well, in the book of Titus, there's another word that's used, presbyteros, and it's where we get the word presbyterian.
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Right? You're familiar with the presbyterian church, the episkopalian church.
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It's episkopos and presbyteros are the two Greek words.
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And both of them reference the same office, but they're translated and understood differently.
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In the episkopal type of government in a church, you have a single leadership model.
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In the episkopal church, who's the leader? Well, it's part of the Anglican communion.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury is the recognized leader, much like in the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope is the centralized leadership of the church.
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And that's an episkopal leadership.
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It means from the top down or it means from a single point of leadership.
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I don't believe the scripture teaches that.
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And I don't think that that's how episkopos is meant to be understood.
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Presbyteros carries the idea of the elder.
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An elder is a person who, by God's grace, has been given the call to serve alongside of other elders and leadership.
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Not one single rule.
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You see, a lot of churches have the single pastor and he has all authority.
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They wouldn't identify themselves as episkopal, but they are because they have that little mini-pope in their church.
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And he has no one to answer to.
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And he is himself all authority.
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I've met men like that.
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You can't even question them.
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If you ask them about something, if you try to question them, who are you to question me? That's a wrong-headed thinking.
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So, like I said, chapter 3, it's been open to a lot of confusion and communication.
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But the first few verses, verses 1-7, talk about the requirements of an elder, an episkopos or a presbyteros.
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In the King James Bible it says bishop.
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So all these words get thrown around.
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It's all the same position.
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If you're an elder in this church, which right now there are but three, Jack and Richard and myself, we are the pastors of the church.
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I am not the singular pastor.
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We three serve as the elders, which is also the pastors, which is also the overseers, which are also the bishops, which are also the episkopos, which is also the presbyteros.
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All of those words is the same thing.
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And they're used interchangeably in Scripture.
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Then you get to verse 8.
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And it begins with the word deacons.
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Diakonos, the word for servant.
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And it says deacons likewise.
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Why does it use the word likewise? Because everything that was said about the elder is about to be re-said about the deacon.
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Let me ask you this question.
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And I want this to be honest.
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If I were to die tomorrow and you had to fill this vacancy, this position, would you think that that would be a big deal? Would you get a committee together maybe? Or have the elders form a group? What we used to call a pulpit committee or a search committee.
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Would you begin to look at resumes and begin to look at men's training and their background? Would you begin to examine their life? Maybe have a meeting with their family? Would you begin to really seriously consider if you had to fill this position? Of course you would.
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You'd be a fool not to.
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Deacons likewise.
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Do we take this as seriously? We should.
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Now you say, well, your role is a paid position.
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There's things that go along with that.
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No, no, no.
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I'm talking about for the sake of who we're choosing.
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The Bible makes it clear that we are to choose godly leaders.
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Men who can be examples.
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Men who can be servant leaders.
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And so the Bible gives us qualifications.
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Deacons likewise must be dignified.
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What is dignity? Dignity.
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Dignity is synonymous with uprightness.
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It's synonymous with being a person of good reputation.
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Remember back in Acts 6 when it says choose seven men of good reputation? A man who is dignified.
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Not a man who is given to foolishness or frivolity.
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A man who is right-headed.
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Not fool-headed or pig-headed.
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But dignified.
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And that's not always referencing necessarily how someone may look.
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Because we all look different.
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It's not talking about whether or not he chooses to wear a tie every Sunday.
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Off with the ties.
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But it's got more to say about who he is as a man.
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Does he demonstrate among the congregation a good reputation? Second, that he not be double-tongued.
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The deacon is not to be a man who cannot be held to his word.
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And not to be a man who says one thing to one and one thing to another and can never be nailed down.
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He is to be a man whose word is sure.
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He is not devious in his speech.
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Not addicted to much wine.
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A man of God cannot be a man who is addicted to wine or addicted to alcohol or drugs because those things affect our ability to make decisions.
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And so, very clearly, and you say, well, brother, don't all of these qualities apply to all Christians? Yeah! Well, why then make them the standard for the deacon? Because a position of deacon is a position of spiritual maturity.
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And there are believers who battle certain things that deacons should not be dealing with such as addictions to alcohol.
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And the next one says, not greedy for dishonest gain.
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I don't think that requires much of an explanation.
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A greedy man is a selfish man.
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And a selfish man will never lead as a servant.
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He will lead as a dictator.
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He will lead as a man who cannot be reasoned with, who cannot be talked to, who cannot be encouraged to understand his own faults.
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A greedy man is a selfish man.
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And we cannot have selfish leaders.
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That's why we have the problem we have in our nation.
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Because we have leaders who are absolutely selfish.
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Verse 9 says, they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
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Deacons don't have to be able to teach, but deacons do have to know the faith.
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Because again, they have within the congregation a position of dignity and respect.
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And I honestly believe that a deacon should know his stuff.
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I like to hear when I'm talking to our deacons that they know what they're talking about when it comes to God's Word.
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Because there will be people who seek them out for counseling.
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There will be people who seek them out because they need a man to talk to.
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And it should be that the men who are in this position hold the mystery of the faith mean holding the truth of the Word of God with a clear conscience.
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They know the Word of God.
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Verse 10 says, let them be tested first.
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Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
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Not sinless.
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And please understand that because earlier, if you go back up to verse 2, it says an overseer must be above reproach.
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Above reproach and blameless are essentially the same thing.
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And neither one of them means sinless.
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If the call to the ministry was for only sinless people, there would be no ministers.
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There would be no deacons.
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Ultimately, there would be no Christians.
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That doesn't mean, however, that we have a license to sin against God.
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So be careful with what I'm saying.
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I'm not saying that we run out and frivolously mock God in our sin.
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But the call of Scripture is simple.
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If you are to stand before the people of God and lead the people of God, you are to be a flagpole and not a coat rack.
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I came up with that years ago and I've told it to you before, but for those who've never heard it, if you walk out of that flagpole out there and you try to hang something on it, it's not going to stay.
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There's nothing sticking out.
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The only way to get a flag on that pole is to put a rope on the top of it and pull it up, right? But if you just try to hang something on the pole, it's just going to fall right down because there's nothing sticking out.
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However, if you take a coat rack and you hang something on a coat rack, it stays because it's got all these things sticking out.
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Above reproach literally means that a man's life is not riddled with these things that stick out upon which you can hang an accusation.
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But his life is blameless, meaning that he cannot be held to accusation after accusation after accusation of impropriety.
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Now, I've been accused of many things over the years.
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I've been accused of being a sexist.
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I am not.
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I've been accused of being a racist.
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I am not.
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And I was able to demonstrate through several ways that those were not true things.
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So being blameless doesn't mean you're never going to be accused of anything, right? But it does mean that you stand firm in those times and that those accusations don't stick, that they fall like the flagpole.
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That's part of what it is.
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So we ask the question, when we look for a man who's a deacon, we look for a man who's an elder, we say, is his life riddled with things that are sticking out and all these accusations are sticking like Velcro? Then we might need to step back and reevaluate this guy.
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So that's what that means just in a very simple way.
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Now, verse 11, and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because I'm really going longer than I wanted to anyway because I want to get to the commissioning of the deacons.
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Verse 11 is debated because in the ESV it says they're wives, in the NASB it says women.
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The word is gunakos, it's the word for woman.
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It's not the word for wives because there is no Greek word for wives.
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The word for wives is always referenced in relation to the man as his woman.
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So the word woman is synonymous with wives.
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And so this verse does cause many to believe that this is talking about women serving in the office of deacon.
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Because if it says simply women likewise must be dignified, or rather, yeah, women likewise must be dignified, then it's the same construction as verse 8.
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Because it says deacons must be dignified, and now it says women must be dignified, right? And so there is a huge debate within the community of the faithful as to whether or not this is opening up the door for a woman to be a deacon.
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Here's where that, I think, is simple.
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I think a woman can serve in the church, and I think a woman, in a sense, can be a deaconess in the church.
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At this point, we have not commissioned any female deacons.
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The elders are still standing on the fact that we're not certain that that title is really appropriate.
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But I want to say this clearly.
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If you go to Romans 16, it says that Phoebe was a deaconess in the church that she came from going to Rome.
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She is called by that title.
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So there is a question that some people have.
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Can a woman serve as a deacon? Can a woman not serve as a deacon? I'm not trying to solve that issue today.
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I will say that there's differing opinions in the church, and that's fine, because I don't think this is an issue worthy to be divided over.
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John MacArthur believes women can serve as deacons, and in his church, he has deacons and deaconesses.
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So if you want somebody who stands on that side who you might respect, there is one.
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And he would say that this is giving us the position of women serving as deacons.
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On the other hand, there are others who would take the other position.
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I don't want to cause a battle or even a debate over this subject, but I do want to say this.
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What have I been saying this whole time? You are all deacons in that sense.
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You are all servants.
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Absolutely.
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Are there women in this church who serve? Yes.
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Are there women in this church who serve some better than our men? Yes.
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Would it be wrong to say that they are deacons in the church, deaconesses? No, I don't think so.
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But again, to apply the title is something we have not done.
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We have reserved it for men.
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Not wanting to debate, but I wanted to mention that.
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I want it to be fair.
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Because this is where the position lies.
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How do we determine what gunakos is? Is it wives or is it women? And if it is wives, why are the deacons' wives mentioned but not the elders' wives? That's a question.
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Because here's the thing, there is no doubt as to the position of elder.
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A woman cannot serve as an elder of a church or a pastor of a church.
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And I know you're saying, well, I know several churches where there are women pastors.
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She's not a pastor.
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She's not called by God to that position.
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I'm sorry.
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The Scripture says, I suffer not a woman to teach nor to have authority over a man in the body of Christ is not to be so.
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It's clear.
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In the position of elder, there's no doubt.
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But in the position of deacon, there is question.
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And so I don't want to leave you with a question hanging over your head, but I will say as a church, we have at this point only commissioned men to this position because of, again, our unwillingness to go any further at this point.
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But that is not to say that we do not have women who serve because we do.
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And that their service is any less valuable because it is not.
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And it goes on.
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Verse 12, Let the deacons each be the husband of one wife.
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Obviously, that's a specific reference to faithfulness.
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And I don't want to spend so much time because I want to close.
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But let me just quickly read through these.
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The reference of being the husband of one wife is a man who is faithful, managing their children and their household well.
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Again, faithfulness.
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We are first called to deacon our homes.
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To pastor and deacon our homes.
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And if we're not doing that, don't come to the church.
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If you can't take care of that 1,500 square foot of land you got at the house that you call a house, you're not going to take care of this 5,000 square foot building and the people in it.
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That's sort of the smaller to the larger principle.
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He who is faithful with a little will be given a lot.
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But he who is faithful not in a little will not be given more.
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It's the same principle here.
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And it goes on to say, for those who serve well.
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And that's the title of my message today.
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Those who serve well.
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Because that's what a deacon is.
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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 me tell you what that means just to kind of close.
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One of the greatest ways that we develop confidence in our faith is by serving the Lord.
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Because in serving the Lord we draw closer to Him and our faith increases.
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And I think that's what it says.
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It says they gain a good standing for themselves and great confidence in the faith.
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So men who are being called the deacons today, this is going to be an avenue for you that God uses to deepen your faith.
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But for everyone here, people say to me sometimes, I want to go deeper.
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I want to go further.
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I want to be closer to God.
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Serve Him.
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Serve His people and you will draw closer to Him.
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He said, I came to you not as one to be served but as a servant.
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And when we serve we are most like Him.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
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I pray that today that the preaching of the Word has been sound and true.
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And I pray that You would use it first to bring conviction on all of us as men and women in the church to serve the church of God, to serve the body of Christ well.
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And specifically for these men who we are soon to commission, that they would understand that those who serve well gain a good standing for themselves and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.
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Well, let's stand and sing together as we prepare for communion.