Gifted to Serve: The Deacon's Call

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Romans, chapter 12.
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And I'm going to be on this mic, Nate.
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I'm not wearing the lapel, so I'll stay tied to the post, as it were.
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So we are looking today at the subject, Gifted to Serve.
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And we're going to read Romans, chapter 12, verses 3 to 8.
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And then, if you don't mind, we're going to jump over to 1 Corinthians 12, 4 to 8.
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And there's a verse in each of those that I'm going to key in on today.
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So if you want to hold your place in 1 Corinthians 12, you can do that as well.
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Let us stand for the reading of God's Word, Romans, chapter 12, beginning at verse 3, to set the context up for verse 7.
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For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
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For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.
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So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
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Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving.
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The one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
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Now over to 1 Corinthians 12, in verses 4 to 8, turn to 2 Corinthians, pardon me, beginning at verse 4, it says, Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, there are varieties of service, by the way, that's the same word for service in Romans 12, that's why I'm connecting these.
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There are varieties of service, but the same Lord, there are varieties of activities, but the same God who empowers them all and everyone.
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To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
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For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another the various kinds of spirits, to another the interpretation of tongues.
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All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills.
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May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word, let us pray.
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Lord have mercy on us today as we study Your Word and as we move away from our normal exposition and look at a subject-based sermon, Lord, I pray that You would keep me tied to the posts of the Word, that You keep me from error, and Lord, most of all, that You would open up the hearts of Your people to hear Your truth, that Your Holy Spirit would be the teacher today, Lord, that I would disappear behind this pulpit, and Lord, that Christ would be exalted.
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As John said, He must increase and I must decrease.
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Lord, let it be today, in Jesus' name, Amen.
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In the letters of Romans and 1 Corinthians, we have, interestingly enough, at the 12th chapter of both, a listing of spiritual gifts.
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Now, some of these are a little bit more confusing and divisive, such as things like the gift of tongues and healing.
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They're not going to be our subject of today, but those are there, and so as Christians, we have to address them and talk about them and learn about them.
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But there are other ones which are a little more straightforward and, in a sense, a little more easy to understand, gifts like service and teaching.
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And what I want to look at today is actually that gift of service that I just mentioned.
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Paul identifies service as a spiritual gift.
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If you have a King James Bible, it is translated mercy.
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I'm sorry, ministry.
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My mistake.
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So, in the ESV, it says service, and the King James Version, it is the word ministry.
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However, the underlying word is what matters most, and that is the underlying Greek word.
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Remember, Paul didn't speak English.
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The English language wasn't even in existence during the time of Paul, so what matters is what the original language says, and the original language says the word diakonos.
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The word diakonos, diakonia, diakonon, these are all various endings for the same root.
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And when we look at the Romans passage, in Romans chapter 12, verse 7, it literally says ete diakonion ente diakonia.
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So the Greek there basically means, if serving, then service.
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I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense, let me try that again.
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If service in the serving is really the translation, and he said that still doesn't make sense.
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Well, sometimes it is good to bring it into our vernacular.
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What Paul is saying there is a man who has a gift of service, he ought to serve.
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And if a man has a gift of service, he ought to serve well.
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In the same way, if a man has a gift of prophecy, he ought to prophesy, if a man has a gift of generosity, he ought to give.
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If a man has this gift, he ought to do this, if he has that gift, he ought to do that.
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If a man has a gift of service, he ought to serve.
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That's what we see in Romans 12, verse 7.
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And what's interesting, if you compare that to 1 Corinthians 12, it says there's a variety of service, there's a variety of ministry.
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Because different men, though they all may have the gift of service, they may all serve in different ways.
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And so there is not one way to serve the Lord.
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There is not one specific mode by which we can serve.
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Later in the service, we're going to have the opportunity to lay hands on a brother and install him within the body as a deacon.
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Now this is rare.
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We do not do this often.
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In fact, I got to thinking as I was preparing the sermon this week, since coming and becoming pastor in 2006, there have only been a small handful of men.
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In fact, I could only, I could come up with less than a dozen who have received this office.
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Now I may be a little off because I don't have the perfect memory, but that's all I could come up with over the last 16 years.
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Now I've chosen this text today because we are affirming this man to this position, and this position requires that he have this spiritual gift.
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Now there are other requirements, and we're going to look at those in a moment.
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He has personal requirements, how he manages his home, how he manages his finances, how he manages his faith, and there are spiritual requirements, and that again, we're going to look at.
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But the foundational requirement is does a man who is being called to this office have the gift to serve? Because I'm going to tell you this, if he doesn't, he's in the wrong office.
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Any man to whom service is a burden or a nuisance is not fit for this office.
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If we have to beg you or wait on you, you're not a deacon.
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A deacon must not be a man who has to be coerced to serve.
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Because the very root of the word deacon is that Greek word that I mentioned just a moment ago, diakonos.
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In fact, the word deacon isn't even really English.
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It's what we call a transliteration.
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A transliteration is like the word baptized.
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The word baptized means to immerse, but we transliterate that into English by calling it, the Greek word is baptizo.
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We translate that into baptism, and that becomes a transliteration.
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Same way with deacon, diakonos.
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One who serves.
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Actually, one who serves tables is actually the original root of the idea of diakonos.
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One who serves food.
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One who serves the physical needs of others.
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A church and a man who is called to that office must, of course, have that gift.
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In fact, long before he is installed in that office, a deacon will have already been serving the body.
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The church doesn't make someone a deacon.
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The church recognizes that God has made someone a deacon.
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All we do is recognize the gift and commission them to use that gift within a church office.
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You can't make somebody a servant.
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Now to be clear, not everyone who has the gift of service is meant to be a deacon.
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I want to really clarify this because all believers are called to serve, amen? And this gift would hopefully be working within the body with more than just the deacons.
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If we ain't serving one another as the body of Christ, we're not doing what Christ called us to do.
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You don't have to be a deacon to serve.
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Look at the praise team.
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Matt is not a deacon.
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That's not to say one day he might not be, but I'm just saying he's not yet.
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Jerry is not yet a deacon.
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The ladies who serve up here are not deacons.
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Miss Lori has served for years, faithfully, asked for nothing.
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And that shows a desire and a heart to serve.
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So just because someone has, and I don't want to forget anybody, so Rachel as well, and well, I forgot everybody else, me.
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I didn't mean to say it that way.
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I'm just trying to think of everybody that's usually behind me.
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Jerry, thank you Jerry.
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Jerry and his family is all serving hard.
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Are they always here early and stay late? And that's a blessing.
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It really is, because that's servant-heartedness, is people who are willing to do what others aren't and, like I said, do the things that need to be done.
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Miss Kelly and Miss Tamara doing the finances, and Mr.
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Mike is a deacon, of course, but being involved in all of that, that takes time and effort and frustratingly long time of counting and sometimes miscounting and overcounting and undercounting and having to figure out why, what happened.
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I've been there.
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It's tough, but it's service.
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They do it because they love to do it, and they do it because God has gifted them to do it.
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That's what this gift is.
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People who serve in the nursery, people who make communion.
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You ever think, this doesn't just pop up every Sunday.
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And not like we got a vending machine back there that just, you know, adds a hundred little cups.
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And these little cups are annoying, guys.
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They stick together.
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I've done it many times.
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You go to pull them apart, and it's that suction that, I don't know if you ever tried to pull five-gallon buckets apart, but it just don't work, and you got to get, like, two trucks to pull them apart.
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Well, those little suction cups on those little communion cups, same thing.
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So all that's service.
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So just because you have the gift of serve doesn't mean God has called you to be a deacon, but it doesn't make your gift any less valuable to the body, understand that's important.
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So a deacon must be gifted to serve.
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That's number one.
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And I didn't outline today's sermon like I normally have specific points, but if there was a point, number one, it would be deacons must be gifted to serve.
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They must fit the qualifications of Romans 12, 7, which says, if he serves, let him serve well.
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That's one.
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Now, number two is that there are two offices in the church, and both of those offices do come with very particular qualifications.
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This is why not everybody who has the gift of service is qualified to be a deacon, because there's more than just that.
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Not less than that, but more than that.
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Make sense? You got to be more than just have that quality or gift.
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So what are the two offices in the church? Good Bible students? Come on, you all know.
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Elders and deacons.
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And elders are pastors.
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So you say pastors and deacons.
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In our church, we have three pastors, me and Andy and Mike.
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And we have, as of today, we'll have four deacons.
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So not a lot of us in a room of 80 to 90, sometimes 100 people.
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The head of the church is not the deacons.
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The head of the church is not the elders.
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The head of the church is Jesus Christ, who governs through His Word.
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The elders have the responsibility to read and teach and study and proclaim that Word, and to govern the church by the Word.
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And the deacons then become the ministers that minister that Word within the body.
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And by, I don't mean ministering the Word as far as teaching, I mean ministering what that Word calls us to do.
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The Word is not just, we were talking about this, I think maybe Mike mentioned it at Sunday school this morning, about how it's one thing to know what the Bible says, but it's another thing entirely to do what it says.
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And it would be one thing if the elders got up and we proclaimed what the Bible says, but then nobody did anything.
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There's no hands and feet to what we're doing.
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That would be a sin if there was no ministry happening.
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And remember, what is the translation of Diakonos in the King James? It's ministry.
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So who are the ministers? People always call me minister.
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People call the elders ministers.
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Actually from the specific language of the New Testament, the elders, pastors, are overseers.
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That's the Greek word episkopos.
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It means to oversee something.
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And the deacons are the ministers.
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They're the ones who are ministering the application of God's Word within the body.
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And so we are given qualifications.
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If you would, we're going to turn and look at them, and I'm going to change a little bit of my sermon, because originally I was going to go through each of these very specifically.
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I'm still going to go through them, but I'm not going to spend as much time as I originally was going to spend, because we'd be here all afternoon.
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I'm used to keeping y'all here all afternoon, but not today.
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We've got food waiting, we've got a guy who wants his hands laid on him and all that, so we've got stuff to do.
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But I do think it's important to read these and to talk about what they mean, because the New Testament gives requirements for deacons as well as elders.
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And the deacons are 1 Timothy 3, beginning of verse 8.
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We'll read down to verse 13.
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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 slanderous, 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 own households well 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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So let's look at a few of these qualifications.
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There's two parts to this.
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We have the personal qualifications, and then we have the spiritual qualifications.
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Now, they're sort of mixed in, so I'm not going to go one by one.
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I'm going to look at the personal first, and then to the spiritual, okay? So let's look first at the personal qualification that says he must be dignified.
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Now when I was a kid, dignified usually had something tied to how a man dressed.
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You know, there was something to do with a tie and a jacket.
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And Brother Mike, you're right there.
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But there's more to it than that.
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And in fact, I wouldn't say that's really it at all.
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It's not about how a man dresses.
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But rather, being dignified means to be reverend.
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You ever heard that term reverend? I remember when I first became a preacher, people wanted to call me reverend.
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They wanted to put the R-E-V title in front of my name.
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And a lot of men use that, and I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong.
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It's really no different than pastor or any of the other things.
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But I always did have a little bit of discomfort with that.
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Because I felt like I knew I was a sinner.
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And to call me reverend seemed to go a little bit of a stretch.
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But the idea here, the idea of reverend is one who has an honorable character.
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Worthy of honor and respect.
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He's serious about things that are important.
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He's held in esteem among the people.
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This is very close to the statement in Acts 6.
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If you remember in Acts 6, and I do believe that's when the first deacons were chosen.
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I chose not to preach that text today, but we could have easily looked at that text.
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In that text it says they were to find men of good reputation.
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Right? If you're going to pick these men out to serve, they are to be men of good reputation.
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And what we are seeing here is the person chosen for this servant position must be a person not only who has the gift of service, but who conducts himself in a manner which is affirmed by the congregation.
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Any person whose actions or character would not be worthy of admiration or respect would not be qualified for that position.
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You might say, now wait a minute pastor, aren't all Christians called to be dignified? Aren't we all called to be reverend? Yes we are! And what's interesting about this is there's nothing in this list that doesn't apply to every man in this room.
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But when it comes to a deacon, these are the expectations that will not be simply put aside.
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This is a demand.
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This is Christ's demand through the Apostle Paul, not ours.
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We didn't make this list up.
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In fact, I imagine what a church's list for a deacon would look like.
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If we made the list, it'd probably be all kinds of nonsense.
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The second thing is that he not be double-tongued.
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The word here is di-logos.
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If you're familiar with the Greek word logos, that means word.
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Di being the prefix which makes something double.
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So di-logos means double-worded or double-tongued.
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And it is within this idea of saying that the one person speaks out of two sides of his head.
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You know people like that.
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I'm talking to you and I say to you, Brother Dale, something.
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And then I go talk to you and I say something totally different.
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What does that make me? It makes me dishonest.
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It makes me somebody who, when y'all got together and had a conversation, you say, you know, well, Pastor told me this.
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Well, Pastor, well, guess what? He can't be trusted if he's di-logos, if he has words coming out of both sides of his mouth.
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He's got to be a man whose word, what does Jesus say? His yes be yes and his no be no, right? He's got to be somebody who is honest.
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I think this is also a prohibition against someone who plays politics.
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You ever met somebody who wanted to be a politician in the church? I've met a few.
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People who want to get out on the sidewalk and create a coalition and establish a movement and try to divide the people of God.
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You know what the Bible says are six things God hates, seven are an abomination to Him, and you know what one of those seven things that God hates is? One who sows discord among the brethren.
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A deacon can't do that.
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In fact, none of y'all ought to be doing that.
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But a deacon certainly cannot be known for that.
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He's also not to be addicted to much wine.
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The Greek here literally says not given over or devoted to wine.
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Now some people think that alcohol as a whole is completely sinful all the time.
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That's not today's sermon.
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But for simplicity's sake, the Bible does not clearly teach that.
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The Bible does teach though that drunkenness is sinful.
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And what the issue of drunkenness is, is being under the control of something.
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So it ain't gotta be wine.
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It could be under the control of any substance that changes your mind and thinking and you are submissive to it and that becomes your commander.
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That's a problem.
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That addiction is a problem.
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It could be pills.
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It could be sex.
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I mean, I know I might be stretching that a little bit there.
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But any addiction that shows itself in a man who's not controlled by the Spirit.
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You know what Paul says, don't be drunk with wine, but be drunk to be filled with the Spirit.
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And the idea of the word filled there is comparing it to the idea of being drunk.
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Not drunk in the Spirit as some of these churches or people make all that drunken dancing.
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That's not what it's talking about.
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Being filled with something means to be under the control of that thing.
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And if you're not under the control of the Spirit of God, you're under control of something.
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And Paul says don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with or controlled by the Spirit.
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A deacon has to be a self-controlled man.
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Now, the next one is not greedy for dishonest gain.
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This one here pretty much speaks for itself.
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A deacon must not be a greedy person set on shameful gain.
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The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, it talks about the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
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And it's a dangerous thing.
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Now continuing, I have two more and then we're going to move to spiritual qualifications.
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He must be the husband of one wife and he must be a household manager.
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Now the husband of one wife, the Greek phrase, is mion gounikos andre.
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That's literally the phrase one woman man.
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And the same exact requirement is given to elders.
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And the primary thrust of this is that the deacon candidate be a faithful husband.
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He's not to be promiscuous.
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He is not to be polygamous.
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He is to be committed to his marriage.
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And I would say this, that's a good indicator of his commitment to Christ.
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And that's why it's tied to household management.
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Because it says the next thing, he must not only be the husband of one wife, but he must manage his household well.
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I read something this week, I thought it was great.
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It said today we ask for resumes when we look for ministers.
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But we used to look at their families.
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And the family was the resume.
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How does a man manage his family? Brother Mike and I have had this conversation so many thousands of times about how could a man be qualified if he doesn't have a family.
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Because there's no guidepost to look at.
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There's no wife to ask.
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I'll tell you this, you want to be a deacon in this church, I'm going to talk to your wife.
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Now most of you have talked to your wives anyway.
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Because, you know, when we have you over for dinner or you have us over for dinner.
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But if I don't see a woman who's supporting her husband in that role, or if I see a woman who questions her husband's ability to fulfill that role, that's a major red flag.
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And all that's part of it.
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So, now, let's quickly move to spiritual requirements.
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We looked at personal ones.
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And again, I'm going a little quick here.
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The Bible says as far as the spiritual requirement that he must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
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Now what is the mystery of the faith? Well, there's some debate about what this means, but in 1 Timothy 3, Paul refers to the mystery of godliness in verse 16 when he writes, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
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God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed up in the world, and received up in glory.
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So, it would seem as if his idea of the mystery of the faith is the gospel.
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That would seem to be what he's saying here.
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So the the man who is going to be a deacon must hold the gospel with a clear conscience.
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He must live in accordance with his faith.
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He must have faith that is sincere.
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Now, nobody's faith is perfect.
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I'm the first one to stand in line for that.
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But his deeds must match his profession.
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Again, this does point us to something else, too.
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The biggest difference between elders and deacons, when it comes to qualifications, is that an elder has to be able to teach the word of God.
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The deacon does not have to have that ability.
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And that is a very specific gift from God.
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So, a man can serve as a deacon and not be able to teach, and that's fine.
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Now, he can.
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Brother Mike's a fine teacher.
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You know, that doesn't mean he doesn't have that gift.
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Mike, you teach with me.
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You know, these things it doesn't mean you can't be gifted in that area, but elder's not a choice.
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Elder has to be able to teach because that's part of the requirement of being an overseer.
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But the deacon doesn't.
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But just because he doesn't have the requirement to teach does not mean that he has the right to be ignorant of the faith.
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The elder I'm sorry, the deacon must be sound in his doctrine.
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He must hold his faith without reservation.
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And a person filled with doubt and uncertainty would not be fit for this office.
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Now, I do want to talk about this next one for just a moment.
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It says he must be blameless.
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Very similar word is used of an elder in verse 2.
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It says an elder must be above reproach.
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And it says a deacon must be blameless.
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And again, I remember when I first became a pastor I remember thinking, boy, that's can I really say that I'm above reproach in every area? Can I say that I don't sin at all? And the answer is no, but that's not what it means to be above reproach.
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The word blameless essentially means a man who is not understand this is the Keith Foskey translation.
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The idea is being unrebukable.
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You say, what does that mean? That means that even though he's not perfect he is in a position where his lifestyle must not be given to constant areas where he is having to be rebuked for his errors.
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And again, that's not to say he's never ever rebuked.
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This is an illustration I came up with years ago.
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I wrote a book called Biblically Functioning Church and in the book I talk about elders and deacons and I gave the illustration of a flagpole versus a coat rack.
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I said, flagpole and a coat rack have the same basic foundational design.
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It's pole.
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The flagpole though is made where it's only got the one thing hanging at the top, but there's no other thing sticking out.
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But a coat rack has got the pole and it's got all these things sticking out and if a man is going to be a deacon and he's got all of these question marks that start coming up, all these things that start he's a coat rack, not a flagpole.
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Say, okay that makes us step back and say what happened? What's the situation? And so it's a question of his life.
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John Calvin said this about deacons.
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He said, ought not deacons ought not to be marked by any disgrace that would distract from his position.
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There will certainly not be found a man who is free from every fault as I just said, but it is one thing to be burdened with ordinary faults that do not hurt a man's reputation because of the most excellent men share them, but quite another to have a name that is held in infamy and besmirched by some scandalous disgrace.
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Thus, in order that the bishops may not lack authority, he gives charge that those who are chosen should be of good and honorable reputation free from extraordinary fault.
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Also, he is not merely directing Timothy as to what sort of men he ought to choose, but he's reminding all who aspire to this office what men, what type of men they ought to be.
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So, this is why it says that a deacon must be tested.
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A person must prove over time that this is the condition of his life.
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We don't install a deacon the day after we call him.
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We wait sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but it's always a time of testing.
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Now, I do want to begin landing the plane here and I have a couple other things I want to say, but that's basically those qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and somebody might ask, well why is there such a comprehensive set of qualifications? Here's the answer.
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Because the man who takes the office of deacon is a man who is going to be the servant example to the church.
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And therefore, when a member of the church sees these men who have taken this office, they should see men whose lives and service is exemplary.
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Now, I know we get all upset when we hear that word exemplary.
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You know the old Christian song, don't look at me, look at Jesus.
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And that's true in one respect.
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Don't look at me if you're looking for perfection because you're not going to find it.
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But there are to be men in the church who are an example of service and other people can look to their example and follow that example.
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I would hope the elders are that.
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I would hope our deacons are that.
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I would hope that's what they do.
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And again that doesn't mean they're never going to fail.
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It doesn't mean they're never going to make a mistake.
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It doesn't mean they're never going to miss a meeting or a phone call or a hospital visit.
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But a deacon is a servant example and what he's doing is he is pointing you to Christ.
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Because Christ himself is the ultimate servant.
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When a deacon serves he is at that moment emulating the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Matthew chapter 20 verse 25 says this, Jesus called them to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercised authority over them.
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It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be greatest among you must be your what? Servant.
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And whoever would be first among you must be your slave.
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Even as the son of man came not to serve or excuse me, not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
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When Jesus came into this world he came and he served.
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He came and he was the perfect example of one who loved his people and served them well.
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And therefore we are given that example in him.
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Philippians chapter 2 says this, have this mind within you which is also yours in Christ Jesus.
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Basically think like this.
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Jesus though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but he emptied himself taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
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That is the example of service that we have.
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Jesus Christ who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God something to hold on to even though he was equal with God.
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Co-equal, co-eternal that's the doctrine of the Trinity.
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But he stepped down and he set aside the prerogatives of his glory and he came and served.
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The one who made the feet of the disciples washed the feet of the disciples.
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The one whose hands upheld the universe were nailed to a Roman cross.
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Jesus Christ is the ultimate servant and therefore when we are called to serve whether it be in a deacon position or whether it be in a position of service in music or a position of service in the finances or a position of service anywhere we all look to Christ and say the one who came to serve is the greatest example of service and we all seek to follow after him.
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He is our example and may we follow him and if we haven't been because again this sermon ain't just for Mike this sermon is for all of us.
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If we have not been serving Christ as we ought to maybe today is the day we ought to look to Christ and repent and ask that he give us a desire to serve.
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Let's pray.
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Father I thank you for your word I thank you for your church I thank you for the men in this church who've been called to serve in these offices and Lord for those who serve who don't have offices Lord service is such a wonderful blessing and it's modeled for us and our savior Jesus Christ Lord let us follow his model.