The Honor and Blessing On The Office of Deacon

Very good. Good morning everybody. It's good to see you all again.

I've, since I was here last time, it's been wonderful. I've had occasions to speak of you all and thank

God for you in different occasions to different people. It's just good to know that you are here holding the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ up in this area.

Praise the Lord. Well take your Bibles, let's turn to Acts chapter 6.

When asked to speak for this occasion, this auspicious occasion where our brother

Keith is being placed into the office of deacon, I was so happy to be honored and privileged to get to do that, but my mind went right to Acts chapter 6 and where God, I believe, addresses this issue of the office of deacon and when it first started.

Not everybody has been convinced of that through the history of the church, but I happen to be and I'm glad that I'm not the only one.

Acts in chapter 6. Let's hear the word of God. Beginning in verse 1 and we're reading through verse 7.

Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there rose a murmuring, a complaining against the

Hebrews, the Hebrew Christians by the Hellenists, the

Greek Jews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution of food.

Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it's not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the

Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.

But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

And the saying pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the

Holy Spirit and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they said before the apostles and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them and the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

And it does mention Stephen, one of those, and his story after that. Well, brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God is just growing rapidly in those days.

It's advancing, it's developing, and what it's doing is moving toward a worldwide community.

You remember the gift of tongues and how that was given by the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2.

And the reason why that gift was given on that occasion was not to help the people praise

God better and it was not to give them more revelation of God, although in both cases those things happen.

The primary reason of the gift of tongues, and as you look at chapter 2, it mentions people,

Jews, that came to worship God from 14 different countries and they spoke in languages that the disciples did.

They spoke in all those different languages, languages they'd never studied before. It was a miraculous thing.

Can you imagine speaking, I'm not sure, do you know perfect Chinese? I don't either.

How about Navajo? That's the Indians out in Arizona that during World War II they used to completely confuse the

Germans. All the plans of the military they had the Navajo code talkers transmitting plans, the military plans of the

U .S. Army and the Germans had no idea what they were saying. But here they were, these unlearned fishermen and disciples, able to speak in languages they'd never studied and so all the

Jews coming from these different countries heard the gospel and the praises of God being spoken in their own languages.

The reason was, and we see Paul describes that for us in 1 Corinthians 14, he says that the gift of tongues was a sign to unbelievers, a sign of judgment.

And what it was, it was letting everybody know that God's judgment was upon the nation of Israel and he was no longer going to use the nation of Israel to be his focus of his earthly kingdom and his church.

But he's going international. He's going, he's all the, no matter what ethnic group you come from, no matter what culture, what language, no matter what country, no matter color of skin, it doesn't matter.

You may have direct access to God without becoming a Jew. And it's really working.

And the whole thing in the book of Acts, it's a transition period where they're moving from this

Jewish -centered kingdom to an international kingdom, one that's primarily physical to one that is entirely spiritual.

And now, all of a sudden, in chapter 6, with different ethnic bodies, you're beginning to feel the rub.

I don't know if you knew it or not, but churches do have rubs. Churches have difficulties, disagreements, and they have to be worked out.

And this was a situation where there was a rub. The Grecian widows found themselves being neglected or overlooked in the daily distribution of the care and the food that was being provided as people were bringing it in.

The disciples were multiplying like crazy. Notice in chapter 2, in verse 41. 241, how many people were converted in one day?

You can answer. 3 ,000. Look at chapter 4 and verse 4.

How many people now does the church have? 5 ,000.

The church is growing miraculously in ways that we don't know about.

And notice in chapter 5 and verse 12. And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch yet none of the rest dared join them but the people esteemed them highly and the believers were increasingly added to the

Lord. Multitudes of both men and women. They're growing like crazy.

And in chapter 6 and verse 1. They're multiplying.

They're getting to be so many. And notice in 4 .4

they've gone from 120 people like you see in chapter 1 to 5 ,000 men.

And as with the feeding of the 5 ,000 where Jesus took the two fish and the five loaves there were 5 ,000 men.

Which means women and children are on top of that. So this early church could have had 15 to 20 ,000 people in it in Jerusalem.

A city that they think at that point was about 50 to 70 ,000 people.

Incredible how big the church was so quickly. And in this city of 50 to 70 ,000 people could have been 40 % of them were a part of the church.

Now that's unreal. By our standards, by our experience.

But of course speaking in a language you've never studied that's pretty abnormal too from what we have ever experienced.

And notice back in chapter 2 there was such a community. Such a family spirit.

In chapter 2 in verse 44. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord to the temple and breaking bread from house to house they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

They had all things in common. They were a big family. They made sure that everyone's needs were met.

And you see that also in chapter 4. If you'll look there. Chapter 4 and verse 34.

Nor was anyone among them who lacked for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles feet and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

And it gives the example of Barnabas doing that very thing. God is working and he's causing his people to joyfully give.

Sacrificially. Joyfully. When men love God people give. They're open handed.

They're generous. So now we come to chapter 6 and all of a sudden this growing church has another problem.

And I say another because you remember in chapter 5 we had the issue of Ananias and Sapphira and it was over the issue of selling their property bringing the money, laying it at the apostles feet, distribution being made.

The only problem was they gave the impression that they gave the entire price that they got from the land but they didn't.

They wanted everyone to think of them as more spiritual, more generous than they were.

It was theirs to do with what they wanted and they were free in Christ to give however much they wanted to give.

They didn't have to give the whole amount. But nonetheless that was a big deal in the life of the church.

So big that when Peter interviewed them, confronted them on it, they fell down dead.

How would you like that preacher to have it in your church? Just by asking questions and you discover someone's hypocrisy and they fall down dead.

You take them out and bury them. Unbelievable things are taking place in this early church.

So they had that problem in chapter 5 and now come to chapter 6 they have this problem where the

Grecian widows were being neglected and there's complaining going on. There's murmuring and I'd like to give you 5 points.

I kind of like to do things with 5 points. I'm a 5 point guy.

The first point is problem. Houston, we've got a problem.

Verse 1 in those days when the number of the disciples was increasing the Hellenistic Jews those that are coming from Greek or Gentile nations were among them and they're complaining or murmuring and I like the

NLT says they had rumblings of discontent among the Hebraic Jews.

This is a term that the New International uses. The Hebraic Jews. Those that were never did leave

Israel. They were as Paul was Saul was a Hebrew of the

Hebrews because their widows this complaining was going on because their widows were being overlooked or neglected in the daily distribution of food.

Here's a real threat of division in the life of the church. Neglect widows are being neglected.

Of all people to neglect these older ladies typically widows are older.

They were alone and weak and helpless and very vulnerable. And it was hard if not impossible for them to marry again.

Many widows migrated to the cities for survival. They had no government programs to take care of these ladies to help these poor ones.

They needed help. They're just coming off this sudden deaths and that great fear that you see in chapter 5 in verse 11 where God so instantaneously, powerfully sensationally if you would got the people's attention and they were great fear took hold of them all and all of a sudden now there's some type of ill preparedness or neglect taking place concerning the sharing of daily food.

We turn back to Deuteronomy. Can I get somebody to actually read this? I know for the sake of our recording that may not be the best thing but Deuteronomy and chapter 10

Deuteronomy 10 and verse 16 through 18. Who's got me? Who would read that?

Deuteronomy 10 16 to 18. Chapter 10 16 to 18.

Speaking of this ontological things that you mentioned during Sunday school, because that who is who

God is, keep going please, because God is

God and who He is, He is no respecter of persons. He shows no partiality and He has a special love and concern for the widow and for the orphan.

And that's what we read of right in James chapter 1. True religion and undefiled before God is to visit the orphans and the widows and to keep yourself unspotted from the world.

That's because of who God is. Take care of these ladies. These precious sisters in the

Lord. And in this situation it appears that there's a sense of favoritism which is a type of racism.

It's one thing to neglect widows due to some inability that the church might have or incompetence but to be guilty of favoritism or racism, that's a whole nother thing.

That's an issue of integrity. So they're either immature or they're biased.

Whichever it is, this new challenge has to be faced as the church is to be open and receptive and loving and embracing of people of all types, all colors, all languages, all backgrounds.

And these Hellenistic Jews were the ones who migrated back to Jerusalem from these

Greek and Roman nations. They spoke different languages. They spoke

Greek. While those Hebraic Jews in Palestine spoke mainly

Aramaic, that day -to -day trade language of Palestine. And this food problem really was the last straw.

There are probably other issues at play between the Hebrews and the Hellenists due to the cultural issues and the preferences.

And all that comes to bear in the life of a church. There's different preferences, different backgrounds.

You were raised on a certain type of worship and how to approach

God and how the church functioned. And it's very difficult at times to have some flexibility and to entertain differences.

And there's this suspicion, though, of favoritism that had to be dealt with immediately.

And things turned out they got personal real quick. Today in Israel I don't know if you guys know of Baruch Maaz, but he's been a supported missionary in Israel for many, many years.

He's Israeli, got his education in England, went back in 1974 and started the church in Israel.

And he would become a leading evangelical among all types of evangelicals in Israel for many years.

And there's all kind of reasons why I would say that he was really paramount evangelical in Israel for many years.

But his church got to the point where there was over 400 people in the church. And especially in 1988 where the wall came down,

Russian Jews began to pour into Israel like crazy and many were coming from evangelical churches and they joined his church.

So now you have this issue of Jews that were Hebrew culture, language, and they've been there for years.

Here comes all these Russian Jews from different countries. They spoke different languages and the times that I was there visiting, he had if the teaching was in Hebrew, he had a section over here and it's being translated into Russian.

You had to listen to that. Or there's one section for English and there's another section for sign language.

And all that's going on in one service. So there's different tastes in terms of music and even food when you have your fellowships and the way you deal with your kids.

All those issues come to bear and it really takes a super effort to create unity and not have division in those types of situations.

So this problem was complex where you have the acquisition of all this money coming in from lands and properties.

There's the purchasing of food for a daily distribution. There's thousands of people and this distribution was a daily thing.

It was difficult. We've got a problem now that we realize that some are being neglected.

That's the problem. Second point, the solution. We've got to fix this problem because we're problem solvers and not just complainers.

Look in verse 2. So the twelve gathered all the disciples together and said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you. We will turn this responsibility over to them and we will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.

So this proposal pleased the whole group. The apostles displayed some excellent leadership here in the life of this church.

They just didn't dismiss these complaints as discontent and malcontent.

They took the problem seriously and they tackled it responsibly. First the apostles explained the problem, then the need, then the approach of how we're going to fix it.

They gave directions to the church to establish a special ministry of mercy to be led by selected men.

And the apostles were saying it wouldn't be right for us to leave the ministry of the word and prayer.

That's our first calling. That's why we're here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If the last thing we must not neglect is the souls of men.

Their eternal souls and their salvation that hangs upon the preaching of the gospel of Christ.

But distributing to the needs of the poor is a very important work. We need both. And we're going to stick to this work of the ministry of the word of God and prayer.

So you have this proposed division of labor. The apostles or elders in the church will give ourselves to prayer.

By the way, look at chapter 1 and verse 14. Chapter 1 and verse 14.

And you'll see the people of God praying. And chapter 1 verse 24.

Chapter 1 14 and chapter 1 24. They're praying people. And chapter 2 and verse 42.

2 42. They're praying people. And chapter 3 and verse 1.

They're going to give themselves to prayer in the hour of prayer. And in chapter 4 and verse 24.

When the apostles were let go from the authorities, they went back to the people of God. They began to pray. Chapter 4 24 and chapter 4 31.

They're still praying. And God comes to them as they are praying people.

And that is what God calls us to be is a praying people. We've got to preach and we've got to pray.

And then we've got to pray and then we've got to preach. And in the midst of all that, we love one another and take care of each other.

We're going to give ourselves to the ministry of the word because we, the word of God is central to everything that we do.

You've heard of sola scriptura. We are students of the word.

We're ministers of the word. The word of God is central to everything we do and every way we think.

But we need these other men to come alongside of us to make sure that we are not taken away from this work of prayer and the ministry of the word.

And brother pastor, and this is to all who are called of God to the ministry of the word.

We must be men of prayer. We must not let anything rob us of our lives of prayer.

And if we can have men come around us and set us free from all the things that deacons are then given to do so that we can give ourselves to the word of God and prayer, that's what we do.

Deacons. This appears to be the genesis of that office. And this office was created to help, to assist and relieve the pastors of the burdens that pull them away from that time needed for prayer and the ministry of the word.

The jobs of deacons can be many and varied. But it really is looking out for pastors and elders that they're not taken away from that vital work of the ministry of the word and prayer.

The work of deacons is not to take over the pulpit ministry. It is not to rule the church.

It is not to run apart from the elders leadership in the church. It is not to have exclusive control over the finances of the church.

But it was created to meet these kinds of basic, real needs in the life of the church.

Serving tables. The NLT calls it running the food program of the church.

A deacon is to be a servant. He's here to serve the church.

And that word serve is the same word as the word deacon. Diakonos.

In fact, Jesus came. He came as one who would be a deacon and not to be deaconed.

To serve. Same word. Number one, to receive the money that comes in from the people in an upright, accountable way and distributed in a loving ministry.

The first and the second problems in the early church were over money. Major problems over these contributions.

And these deacons are going to be handling large amounts of money. They're also going to be visiting the sick.

They'll be in the homes of the people. They're going to be taking care of the fatherless.

They're also going to be making sure that the ministers could be paid and supported in their work as much as possible.

And that's what you find in the New Testament that there was only basically two things that money went for in the life of the church.

And that's for the preachers and for the poor. Support the pastors, missionaries, as well as take care of the poor.

So the deacons are involved with church members as caregivers and encouragers. These men must know their

Bibles well. They've got to know the gospel well. Be able to point people to Christ.

Be able to bring the word of God to bear in all the different situations of ministry that they find themselves in.

Two of the seven men, Stephen and Philip, are men that were prominent in the work of evangelism.

Deacons need to be smart. And the smarter they are, the more they'll learn to delegate where they can, employing various members in the body.

Number three of the five. Let's talk about the qualifications of a deacon.

Who can we trust with this work? Verse three. These seven men who are to be men of good reputation, full of the

Holy Spirit, and wisdom. You know, the qualifications for this office of deacon are what they are because the duties are what they are.

They're going to be visiting and serving among the most vulnerable people in the church.

Among widows and children and the sick. They're handling church funds. So great care was taken to select men who could be trusted.

Who had the highest levels of personal piety and godliness. Just because a man is a cunning businessman and is capable of handling his own money books, doesn't mean he's qualified to be a deacon in the life of Christ's church.

Number one. They are men who are known to be of good reputation.

People of all types outside the life of the church ought to be able to testify and attest to their character and conduct.

In fact, that word known or of good reputation is the word to bear witness to.

People outside the church in the community ought to be able to bear witness to this man's character and conduct.

He's respected. He's free from scandal. He's looked upon by neighbors with integrity.

Look in chapter 10 and verse 22. 10, 22 and you'll see a Cornelius. And what does it say there about him being a man of good reputation?

10, 22. And how about 16 and chapter 16 and verse 2?

There's a guy named Timothy. He was also a man who was known and highly respected.

16, 2. And how about 22, 12? Ananias. Also a man known and held in high esteem.

How important is this thing of being respected and known and trusted?

He has a character that men can respect. We have to have men that we can trust.

There must not be with them even a hint of favoritism or foolish decisions.

We cannot give unbelievers outside the church any reason to mock the church of Christ.

The second qualification in Acts 6 of these men, they're full of the Holy Spirit. It's known by all that they're full of the

Holy Spirit because they live like a man who's under the influence of the

Holy Spirit. He's not drunk with wine or under that influence, but he's under the influence of the

Holy Spirit. Actually, the word full of the Holy Spirit indicates he's a manned ship.

He's a ship with a captain who is holding the rudder and guiding the rudder and manning the sails and making sure this ship doesn't run on the rocks.

He's a manned ship. The Holy Spirit is guiding and governing his life, and everybody knows it.

His gifts and graces are obvious. He's a godly man. And that godliness is not just there temporarily.

This man is spirit -filled as a man in his manner of life. We need men of holiness.

We need men of humility. We need men who are devoted to the glory of Jesus Christ and not their own.

You gotta be able to trust these men. And, thirdly, he's a man of wisdom.

A man of proven character and life. A man of wisdom, he fears God because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the

Lord. He applies the wisdom of Scripture with sound judgment, with holy discretion.

He's not impulsive or rash or excessive. He's not hot -headed or reckless.

He shows, he has shown that he accepts commands with a sweetness.

He's congenial under authority. He's not out to prove himself in terms of making a name for himself.

He knows how to apply scriptural principles to practical issues in life. Whereas godliness is just evident to all.

These are men that you can give the church checkbook to and rest confident. This new ministry is a holy work that will require men who are exemplary in their lives thoroughly trustworthy in the work of God.

Let's turn back to 1st Timothy in chapter 3. Speaking of qualifications, 1st

Timothy in chapter 3 and verse 8.

1st Timothy 3 .8 Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double -tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money.

Holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be proved.

Then let them serve as deacons. Boys, has that ever been abused in our day, hasn't it?

Let them first be proved. First show that they're of good reputation, full of the

Holy Spirit and wisdom. First and then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.

They have good reputation. And their wives, fetus. This speaks to the wife of the deacon.

Must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Let the husbands be the, or the deacons be husband of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Which leads me to my fourth point, and that is encouragements. Keith, fetus, encouragements for you as you enter into the office of deacon.

First of all, in this verse 13, you are going to purchase for yourself or obtain a good standing not only before the church, but before the

Lord. This good standing is a step of a staircase.

There's steps. Where you will gain for yourself a more noble standing of honor, of greater trust.

The more faithful and wise you are in serving

Christ in this office, the more you will earn for yourself that privilege of that high standing in the eyes of Christ and his church appreciated for your godliness.

There's higher esteem in a holy and sanctified way.

More appreciation for the work of Christ that has begun and continuing in your life.

You'll be looked more and more on as a model to mimic. What a huge responsibility, but what an incredible honor.

But it's something that has to be earned. Notice in verse 13, for those who have served well, you don't get this kind of honor cheaply.

It's something that gradually grows and is bestowed upon you because you are faithful in serving your

Christ. And secondly, you obtain great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

You have this growing sense of courage. The more faithful and the more the hand of God is upon you, the more you'll find you're so ready to have your testimony heard and make progress in this world.

You'll increasingly face the sins of the age, the immorality and the error of the age.

And you'll gain for yourself confidence more and more to freely and gladly testify of the glories and the truth of Jesus Christ.

What blessings are these? They're not to be they're not given cheaply. And what honors and blessings are yours as you earn them by a faithful serving godliness.

And then point five. We go back to Acts chapter six and that is selection.

It got done. It got done. In Acts chapter five and verse six this proposal pleased the whole group.

They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Philip, Procurus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and lay hands on them.

They actually made the selection and they got it done.

Interesting. The names of these seven men brought forth were all

Greek names. The group from which the complaint came to the apostles.

You would think it would have been advisable to maybe have half Hebraic Jews and half

Hellenistic Jews. But that's not what they did. They did a bold thing in the life of the church.

They didn't split into separate ethnic bodies. They were committed to demonstrate the opposite of racism and to work together.

And so their hands were laid upon these men. They selected. Now that's a weird expression.

Hands laid on. It was an Old Testament ritual.

A way of commissioning a person to an office. And it conveys we're giving you our approval and we're giving to you the authority to fulfill this office we're calling you to.

It bestows a blessing upon the person that enters that office to carry out that work.

Well did it work? It did. Verse 7. So the word of God spread and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

The church grew because the spreading of the word of God grew. More and more disciples were added to the body.

And notice among those being added were a large number of priests and Levites.

Probably you'd think the most difficult people to win to Christ would be the priests and the

Levites who were employed in the work of the temple. They had every reason to remain faithful to Judaism.

But with the sovereign power of the spirit of God using his word he could change any heart and lots of them among the most you'd think surely they're not going to become

Christians but they can and they did and here's the church praying and depending upon God and being faithful to preach the word handling the issues in the life of the church in responsible wise ways and God raising up men and women who were serious about godliness.

Let me end with some encouragements to the church. I've been speaking to these

Keith and Fetus entering into the office of Deacon and Fetus you obviously have responsibility to be by your man you can make him or break him as a servant of Christ you have a lot to do with his fruitfulness and his joy in serving

Christ in that office. I think God has suited you wonderfully to be that kind of servant next to your servant man.

Some encouragements to all the people. All the members of this fine body.

Number one, be involved you see this the apostles saying to all the church look out among you you all have responsibility to look out among you.

All the members should take your roles seriously be aware of the needs of the body and do what you can to meet those needs make suggestions for improving the ministry without being critical without fault finding without being negative and complaining make suggestions think and pray how that maybe things could be improved and as you grow you'll have growing pains that's what happened to this early church they were have growing pains and you've got to tackle them together responsibly in love with wisdom with integrity and with compassion secondly support your pastors and what

I mean is this work with them to keep them praying and ministering the word of God that's when you're going to have a very happy pastor is when he is able to give himself to prayer and to the ministry of the word

God's put that in his heart that's the burden of his soul do what you can to make sure he has as much uninterrupted time as possible to study the word prepare sermons and lessons and discipleships and train people for the work of the ministry thirdly give generously we need to supply our deacons with the funds they need to carry out the gospel work that you have it shouldn't come out of their own pocket your budget has valuable things in it to be financed if it's like most churches there's no fat there's no luxuries just vital ministries to be supported it's

God's work and I know there's a thousand things that are screaming at you for your money and it really does take devotion and sacrifice to keep the work of the lord going strong and being productive but it's

God's work number four love one another right here in the body no matter how different we are from one another no matter what where your background is and what your preferences what you bring to the table love one another and care for one another and when new people come show them the kind of hospitality and embrace that the love of Jesus would be ready to give be ready to make changes in your own preferences compared to well this is the way we've always done it loving

God's people and the lost around us is to model the heart and the mission of Jesus Christ number five five trust one another especially pastors and deacons you put them in the office

God has through you because you can trust them so trust them there's a lot of delicate situations that go on in the life of the church they cannot give you all the information that you might help you to understand why they make certain decisions they make you gotta trust them it may seem at first glance to be unfair or selfish but trust them believe in them and pray for them well that's number eight number six inform your elders and deacons inform them help them to know needs in the life of the body they're not omniscient they don't know if somebody's being neglected they don't know necessarily if somebody's sick or in the hospital make sure they know number seven esteem them esteem them highly in love for their work's sake

God esteems them he's put them in the office and so should we number eight pray for them they face discouragements oppositions temptations there's always new problems that they have to deal with pray for them that they'll have the wisdom of God in working with all that and number nine to all the members maintain your first love in Jesus Christ and be aflame with the gospel we have the greatest message in the world it's because we have the

Savior of the world and God loves to save sinners like you and me and all the folks on this road and all the streets of Atlanta all the folks you can't imagine getting close to and wanting to love and God loves them

God loves them and if there's anything that's helped Kathy and me in in having friendships and having trust and having acceptance among the people where we live in the hood it's because we've really sought to love them and they know we love them and we do love them please pray for us as we continue to minister there that the love of Christ will just continue to abound in us toward all the folks on the street the drug dealers the women of the night all those that are arrogant and all messed up those that are deceitful and always got their hand out asking for a hand out, pray for us that the love of Christ will abound in us but may it abound in you here in this wonderful work this church that God's given to you may the love of Christ ooze from you, may it abound and grow and may it be so evident in the way you do the work of deaconing the work of pastoring the work of being