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Dr. Myron Golden
Turn to Acts chapter 6. Just have a few thoughts today that I want to use to challenge our deacons, to charge them, but not only that, but also to charge the church with regard to the deacons. Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7 say, says, In those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
Then the twelve called the multitude of disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and we may appoint over this business.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer in the ministry of the word. And this saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Trachurus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenes, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
And the word of God increased, and the number of disciples was multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. Just a few thoughts that I want to pull out of this passage that I think as these deacons are being ordained, and Brother Otis is being instated as an active deacon, that we need to think about.
The first thing that we see in this passage is whenever the people begin to multiply, the problems begin to multiply with it. Now, that's just the way it is in a church. As a church grows, the problems grow with it.
And a lot of times, as we're sitting in the pew, we may not realize that that ministry is basically helping people solve their problems according to the word of God. As this church grows, as this church has grown over the last several years, I know, even not having been here, that the problems have also grown, and the problems will continue to grow as the church continues to grow.
And I guess that's because there's three kinds of people with problems in the church, or three kinds of problem causers in the church. There are those that get things going. I guess we call those instigators.
You're always going to have instigators in a church. I don't know why it is. I guess it just wouldn't be a church lest you had some instigators, and you're going to have some here. If you don't already, you're going to have some.
And then there are perpetuators. There are those who keep things going. Some people don't know how to get it going, but man, once they see it going, they like to keep the ball rolling, don't.
They? And.
Then there are accommodators. Those are the ones who don't stop things from coming into their ears. They don't, they listen to the murmuring. It's interesting, the word murmur means to have a complaint, but not to voice the complaint loud enough for anybody to hear you.
Kind of mumbling under your breath about the problem, so you can show everybody that there's a problem, but you don't really tell anybody that there's a problem. And you know, as I think about churches that I know that have split, and I know that's not what this is about, but in essence, it's kind of to keep that from happening down the road.
You know, I've never seen a church split over a spiritual position or over a scriptural position. Usually churches split over carnal dispositions, over selfish dispositions, and we need to make sure that we always keep our our selfish dispositions subject to God's plan, to God's will.
What I want, what color I want the carpet to be, what color, what, what, what I want to happen in the church is not near so important as what God wants to happen in the church. And, and so we see in this passage that as the people multiplied, the problems also multiplied.
We see also here an interesting thing, that problems usually stem from differences. That's where problems come from. It's amazing how even though we know that God made us all different, and, and, and differences bring contrast and bring beauty into life, it seems like some of us want to go through life and make everybody else just like us.
It's not possible. And the difference was the Grecians thought in this passage that their widows were neglected just because they were Grecian. Man, here they are. They're just leaving us out because we're Grecians.
Well, the interesting thing was the disciples, or the apostles, when they solved this problem, they didn't go about necessarily to be the solution for the problem. Which brings me to the next thought that I got out of this passage, and that is that just because something needs to be done doesn't mean it needs to be done by the pastor.
You know, there are those in church who think, you know, if I get a flat tire on the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, what I need to do is I need to call my pastor. If I get a headache and don't know what to do, I'll just call my pastor.
If my cat gets caught up a tree, I'll just call the pastor. But the apostles had the wisdom to see that even though this problem was a real problem, it was not a problem that they themselves needed to physically handle, but that they could appoint somebody else to this problem, to handle this problem.
And that's what the appointing of these deacons were about. You know, having been a pastor, and I can really relate to this from the standpoint that people think they know what your job is. Now, I'm gonna tell you, Brother Dave, most, I mean, a lot of folks think they can pastor this church better than you can.
I mean, they think that. Matter of fact, there's three things that people can do better than you, especially if you're a pastor. But, and then again, even if you're not, people know how to do your job better than you do.
You can rest assured they know, and even if they don't know how to do their job, they think they know how to do your job better than you do. They think they know how to raise your kids better than you do.
Man, if that was my kid, we wouldn't have that around my house. That's my kid. Huh? So that people know how to do your job, they know how to raise your kids, and they know how to spend your money. That's what people know how to do.
They can do it better than you every time. Now, if you need some advice on any of those areas, you just ask somebody, anybody, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help you. But just because something needs to be done doesn't mean it needs to be done by the preacher.
The third point I got out of this, or the third thought I got out of this, is this. Be as interested in participating in solving the problem as you are in pointing out a problem when you have one. The Apostles took these people that had this problem.
He called them together. He said, okay, now you brought a problem to us. Now be a part of the solution. You take seven men from among you. Be a part of the solution. Don't just notice a problem. Don't be a part of the problem, but be a part of the solution.
And I think that's really what Christianity is all about. I think that's what the church environment is about, and certainly what a deacon is being about. And we see that when they chose these men, they didn't call them deacons here, but I believe later they called them deacons.
And the word deacon, as Brother David said, means to be a servant. What is a deacon? A deacon is a servant leader. A deacon is a servant leader, and the reason I know that is the Bible says in verse 3, he said, wherefore brethren, look ye out among you, seven men of honest report.
He didn't say look ye out above you. He didn't say look ye out below you. He said look ye out among you. A deacon is a servant leader. It's not some super Christian put up on a pedestal, but somebody who is here to help serve.
Not, you know, a lot of churches think that, well, man, I'll be glad. A lot of people think sometimes you have deacons. Well, I'll be glad we get these deacons in line because the deacons will be the reins through which we can control the pastor.
That's not the purpose of a deacon. The purpose of a deacon is to assist the pastor in the work of the ministry. That's the purpose of a deacon. They were among you. They weren't below. They were, or they weren't above.
They weren't below. They were honest men. They were honest. They had an honest reputation. Men, the Bible says, of honest report. They were honest in the community, a good reputation in the community, and a good reputation in the church, and there's no doubt in my mind that these two men have that honest report.
I guess of all the things that a deacon needs to be, being full of the Holy Ghost, may be the most important. The Bible says when you choose these deacons, choose men that are full of the Holy Ghost. And that full of the Holy Ghost implies that, that when somebody's full of the Holy Ghost, they are controlled by God.
And at the same time, they cannot be or are not manipulated by men. When the apostles were taken and they were beaten and they were threatened, they were so full of the Holy Ghost, when they were threatened and they were beaten, they said, hey, we cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard, because we are full of the Holy Ghost.
And a deacon is somebody, a lot of times in churches, unfortunately, deacons are people that are manipulated and plotted by the people in the church, but that's not the purpose. The purpose of a deacon is to be controlled by God and not to be manipulated by men, and I believe these two men are those kind of men, and certainly we need men like that in our churches.
And they were men that were full of wisdom. You know, wisdom is one of those words in the Bible that we use a lot, but we don't have the slightest idea what it is. You know, it's one of those, it's one of those words that we say, but when we say it, it doesn't really connect to anything in our mind.
But you know what I know? I know a man cannot be full of wisdom if he doesn't have any knowledge. You can't have wisdom without knowledge. You know, a man can't have, be full of wisdom if he doesn't have understanding.
You have to have knowledge and understanding before you can have wisdom. See, because the Bible talks a lot about a fool. Well, what is a fool? A fool is a person who has an absence of truth in their life.
They just kind of, they just kind of go through life and think life is the way they want it to be, and they have an absence of truth in their life. But a person who has knowledge is a person who has accumulated truth, and for a person to be a deacon, they need to have accumulated some truth from God's Word over the years.
That's what knowledge is. Understanding is the assimilation of that truth that you've accumulated. You know, you can, you can accumulate truth without assimilating that truth. You can, you can have, you can know what the Bible says without knowing what the Bible is saying, and since the Bible is not just what God has said, but it is what God is saying to us today, then in order for us to have the full impact of it in our lives, we need to have an understanding of it, not just the knowledge of it, because I might know that the Bible has John 3, 16 in it.
I might know what John 3, 16 says, but if I don't know what John 3, 16 is saying, then I don't have understanding. And then wisdom is the application of that truth that we understand. And our deacons in our churches need to be men who not only are willing to accumulate all this truth, not only do they have the ability to assimilate all this truth, but they have the willingness to apply this truth to their lives.
And I, and I do believe that we have men such as these sitting before us today. And so I want to urge you, I want to urge you to encourage these men as deacons, as servant leaders. Stand behind them as they stand behind the pastor to accomplish the work of the ministry.
And then and only then can the Word of God multiply greatly and a great company.
Become obedient to the faith. Brother David, here's my notes. I've got your notes. You take my notes? I'll trade you.
You didn't want to hear the sermon twice. It was very good, but amen, that was excellent. He took, what is it, 45 pages of my deacon study and put it into five minutes. That's very good. Something I could never do.
That's why we had Brother Myron here today. No, that was a blessing. And I believe everyone in their hearts would say amen to that message, to how he did summarize the role of, the proper role of a deacon.
If every church in America to hear that message that he just preached and apply that message, it would clean up a lot of mess, wouldn't it? It would make the church so much stronger, but only if the candidates were as strong as ours.
And God has blessed us. I know many, many churches who have deacons who do not fit these qualifications. And they have problems that can't be solved because they don't have the right problem solvers in the church.
And so praise be to God that he has brought these men to us today as a gift to this church. And may he keep them strong through the days to come. But this time I'd like to ask our two deacons and their wives to come to the front and stand right down here.
I would like to present these certificates first and then we'll have prayer and then we'll ask you to come and greet your new deacons.