The Service that Blessing requires

Well, for our time of study and God's word this morning, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. As we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy, we come this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 8, and my goal this morning is to do an overview of verses 8 through 13, and then next week we're gonna work our way a little more methodically, at least to the qualifications for deacons that we find in these verses.

But if you want to give a title to the message today, it is the Service that blessing requires.

The service that blessing. requires. When I talk about service, I'm talking about the work that we do that addresses needs and our English word service is, merely a translation of the Greek word diakyos that is translated in the numeric standard as deacon, so we're talking about the service or the deaconing. that blessing requires, and the blessing that we're talking about is the blessing of people that God has brought and continues to bring to Cornerstone.

Now in our message last Sunday, we spent some time in the early chapters of the book of Acts. And I'm not going to review the points of the message, but I do want to review two big takeaways from the message last week. And the first is that people are a blessing. People are a blessing.

Anyone that God brings to Cornerstone, we need to view as a blessing in the sense that this person is an opportunity for us to minister the gospel and Jesus Christ to them. And if they already know the Lord, or they do come to know the Lord, they definitely are a blessing to us with the spiritual gifts that they bring to bear in enriching, this church body. So people are a blessing. All the people that are presently at Cornerstone.

Throughout its past have been a blessing. Those that are here now and those that God is going to bring our way, we need to view as blessed opportunities as blessings from the Lord. But as we began to see last Sunday, with such blessings, come needs that need to be met. With such blessings come messes that are made.

In fact, in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 4, it says, where no oxen are, the stall is clean, and everyone loves a clean stall, as it were, but where the oxen are not, the stall is clean, but where the oxen are, there is a mess, but there is blessing in the strength and in the work of an ox. So with the blessing of people that God brings to us, there are needs, there are messes, there are additional responsibilities that that puts upon all of us, and there is a whole lot of extra work that needs to be done.

And that grows with the increase of blessing of people that God brings our way. Definitely there's an increase in needs.

In fact, we saw last week how in Acts 2, the beginning of the day of Pentecost, the group of believers was 120. By the end of the day there was 3120. And among that 3120 there were many of those that were financially needy. And so we learn in Acts 2:45.

That they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. So these extra 3000 people, yes, there was a lot that they brought to bear upon the church, but there were also needs that required great sacrifice on the part of the believers in the church in order to address. We need to be aware of this. we would all say we would love for our church to grow, so that we have more opportunity to preach the gospel to more people.

And if God grew our church, for example, by 100 people over the next 6 months, we would all love that, right? But what if of those 100 people, 90 of them were unemployed? What if of those 100 people 90 of them spoke Spanish only? What if among those 100 people, 90 of them were illegally here in the United States?

My point is that we would have a lot of thinking to do and a lot of challenges, both in terms of wisdom and needs that would need to be met, but we just need to realize this, that as God brings blessings in the form of people our way, there are needs that are attached. to such individuals, and that creates extra responsibility, extra work and needs that need to be addressed. In fact, you guys, I was thinking this week about the story of in Luke 5 about the disciples. They had fished all night.

They didn't catch anything. Jesus says to them, Well, why don't you cast your net on the other side of the boat? You guys remember that story. And so the disciples obey Jesus and they, they dropped their nets on the other side of the boat and then look what happens.

says, and they caught such a large number of fish that their nets were literally tearing. Their nets were breaking, so they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. And so think about this. Jesus does this incredible miracle of providing this great blessing of this great catch of fish, but he doesn't do the miracle of automatically putting them in the boat.

He could have done that. He could have just said a word and suddenly there were 500 fish just lying in the boat where he not only helped them catch the fish, but he went ahead and loaded them in the boat and then miraculously enabled the boat to float above water with all the fish in there. He doesn't do the miracle that way. He provides them this huge catch, but then as they're trying to bring it in, their nets are tearing, so there's repair work that's going to need to be done on the nets afterwards.

The disciples in the boat are, they're struggling with this with all their might, and they're not able to manage this huge catch of fish, so they have to signal to their fellow. Disciples and another boat to come over and help them. So they all work together. And then, as they're working together, they do get the fish into the boat, they fill up both of the boats so full that the boats began to sink.

Suddenly, they're having a facility problem here. And I'm sure the disciples were like, Jesus, this is great, but you're tearing our nets. And no doubt they're realizing if we're going to be hanging out with Jesus for much longer, we're going to need bigger nets, and bigger boats. But think about the work.

Think about the chaos of this scene as they're trying to manage this blessing. There's repairs that are going to need to be done to the nets. These disciples are having to work really hard and bringing in this huge haul of fish that Jesus has provided them. They have to come together and work together, and they are exhausting the capacity.

Of their physical resources of the boats in order to fully contain the blessing that Jesus has given to them. And by the way, just so the disciples and all of us know, this is not some cute little fish story. As the narrative continues, the disciples became very afraid of Jesus, seeing this power on display, Jesus responds and says, Don't be afraid. From now on, you're going to catch men.

what he's saying by that? He caused this miracle to happen, not just so that they can not have wasted the day fishing. He provided this catch of fish in order to inform them of what lay in their future. This is what your future holds.

There's going to be great catches of fish. And it's going to cause messes to be made. You're going to have to work. You guys are going to have to come together and work together, and it's going to exhaust the capacity of your physical resources to manage.

He's giving them a foretaste of what their future holds. And even as leaders here at Cornerstone, I think we do well to look at That narrative and realize that God miraculously does things here at Cornerstone. He's bringing great blessing to this church in the form of people. But we don't show up on Sunday and go, Whoa, wait a minute, the auditorium has expanded by 5000 square feet.

How did that happen? He doesn't, he doesn't do that and doesn't automatically just take care of everything. He brings in the blessing and then it requires a lot of us to come together and to think and to to seek his face and wisdom on how to minister to and handle the blessing of God. And so with all of that in mind, especially with the work that it requires from all of God's people, I can't think of a more appropriate topic given what we've been talking about in recent weeks on the subject of deaconing or service, which is what verses 8 through 13 are all about.

What I want to do with the time we have is to go over with you 6 truths about deacons. And deaconing that we can infer from the New Testament. 5 of these points will be pulling out of 1 Timothy 3. The first of these truths, we're going to actually pull out of another passage, and that is Ephesians chapter 4.

But you'll see we'll piece all of this together. When we say deacon and deaconing, normally we're used to hearing deacon as as a noun, but in the New Testament it's actually a verb also, and it's always translated like to serve. And so there are people that are deacons and then in the New Testament we deacon. There are people who deacon.

And we're going to see, in fact, let's just jump to it. Truth number 1 that we clearly observe in the New Testament, is that every Christian is to do the work of deaconing. Every Christian is to do deaconing. Every believer is to be a deacon, small d.

All right, we'll learn about the office of deacon in a minute. But every Christian is to do the work of deaconing. And by the way, on the previous slide we define deaconing as this it's rendering service designed to meet a need, rendering service that is designed to address a need. So you identify needs in people's lives or in the life or the fabric of a church, and then you render service to meet that need.

And when you do that, you're deaconing. Now deaconing is not just looking busy. it's not just doing something just to do it, but it's not really contributing anything to anybody. Looking busy is not deaconing, but identifying genuine needs, spiritual, physical, material, emotional, relational, marital, doesn't matter, identifying genuine needs and then rendering service, expending energy to address those needs, that's deepening.

And the New Testament teaches that every Christian is to do the work of deaconing. Ephesians 4, we see this taught. Paul says in Christ and His ascension gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers. So he gave apostles and prophets, which by the way, the content of the teaching of the apostles and prophets has been what we would call inscripturated.

That's our New Testament. So for our purposes today, he's given us the New Testament and also the Old. He's given to believers, evangelists, who not only preach the gospel to the lost, but also, and especially in this passage, who preach the gospel to believers, educating them in the gospel and in the fullness of what it contains, and how to apply it to their lives. He also gives to believers, pastors and teachers.

Look at this verse 12, for the perfecting or the equipping of the saints, that's you. For the work of Diaconus, for the work of deaconing. In other words, in this passage, amongst other things, we can learn that every saint, every believer in Christ, is to do the work of deaconing and all of these resources that God provides you, He provides you in order to equip you to do the work of ministry. The vision of God for the church is that In the Cornerstone congregation, everybody, man and woman, young and old, are looking around and identifying needs and then personally investing themselves, expending energy in addressing those needs.

That's God's picture of the church. And it's not his picture of the church is not you go from church to church and your only thought is what meets my needs, although that is important to have your needs met, but that you are also thinking beyond yourself at the needs of other people and you want to address those needs. I'll never forget as a kid, we, we had just moved to Georgia and we attended this small church that was meeting in a rented building, and I, I think there were like 30 or 40 people there.

And when the worship service started, the pastor got up and said, what, we don't have someone to play the piano.

Does anyone know how to play the piano? My mom raised her hand because she knew how to play. And said, I'll do it. And so she got up and played the piano for the worship service on our very first Sunday at this small church.

My parents immediately concluded, this is our church home, because we are needed here. And we were blessed that this church also addressed our needs and was a Christ honoring church, but that's the orientation. And by the way, let me just say this to, to our young people. Christ did not die.

He didn't get crucified, raised from the dead, and then seated at the right hand of God, just so he could save you and you can live your life playing video games and watching television and watching movies and doing nothing but feeding your face and thinking only of yourself and being waited on hand and foot. I hear no children saying amen, but Thank you parents. Oh, thank you, kids. Listen, it doesn't matter how young you are.

Look at me, kids. It doesn't matter how young you are, you may be 5 years old, 7 years old, 10 years old, 13. You want to live this way, to where at home and at church, you look around for needs that you have the capacity to meet. And then you do stuff, you expend energy to meet those needs.

When Jesus sees you doing that, he's like, that's one of the reasons that I saved. You, this child of mine. And so parents, we need to train our children to live this way in the home and, and also all of us training ourselves, young and old to live this way in the church. Every at Cornerstone, our motto ought to be, every member is deaconing.

OK. there's a second truth that we can observe. And now we're coming more to 1 Timothy 3. And that is that there is an office, a beacon that is to be distinguished from what all Christians do.

Nobody denies this, so I don't even really need to belabor this point. While it's true that every Christian deacons. There is an office of deacon that is identified in like in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. There's qualifications for overseers, those are elders, and then in verse 8 through 13 there's another office, and that is the office.

Of deacons. You might want to write down Philippians 1:1 where Paul says, Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ who are in Philippi, including overseers and deacons. So there are the saints, and among those saints is a category of saints that are called elders or overseers. And then there's another category of officeholders, and that is deacons in the church.

Not everyone serves as a deacon, capital D. 1 Timothy 3:10. Paul says these men must also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they're beyond reproach. Not every believer is beyond reproach.

And so Paul is not saying you've got to meet all these qualifications to be able to serve or deacon in any capacity, but to hold the office of deacon, and we'll see what that means in a moment, to hold the office of deacon, you need to meet these qualifications that Paul identifies. But at the very least for our purposes here, let's establish the fact that there is an office of deacon that is to be distinguished from what all Christians do. Well, that leads us to a third truth that we could observe from 1 Timothy 3, and that is that the office of deacons seems to involve leadership of a particular area of ministry.

We can be a little bit logical with that.

If every Christian deacons, but there's an office of deacon, what is that? what does that mean? And we can infer that a deacon must be somebody who has oversight over a particular arena or category of deaconing. And I'll demonstrate this from the book of Acts in just a moment, but our working definition here at Cornerstone is this a deacon or deaconess is someone who is given a position of elder designated leadership in a particular area of deaconing.

What we've done as elders in the last few years is we've looked at The full scope of all the deaconing or ministry that takes place at Cornerstone. We've divided that up into categories that seem to work and then we have put deacons and deaconesses in positions where they have responsibility over those particular categories of deaconing or ministry. Now I feel like in the first service I went too long on this point. I'm going to try to go quickly through a number of slides here and demonstrate this for you, and hang with me here.

In the book of Acts we have the day of Pentecost happening and 3000 people are saved. The apostles, we find them busy doing many wonders and signs that were taking place through their hands. As for what the rest of the church was doing, they all voluntarily seemed to be meeting each other's needs without any administration needed. It says all those who had believed were together.

Had everything in common. They began selling property and possessions. We're sharing them with all as any might have needs. So the apostles are out there doing their thing, preaching the word, doing signs and wonders, and the believers are without any administration, totally voluntarily taking care.

Of themselves. Peter and John are busy. They heal a lame man at the temple that gathers a crowd. Peter preaches there in the temple.

Many more believe now there's 5000 men in the church, so the church is growing by leaps and bounds. Peter and John get imprisoned. They're told not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore. Peter says, we're not going to heed this prohibition.

And they keep on teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus. Acts 4 is the narrative continues, we see this that with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So they're out there preaching the truth, preaching the gospel. But then look at verse 34.

Abundant grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. You might say, Wow, that sounds a lot like Acts 2. But there's a big difference here.

Now instead of just everyone on their own meeting each other's needs, now they're bringing their money and laying it at the apostles' feet. what that means? What it means is that they were giving responsibility to the apostles to identify those that had needs and to hold the funds in the meantime and then to. Disperse those funds at their discretion and then to make sure that the funds they dispersed were being wisely used.

These are apostles that are out there doing signs and wonders. They're preaching the gospel and now on top of that, they're essentially administrating the Agape Fund of the church. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sephira lay some money at Peter's feet, and they did so deceptively. So Peter rebukes them, and they died.

It's an amazing story. Read it sometime. In Acts chapter 5, look at this, at the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people. All the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly being added to their number.

So the church is just growing by the thousands. Imagine all the needs that are ballooning here. And the apostles are having to preach the word and manage the Agape Fund and all the disbursements on top of preaching the word, doing signs and wonders. The apostles also have some jail time.

In Acts 5:18, all the apostles were put in jail. They were freed miraculously by an angel. They're back out in the temple teaching. They're then brought before the Sanhedrin.

The apostles are getting flogged as a punishment for preaching in the name of Jesus. The next day they get up with their aches and pains, and the Christians are laying money at their feet, saying Manage the Agape Fund and disperse these funds. And we learn in Acts 5:42 that the disciples, even though they've been flogged, imprisoned, and commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus, every day, and the temple, house to house, they kept right on these apostles teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

what, I get exhausted just thinking about what the life of the apostles must have been like.

With this ballooning church with all the needs, preaching the word, studying the word and preaching the gospels, doing signs and wonders in and out of prison, getting flogged and going house to house, and on top of that, money's being laid at their feet and they have to manage the disbursements from the Agape Fund of the church. So something has to give, and we're not surprised in Acts 6:1. To learn something. Luke says now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily diaconia, in the daily deaconing, the addressing of the needs.

So it seems like the apostles were not able to do all things well here. And there were gaps that were beginning to form in the ministry of the Jerusalem church and needs were not being sufficiently addressed. So the 12 who no doubt had been doing a lot of thinking about this, maybe while they sat in prison and had some time to to think. The 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples and said it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to deacon tables, literally is what they say.

So select, they say select from among yourselves seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this need literally is what it says in the Greek text in this area of need that this ministry. is designed to meet. We cannot do everything God has called us to do and at the same time address this need sufficiently. So we want you to pick seven men who meet these qualifications that we can put over literally whom we may put over this need.

OK, it's, it has the idea of leadership, put in charge of this arena of need, but we will devote ourselves as apostles to prayer and to the deaconing of the word. So we're deacons too, but God's called us to deacon the word, to study God's word. And pray over God's word, to pray with and for God's people, and, and then to be serving God's word. That's our number one calling.

And if we can't give ourselves to that because we're occupied with these other things that yes, they're important, but if we're too occupied with those things to where we cannot sufficiently and with excellence minister the word of God, then we're cheating the people of God. Because of that. Well, the congregation liked what they heard. The statement found approval with the whole congregation.

They chose Steven along with 6 other guys, and these they brought before the apostles, and after praying on, after praying, they laid hands on them. And then I am sure this is not in the Greek manuscripts, but they breathed a sigh of relief. The apostles did. And there are many, even ancient writers in the history of the church that you need to understand that nowhere are the seven called deacons in this Act's narrative, but, but ancient writers all the way up to today, many of them would affirm that these were the first individuals that were chosen.

As deacons in the history of the church, but at this early stage they didn't have the title of deacon, which probably developed later and Luke and narrating this very early development in church history is just narrating it for as it happened and is not imposing labels that came later back onto these individuals and we can respect his historical integrity. In giving the account this way, but what we have, think about it now, this is a church of 1015, 20,000 believers, and there's great need of widows and others that that need funds from the Agape Fund, as it were.

And think about it. The 7 men that were put in charge of this task, does that mean that no one else was involved in this ministry, and these 7 guys now had to receive funds.

They had to identify those that had needs, figure out how much to disperse to them, and then follow up with accountability to make sure the funds were being used wisely, that in that particular area of need there were only 7 people involved in that ministry. Is that the picture? No, the picture is 7 men were put in charge of the need. They were put in charge of the task, and commentators suggest that they likely had hundreds of people working underneath them.

They were leaders in administrating this particular area of ministry to make sure that the needs were being addressed. And so that is why just as we studied the scripture 3 or 4 years ago as elders, we, we just spent months just looking at the subject of deacons and deaconing that we came to the conclusion that it seems that the office of deacon involves leadership and oversight or of particular areas of ministry. Well, having said that, that leads us to a 4th truth that, I would want to put before you guys, and that is that the Bible seems to envision women serving in the role of deacons.

Now let me say up front that not everyone agrees with this, not even everyone in our church, would agree with this.

And if you want resources that take the other view, give me a call. I'll photocopy them and give them to you. This is definitely not a hill that That we want to die on, but nonetheless, as we as elders worked through this issue a few years ago, our, our leaning is to understand Paul's language in verse 11 of 1 Timothy 3 as allowing for a category of deaconesses, of women, deacons. and just track with me here.

Let's begin in verse 8, because Paul, no matter what view someone holds, everyone admits this is awkward and it's tough to fully know what to do with it. He says in verse 8, Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid game, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. So everyone agrees he's talking about men there, but then out of the blue, verse 11, women.

And that's all it is. It's just the word women. It could be translated women or wives. The Greek word could go either way depending on the context, but it just says women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.

Now look at verse 12. Deacons. He's back talking to the guys again, must be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and their own households, for those who serve well as deacons obtain for themselves high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. So verse 11 is the key here that in the middle of qualifications for deacons, male deacons, Paul speaks of another category, it seems, of deacons, and those are women who serve in this role.

Now there are some who would say that verse 11 is not a reference to deaconesses and their qualifications, it's a reference to the wives of those who are deacons. So deacons are only men, but they're married men oftentimes, and in order for a deacon, for a guy to be qualified to be a deacon, he needs to match the qualifications listed, but his wife also must match the qualifications of verse 11 in order for this guy to be allowed to serve as a deacon. You get the point. in other words, you can have a guy who meets all of the qualifications that are listed in this passage, but if his wife is not temperate, then that guy can't be a deacon.

OK, so that's, that's the way some people understand this. And what, that, that quite possibly could be, the right view. However, our leaning is the other way that Paul seems to be speaking of more than just the wife of deacons. In fact, here's, here's some of our thinking.

When you look at verse 11, if Paul were merely speaking of deacons' wives, we would expect a couple of things. We would expect Paul to have given qualifications for elders' wives earlier, right? Wouldn't that make sense? That if he's going to be saying in order for a guy to be a deacon, he needs to have these qualifications and his wife must be such and such.

If he's going to do that for deacons, then We would go back to what he says about elders and expect him to have done the same thing. In other words, to be an elder, you need to match these qualifications and an elder's wife must be such and such. But the fact that he doesn't do that. regarding elders seems to indicate to many commentators that Paul therefore is not speaking of deacons' wives so much as he's speaking of women that serve as deacons.

Also, if Paul were merely speaking of deacons' wives only in verse 11, we would expect Paul to use a possessive pronoun. We would expect him to say at the beginning of verse 11, Their women or their wives must be. And yes, that word women could mean wives, but there's no possessive pronoun there attached to it, which is what we would expect if he were speaking of the wives of deacons only. So there's other considerations to keep in mind, and again this is not a hill we want to die on, but, but we would view verse 11 as indicative of the fact that the Bible seems to envision women serving as As deacons, you might say, well, in verse 11, why doesn't Paul just say deaconesses?

He says in verse 8, Deacons must be men of dignity. Why couldn't he have just said in verse 11, Deaconesses? Well, the reason he doesn't do that is because in Greek, there was no distinctively feminine form of the word deacon. I don't really, I don't mean to bore you guys.

just hang with me for a second and we're going to move on. All right. In English, we have the word deacon. When I say deacon, you all picture a guy, right?

If I see, if I say deaconess, no one's imagining a guy, right? You're imagining a woman. That's our feminine form of the noun for deacon in the Greek New Testament, they didn't have that convention. They didn't have a distinctively feminine form of the word deacon.

And so if there were a man up here and I were referring to him as a deacon, I would say he is a diaconos. If there were a woman over here who is a deacon, I would say she is a diaconos. I would use exactly the same form of the word. The ending.

would be the same. There's, there was no distinctively feminine form of this word for diakinos. And so of course Paul couldn't have just said diakinos in verse 11 because no one would know that he's now speaking of women, so he uses the word women instead. Am I making sense?

OK, let's move on. just, just to, not to prove that this is the right view, but at least to demonstrate that this is not a radical view. In fact, in ancient church history, we have evidence that many Christians embrace the idea of deaconesses. John Chrysostom, one of the great church fathers who died in AD 407, in his commentary on this verse says Paul is speaking of those who hold the rank of deaconesses.

another resource that dates back to 230 AD called the teaching of the apostles, it speaks of various officers in the church, and one of those is the deaconess, and it identifies the deaconess as someone who helps with the baptism of women and also instructed the women after baptism and before baptism. Another resource dating 380 AD, there's the apostolic constitutions, not an inspired resource. I'm not saying that at all, but in that resource it's interesting. It says let the deaconess be diligent in taking care of the women.

So they had divided up the categories of ministry, and essentially the women's ministry was something that was overseen and led by women. A possible earlier reference than this is Romans 16. Verse one where Paul says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a diaconon of the church, which is at Centria. He could simply be just calling her a servant, but it is also possible that she was a deacon and held the office of deacon in the church which was at Centria at the time.

Now, having said this, this does not mean that every deacon position is available to women. In our categories of ministry, there are some deacon positions that legitimately could be available to women and others that are not. We would never have a woman serving as a deacon over men's ministry. I just, I just don't think that's ever going to happen.

We don't want to put a woman in a situation where she is violating. Paul's teaching in 1 Timothy chapter 2, where she's exercising authority over a man in the household of God. But if you look on the back of your bulletin, you'll notice that we do have some deaconesses here at Cornerstone over women's ministry, the nursery ministry, and, and, and also we do have wives of deacons that are also deaconesses who serve alongside their husband in various categories of, of ministry.

So, the Bible does seem to envision women serving as deacons in this passage in verse 11 may very well be an indication of that.

Moving on, guys, this is the last point we're going to look at in detail. Truth number 6 is merely, I'm just going to announce that, and that introduces next week's sermon, but Truth number 5 that we can clearly infer from 1 Timothy 3 by way of overview is that there are great blessings for those who serve as deacons. There are great blessings for those who serve and serve well as deacons. Look what he says in verse 13.

For those who serve well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence or boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Part of what Paul is doing is he is speaking of the role of deacons and exalting that role with very exalted language. He's saying anyone that gets to serve as a deacon in the church in the household of God is obtaining for themselves and serving in that office, a very high standing in God's economy. Part of his point is not to say those that serve in the office of deacon are higher than or better than those that don't get to serve in that position.

I don't think that's his point. I think Paul is after a couple of things here. Number one, He's trying to convey that it is a privilege to serve as a deacon in the household of God, an amazing privilege, and to be a deacon in the household of God is a higher position than any other position outside of the church, no matter what it is. In fact, if you were talking to Paul and Paul said, so, tell me about yourself.

What do you do with your life? And you say, well, actually, I'm president of the United States. Paul would go, wow, that's, that's cool. What else do you do?

Well, I'm a deacon in my local church. Paul would be like, what? You're a deacon? Man, that's amazing.

And he'd be so excited about that role, and would view that as a very high position. He would be more excited about you being a deacon in the household of God than he would you being the president of the most powerful country on earth. In fact, listen to what Alexander Strau says. He says, what a tremendous privilege it is to have an honorable standing in God's house.

It is better than having a good standing in the highest government or in a prestigious university. God's household. His church is the most important institution on earth. And it is a privilege to serve as a deacon in the household of God.

A greater privilege than serving in any other role, holding any other office outside of the church. I meant to say this at the beginning, but our, our young people are up at the youth retreat. they're coming home this afternoon, and Kumi, our youth pastor, who's one of our elders, he called me last night, I think after 10 o'clock. And he was, he was on cloud nine, and he just said, Milton, amazing things have happened up here, and especially this evening.

And God's spirit has worked and I've just seen him working in the hearts and on the faces of our young people, who are just in a, in a demonstrable way, just standing up for Christ and wanting to live inside the good of the gospel each day. And he says tonight, 3 of the young people here at the retreat, prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. And I don't even think Kumi's going to be driving down from the mountain today. I think he's just going to float down ahead of everybody else.

He was like on a spiritual high over how God's spirit seemed to be working, and he said to me these words. He says, Milton, this is better than winning the league championship. And coming from Kumi. who eats, drinks and sleeps coaching.

This guy is a coach through and through. He loves to coach. This guy loves to win championships. But he's like, what has happened today, what has happened tonight is better than winning the league championship.

This is a guy who understands what an amazing privilege it is. To serve in the household of God, to be meeting people on the threshold of eternity and leading people to Christ. And not only that, but those who do know the Lord to be evangelizing them and teaching them of the fullness of the gospel and calling them to walk in the goodness of the gospel each day and then seeing them respond to that. I know we're mixing offices here.

He's an elder, not a deacon. We're talking about deacons, but you guys get the point. To serve any role in the household of God is a very high position. Because it's the household of God.

Listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 84:10. He says, I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Better is one day in your courts than 1000 anywhere else doing anything else. One commentator says the psalmist esteems service as a temple guard superior to receiving public recognition.

And wealth. The psalmist is saying, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. I'd rather be a guard. In the house of my God.

I'd rather be an usher in the household of my God than to be anywhere else, doing anything else. Guys, it is a privilege to serve in God's household. He has saved you, made you members of the household, not so you can sit around and do nothing, but so that you can serve and to be given the office of Deacon is a very high privilege. Compared to anything else outside the church, I think Paul is also trying to counter anyone in the church who's a deacon, but they're not happy about it because they wish they could be an elder.

Man, I'd love to be an elder one day, and, but all I am is this lowly deacon. Paul would say, no, no, I want to encourage you. Those who serve and serve well as deacons, they've obtained in that role a high standing in God's economy. And great confidence.

The idea is put your chin up, man, and walk with your head held high, grateful to God for this incredible blessing of the role that God has allowed you to serve in. And what? This doesn't just only apply to those that have the office of deacon, but any time. We do any beaconing on any level, all of us, Jesus says, in as much as you do anything for the least of my brethren, you've done it to me, and I'm going to say thank you for that personal blessing to me.

When I see you on Judgment Day, every act of service is now exalted, when we view it in this way. You want to be great in God's kingdom. What would I say to you? Would I say shame on you?

No. Jesus would say it's great that you want to be great in God's kingdom. I affirm that in you. But he would say, if anyone in the church wants to be first, wants to be great, he must be last of all, and literally in the Greek text, and be everyone's deacon.

Be the servant, be the deacon literally of everybody. And you just need to wear that mantle. Just I am a part of this church and I am everybody's deacon. I am everybody's servant, and I look and see what needs there are every time I socialize with someone.

I'm receiving blessing, but I'm trying to identify needs and how can I encourage this person? How can I bless this person and what needs are out there and how can I expend my energy and myself to address these needs? Jesus says those are the greatest people in my economy. Well, a 6th and final thing.

That we learn is that there are specific qualifications for those who can serve in the office of Deacon. And those are listed in verses 8 through, through 12 and next Sunday, what we're going to do is just try to work through these, qualifications. That Paul lays out for us in this passage. Well, it is a blessing to be a part of the household of God, and we are grateful for all the many in our church family that serve in so many capacities.

our prayer is that God will return upon your own head a thousandfold for all the services that you render on behalf of this church body. Well, let's go to the Lord in prayer. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. And you're welcome to give as the Lord leads you to give.

Even when you give, you're deaconing. You're serving And we've been talking in recent weeks about giving to the building fund we're seeking to Raise $20,000 that would help just to cover all the expenses that are involved in And doing the research and consultation. visiting other properties, talking to experts and so forth, trying to figure out our future. Does God want us to stay here?

or does he want us to move Elsewhere, what are all the options out there? It takes a lot of work. There's cost involved in counting the cost. And if you want to specifically give to that, we've earmarked about $20,000 that we need total.

We have about half of that right now. Thank you for those of you that have given, but we have about another $10,000. And if the Lord leads you to give, just, in addition to your normal giving, just put on the memo line building fund, and you can put it in the offering bag as it goes by. Let's pray together.

Lord, I thank you for all those in our church that serve in so many capacities, some officially and many unofficially, but for every faithful brother and sister that has eyes open to the needs of others and then seeks to meet those needs, Lord, I thank you for them. There's many in our church that that serve in ways that are visible to others, and there are many in our church that serve in ways that are not visible to many, if any, others. But you see, and Your heart rejoices in their labor, and even those that do minister in ways that are visible.

There are countless hours in preparation for that.

Of labor that nobody sees, of struggle and battles. And labor that is not seen by human eyes. And so we thank you for For those invisible labors of even those that do minister in ways that are visible publicly, Our church is what it is, Lord, because of your grace, because of the gospel, because of your word, because of your power. I believe partly because of the leadership.

but our church is what it is today, in addition to all of that, because of our people. And their faithfulness to deacon. And to serve And only eternity will tell the full scope of what our people have done and the strength that you have provided them. Lord bless them.

Bless this church and help us to respond properly to the blessing when it comes to be prepared for it as it comes. We thank you for the privilege of giving to you this morning of our offerings. Receive these funds that we give to you. We give it in the name of Jesus.

And for His glory. And we give ourselves to You, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,