What Serving Well Looks Like

Anyway, let me have you guys turn in your Bibles to First Timothy chapter. 3 for our time of study in the word today. 1 Timothy 3, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy and as we continue in our study of this book, we come today to 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 8. And my goal today is to cover verses 8 and 9.

We've looked at a number of things by way of introduction and overview on the subject of deacons, and today we're gonna begin to just kinda work our way through. These verses and what is commonly referred to as qualifications for deacons, but I want to make the point this morning that yes, these are qualifications for deacons. You cannot hold the office of deacon in the church without meeting these qualifications. For example, we would never want to look at someone in the church who has a drinking problem and say, well, maybe we should appoint them to be a deacon, and that will help them to get victory in this area.

We would never do that. You have to meet these qualifications to be a deacon, but you need to understand that this is not just qualifications to be a deacon, but this is the daily job description of the office of deacon. So those of you in our church that are deacons, capital D, and you get up in the morning and wonder what you're supposed to do, this right here is your job description. And if you want to give a title to the message today, it would be what serving well looks like.

What serving well looks. Like, in fact, as I said in verses 8 through 12, Paul is giving both qualifications and job descriptions for A deacons and even deaconesses in verse 11, and the whole reason he's telling deacons and deaconesses to be and to do such things is clearly revealed in verse 13. Look what he says in verse 13 for or because the whole reason I'm telling you guys to be and do these things is because those who've served well as deacons. And long story short, received blessing.

In other words, his burden is those of you that are deacons and deaconesses, I want you to serve well in that role. I don't want you to just serve, I want you to serve well. And so we can then go back and look at verses 8 to 12 and see that all of these descriptions here are designed to help deacons to serve well. In their role and if you want to know what it looks like to serve well in this role, this is the description that will help you to know what serving well looks like.

we talked about this a few weeks ago, but there there's, there's different categories of action. There are people that are actively doing the wrong thing, then there are people that are doing nothing. And then there are people that are doing the right thing poorly. They're doing the right thing, but they're not doing the right thing well.

And then there are those who are doing the right thing and they're doing the right thing well, and that is Paul's goal. We should not be content to just do the right thing. We want to do the right thing well. I was thinking this week over my life and I was thinking of times where I did the right thing poorly.

And came up with a few that I'd like to share with you. My therapist told me that I needed to share these with you guys. but a number of years ago, before I was married when I was living with my parents, I came home from work late one night and the kitchen was not clean, and the sink was full of dishes, and I thought I would serve my mom, so I cleaned the kitchen and I took the dishes and I rinsed them all off and put those dishes in the dishwasher and and then I reached under the sink.

I grabbed some dishwashing soap.

And I poured that into the little receptacle inside the dishwasher, closed up the door of that receptacle, then closed the door of the dishwasher, pressed the start button, and went to bed. Well, to my mom's dismay, when she got up the next morning and walked into the kitchen, there were soap suds all over the, the kitchen floor because I had put the wrong dish soap in the dishwasher. how many of you have ever done that? OK.

even some ladies' hands have gone up. That's, that's comforting. Well, that, that's a case of me doing the right thing poorly, all right. another incident, and, and I'm a little reluctant to share this because ladies, if you have any respect for me, it'll probably be gone by the end of this, but, long ago, early in our marriage on Valentine's Day, I thought I would show love to my wife, and, and, the way I decided to do that is I made up some really nice looking coupons for a back rub, and I made up 5 of them, 5 coupons, and I gave them to my wife on Valentine's Day to say, anytime you want a 15 minute back rub, just give me one of these and, and you'll, you'll get one.

I'm a great husband, right? Right, OK. Well, there was some fine print on the coupons. That that limited the times of day and particular days of the week when those coupons could be redeemed because I didn't want her waking me up at like 6 in the morning saying give me a back rub, so I tried to consider all of that and so there were time frames within the days and particular days of the week where they were redeemable.

Outside of those time frames they weren't, and it turns out that those time restrictions were so prohibitive that, she only was able to redeem one of them before the coupons expired. Yes, there was an expiration date on the On the coupons that my wife did not pay much attention to, and, and sure enough there was a point where she came to me with one of those coupons wanting a back rub, and it was past the expiration date. So I did what any loving husband would do. In a situation like that, I drew her attention to the expiration date.

And told her that I would not be able to give her a back rub. And what followed was a discussion that That did not go very well, and to this day, my wife and I were talking about it this morning. She doesn't remember, I don't remember if I ever ended up giving her the back rub, but I just cite that as an example of doing the right thing poorly. so in my life, in my parenting, and my marriage, and my walk with the Lord, and my service to other people, There have been many times where I've done the right thing, but I've not done the right thing well, and we want to be a church of people that are seizing opportunities to do the right thing and to do those things with excellence.

And if that is your goal, and I hope it is, we have wonderful help from Paul today. This is a great help to deacons who hold the office of deacon, but even if you're not a deacon, capital D, this passage will help you in whatever arenas you serve other people and serve the Lord in. In fact, this is how we'll break it down with the time we have today 5 things to do in verses 8 and 9 if you want to serve the church well, if you want to be a champion, you want to make a difference in the life of this local church or whatever local church you're a part of, and you want to do it well, you want to serve well, then Then let's just work our way through these two verses and begin to break open what serving well actually looks like.

Again, this is not just qualifications.

This is The job description for deacons who serve the church. All right, and we'll have time to get through verse 9 and just look at 5 of these. Number 1. is that you need to be respectable.

You need to be respectable. If you want to serve well as a deacon, if you want to serve well as a parent, as a spouse, and whatever role that God has given you in, in the church or in the home, it is very important that you give attention to this issue. Number one, your priority should be to be respectable. Look what he says in verse 8.

Deacons or servants who hold the office of servant or deacon must be men of dignity. They must be men who are respectable, men who, who earn by their behavior, by their words, by their lifestyle. by their ministry, they generate respect in the hearts of those that they minister to, minister alongside of those that observe their life. Paul says, if you want to serve well, this is your first priority to be respectable.

Now what's intriguing, and we saw this on Father's Day a few weeks ago when he gives qualifications for the women in verse 11, look what he says. Women must likewise be, and then there's 4 qualifications, and the first one is that women should be dignified. That's the same Greek word. They need to be respectable.

And I find that fascinating because I know, guys, that if I, if I passed out a sheet of paper to everyone and said I want you guys to make a list. Of 9 things that are, that a deacon should keep in mind and a deacon should keep in mind if they want to serve well, I don't think any of us, if we had never read this passage, would have put be respectable first on the list. I know I wouldn't have, but Paul does, and so apparently this is a matter of great concern to Paul. And we talked about this on Father's Day.

The reason that we should want to be respected, the reason we should want to earn respect, is because we have something to say that we want to be respected. We have a Savior we represent who we want to be honored. We have a gospel. that we believe in, and that we speak to others that we want to be respected and honored.

We've got brothers and sisters in the church that we want to be respected. And we know that our behavior, our lifestyle, our ministry, the choices we make reflects upon all of that. We don't want to earn respect just so we can walk around and enjoy how much we're respected. We want to earn respect for ourselves.

Because all that we represent, we want that respect to be transferred from us to those things. Paul, putting this first is sending a sobering warning to the deacons that if you make wrong choices, and you fail to earn respect, in fact, let's say you earn reproach rather than respect, then you bring reproach upon Christ, upon the family of God, and upon the gospel. Just real quick, when you look at Titus chapter 2, I would encourage you to study that passage if you have not already, but he, he talks to women, older and younger and says, I want you ladies to behave in a certain way.

Look at this, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

I want you to behave in a way that generates respect, because if you behave this way, then God's word will be honored. But if you don't behave this way, God's word is going to be disrespected and dishonored. He then moves on to young men, including Timothy, who was technically a young man at the time, and tells Timothy what the young men. are to be like and one of the things he tells them is to be dignified.

Same word as we have here. And look what he says, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. I want you young men to make wise choices. Paul says, to behave in a certain way so that the enemies of the gospel out there will have nothing bad to say about us.

Catch the wording there. He doesn't say, I want you guys to be dignified so that the opponent won't have anything bad to say about you young men. No, Paul is reminding the young men that listen, in your youth, I want you to think beyond yourself and realize that the choices you make, your behavior reflects upon the rest of the body. It reflects upon me as an apostle.

It reflects upon your pastors, it reflects upon others who are in the church. People are watching you. And the choices you make can reflect poorly on Christ. And they can then end up even speaking bad about your family that you're a part of in the local church.

we've I've been seeing in the news how, at times there's pastors that fail morally in a very public way, and when they do, does the world say, oh, I guess that's one bad apple amongst many good apples? Is that what they say? No, the conclusion of many is they're all a bunch of hypocrites. They speak ill of all pastors because of the failure of some.

And even more recently in the news, we, we have politicians in Washington DC and also serving as governors in various places that champion family values who themselves have betrayed those family values, and they bring discredit to the very family values that they have sought to To champion, and so Paul is saying, deacons, you better be thinking about this. You represent Christ. You bear His name. And wherever you go, your brothers and sisters are with you.

Their reputation in a sense is hanging upon the choices that you make, the, the way the gospel is viewed by those that you minister to, the way the words of truth you speak are going to be received, is largely dictated by whether you yourself have lived in such a way as to generate respect. This is a very important matter. You think about, King David. who committed adultery with Bathsheba and then killed or murdered Uriah, her husband.

God is rebuking him through the prophet Nathan, and God says, By this deed you've given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Think about what God is saying. And later he says, You've despised me, David, by the choice that you've made. But God is saying, Listen, David, I'm being blasphemed.

I hear the blasphemies that are being uttered against me because of the choices that you have made. And we need to be aware of the fact that there are human being observers. There are myriads of angelic observers of all of the choices we make, angels, both good and evil, and the choices that we make can bring reproach to Jesus Christ, bring reproach to God the Father, bring reproach to the gospel. and to the family of God, our brothers and sisters, or the choices we make can generate a healthy respect in the hearts of others for ourselves.

And thus by transference, they are caused to think more highly of God, of Jesus Christ, of the church, of the gospel, and of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Our deacons, I would say to you when you get up tomorrow morning and you're like, what do I do? I'm a deacon. What do I do today?

Be respectable. Live and make choices that are worthy of respect because you are contemplating all that you represent. That you want to be respected also. There's a second aspect to serving well as a deacon or in whatever role God has put you in, and that is use your tongue for good, not for evil.

Use your tongue for good and not for evil. Look what he says in verse 8. Deacons or servants likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued. And literally that is what, how this word reads.

It speaks of someone who has two tongues. John MacArthur uses the expression, I like this, that someone who has two tongues going, all right. that there's a, there's a healthy sense in which we need to realize this possibility that I can use one tongue that is for the Lord that brings blessing and furthers God's purposes. There is another tongue that I can, can use that can accomplish things contrary to that.

Now what is a double tongued person? A double tongued person. is someone who speaks one way to someone's face and then behind that person's back when they're talking to others, they speak about that person in a different way. That's a double-tongued or a two-tongued person.

A two-tongued person is also someone who, when they're talking to you, they say something with their tongue, but that doesn't really reflect what's in their heart. In other words, they're being insincere. You can't trust them. They might say something, they might make a promise, but you just don't trust them to say what they mean and to mean what they say.

A two-tongued person is also someone who's inconsistent, someone who, when they're hanging out with believers, they use all the right lingo, just, oh praise the Lord, I've got a great praise to share, and man, God is good. Praise God. Amen. And that's how they speak with believers, but then when they're with nonbelievers, they can cuss up a blue streak with the best of them, and those nonbelievers in the workplace or wherever would never get the slightest clue that this person is a genuine believer in Jesus, because with their tongue, they just fit right in and talk the way those around them are speaking.

Now if Paul says, don't be two-tongued, And that's the negative, then positively, we're supposed to be one-tongued, right? So be a one-tongued person. You say, what in the world does that mean? What it means is this, the tongue that's in your mouth, put that tongue fully in the service of God and him alone, and don't ever let Satan borrow that tongue for even a moment.

the devil is always looking for an idle tongue to borrow, and he comes to you and just says, Hey, can I borrow that tongue for a few minutes? I've got something I once said to your spouse or to this brother or sister in Christ or something to your children, someone who has one tongue. Tongue is someone who uses their tongue for one purpose, and that is whatever purpose God wants that tongue to serve. It is devoted to God, to his agenda, to furthering His kingdom purposes, and a person with a single tongue like that never allows their tongue to be used by the enemy.

And honestly, guys, I think all of us would have to say that often we do have two tongues. James in James 3 says, with our tongue we bless God, and then in the next minute we curse men. That's, that's a two-tongued person. And there are, there are some of you that perhaps when your children get up in the morning, they don't know which tongue they're going to get, that they're going to get spoken to with, and even from hour to hour, maybe one.

Hour, you're speaking a certain way and then, something happens and, and all of a sudden your tongue is being borrowed by the evil one and the devil is essentially speaking his will through you. So a one-tongued person is someone whose tongue is not inconsistent. It's not a divided tongue, partly serving God's purposes, partly serving Satan's. It is a tongue that wholly belongs to God, and that is what you strive for.

Part of what Paul is cluing us into as deacons and as servants. Is that your ministry, look at this, be respectable, that's the first thing. And then by way of a very specific thing, the tongue is the first thing he mentions. The use of your tongue is vital in any ministry.

And I would love it for all of us, whether we're deacons officially or not, that imagine a congregation full of people who our tongues belong to the Lord and we are devoted to actively using our tongues to accomplish God's purposes, and we never ever allow the devil to borrow our tongue, even for a moment. And imagine a congregation full of people that as imperfect as we all are, what we do is we have a keen eye towards the evidences of grace that we see in each other and we celebrate those evidences of grace in our imperfect brothers and sisters in the Lord.

And when we see something good in a brother or sister, we go to that person and we, we tell them what we see of God's grace in them. And we celebrate that with our tongue.

And then even we go behind their back and talk to others about the good that we are seeing in that person. And when someone comes to us, talking behind someone else's back, and telling us something good about that other person, we store that in the back of our minds and say, next time I see that person, I got to pass this on. I love doing that as a pastor. I did it a handful of times this week just saying to someone, someone was talking about you in the church, and here's what they were talking about and thanking the Lord for and people were like, really, they really said that?

Tell me more. Did you tell me everything that they said? And it's a real encouragement, often we're Often we're good at seeing what's wrong with ourselves, and yet God is working in us and we often don't see it. That's why we need our brothers and sisters to, to see it and come and tell us what they see.

I'm convinced if our tongues were occupied all the time in those things, then the devil would not be able to borrow any of our tongues. The devil's looking for an idle tongue to borrow and make use of. In Ephesians 4:29, Paul says, Let no unwholesome or poisonous or toxic word proceed from your mouth. We can actually with our tongue inject poison into people, into our children, into our spouses, a poison that will work long after we have fallen silent.

I've counseled adults 50 plus years old who still are living with poison that was injected in them by the words that a parent spoke to them, and it's still, even though they're in their 50s, it's shaping their view of themselves. We can inject poison into relationships by the words we speak, but he says, don't let these words come out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, building up according to the need of the moment, so that will give grace to those who hear.

Think about it, guys, with your tongue, you can actually make your tongue a means by which God's grace passes from heaven through your tongue to other people. To your brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Your tongue can become a sacrament, a means of grace in the lives of your brothers and sisters. Don't you want to do that? We saw a few weeks ago in James 3 where James says the tongue is lit on fire by hell itself. So, so the tongue, if it's used wrongly, if we let the devil borrow our tongue for a few moments, our tongue can actually help serve to spread the literal flames of hell on earth.

But this passage teaches us that we can use our tongues to spread heavenly grace upon earth that can have a quenching effect upon hell's flames. Paul says if you want to serve well in the church. Live in a way that is worthy of respect. And also Be a single-tongued purpose, a person that can be counted on.

To use your tongue to serve God's purposes. It's owned and operated by Him. And never owned and operated or even borrowed by the evil one, even for a moment. And by the way, we've all failed at this, and if you have, just come to God and confess your sin to Him.

He will delight to forgive you for the wrong use of your tongue. That's what the gospel is all about. So enjoy that and receive that grace. There is a third aspect to serving well.

in the church or in whatever environment God has put you in, and that is stay free of addiction to alcohol or to wine. He says deacons, likewise, must be men of dignity, not double-tongued or addicted to much wine. You realize part of what this means is that anyone who's really serious about serving the Lord, serving the church, is someone who has given careful thought to the subject of alcohol. it's someone who, who's thought about it, who's come to decisions regarding the use of wine and one's own relationship to alcoholic beverages.

Paul says deacons must be #1, respectable, #2, not double-tongued, and then 3, he's talking about wine. Here. And it's interesting that this comes up again. Because when you look at the qualifications for elders in verse 2, he says elders are to be temperate, which literally means sober as opposed to being drunk.

It certainly means more than that, but anyone who would have read temperate would have known, I guess I'm not supposed to get drunk. So they would have known that already, but then coming into verse 3, Paul mentions wine specifically and says that an elder must not be addicted to wine, and literally it is, he must not be beside the wine. He should not be a person who lingers long beside the wine cooler, and, and when he's not by the wine cooler, he longs to be beside the wine cooler.

He hastens to be.

Beside the wine cooler, someone who is beside the wine or addicted to wine is someone who, when they're depressed, they hasten to be beside the wine. That's how they deal with their depression or when they're stressed, they hasten to be beside the wine to calm. Their nerves and to settle themselves down or when they're bored, or just want to experience pleasure or they're in, in spiritual pain or emotional pain, they hasten to be beside the wine and it becomes a crutch for them, an addiction for them, they become a slave to wine.

And so Paul says in verse 2 elders need to be people that don't get drunk, but then in verse 3 he advances his thought and says that they should not be enslaved to wine or addicted to wine.

And now we come to the subject of deacons, and we're seeing here he uses a slightly different expression that deacons should not be addicted to much wine, literally they should not be toward having much wine. In other words, they should not be people that have an itch for wine. They have a hankering for, for wine. They've got to have it, and so their their mind and their heart is turned towards wine.

And whenever they're stressed or depressed or bored or want pleasure, their heart turns to wine, and that is the direction that they move. It speaks of someone who is obsessed, someone who is under the control of wine. And I want you guys to think about this, at what point does a person become under the control of an alcoholic beverage? hypothetically, a guy wakes up at 2 in the morning and he's like, Man, I gotta have a drink.

I gotta have a drink. And so he gets dressed and he gets in his car and drives to the nearest 7-Eleven and gets a bottle of liquor or whatever and drags it back into his car and then sits down and opens it and puts the bottle to his lips. Here's my question, at what point did that man come under the control of wine? Was it after he drank and he began to feel the physical sensations of intoxication?

No, he was under the control of that alcohol before he even got to the 7-Eleven because it got him out of bed. And it got him to the 7-Eleven. He was already under the control of alcohol. Paul says deacons cannot be people that are under the control of alcohol.

Now we've learned in the past that the Bible does not prohibit drinking in moderation, but the Bible always condemns and prohibits two things for believers. It prohibits drunkenness, and it prohibits addiction to alcohol. And Paul wants deacons to be honest with themselves, committed to never getting drunk with wine, and committed to never becoming a slave to wine. Either the reason deacons, servants in the church can't be getting drunk and enslaved to wine is because if they do get drunk, then they behave in the way that drunk people do and damage is done, words are spoken, deeds are done.

That does harm to the cause of Christ. But also, here's another reason that deacons cannot be addicted to wine. And that is because if alcohol is someone's master, and they've got duties that they're called to, and they've agreed to, then what happens is when their master alcohol calls to them, they follow their master, and they leave their duties. And people in the church are left holding the bag and saying, where is so and so?

And the reason he didn't show up, the reason he's not there to do what he committed himself to do is because his master called. And he can't be depended upon. He's not a faithful person. You can't count on someone who is enslaved to drink.

And also someone who is addicted to alcohol is someone who often you might see them and they're drunk, or maybe they're not drunk, but they're extremely grumpy and irritable because they haven't had their drink. And both on the front end and the back end of that is someone who is under the control, they're enslaved by alcohol. And so, if you want to serve the church well, you study an issue like this, and you, you evaluate biblically your relationship to, to alcohol and you make wise choices and you make sure that you avoid drunkenness and that you avoid slavery to the bottle.

Well, there is a 4th thing that we can observe here that serving well looks like in the church.

If you want to be a good servant as a deacon or just a good servant, if you want to serve well in whatever role God has placed you in, then number 4, have nothing to do with unethical gain, have nothing to do with unethical or dishonest. Gain or as the new American standard says, sordid gain. And I, I believe that King James says filthy lucre. OK.

is that what the King James says? OK, filthy lucre. look at this verse 8. Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued or addicted to much wine, or fond of sordid gain.

All right, let's think about this for a minute. Sordid gain is this it is anything that you acquire or that you maintain possession of through unethical means. Through anything you acquire or maintain possession of through dishonest means. Whatever that is that you've acquired, or that you maintain hold of through dishonesty, God says, that right there has now become filthy lucre.

It is sordid gain. It is dishonest gain, and deacons who serve in the church and all believers Who want to serve well and any role God has placed them in are people that have sworn off dishonest game. I don't want it. I would love to have money.

I have no problem with money, but I don't want one dishonest penny in my bank account. I don't want one sordid dollar. In my wallet or in my purse. Do you have any sordid gain?

Well, let's think this through. let me give you some glaring examples. If you, young people, and I know when I was a kid, there were times where I did this, and I had to make this right with my parents, but you steal some of your parents' money. through theft, you now possess what you stole, and God says that's dishonest gain.

that is sordid gain that is now filthy lucre because you stole that. If you're at the cash register of the grocery store and, and the person gives you $10 more change than what you should have received and you see that right away like, oh man, I got an extra $10. This is great. And in that moment if the ethical decision you make.

is to say nothing and to walk out of the store with that $10. You put that $10 in your wallet, you have just stuffed $10 of filthy lucre of sordid gain in your wallet, and God, when he looks at all that you possess, he knows what's sordid and what's not. This doesn't just speak of money. Whenever you, whenever someone would download off the internet, software illegally.

Download audio or music or video illegally. What he's just illegally downloaded is sordid game. It is now something he possesses sordidly. It is something he now possesses that God would say is dishonest game, maybe.

you've got money in your checking account and you want to keep as much of that as possible and you don't want to give, hardly any of that to Uncle Sam. So when you fill out your tax return, you deceive, you intentionally lie, you deceive, you falsify in order to maintain possession of as much of that money as you can. Well, whatever it is, whatever the amount is that you now get to keep in your bank account, because of that deception, that you can draw a circle around that in your checkbook, that is now sordid gain.

And Paul says deacons are individuals that need to have sworn off sordid gain.

There's a better way. Just along these lines, several months ago, I got a notice from the DMV that I was late in paying one of my car registrations and, I had to pay a $40 late fee and I just was like, oh. that really got under my skin and I thought I'm going to see if I can get out of this, so I went to the DMV, stood in line, and And got to the desk and I told the lady, I said, listen, is there any way I can, I can get out of this late fee? And she said, yeah, it's pretty simple and she handed me a piece of paper and she says, just sign this right here.

And I said, Well, what is this? She says, Well, it's a, it's a statement where you're saying that you never received a notice in the mail that you needed to renew your registration. And she says, just sign that and we'll send that up to Sacramento and they'll make the decision about it. And I stood there just evaluating that ethical dilemma, and I was thinking, what, I, I vaguely remember getting something months ago, but I must have lost it.

But that was probably another car, it's registration that I got the notice on. So, and I was just in my own mind trying to figure out a way that in good conscience I can sign my name to. To that statement. But as I stood there, I ended up making a decision and I just said to the woman, I said, I can't sign this.

And part of what I was thinking about as I stood there is $40.40 dollars. For $40 am I willing to sell my integrity? If I sell my integrity for $40 how much is my integrity really worth? $40.40 dollars.

I have a relationship with Jesus that I'm enjoying right now. If I, if I lie here, I can't enjoy that relationship with him. So for $40 I'm Basically selling away my relationship with Jesus. I thought of Judas who sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, and here I am standing here evaluating what to do over $40.

And if I'm willing to sell my relationship with him for $40 and sell my integrity for $40 then Jesus and my integrity and my own name means very little to me. So I told her I can't sign this. And so she's like, OK, and I pull out my checkbook and I, I start to write this $40 check and And then the lady said, what, hang on just a second, and she disappeared into some back room and she came back a few minutes later and she says, I got your fee waived for you. And expressed that she appreciated the, the, the honesty.

And as I walked out of the DMV, I said to the Lord, I said, you didn't even have to do that. I, I would have been totally fine if you didn't do that. I didn't need that $40 but it is so like you to do that thing anyway. But here's the deal, if I stood at that desk and just signed my name on that line, That $40 that was in my checking account already, that $40 would have become dishonest gain.

And God would have known that. And I would have known that in my conscience. We need to be a people or folks, we've got people that are running after money, sacrificing everything for the almighty dollar, and some sacrificing everything to obtain it legally. And then there's a lot of illegal stuff going on of people illegally trying to get dishonest.

Gain in the church, it ought not to be this way amongst elders and amongst deacons and amongst all of the believers. We just swear off dishonest gain. We don't want it. We don't want it in our bank accounts.

We don't want it in our purses. We don't want it in our wallets because it gets in the way of God achieving his purposes in our life. And especially to you young people, I would just ask you to think about it. the things that you cheat on maybe to get a better grade, to get an A rather than a B, or to maybe get 5 extra bucks here or there.

And so you might, deceive or might steal. Just stop and ask yourself, what am I really saying about this? What am I saying about me and my integrity that I would just I would sell my integrity for one letter grade. And I would sell my integrity for $5.

It's dishonest gain. And if you want to serve well and make a difference in the household of God, you don't want, you don't want anything to do with dishonest gain. There's a 5th thing that serving well entails, and that is this, if you want to serve well in the household of God, in whatever role God has placed you in, then beholding to the gospel all the time. Beholding to the gospel, holding on to the gospel all the time.

Look what it says in the New American Standard verse 9, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Now, by the way, the faith is a synonym for the gospel. So he's talking about holding to the mystery of the gospel, and the mystery that he's talking about is that which was once hidden, but has now been revealed through divine revelation that is contained through the teaching of the apostles, namely that we have in our New Testaments. Basically, he's saying, hey, deacons, part of your job description literally is to be continuously holding on to the gospel, holding on to gospel truth.

And doing that continuously. Now, by the way, let me point something out. I'm going to give you a literal rendering of this in the Greek text that points out the relationship of verse 9 to verse 8. literally at the end of verse 8, Paul says to deacons that you are not to be toward having, and that Greek word having is used.

Not toward having much wine or to toward having sordid gain, but same Greek word, but having the mystery of the faith. The new American standard translates it holding, and I think that's a good translation, but literally it just means to have, to possess, and so a deacon. Anyone that wants to serve well in God's household is someone who looks at at slavery to wine. And they're like, what, I don't have to have that.

I don't have to be intoxicated by this. They look at dishonest gain and say, I don't want this. I don't have to have this. What I do have to have is the gospel.

That is a greater commodity to me. Gospel truth is what I want to pursue, what I want to go after, because it is far greater gain. And it's actually more intoxicating than wine is anyway. Anyone who wants to serve well has made a value choice.

And he says no to this addiction, no to that dishonest gain, and says yes to the gospel. And if you watch that person's life, privately and publicly, you would see revealed very clearly that his passion is for the gospel. Now someone who is having and holding on to the gospel is someone who is daily on a quest to learn the gospel, to master the gospel, to apprehend truth of the gospel, and then once He understands that by reading the word of God, studying the word of God, memorizing the word of God, storing that in his heart and mind.

He then says to himself, I want to have this.

I want to possess this. I want to hold on to this. A lot of times we're good at acquiring understanding, but we're not good at holding on to that understanding. We let it go.

You ever taken notes of a message and even a year later, you're flipping back and you're like, I have no memory of ever hearing this message. I have no memory of even these insights that I've written down here a year earlier. I have no memory. There have been times I've looked at things like that and I'm like, man, that's, that's great.

That is great insight that I wrote down that I got from a message, but I don't have the foggiest memory that I ever even heard that. And so we can apprehend truth, gospel truth, but then it's easy to fail to hold on to that. But deacons, those who want to serve well, they're students of the word, they're students of the gospel, they want to understand the riches of the gospel, and then once they apprehend that, they want to hold on to it. They figure out ways to hold on to it.

They, they write things down. They journal, they review, they, they memorize, they meditate so that they can hold on to those things. Sometimes we understand the gospel and believe the gospel, and then some circumstances come up. And suddenly those circumstances seem to scream a different message, and we just lay the gospel aside and we hold on to a different message.

Or maybe we failed or sinned in some way, and a message of condemnation comes, so we set aside the gospel and we embrace a different message. But if we want to serve well in our marriages, in our homes and In the church, we want to lay hold of gospel truth and then we want to hold on to that. And so deacons and those who want to serve well are, they're careful thinkers. They're careful thinkers.

And by the way, I just, I want to show you how this actually ties together. You're never going to get understanding. Yes, it's God who gives us understanding, but you don't just meander through life and gain understanding. Look at what Paul tells Timothy to do.

Consider what I say. Think about what I'm saying, Timothy, and the Lord will give you understanding. So we think we do deep thought, and God in the context of careful thinking gives us understanding. We have a role to play.

And God has a role to play, but He doesn't give His understanding to people that are not in pursuit of that understanding and are not willing to think carefully and deeply about the gospel which is Jesus Christ come to earth, fulfilling the law for us, dying on the cross, shedding His blood. Dying, being buried in the tomb, raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of God, so that now through him, there's forgiveness of sins, there's power over sin, there's freedom from sin, there's the spirit within us, there's a relationship with God and all of the blessings that come through that.

That's the gospel. And those who want to serve well have an understanding of the gospel, and they hold on to it tenaciously.

Lastly, and I'm just going to touch on this, and we're going to wrap this up. Look at this. He says in verse 9, but holding to or having literally the mystery of the gospel and then literally in a clear conscience, and it's actually the word in. and the way that I would like to understand that is that we take gospel truth and we hold that in our conscience.

In other words, we seek to understand the gospel and then we, we essentially upload that gospel software into our conscience. One commentator says our conscience is the box in which the jewel of the gospel is set. And so the reason we seek to understand the gospel and lay hold of it is so that we can upload that into our conscience to where now we have a conscience that is governed by the gospel. Imagine training your conscience with the gospel to such a degree that your conscience that once only spoke law to you, that your conscience actually speaks gospel to you.

That you fail in some way and your conscience says, yes, you failed, but run to the cross. We store the gospel in our conscience. We'll probably talk more about this next week. But guys, if you want to serve well in the family of God, if you want to serve well in your marriage, You want to serve well in your home.

Then this passage is a great help, and we've at least just seen 5 aspects of what is entailed in serving well and may God give us the grace. To apply these things to our ministries that God has given to us. Let me ask you to bow your heads. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment.

We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. And there's a comment card in your bulletin. You can fill that out. If there's any way we can minister to you praises, prayer requests, put those on the back.

You could put that in the offering bag as it goes by this morning. Let's pray together Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the grace that you have given to us. We thank you for your word. There's just so much practical help for us in your word, and we need it.

Lord, we deserve for you to not even speak to us. And then if you did, we deserve for you to speak wrath, and to consume us with blazing fire of, of the sound of your voice. But instead, you save us, and then you just, you speak patient, loving instruction to us. And today you're saying, here's how to serve well.

Let me show you how, let me show you what it looks like. May cornerstone be an army of 400+ people, all of whom are servants, and who serve well. We thank you for the privilege of even serving now through our giving. And we ask that you would receive the funds that we give.

And that through these funds that you would Make use of them to spread the fame of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world, both across the ocean and here at home. And along with our money, Lord, we give to you our hearts in Christ's name. And all God's people said,