Serving Christ's Church

Sermon Transcript

Lord, we just give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And Lord, we thank you this day that you are alive and that you are with us. And Lord, we pray today that you would speak through your living and active words. So, I'm asking you to be helpful to me and all of us who here that we would receive everything that you have for us and that you would change us.

So now, for all those who are gathered, who desire to hear the word of the Lord, who will believe everything the Lord says about you and will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen? Amen.

Today, I want to talk to you about serving in Christ's church and what God requires of those who serve in his church and what serving in his church actually looks like. Now, the reality is if you're a born-again believer that God wired you for service, it's your God-given ability and it's what should fire you up. It shouldn't be something somebody begs you to do. It should be with Christ in you, something that you want to do.

But for many of us, when it comes to serving, we think about it wrongly. We think about it like eating our vegetables, or working out more, or saving more money or something like this where we would say, "I know I need to do it. I just don't feel like doing it."

It reminds me of the story that many of you have heard about the mother that was making pancakes for her two sons, the six year old, Tommy, and the four year old, Johnny. And they were arguing and she went to set the first pancake on the plate. They were grabbing for it. And she turned around, she was disgusted with her boys. She's like, "Boys, what are you doing?"

I mean, what would Jesus actually do in this situation? And the older one said, "Well, mommy, he would probably let the other one have the pancake first." And she said, "That's really good, Tommy." And so she turned around to continue making the pancakes, and Tommy said, "Okay, Johnny, you be Jesus today."

Many of us think about serving like that. Like something I need to do, something I just don't want to do. But the reality is, if you're a believer, it is something inherent in you that you will want to do with the way that God gifted you to.

So today, we're going to talk about serving in Christ's church and what does God require of his servants for serving. ANd to do that, we're going to be taking a look at first Timothy chapter three. We're going to start in verse eight and finish the chapter today. I'd like to read that aloud and then talk about four qualities of servanthood that God wants to spell out to us today. So, hear the word of the Lord.

He says, "Deacons likewise must be men of dignity. Not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine, or fond of sordid gain, 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're beyond reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and their own households.

For those who have served well as deacons, obtained for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ. I am writing these things to you hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory."

In here, the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, is writing to us about what servanthood in Christ's church looks like and what it means for us to serve Christ's church. What are the requirements and characteristics of Christ's servants? What should we look like? What should we be required to do? And the first is this. Christ's servants maintain godly character. Christ's servants maintain godly character. Says deacons likewise.

Now, he's going to make a shift here. We've been talking about elders. We've been talking about how men are called to lead in the church. And we went through all the character qualifications of an elder last week, at least 15, if not more character qualities.

Now, all of them were important. And we told the men, "Even if you don't serve in the role or office as an overseer, you should aspire to the character qualities that God would have." And we talked about how elders serve by leading, primarily teaching. In the church, teachers have a primary responsibility to bring the word of God to God's people because God is the one setting the direction for his church.

Now, he's going to talk about deacons. Deacon means servant. It means to serve. That's what a deacon is. That's what a deacon does. A deacon is a servant. And so, he says this, he says, "Deacons likewise."

Now, we're going to talk about servants in the church. Must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine, or fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Notice this, he talks about these must be men of dignity. Do you know there's no word in your new Testament in the original that has a Greek word for a feminine deacon? Even in Romans chapter 16 verse one, where Phoebe is called a deaconess sometimes. In English translation, it's the masculine word, deacon. That's what it is.

And so, what you're going to see here, and you're going to see it throughout the text. And I will point it out to all of you, why men are going to serve not only as elders, but as deacons in the church. Now, what does it say? What must these men be? Let's walk through some of them. They must be men of dignity. They must be worthy of respect. They must be honorable.

One commentary I was reading this week said, "Someone who's not a clown." I thought that was pretty apropos, right? I mean, these are people that you're going to look to. I thought about first Samuel chapter 16 and verse seven. First Samuel chapter 16 and verse seven, when God was talking to Samuel, it says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature because I have rejected him.'" He's talking about King Saul. "For God sees not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

What should servants in the church be known for? Their heart, their honorable ability before the Lord. Who they are when no one else is looking, it's going to be the same that we talk about women here in verse 11, not to be double-tongued either. What does it mean to be double-tongued? It means to be two-faced. It means to be hypocritical. It means to be insincere. It means you're going to tell this person that, because that's probably going to benefit fit you. But when you talk to another person, you're going to tell them just the opposite of what you said.

Sometimes, you stir up dissent and controversy by the way that you do that, not double-tongued. This is a person that they say it here, they meant it here. And if it got brought, "Hey, I heard you said that over here." "Yep. I said that. That's what I said. Here's what it is." They're consistent in their speech. They're not a Christian chameleon making up what they say to different people at different times. You can trust these people. What they say is what they mean and what they mean is what they say.

And then it says, "Not addicted to much wine." And we talked about this last week. It's not to have excess in wine. I was talking to a friend of mine this week who was reading the text, getting ready for the sermon. And he said, "Hey, I noticed with the elders, they're not to be addicted to wine. But for the deacons, it's not too much wine. Does that mean deacons can drink more?" And I said, "Well, I don't think that's really the tenor of the text. I think what he's talking about is you're not known for your excess and your drink."

And why do people drink in our culture? Many times it's self-medication. It's not only not drinking so that you're not providing a bad influence to others. Because some of you that grew up in families with a father or a mother that was an alcoholic, you know how tragic the abuse of alcohol is and you want nothing to do with it and rightly so. But it's also for those that would say, "Well, I don't drink in public, but I just drink in private. I sip to medicate."

Let me be clear. Jesus Christ is the only one that can heal your heart. You don't need to medicate on anything but him. And it's true for many people that they can look good on the outside, but in private, it's their behavior, their character that no one else sees. And God says, "I care about your character more than anything else."

I mean, get this. If you get nothing else from the message, here's what God cares about in his church. Character trumps ability 100% of the time. Character trumps gifting 100% of the time. Because we live in a world where we want to go to a church where someone is talented. On a talented worship team, on a talented pastor, on ability people. Friends, talent is a dime a dozen. What God needs are men and women that have character on the inside. Amen. That's worthy of praise to our God.

And it's so important because sometimes we look a certain way on the outside, but deep down we're different people. I have a friend who's a Baptist pastor. And he said to me one time, he said, "Jeff, that's why we as Baptist, we always take two men to go fishing with us instead of one." And I said, "Well, why is that?" He said, "Because if you take two, they'll drink all your beer. But if you only take one, nobody will drink." I'm sorry. I said that backwards. If you take one, he'll drink all your beer. But if you bring two, nobody will drink. That's a terribly blown joke.

Do you get the point though? It was way better at the 8:30, you should go listen to that. The point is sometimes we look a certain way on the outside, but on the inside, we're totally different. That's what it means. What does it mean here? That was really a bad joke. You can still laugh about it. Thanks for being the one person that liked it, even though you didn't understand it, because I blew it.

Okay. Back to the text. Not addicted to wine or fond of sordid gain. Fond of sordid gain means filthy money, dirty money. It means to be shameful, or greedy, or have dishonest gain. Not only in your personal life, but the life of the church. In your personal life, you should handle your money well. And the church money should be handled well. It should be accountable, because people are giving generously to the Lord, and there needs to be people that steward that money well. So, if people that are in leadership that are handling the money are not stewarding it well and not giving it where it's supposed to go or keeping accurate records of it, that's disqualifiable.

Then he says to this in verse 10, "These men must also first be tested." I'm sorry. "But holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience." Now, what's the mystery of the faith? The mystery of the faith is the sound doctrine that we didn't understand in the Old Testament. The sound doctrine that we didn't understand in the Old Testament is the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lord. And that when we believe through repentance and faith, he comes to live on the inside of us. It means that we believe sound doctrine. The mystery that Christ is in us, the hope of glory.

Here, Colossians chapter one, verses 26 and 27. He says this, "The mystery that has been hidden in past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed, to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Friends, when we trust Jesus, it's not just that we get to go to heaven. Jesus comes to dwell inside of us through his Holy Spirit. And we should have a belief in him in us, and we should hold firm to that teaching and that doctrine. And then it says this. It says that we should have a clear conscience as well. A clear conscience means that we're living our faith. It means we're walking our talk. It means we're practicing what we preach. And again, like I said last week, not perfectly, but increasingly.

There is a desire inside of us not to be the people that just spout out doctrine or go to a small group and quote 17 scriptures. But people who genuinely desire to let the word of God transform our hearts and change us and say, "Because God says this, I want to live differently."

Listen to a message by saying, "God, what is it today that you want to show me? And are there any things in my life that you need to change? Because I want to make sure I'm walking my talk. I want to make sure I'm practicing what I preach, and I want to get better and better at that." That's what it means. It's a person who believes in sound doctrine and walks their talk.

And then he says this. He says, "These men must also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach." Very similar to the elders where you say not a new convert. This should be someone who has been tested. It means they demonstrate maturity before you give them responsibility. Why? Because God cares about the character of the people that are serving in his church.

Sometimes wrongly, we just try to grab somebody with a heartbeat and say, "Hey, can you help in kids, please?" Some of the people you're grabbing, you don't want working with your kids, I promise you, because they haven't been tested. They're not walking in integrity. They're not walking with the right character. They need to be built up. They need to grow into maturity and then be unleashed in disservice so that they have the right character.

If you have the right character, God will bring your ability along. If you have the right character, God will grow you into the servant that he wants you to be. But if you don't have the character, it doesn't matter how talented or gifted you are. Eventually, it's going to be a tragic fail. Some of you have been in churches where there's been a tragic fail in leadership, and it's painful, and it's horrible.

And you may ask yourself, "But the person was such a gifted speaker or the leaders were so gifted in business or they were so this." But you know what they didn't have? Character. There's very little that said in the New Testament about how the structure of a church is supposed to be put together and how elders are supposed to function with deacons and how all that works. But one thing that the Bible makes crystal clear is that nobody serves as an elder or a deacon without the right character.

If you have the right character, you can navigate through a lot. If you don't have the right character, it doesn't matter what structure you set up. Eventually, if your character does not outstrip your capacity, you're going to be in big trouble. In other words, if you're more talented than your character is, you got a massive problem.

What does God want to build? He wants to build our character. Let them first be tested, then let them serve as deacons. What's a deacon? They serve as servants. They minister as ministers. They help as helpers. Let them help. Let them serve. Let them do this if they are beyond reproach. Now, what's that mean? Beyond reproach means they're blameless, means no charge against their character will ever stick.

And as I said to you last week, because I think this bears repeating, this doesn't mean that you've never done anything wrong that people couldn't accuse you of. It means if you've done something wrong in your past, you're doing everything you can to make it right. You're honest about your failures and you're trying to make it right. Proverbs 28:13 says, "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion."

With the things in your past, because all of us have them. If you've done them wrong, have you made every effort to make them right? Have you forsaken the things that are wrong? Have you turned your back on them? Are you growing increasingly in the character of God? That's what it means. It doesn't mean we find men that have been perfect. If we had to find perfect men for elders and deacons, only Jesus Christ would qualify. We're talking about men that are wanting to walk in the integrity with which the Bible talks about.

Men must have godly character. Now, why is this important? Because some of the women I know that are listening, like, "Why the men? Why the men?" Because some guys, they hear stuff, I guess, they start beating their ... "Yeah, men are elders. Men are deacons. Amen. Praise the Lord." You know what that means, men? That means God is holding us personally accountable for how godly and spiritual his church is, which means men should be leading and serving in his church without excuse.

Which means kids ministry is not a mom's ministry for little kids. It's men that are training up the next generation to live for Christ. It doesn't mean student ministry is for a couple youth pastors that we subcontract out to, so we hire them. No. Dads, you're responsible for the spiritual growth of your middle school and high school student.

I mean, do you see this? And when we get to heaven ... We can make as many excuses here as we want. But when we get to heaven, your excuses before Jesus aren't going to mean that much. We've been given a mantle of responsibility and leadership that we, as men, should have the character to allow Jesus Christ to grow his church to the fullness of what he wants by leading in love for him in a way that every man, woman, boy and girl gets blessed to the glory of God and that everyone can serve to their fullest capacity. That's the responsibility of men. And not even a golf clap when I say it. I mean, that's the responsibility of men. Amen?

Now, just as we went from elders to deacons with that word likewise. "Deacons likewise must be men of dignity." Now, we're just going to talk about women. He says, "Women must likewise." Now, we're changing the group. We've been talking about men who lead as elders. We've about men who serve as deacons. Now, it says women.

Now, this word women can be translated wives or it can be just translated women. Different people translate it different ways. Good Bible scholars, evangelicals translate it different ways. Many say wives. The reason I say I don't think that's wives is because wives are of elders are required to be good women too that have great character. So, why would only the deacons' wives have to have great character? It seems strange that he would put that in here.

It also seems strange if he's saying, "Well, now he's talking about women deacons." Because he just got done saying that they must be men of dignity. And in verse 12, he's going to say deacons must be husbands. It's hard. It's impossible if you believe what marriage is according to the Bible for a woman to be a husband. So, deacons are men.

So, what's he putting in there? He's putting in his letter through the Holy Spirit of women that are listening to this letter being read saying, "Okay, I get it. Men are to lead. Men are to teach. Men are to lead the church. And men are to have an office as a deacon and serve the church. What about us?" Here's what he says, women. You wonderful ladies of our church must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. In other words, you have great character too, because God wants you to serve to the fullest capacity.

Let me tell you what deacon means. Deacon means serve. It means serve. Well, what should be the character of women in the church that serve? He says they must likewise be dignified. The same as he called the men who are deacons. Women of respect, women of honor, women that have an inner beauty about themselves that God sees. Not malicious gossips. Not malicious gossips. This is the word diablos, it literally means devilish.

Don't be devilish ladies. It means not slanderers, not back biters, not stirring the pot. It means ladies, you don't go around talking about how bad the church is and what needs to change, and how it needs to be this, and the pastor did that, and the elders did that. And look at the deacons there, and how come kids ministry is? That's back biting and slander. It's also not going around talking about other women or other men, or doing ... Don't do that. Godly women don't do that.

He's reminding the godly women in the church. "Hey, don't be that. Be women of honor, not malicious gossips. Be temperate." Temperate, we talked about last week was sober minded. Those that avoid extremes. Those are alert, watchful, vigilant, clearheaded. Those who are always willing to give an answer for the hope that they have within them, and then women that are faithful in all things. That means they're trustworthy in everything. You can count on her. What she says she's going to do is what she does. When she speaks, she means what she says. She's a woman of integrity.

And ladies, I got to tell you, BRAVE Church is filled with these kinds of women that are filled with integrity. They're filled with them. I have the privilege of working on a staff where we have wonderful women of integrity. And we have women that serve in every capacity in our church, wonderful women of integrity. Women you're called to serve. But if there's an office, that office is for a man, right? That's going to be given to him to lead. Why? Because God wants men to lead and he wants them to lead and love, and he wants them to serve and serve well.

Because notice, he goes right back to the men. He says, "Deacons must be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and their own households." We talked about this last week. It means he's a one woman man. Perhaps he can be single. There's not a problem with that. But if he's married, he's satisfied in his marriage. He's not looking around to other women. He's not flirting around. He's not looking at porn. He's not into something else that he's not being satisfied in his own marriage with. And he's good managers of their children, of their own households.

Who's called to lead the home according to God's word? Men are called to lead God's home. It means men who prioritize their family, period. It means if a man can't prioritize his family and lead his family well, how the heck is he going to serve in the church? If you can't even do it with a microcosm of family that you have, and even if you have 10 or 12 kids, you can't do it with them. How can you serve the church? It means you have to have the right integrity.

Now, I need to say this, and this came out last service. And I didn't prepare to say this, but I've been thinking it for the last three weeks. I'm going to say it. I know a lot of you here are single moms. I know a lot of you here hear this message and say, "Hey, I was doing my best. My husband left me. No fault in my eye. I didn't do anything wrong. I mean, what about me?"

That's why men are called to lead, because we're just supposed to take care of the orphans and the widows. Men, we're called to step up that when a mom is raising kids and she doesn't have a male influence in her family, that we as men are to come alongside and help those four year olds, 10 year olds, 16 year olds. See what it looks like to be a godly man in that family. We're to take care of that family. Amen?

It doesn't mean doing something silly or dangerous and doing a one off like, "I kind of like her. I think I'll get to help her kids." No, that's not what I mean. A couple guys saying, "Hey, is there any way we can serve you? Is there any way we can help you? How can we be praying for you?" Because I think the tragedy oftentimes in many churches, because we have so many godly, wonderful women that men back up and kids don't even see a man living for the Lord, unless they're paid and on staff until they get out of high school. That's a tragedy.

Men, let our young people see what it looks like to be a godly man. If you're married, let them see what it looks like to love your wife. If you have kids, let them see what it looks like to be a strong, loving father. And for Christ's sake, come alongside of the single dads, the single moms and help them become the fullness of what God required the church to be. That's our responsibility. Amen?

So, what you see is that we're called to maintain godly character. That's why the biggest part of this whole section is character, character, character, character. Why? Because if no matter how you structure the church, if you structure without character, it's doomed to fail. It's just doomed to fail. If you don't have character in leadership, it's doomed to fail no matter how you structure.

And by the way, I just feel like I need to say this. Paul makes it really clear through the ... The Holy Spirit makes it really clear through Paul rather. It's better way of saying that. Is that if you desire to be an overseer, that's noble. You desire to serve in the church, that's noble. If your reason for wanting to serve is so that people recognize you, that's wrong too. If your reason for wanting to be a deacon or an elder is for a title, you've already disqualified yourself.

You don't need a title. You need a relationship with the Lord that you're going to serve him no matter what, no matter who sees. You want to maintain your character. If you don't have character, you can't help other people growing theirs. Maintain godly character. Christ servants must do that.

Secondly, Christ servants obtain blessings for serving well. Christ servants do obtain blessings for serving well. Now, you might say, "Pastor Jeff, that's just the opposite of everything you've been talking about." No, it's not. Listen to what he says. He says this in verse 13, "For those who have served well as deacons, obtained for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus."

If you remember, we referenced James chapter four last week in verse six, where we said, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. All sin is sin, but one sin that God particularly hates is pride. Pride is when you think you're needed. Pride is when you think you're the best at everything. Pride is when you need to insert your self in there. Pride is when you don't even realize how special you think you are, but everybody else does." That's pride. God hates that.

And God not only hates pride, but when people are prideful, when you're prideful or if I'm prideful, here's what God does. He opposes us. He says, "I'm against you." If we're trying to let Jesus Christ be the fullness of all he wants to be in his church but those that are in leadership and service are being opposed by God, it's impossible to do that. So, it's not about our pride and what we can do for God, but if you drop down in James chapter four to verse 10, here's what he says, "Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you."

You want to be great in the kingdom? Humble yourself. Make Jesus Christ primary in your life. Even if nobody else sees what you do, that's how God exalts you. And what it means is that's when he puts you on a pedestal. That's what high standing literally means. It means to be put on a pedestal. They're not seeking the pedestal. They're actually seeking humility, but God is the one who elevates you.

When I was an itinerant evangelist, I traveled around. I didn't ask for money. I didn't do different things like that, I just traveled. And I told the Lord, "If we ever run out of money, I'll just stop doing what you're doing. But here's the truth, God, I'll go wherever you want me to go. I'll preach whatever you want me to say, and I'll say whatever you want me to say. And it doesn't matter if it's a big event, small event or whatever."

Sometimes, I preached in churches of 24 people. I remember one time I was speaking at an event, they told me it was going to be 250 high school kids. I was two hours away. They said, "Come preach the gospel." I said, "Yeah, I can't wait to come." Left my family, young kids, drove the two hours to get there. Got there. I'm looking around in the parking lot. There's not many cars. I walk inside wondering if I had the right place. And the people met me said, "Hey, thanks for coming. We were pretty bad at getting the word out. So, there's only like five of us here."

So, there were five kids and five adults and they started apologizing and they're like, "Hey, you don't have to preach." And I'm like, "Are you kidding me? I just drove two hours. Sit down." So, I preached to 10 people, because I knew that God had called me to preach. It's not about how many people were there. I still feel the same way.

When we started our church, we had a handful people. I remember one time we had like 55 people listening to me preaching, 40 of them were serving that weekend. Only 15 people showed up and I'm like, "Okay, Lord, this is who you brought. This is what we're doing." It's being faithful in the little and God will bring you faithful into much. But if you think it's about you, God can't even use you. It's just being faithful.

It's when we begin to pray bold, daring prayers and say, "Lord, however you want to use my life, and whatever gifts I may have, and whatever resources might be available, I want you to know they're all yours. And however you would choose to use my time, my resources, my energy, or my gifting, it's all yours. Just lead me in the way you want me to go." If everybody at the church said that, look out. Look out. And it's what you were designed for.

And here's the truth about serving. When you serve well, you have great confidence in the faith that is in Christ. That word confidence literally translates as boldness, specifically boldness in speaking. The more you serve, the more bold you will get for Jesus. The more you do your area of gifting, the more you will get centered upon the person and work of Jesus.

I know what it was like when I first got saved and asked for about the first year. "Am I really saved? Or am I not saved? Did I really do this? Did I not do this?" Once I started serving and saw God begin to show up on my life, my confidence in the gospel grew considerably. I've been preaching now for about 30 years. And about 11 years ago when we preached our very first sermon, I preached my first sermon here. I remember it was from Luke 15 on the Prodigal Son and we used to give it out to people. About three years ago, I listened to that sermon. I'm so glad we still don't give it out to people, because things have changed in my boldness and who I am.

My best buddy, they got saved in our very first sermon service, called me after first service and he said, "Hey, I got saved in that sermon, so I think it was pretty good." But God grows us in our gifting. However you're called to grow, the way you grow is through serving. Most of us think, "Well, let's get more education. I'll learn my Bible better." That's great. Learn your Bible all you want. I'm all for that and I'm all for praying. And I'm all for seeking the face of God 100%, but then let it translate into how God is calling you or prompting you to serve because it's in your service that you will gain a great confidence in the Lord. That you will be bold.

For some of you that say, "I'm not so sure. I don't know that I'm ready yet." It's because you're not serving. It's when you start serving that God will begin to grow his confidence in and through you. Service is essential for all people in the church and there's blessings for serving well. There's joy in serving well. There's pleasure in serving.

I don't know if you can tell or not, but I kind of like preaching. I mean, it's not a have to for me. I mean, it's hard work sometimes to prepare. It's hard work to say certain things. Sometimes people will say, "Pastor Jeff Love it that you're willing to say anything." Well, the reason I'm willing to say anything is because I've grown such confidence in the word over the last 11 years that I believe everything in this book is true that I'm not afraid to tell you that. And here's why, because I'm way more afraid of my heavenly father than I am of you. Amen?

And I'm doing my best. And as I've told you many times that there's something I say that doesn't align with the word, believe the book, because it's true. I'm fallible. The word of God is infallible. The word of God is inerrant. But that's why I want to preach that way.

We had a question on Friday night with somebody that was at the event and they asked, "Hey, what do you do with a pastor that won't preach the word?" And I said, "Well, you pray for that pastor and then love on that pastor and get a group of people around that pastor and encourage that pastor to do that." I mean, what I didn't say is, "But eventually, if the pastor doesn't preach the word, leave. Because God is only as present in your church as the people are willing to let him speak. And it's this word that speaks. It's this word that talks to us."

I mean, inevitably I'll hear about people that come visit our church. They're new to church. You really haven't been here before. I remember what that was like and you come in and you wonder like, "How does Pastor Jeff know everything about me?" And the reality is I know nothing about you. I had somebody tell a friend one time, "Did you tell him what to say to me?" No, that's the word of God. The word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any two edges sword. If you're willing to hear this word, he will speak to you.

There's blessings for serving well. We just don't like it so much, but we're not alone. Jesus' disciples were the same way. We did a Bible study this week in our staff time and it just hit me fresh. In Mark chapter 10, it was the third time that Jesus began to describe to his disciples exactly what he was going to do.

Here's what Jesus says to his 12 for the third time. He says in Mark 10:33, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered to the chief priest and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, and spit on him, and scourge him, and kill him, and three days later he will rise again."

It's the third time he's told him that. What's he telling them? He's telling them, "The entire reason I've come is to die for the sins of the world. Here's exactly what's going to happen to me. They're going to mistreat me, they're going to shame me, they're going to strip me, they're going to beat me, they're going to mock me. They're going to scourge me, they're going to spit on me, they're going to kill me, and I'm going to rise from the dead."

Now, what do you think the disciples would say? It's really interesting. Two of them, James and John who were in his inner circle. And in Matthew's gospel, it involved his mom, so you got a good Jewish mom coming into the conversation too. James and John, the two sons of Zebedee came up to Jesus right after this saying, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."

Jesus just got done saying, "I'm going to lay down my life for the sense of the world." "That's cool. We want you to do for us whatever we ask you to do." And he said to them, "Well, what do you want me to do for you?" They said, "Grant that we may sit one on your right and one on your left in your glory. So, it's cool you're going to die and all rise from the dead. That's great, but we used to have one favor. When you do and everybody is looking to you, just put one on your right and one on your left, because you know what, we want everybody to see us too."

That's the heart of fleshy service. I want to be seen, I want to be known. I want to do what I'm doing so that other people recognize me. And they don't need to recognize me at the time, I won't even wear a badge or anything, but as soon as the word matriculates through the church, I want people to know it was me. That's what the disciples were doing. But he said to them, "You don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I'm baptized? In other words, are you able to suffer like I'm going to suffer and die like I'm going to die?" They said, "We were able."

And Jesus said, "Well the cup I drink, you shall drink. You're going to suffer, and you should be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. In other words, you're going to die. But to sit on my right or my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those whom it has been prepared."

Just a word to you when you get to heaven, for those of you who are believers, there's a parable about not sitting too close to the master in case he comes and embarrasses you and moves you down the way a little bit. When you get to heaven, wait for Jesus to kind of invite you in a little bit. Don't take a seat too close. The father is already ordained from eternity past. Who's going to be sitting where? It's like a wedding banquet where all of the name plates are already set, so just let Jesus bring you into the wedding banquet. That's free of charge.

But what do the other 10 feel? It says this, "Hearing this, the 10 begin to feel indignant with James and John." That's a biblical way of saying something. You can picture a guy with a good reading voice. "They begin to be indignant with James and John." You can hear that, right? What does that mean? What were the other 10 thinking? They're ticked. They're hacked off. And do you know why? Because they wanted those seats.

How come James and John had the guts to ask what they were feeling in their heart? "We want those. How come they're going to get it? How come you like them better than us?" See, that's the heart of fleshy service. The heart of fleshy service is, "I'll do what I do as long as I get recognized. I'll do what I do as long as I get paid. I'll do what I do as long as people see the glory that I have too. I'll do what I do as long as people recognize that Jesus thinks I'm special."

And calling them to himself, Jesus said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them as they're great men exercise authority over them, but that's not to be the way among you. But whoever wishes to become great, you shall be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all for even the son of man did not come to be serve, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." He says, "Greatness is fine. You want to be great? Look for somebody to serve. Look for somebody to serve."

And by the way, we don't beg people to serve here, because we don't need to beg you to serve here, because God has already wired you to serve here. For the born-again believer, there's a desire in you to want to serve in some capacity. You've been gifted to serve. There's a desire in you say, "I want Christ's church to be exalted. I want people to know Christ. I want to be out in the world, reaching people for Jesus. I want that to happen. So, Lord, use me any way you want." It's not a have to, it's I get to. And how does that work? And can you help me do that? That's what God wants. You want to be great? Find someone else to serve. Serve them in a way that if they never recognize your service and only God does, it's a good thing.

Some of the greatest servants we're going to meet in the kingdom of God will not be people that were known on this earth. Some of those people will be people that prayed in prayer closets for a long time for God to do miraculous things, and he answered their prayers and nobody on this world knew them. Some people will be martyrs. Some people will be people from other countries you've never even met before.

We have the wrong idea of what heaven is going to be like. We have an American view that the people that preach to the most people or were out front in the most people, they ave the greatest seats of honor. That's not true. It's the servants that are going to be closest to the throne of God in the kingdom that's coming. God wants you to be a servant. It's what you were designed to do.

I mean, we see this in the book of Acts and this is why serving is so important. And when we're talking about deacons, I think we need to understand this that God has raised certain people in the church that love to serve. They love to help and just say, "Let me add this." A deacon is a super servant. It's somebody that's already doing all these things. It's someone that you would see in the lobby and you know all you got to do is pick up the phone and call them, they'll serve any way they can. That's a deacon. That's what a deacon looks like.

In the book of Acts chapter six, we see this and some people say, "Well, this really isn't deacons." I think it is. And I'm going to show you why. In Acts chapter six, there were problems in the early church. Don't you love that? Some people read the Bible and like, "I wish it could be like back in the good old days when they didn't have any problems." They had as many problems then as we have now.

Here was what was going on at the time. In acts chapter six and verse one. "Now, this time, while the disciples were increasing in number ..." The church is blowing up. I mean, people are coming from every place. A complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews, which are the Greek Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So, these widows, these Greek widows, these Hellenistic Jews were being overlooked in the distribution of the food and the pure Hebraic Jews were getting fed. So, we got all these older women that aren't eating. They're not getting enough of the food distribution.

So, you would think that the apostles are going to stop what they're doing to take care of this problem, because it's a true problem. But notice what they say. So, the 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, "It's not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables." Serve is the word deaconus, it's be deacons. We're not going to do that. Like it's not right.

So, there's a big problem in the church and the apostle is like, "Yeah, it's a deal, but we're not going to take care of it. It wouldn't be right for us to do that. Therefore, select from among yourselves seven men of good reputation, that's right character, full of the spirit." That means they're walking with the Lord and wisdom. It means they're seasoned whom we may put in charge of this task.

Now, why would they delegate that task to deacons? Verse four tells us, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." What's the main responsibility of an elder? Prayer and the ministry of the word. Anything that gets in the way of those two ministries is less important than prayer and the ministry of the word.

Now, I'm going to say that again because most people in most churches do not believe that. "It means, Pastor Jeff, we're just kind of paying you just so you can pray and preach, that's it?" There's nothing more important in the local church than praying and preaching. God answers prayers and that's how God moves the church. God speaks through the word and that's how God moves people. And to give up prayer and preaching to do all sorts of acts of service is a disservice to Christ's church.

That's why they said, "This is a big problem. That's why God raised up people in the church that have a heart to serve, that have the character to serve, so let's deal with the problem, but let's not take away from the leadership in the church whose primary responsibility is to pray and to preach the word."

What does that mean for me as a senior pastor of this church? What's my number one responsibility? It's to seek God's face and to proclaim the word of God faithful. That's essential for everything that we are as a church. And when we do what we're called to do, there's blessings for them.

Now, here's what I love, because some people are like, "Well ..." One of the guys that was picked was a guy by the name of Steven. What was his ministry? To serve food to widows. That doesn't sound all that attractive. That doesn't sound like one of the best jobs in the church. But if you flip over one chapter later in Acts chapter seven, he was the man that got appointed to preach the gospel to the religious Pharisees of the day. And he did such a good job, he only got to preach one time, because when he preached the one time, he brought such full conviction to the religious leaders of the day. They threw him off a cliff and stoned him.

And while he was being stoned, the text tells us that Jesus, who was seated at the right hand of the throne of God, stood up. And Steven said, "I see the Lord standing at the right hand of God." Which made them all the more angry as they continued to pelt him with stones. And Steven's final words were, "Father, do not hold this sin against them." Reminds me of Jesus. Doesn't it?

What was Steven? He helped widows in the church get food. That's all he did. No, he didn't. He changed the whole trajectory and that generation in the church, because he was a faithful man of character. And when the opportunity presented itself, he did exactly what God called him to do. That's what service looks like. That's what a deacon is. Amen?

Service is a big deal to the Lord. He wants all of us to serve. He wants all of us to be humble. He wants us to maintain godly character. We will obtain blessings when we do it. But a third requirement of a servant and what we're called to do is explain Christian conduct in the church. We're called to explain Christian conduct in the church.

Notice verse 14 and 15. He says, "I'm writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long." Paul is saying, "I hope to get there so I can do this face to face." But he says, "In case I'm delayed, I'm writing again so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth." What was he saying? He says our responsibility as servants of the most high God is to explain what Christian conduct should look like in the church and therefore in the world.

We need to know how to conduct ourselves. Conduct ourselves as our consistent manner of behavior. How are we supposed to behave? What does it look like in the household of God? Now, for most people, when they think about the household of God, they think about the building. When our services are over today and all of you leave, there is no church in this building, it's just a building. That's all it is. That has seats.

The church is when God's people who are called by his name gather. The household of God is the family of God. And so, we need to learn as a family of God. How is it that we're called to interrelate with one another? How is it we're called to conduct ourselves both inside and outside the church? The reason we hear preaching and we do worship and we seek God's face in prayer, and we evangelize, and we pray, and we fast and do all those different things is so that we can grow in our character and our conduct so that we're actually walking our talk. So, we're practicing what we preach. That's what it means.

And the job of the church is to explain to God's people, "Here's how God wants you to act. Here's how he want you to think. Here's how he want you to be. Here's what he wants you to do." Because when most people think about how to act in the church, they think like I did when I was growing up, I heard these all the time. Maybe this is just me venting, see a counselor or something, but don't run in the church. Don't act like that in the church. Put your feet down in the church. Don't talk like that in the church.

See, if we think about the church as a building, then we think about what our behaviors need to be and how we need to be behaviorally modified when we walk into that group so we can pretend like we're something different than what we are. But if the church is the family of God, then we're talking about how do you live out your character of Christ when gathered and when not gathered. And how do you look the same when the church is being gathered as you do on Monday through Saturday when it's not?

And the church is to provide a clear instruction and explain what that's supposed to look like. Why? Because he says this in the household of God. What is the household of God? The household of God is the church of the living God. It literally translates as the living God's church.

Now, let me pause and just tell you why this is so important. I realize sometimes when people say, "Where do you go to church?" You'll say things based upon who the pastor is that you listen to teach. So, some may say, "I go to Pastor Jeff's church." So, let me just go on the record and say, this is not Pastor Jeff's church. This is the living God's church. I did not shed one drop of blood for this church. Jesus Christ gave his life for this church. This is his church. I am one of the stewards of this church. This church can go on without me for generations until Jesus gets back, but this church can't make it one more minute without him. Amen? That's what it means.

And I understand for clarity when you're talking about who's doing the preaching and all that, but we need to get in our head that church belongs to God. We're talking about the kingdom embassy. We're talking about kingdom soil and how we're called to look different, and how we're called to be salt and light in the world. Why? Because the church, the family of God, this household of God is the gathering of saints for people who belong to God who have been purchased by Christ's blood. He shed his blood for her, and that's why we're here.

And notice what he says the church is. I think this is the theme verse of all 1 Timothy. It's the pillar and support of the truth. What's the pillar? Pillar is not just something attractive to look at, the pillar is the holding up of the immense structure which is the roof. The pillar is what holds everything up. The support is the foundation on which the structure rests.

So, how are we going to hold up the truth? How are we going to hold up this foundation? He says it's the pillar and support of what? The truth. The truth. What are we responsible for in the church? The truth. We're called to teach people the truth. Whether they want to hear it or not, we're called to present the truth. If we don't get the truth right here as a family of God, the world is never going to get it right. And by the way, just so you know, the world is not getting it right. And by the way, this is the only institution that Jesus Christ established to uphold the truth.

The government does not uphold truth. It's not the foundation of truth. The educational system is not the pillar of truth. Your neighborhood is not the pillar of truth. Your favorite people are not the pillar of truth. Jesus Christ and his church, all of us gathered, we are the pillar and support of the truth. Amen?

And what bothers me is not even so much what's going on outside our church. It's what's going on inside the church all around the world, which is people and pastors and elders that are not upholding the truth. The truth changes people. I mean, you can't even get through Genesis one. That's why we taught it without offending everybody. I mean, there's four basic truths in Genesis chapter one that God created the world out of nothing. That he did it in six days. That he created two genders and there's one race, and that's just chapter one.

And the world says we don't even believe in God, we just evolved. And we don't even know how we got here. How do you know what day is what a day is? And we don't know how many genders there are. We keep adding to the number, and there's so many races and we can't get along. Not according to God's word. That's why we proclaim the word of God because in the word of God, if it's faithfully proclaimed, God touches the hearts of those who are his that says, "Yes, I'm living this." And when you're the pillar and support of the truth, it doesn't mean you keep it in a building, it means you take that out into the world. Amen?

Because we live in a world that will tell you this, "It's okay that you believe that at BRAVE Church, as long as you don't proclaim it to us." No, we're called to take the truth and be salt and light in the world. And because it is true, it doesn't mean it's just true for me because I believe, it's also true for you, because God's word is unchangeable, and it's inerrant, and it's authoritative over every single soul that's ever been created. Amen? And we need to believe that.

We were bought with a price, the Bible says, therefore, we're called to honor God with our body. The church is the gathering place of his saints that must support and uphold the truth, whether it's popular or not. And in our generation, the truth is not popular. Many things that I say here are considered hate speech out there. It's not hate speech to tell you that if you were born a woman, you're a woman. And if you were born a man, you're a man. That's loving.

It's not hate speech to tell you that God created everything out of nothing and that he owns it all. It's not hate speech to tell you that there's only one race. It's not hate speech, it's loving. Because if you own that and you believe that, you will live differently. Amen?

We're called to explain Christian conduct and we need to live it out so that the world sees not only that we say different things, but we're living in different ways. Which means if we really believe that, then they would walk into a church where men are being championed for being men, and women are championed for being women. And they look around and see happy women and happy men because they're all living to the fullness of Christ. That they see people that have distinct differences in their skin colors, backgrounds, and nationalities, but they're all getting along because of the bloodshed by Jesus Christ.

It's a group of people that would say we have different political affiliations and different things, but we all center on the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father. Amen? That's what the church is. That's what we've been called to be a part of. And it doesn't matter where we live, we're to be the visible representation of the truth to the world. We're to explain Christian conduct, we're to grow in it. That's why it takes a long time to get there.

And then finally, we're called to do this. We're called to proclaim the mystery of godliness. Proclaiming the mystery of godliness. Notice verse 16, "By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness." You say, "What is that?" Well, here's what a mystery is. How can God take the most vile sinner that the world may have ever known and turn them into somebody who lives righteously? That's a mystery, but not if you know the gospel.

If you believe the gospel is Christ in you, the hope of glory, it means God can take any man, woman, boy, or girl, and insert his Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity and change that life both now and forever more and help them to live righteous and godliness in hope and in truth. Amen? That's the gospel.

It means the person that's farthest from the Lord, the mystery of the gospel, God can still reach them. God still loves them. Jesus Christ died for them. He wants a relationship with them. He can turn that person's ideology back into himself and have somebody that was living completely different now living for him.

How do you know it's talking about Jesus? Because through the Holy Spirit, Paul basically writes a hymn or a stanza. He said, "He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory." Who's that? That's Jesus. That's Jesus.

Notice what he says. "He was revealed in the flesh." What's that? That's his incarnation. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God." And John 1:14 says, "And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Jesus being born of a virgin means he was born sinless, but he identified himself with humanity. He's fully God, he's fully man. He came into this world. Philippians 2 tells us he was found in the appearance of a man and became obedient to death, even the point of death on a cross, therefore God exalted him.

It's his incarnation. Study the world religions over all you want, you will never find one where God came to man. Jesus Christ is the only one that's ever done that. God the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. He was vindicated in the spirit. That means he was shown to be right.

At his baptism in Matthew chapter four, and at his transfiguration in Matthew chapter 17, the spirit shows up and speaks and says, "This is my beloved son whom I love and him I am well pleased. Listen to him." And then at his resurrection, we see the spirit vindicating him, showing him that he's the right one. Romans 1:4 says, "Who is declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Jesus could have made all the claims he wanted, but if he's lying dead in a tomb, it doesn't really matter. Friends, he rose from the dead in power and he's just alive as he's ever been. Amen? He was seen by angels when he was born. The angels appeared over the shepherds and said, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace among men with whom he's pleased."

When he fasted in the wilderness, angels ministered to him. At Gethsemane, an angel came and ministered to him when he was praying. At his resurrection, there are two angels that were in his tomb. Even throughout his ministry, unclean spirits and demonic angels showed up and they knew who Jesus was. "We know who you are, the holy one of God, what are you going to do with us?" And he cast them out. He was seen by the angels. He was proclaimed among the nations.

Next, chapter one, in verse eight. He says that we would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He was proclaimed in Acts chapter two, and then Jesus and the great commission sent us out to make disciples of all nations. He was believed on in the world.

Notice it doesn't say he was believed on by the world. Not everybody in the world believes in Jesus and they never will, but he was believed on in the world. There's people like you and I that believe in Jesus. And then he was taken up into glory, that's his ascension.

Now, I love his ascension story, because you got to realize in Acts chapter one, when Jesus ascended into heaven and the angels were there, you know what they said? They were looking down at those apostles saying, "Hey, men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking in the air? This same Jesus that you saw go into heaven is going to come back in the exact same way."

What does it mean? This Jesus, this one who came in the flesh, this one who died for you, this one who was seen by the angels, this one who was proclaimed in the world and believed, that Jesus is coming back to this planet to set up his kingdom. Amen? And that's good news. Which means this, regardless of who you are, it's Jesus and him only that you can have a relationship with God through. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me."

friends, all of us are called to serve. All of us are called to serve. We're all called to give our best to the glory of God. Some of us for seasons will have positions in the church to do that. Others of us will come along to accommodate that. Others of us will just simply serve.

But I'll tell you this, if every single person that called BRAVE Church their home would say, "Lord, I just want to be used to the full by you. What does that look like for me? You show me Jesus. I want to be obedient to whatever you show me." And every single person who's called by the name of Christ would do that, look out, because God would do far more than we ever dare dreamed ask or imagine according to his power at work within us. Amen? How great is our God? How great is our God? Amen?

Would you do me a favor? Would you stand with me as we pray? Lord Jesus, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. And we gathered before you, Lord, because you served and gave your life for us. Lord, what else could we do, but serve you? Lord, teach us what that looks like here today.

God, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. If you're here today and you don't have a relationship with Christ, then I'm encouraging you to pray like this. Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I know I'm separated from you, but I believe you died on the cross for all my sins. And I believe you were raised from the dead and that you're the only God. Right now, I want to turn from my sin, it means I want to repent. And I want to trust you fully to be my Lord and to save my life.

Father, I pray for every person that sincerely prayed that. That you would fill them a fresh with your Holy Spirit and do a great work. And Lord, for those of us who know you, speak to our hearts, search us and try us, oh Lord. Use us for mighty service. Some that no one would ever know, but you. And we give you all the praise, glory, and honor because you God and you alone are great. How great is our God? Amen, and amen. Can we give God