Qualifications of Deacons

So grateful to see all of you, especially we were able to get together last night and able to be here tonight for spiritual food. We had good physical food last night, but tonight we come together to worship and to enjoy the presence of God and to hear from his word. So welcome, welcome to encounter, thankful for all the guests that are in our midst. We’re grateful for them helping us out this weekend as well.

We’re continuing with our series wise young servant, and this will actually be the last week that we’ll go through first Timothy in 2024. I have to get used to saying 2025 very very soon, but Lord willing we will restart our series again in the month of January. That’s because we have end of the year meetings coming up starting next week and every week. We have different kinds of meetings coming up and so I pray that all of you will be a part of it. And I really hope that in your life and in the life of the church, the next few weeks, the six weeks, will be time that you set apart for more prayer, more fasting in the presence of God, more anticipation of what God will do in our lives as we enter into a new year. So I pray that you will kind of plan your schedules and your work and your school, and a lot of your finals are about to come to an end, and you know you have a break, but I pray that you will set apart definitely several days in the presence of God and expecting great things to hear from the Lord and to be drawn closer to him before we enter into a new year.

Last week we heard from 1 Timothy 3:1-7 on the qualifications of elder. Joel spoke to us on the qualifications given to us in God’s Word on the elders that Paul wants to have. It’s kind of interesting that we are in 1 Timothy 3 here at the church at Ephesus, and so are we in Acts also kind of the same way. There Paul is speaking to the very elders that he is writing about in 1 Timothy 3. The thinking here as to why the Holy Spirit would prompt him to write this qualifications, this probably the much of the clues to it are given to us in the writing, especially in other chapters that we will come to in first Timothy, where by this time there have been problems in leadership. There have been people coming to leadership that should have never been in leadership. And so Paul is again reminding Timothy, who is now the pastor church at Ephesus, what kind of leaders should characterize the Lord’s Church. But I’m so grateful that the Holy Spirit wrote these things in God’s Word because this would become the model and really the example for us to follow even thousands of years later. That is a greatness about God’s Word. There’s an immediate application to it, to the church at Ephesus. If there is problems in leadership, this is the way how you fix leadership, by getting these men with these kind of qualifications to lead you in the church. And that can avoid a lot of the problems that we’ll read about in the coming chapters. And that also becomes the model for the church to follow.

Sometimes when I read through these things, I kind of shudder at the thought that for many decades of our life, we have kind of largely ignored the admonitions of God’s Word. And that’s kind of sad when we think about it, the fact that many of the churches that we grew up in gave absolutely no regard to any of these passages and did not set up churches the way it is prescribed in God’s Word. And so that is really a wake-up call for us, is that all of God’s Word is for us, and that we should constantly be asking questions. Are there passive scriptures that I’m ignoring in my own life, that we are ignoring as a church? It’s the whole counsel of God’s Word for us, and when we ignore one portion of it, we will end up suffering the consequences of it. That is true not only personally, but it’s also true, very true, corporately as a church as well. So I pray that we’ll continue to be looking into God’s Word and seeing areas in which we need to get better, and there definitely are many areas as well.

So we come to 1 Timothy 3, and I want to highlight verse 1 a little bit, because this is kind of the headlining verse for all the qualifications that we find in 1 Timothy 3. I want you to point out one important thing that you see in the first verse here. It is a trustworthy saying, Paul says, whoever aspires to be an overseer. Immediately in some way of translation it says, whoever desires to be an overseer, or desires a noble task, it says. So there’s someone that is having an internal inclination towards becoming a leader in the church. Now immediately the thought that comes to your mind is that isn’t that kind of a selfish ambition, that you want to be an elder, that you want to be a deacon, so it almost gives the perception that this person that is in leadership, one coming to leadership, has a heart that is actually yearning for a position like that. But that’s not what God’s Word is talking about. God’s Word is talking about a prompting that happens in our inner being that we have absolutely no control over, and immediately it becomes so powerful that it starts manifesting itself in our external where things will happen and God will coordinate events, happens where we will automatically come into leadership.

You’ve heard me say this for many many years now, that I never wanted to be a pastor, but somewhere along the way, in spite of my selfish desires not to be in leadership, not to be a pastor, God starts working in our hearts. And that could be through circumstances, through sermons, through other people. The Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart, and suddenly the prompting comes in your heart that God has called you to a place where you didn’t really want to, to begin with, but they’re exactly what God created you to be and God called you to be. And suddenly something will burning in your heart.

I love this quote by Patrick Fairbairn on the seeking of the heart, of seeking for leadership, and he makes it very clear that it’s not coming from a place of selfish ambition. In fact, if it is coming from a place of selfish ambition, you’re automatically disqualified to become a leader in the church. And he writes this, and I think it’s very important: the seeking here intended in God’s Word in 3:1 must be of the proper kind, not the prompting of a carnal ambition. It’s not one where you sit in the pews and you see the pastor ministering in the church, and you’re like, I want to be standing there and preaching just like him because I love all the accolades and the praise and all the position that he has, and I want to become a pastor. That is a carnal ambition, and that is not something that we should strive for. But the aspiration of a heart which has itself experienced the grace of God is an aspiration of a heart that has experienced the grace of God tremendously, that you have now an earnest desire to see others coming to participate in that heavenly gift. It’s one where you have tasted the goodness of God, the grace of God, and the power of God in your own life. And now you start to ask the question, God, you have transformed me and poured out such immense grace into my life, I don’t want to keep this to myself. I want to make sure that whatever you have given me, the story of my life, the transformation that has happened, the power of the Holy Spirit that is now living inside of me that I experience so tangibly, how can I use it, not just for my own benefit, but for serving others?

When you have a desire like that, where the primary motive for you wanting to serve God is not so that your name can be lifted up, but Jesus’ name will be glorified, and that you get to serve others and let them participate in the most beautiful way in the gift of God that you’ve experienced, guess what God does? God will move circumstances, people’s hearts and minds, even those who are in the process of selecting elders and deacons in church, to see your gifting, because your heart is in the right place. So the way you are selected for this position is not by calling the pastor and saying, pick me to be a deacon or pick me to be an elder. It is making sure that your heart and desire is in the right place, and God is a God who sees our hearts and he will move mountains if it means make sure that your heart, your desire to serve the Lord, is honored in the right way and in the right time for the glory of God. And so if it doesn’t happen, you know what we should see? That’s not God’s will for my life. All I have control is over how I pray about it, what my desire of my heart is. The rest is up to the Lord on how he wants to use me.

Look what God does when he is looking for people that he wants to use. Look at 1 Samuel 13:14. Samuel comes to Saul and he tells him something, I now your kingdom shall not continue, God says to Saul. But you know what God is going to do? The Lord has sought, so this is a pursuit by God. This is where God is literally pursuing and looking for someone. Somebody a bit taller than Saul? Somebody who is a great warrior? Somebody who is a giant brave man? Don’t be fooled by the fact that David was a shepherd boy and he killed animal. I think, you know, he was out of fear that he killed animals in a way. I really don’t think that it was a matter of survival. You know how when survival instincts kick in, your strength becomes so immense. I think that’s exactly what happened to David, the young man. I really don’t think that he was like a giant or wildly strong man or anything of that sort. You all heard of stories of how sometimes parents are able to lift cars when their children are pinned under the cars. Now if you ask an ordinary man or a woman to lift a car, they’re not able to do that, but in that very moment where the lifting of the car is needed to save their child, they have supernatural strength that comes upon them. And that’s natural instincts being taken over by supernatural strength, all the adrenaline and everything that allows us to do things that we are not able to naturally do on our own. I think that’s kind of what happened when he killed the animals that he killed, because it was a matter of not only protecting the sheep, it was a matter of survival for him as well. But God chose him. You know why? God was looking for a man after his own heart. One that reflected the heart of God. Even today, God is doing the very same thing.

Now, a lot of people will come into position, leadership within the church, out there of their own political plays or ambitions and things of that sort. That could happen. But true godly leadership happens when a man or a woman has prepared his heart to serve the Lord, and the Lord, while searching for a man after his own heart, chooses him or her for God’s purpose. So there is a part of God in which he sovereignly chooses us for his service, but don’t forget the responsibility of man or woman in preparing ourselves fit for God to choose us. Those times that David spent in the wilderness singing praises to God, worshipping God, he had no idea God was looking for him, but his heart was in the right place, and at the right time God found him. You know why? God was looking for a man after his own heart. This is a testimony that God would say about David towards the end of his life as well. But even before he made it to be the man that God built him to be, in his even his initial choosing, God was looking for a man after his own heart.

Look at Ezekiel 22:30, the prophetic word come to the prophet Ezekiel, where God is looking for a servant to serve him, and look what God says: I search for a man among them who would build up a wall and stand in the gap before me for the land. So if you want to stand in the gap for God, what do you have to have? A heart like God. You’re basically like a representative of God, standing in the gap for him. And God is only going to choose someone to stand in the gap for him who reflects his heart. That’s why we often pray the prayer, God, let my heart break for the things that break the heart of God, because we are God’s representatives in this world. So our eyes, our heart, our thoughts, our inclinations, our desires, our prayers should be, Lord, let it align with your will and purpose. And Jesus himself taught us to pray that, Father, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does that mean? Our will and purpose aligning with the will and purpose of God. That does not happen naturally, it happens only by surrender, and it only happens by daily asking that question, asking the Holy Spirit to transform you.

You know, when Samuel Brinkley was talking about in his contemporary time, people that should be in leadership within the church, this is what he said. It’s a lengthy quote, but it’s so worth reading. He says, leadership within the church is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. Before you become a leader, you should have prayers in your life. You should have tears in your life. Prayers and tears come in the life of a leader, not just after he becomes a leader, which is so indispensable to leadership, but even before you become a leader fit for that. The work of God through you, you should have what? Prayers and tears. They characterize your life. It is attained by confessions of sin. So you have to, if you want to lead God’s people, you have to, at a very young age, be in the habit of recognizing the sins in your own life and having the humility to what? Admit them and go to the Lord in confession and prayer. You have to have a life, in other words, that is sanctified and daily sanctified in the presence of God. Much heart searching. What is the heart searching? Asking the question, why do I want to be in leadership, humbling before God? Is it because I want my name to be known by other people? I want to make a lot of money. Is it because of selfish gains? No, the heart has to be searched deeply, very deeply, and asking the question constantly, Lord, am I wanting to be a leader out of a complete place of unselfishness in my life?

Then he goes, it is by self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold, deathless, uncompromising, and uncomplaining embracing of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified. You know what this is? Constantly aware of the grace that saved you, and constantly at marvel and wonder that you are a sinner saved by grace. Looking unto the cross is a beautiful thing because you learn a lot of things about yourself when you look at the cross. You see your own depravity, you see the love of God in a way in which that cannot be described, and you are so captured by that, that now becomes the motivation for Christian service. God loved me so much, he died for me, I will not spare any expense when it comes to serving him sacrificially, unselfishly, in complete surrender of my life. That needs to happen. That needs to happen at a very young age. That needs to happen daily. That needs to happen monthly. Don’t ever stop looking at the cross.

Then he continues, it is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but rather, like Paul, counting those things that are gained to us as a loss for Christ. Anything that you have, can boast about today, your education, how good your family is, what kind of a job you have, how smart you are, you need to count all those things as loss for the sake of gaining Christ, which means that Christ becomes the ultimate goal and prize, and the ultimate boast of your life. Your glory in Christ and his cross alone. He says that is not easy. That is a great price, but it must be unflinchingly paid by him who would be not merely nominal, but as the real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth, and in hell. He says you can actually have a lot of shortcuts to become a leader, but you know what the problem with that would be? You will never become the kind of leader that is able to shake the foundations of hell, felt in heaven and on earth by the power of God, because you’ll be operating under your power and strength alone, and that does not make eternal difference in the lives of people.

We talked a little bit about it last night, even about all the modern technology and AI and everything, using AI to prepare sermons and all that. So that came up in our conversation last night, and one of the conclusions that we all arrived together was this: you can use AI to prepare sermons, but that is no substitute for sitting down in the presence of God, receiving from him, reading scripture, meditating upon scripture, and prayer. By using AI, you might be able to deliver a sermon that changes the mind of a carnal man, but if you want to make spiritual difference in the lives of people, eternal difference in the lives of people, there are no shortcuts to it. It is only done by people who are consistently willing to surrender their lives unto the Lord and see God use them in ways they cannot naturally be used. Every sermon, every time you stand before God’s people, you don’t want your own expertise, influence, your knowledge to be the driving force as to why a sermon is effective. There’s a lot of human intellect and human knowledge and human abilities that you bring to a sermon, but at the end of the day, what makes a sermon different than any other talk in the world? It’s the supernatural power of God that flows in the midst of it.

And that’s why you come week after week. That’s why people go to church week after week. The message is kind of the same, isn’t it? If you think about this for a second, if you had a seminar that had a topic, and you went to the seminar one Saturday, and the next week the same speaker is speaking and the topic is about the same, you’d be like, well, I already went to the seminar last week. I don’t need to go this week again. You will not go week after week and week to listen to the same person kind of talk about similar things week after week. You will try to find something different. But why do you come to church? Millions of people do around the world. Forget about just our church, but millions of people do. Why? Because there’s inherent power that is contained in the gospel that is different than any other talk or anything else that you could ever hear in your life. It touches areas in your life that a movie cannot touch. It touches areas in your life that a documentary cannot touch. It touches, makes eternal difference where nothing on earth could ever do the things that gospels can and sermons that are based on God’s Word can. And that’s why a leader of God’s people is so important.

So why I took this much time about the preparation to become leaders is because I see a lot of potential leaders sitting right in front of me. The coming of the Lord tarries in the next 10-20 years. All of you will be leading this church or leading other churches as the Spirit of God enables you. And when that happens, it should not be happening just overnight, where somebody just calls you and says, I want you to become an elder tomorrow. No, there has to be preparation that happens at a very young age. So as a young man, young woman in your 13, 14, 15, 18, 20s, start preparing for the work of God by doing the hard work of surrender and sanctification. Don’t wait to become a leader before your heart is prepared to lead. Start doing the work that God is asking you to do today, so that when the time has come, and time will come, because God is a faithful God, you will be ready and your ministry will be a blessing in the lives of God’s people and for the glory of his kingdom.

So people that are called with that desire, that God himself has called according to his plan, what should they be? We talked about elders last week, and we come to deacons real quickly. Verse 8, in the same way deacons, and that comes from a Greek word diakonos, which literally means servant. That’s what it means. In fact, deacon is not an English word. Deacon is a generation of diakonos. We could not find a better word to call those who serve within the church, so the church always called them a deacon, and it actually comes from the word diakonos. There are two words in the Greek English New Testament that are very unique to the Greek New Testament. One is diakonos, which literally means a servant. Another one is doulos, which literally means a slave. The difference between the two is, in the case of doulos, you are a slave to your master, the Lord Jesus Christ. In diakonos, you are basically called, this is what we are called to do as people of God. We read this in Matthew 20:20-28. This is not a novel concept. Even before, when our Lord was on this earth, he reminded the disciples that he had called them not to lord over people because the authority they have as apostles and disciples, but he had called them to diakonos, to serve their fellow man.

Look at Matthew 20:26. He says that the people of this world that are lords, they lord over people. They take the authority they have and they’re literally just kind of lording over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your diakonos. He uses that word, servant. He says, if you really want to serve God’s kingdom, you have to be what? A servant. And guess what? If you really want to be great among the people of God, you have to become a servant. You know how controversial this is? In fact, it is only the God of the Bible who says this. All the other things in the world says, if you want to be great, do great things. It is only God’s Word and the Word of God that says, and Jesus, who is God, says to us, if you want to be great, you have to become your servant.

Years go by and the church is formed in the book of Acts. We talked about this in Acts 6. The church started to grow as we read in the book of Acts. The church started multiplying. God starts adding numerous people to the church. By the time you come to Acts 6, there’s a problem. The church has grown so much that you have a bunch of apostles who are teachers and elders, but there’s nobody to actually serve the people. And there’s a kind of a, almost a dissension that happens between the Jews, the original Jews that are living in Jerusalem, and the Greek-speaking Jews, or converts. They’re kind of a mixed community, some people who are from Jerusalem, some from—they’re not, and they have different cultures, and they’re sort of complaining, saying, our widows, the ones who don’t have any husbands and who are dependent upon the church to feed them, are not being taken care of properly. So they have found a solution where deacons were first formed in the New Testament church.

Acts 6:2-4, the Twelve gathered—who are the Twelve? The apostles—all the disciples together, and said, it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God. Remember what an elder is supposed to primarily do? He is supposed to teach and preach the word of God. Now he’s not saying that—and this is very important to understand—the apostles are saying, it’s not saying that serving is beneath them. It’s not beneath me to, even though I don’t know much about the buildings, to try to take care of the building. It’s not beneath me to take the trash out. I’m gladly do it. It is not beneath me to, I don’t know what else I could do, to serve somehow in the church. I’m trying to think of what position of deacon I could occupy. I, I can’t, no, I can’t be a worship leader or anything like that. I cannot be media. I don’t know anything about media, so there’s not really much here that I can do. But you know, I’m sure I can come up with something. You know, I can maybe organize some of the events or something. You know, I can do maybe what Romy and Prince are doing, help them. There has to be somebody else to help me as well, because I’m not really good at doing any of those things by myself. But the main reason is, if I start doing some of those things, what will happen? I will neglect my preparation of the preaching of God’s Word. And in fact, a lot of churches where you don’t have deacons, pastors get burned out. You know why? Because they have to prepare sermons and also serve the church in other areas. So the pastor is the worship leader. The pastor is the one that has to organize the different language worship. The pastor is the one that has to worry about media. I have seen pastors go and do sound in the back while I preach on the podium. I have been to churches where I’ll be preaching and the main pastor is actually in the sound booth controlling sound. That has happened before, because out of all the people in the church, he knows more about sound than any others. So after introducing me as a speaker, he went straight to the sound booth and he’s in the back. I’ve had pastors actually change the slides before. And that’s not healthy because, remember, that pastor has to do now that every week. And what is, what gets neglected is his preaching, his preparation. The most important thing that I do, elders do, pastors do, in the life of the church is the preparation for the preaching of God’s Word. Everything else is secondary. Visiting you is secondary. Being there for you, counseling you, is secondary. The primary purpose of a pastor in the church is feeding the sheep, which is God’s Word. And so that should never be neglected. So there’s only so much time in a day, there’s only so much time in a week, and they’re basically saying, we cannot neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. It’s not that we cannot wait on tables, but if we do that, God’s Word will be neglected, and that will can destroy a church.

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom—not seven men from among you who know, who are healthy and can move tables. They are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Again, pay attention to the fact that nothing of external qualifications are mentioned in God’s Word. It doesn’t say that they have to have a college degree. It doesn’t say that they have to have money. It doesn’t say that they have to know somebody, they have to belong to a family. They have to be full of God’s Spirit and wisdom, matter of the heart, things that are happening internally. We will turn this responsibility over to them and give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word. You want your pastors to focus on these two things? That would be a blessing for your church. Always. So you want to make sure that you are freeing up as much time as possible for the pastor to do what? To do the primary things that he’s called to do.

One of the biggest problems I had in ministry early on was delegation. I’m really bad at delegating stuff. Even at work, I’m really bad at delegating stuff. In fact, if I were to list my biggest drawback in leadership over the years, it’s the fact that I’m really bad at trusting people with stuff. But over the years, I have grown in that area, especially in the life of the church. At work, I’m still bad. I don’t delegate anything. I try to do everything. But at church, by the grace of God—and I think that has to do with the fact that some of you, we’ve been together for almost 10 years now, and so what has happened over the years is that trust has been built up, and so delegation has become much easier now. And I’m telling you, here at Restoration Church, this is happening beautifully. You, by your ministry service here as a deacon or deaconess, have really freed us our time to focus on other things that God is really calling us to do, and I’m grateful for the deacons that we have in our church, the deaconess that we have in church that are serving the church so faithfully.

But then God’s Word tells us, so that’s how deacons started. And the church then started having these two ministries within the life of the church: one, the ministry of an elder, second one, the ministry of a deacon. These are the only two positions that are given to us in God’s Word. Nothing else is given. Even the board of trustees and other things that we have in the life of the church are things that are part of corporation. They’re not part of the church itself. Only two positions are given: either a deacon or a deaconess, or you’re an elder. So what are some of the qualifications to become a deacon? The Bible says you have to be dignified or worthy of respect. And then it tells you three things that you should not be. Second one, you should not be somebody who says one thing to one person and another thing to somebody else, an honest person. If you are a liar, you should not become a deacon. If you are given to deceitfulness, you don’t have any point being a deacon or a deaconess in a church. You have to be given to honesty in the church, integrity in your life. That means that an elder, a leader of the church, should look at your life and say, this person can be trusted. This person can be trusted to run this department or to serve the church in leadership position because I know that what this person says is true.

Next, the Bible says he should be given to self-control. In fact, the example that is given in God’s Word is that he should not be somebody who drinks too much wine. When we hear about things like that, we’re like, well, it’s just talking about alcohol. It’s not just talking about alcohol there. It’s talking about one who is willing to give up certain things in his life, because he does not want his mind to be altered by substances that would hinder him from serving God faithfully, diligently, and carefully. And last week, Joel talked in detail about the difference in wine in the first century and wine today. I don’t want to go into great detail there, but overindulging in wine inhibits—take away your inhibitions. It makes you not make sound decisions, and that kind of a lack of sound mind is not fit for someone who wants to be a leadership within the church. So somebody who is a chain smoker, somebody who abuses drugs, somebody who abuses alcohol—all of these are areas by which you can be disqualified in serving the church. So lack of self-control, why is that so important? You don’t want somebody leading the church who cannot control his own life, because he is supposed to control and be someone who is able to influence others positively. So you never want to have someone who does not have self-control.

And lastly, there is some repetition here, overlap between elders and deacons: not a lover of money. The word dishonest gain is used, which means that you do not want someone who will do whatever it takes to gain an extra dollar. You don’t want somebody who is selling his soul for the sake of taking money. Remember, in the church, usually deacons are the ones that handle the finances of the church. You don’t want to put someone, Judas, in charge of the treasury of your church. You cannot be someone who is a lover of money.

And what else they should be doing? Verse 9, they must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. A deacon has to be somebody who has sound doctrine understood and believing in. You don’t want to have somebody as a deacon or deaconess who comes to the pastor and says, I don’t really believe in the trinity. I don’t believe in the substitute death of Christ on the cross. I don’t believe in the resurrection. I don’t even know if this is true. No, you don’t want somebody like that. You want somebody who is so grounded in scriptures and in faith with a clear conscience, which means that he is so clear-minded when it comes to the foundational truths of God’s Word. This is not a new believer. This is a seasoned believer who understands, maybe not a theologian, but at least understands the foundational truths of scriptures. You have to be able to take any deacon that serves here in our church and ask them the foundational truths of scriptures. They should be able to tell you one God existing in three persons, God who died for us on the cross. The basic foundational truths of scriptures should be known by them.

Verse 10, they must first be tested. Even among the elders, the Bible talked about it, it should not be a new believer, because with a new believer they’ll become conceited. Same thing here. You don’t want to make somebody a deacon or deaconess that you don’t really know well in the church, somebody who just you happen to know for a couple of months should never become a deacon in the church, because they have to be tested. And how do you test someone? Time, examining their life, watching their way of living, watching the way they conduct themselves. And then if there’s nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, but at least in the eyes of man, there’s nothing that disqualifies them from becoming a deacon.

Verse 11, in the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect. Some of your translations translate these women as wives, and some people say it’s talking about the wives of the deacons, and so women are not allowed to be deacons just like men are not. But actually, this is talking about a third position in God’s Word. Remember the construction of the whole paragraph here: elders are talked about, then it says, in the same way deacons, verse 11 it says, in the same way the women. The reason why there’s confusion between women and wives is because in the Greek there’s only one word for women and wives, so it depends upon who is actually doing the translation as to why the word women and wives are used. But I do firmly believe this is talking about women who are deaconesses within the church, because there’s a separate category here in verse 11. The women who serve as deaconesses are to be worthy of respect. So they have to be respectful, worthy of respect, just like the men. Look at the overlap in qualification here: not malicious talkers. Now, why isn’t malicious talk mentioned in the case of men? Well, don’t throw stones at the messenger, but I think, in general speaking, women are probably more likely to gossip and speak maliciously than men, in general. I’m not talking about women here, but in general. But they have to be what? Temperate. Again, what is that? Self-control. Trustworthy in everything. You see the overlap here? The same qualifications of men are also given to the women as well: self-control, trustworthy, honest people, worthy of respect, and not malicious talkers. You don’t want somebody who is a gossiper. You don’t want somebody with a loose tongue. You don’t want somebody who does not have an ability to be able to talk to people and reason with people, somebody who is an edifier. That kind of person is what we want to be a deaconess within the church.

Verse 12, just like an elder, a deacon must be faithful to his wife, must manage his children and his household well. Again, this is not talking about perfection. We have so many examples of children of pastors and elders that have gone where that does not mean they are automatically disqualified from being in leadership. But they at least have to have an effort, and there has to be a consistent ability that they have shown to manage their household well. But an elder or a deacon is not responsible for the salvation of their children. But if they never took their children to church, never taught them God’s Word, never had boundaries and rules in their household, and they did not manage their household well, that is a disqualification from them being in leadership within the church. But the salvation of their children, the spiritual walk of the children, ultimately is between them and the Lord. But they have to be people who are willing to manage their household well.

Verse 13, those who have served well—look at this verse, beautiful verse—gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus. So after telling us the qualifications of deacons, he includes this verse. This is a summary for elders, deacons, and deaconesses. If you serve the Lord well, you know what will happen? You gain an excellent standing. What does it mean by excellent standing? Excellent standing in the presence of man and God. But not only that, your faith life increases when you serve God faithfully in the walls of the church. Those who do not serve God within the church, you know what happens to them? Their spiritual growth becomes very very stunted because they are not being served and used in the life of the church. The reason I say that is because if you don’t have a title of an elder or deacon here tonight, that does not mean that you are not called to serve the church. Everyone is called to serve each other and the body of believers. So whether it be cleaning up the fellowship hall, whether it be taking the trash out, whether it be coming here and making sure the sanctuary is okay, whether it be putting the mic on for me every Sunday, whatever it is that God is calling you to do, do it well. There is great assurance and growth in faith in the Lord Jesus that the Lord promises to us.

This quote by Philip Ryken: Assurance of faith does not come with introspection, but through service. Those who labor for the Lord most actively love Him most confidently. There is an intricate connection between laboring for the Lord and loving the Lord. When you labor for the Lord, it almost becomes impossible not to become, fall in love with Him over and over and over again. So you need to ask yourself, I don’t know what my calling is, I don’t know what God is asking me to serve, but you know what? I will do whatever. I will do whatever. If it means I need to learn how to operate a sound board, I’ll do it. If it means I need to learn an instrument, I’ll do it. If it means that, okay, I don’t have any of those giftings, but I can maybe get here in the morning, help with setting up the Lord’s table, I’ll do it. If it means that one of the departments needs some help and I need the planning, I’ll do it. I’m not a deacon, but God has called me to serve, and I’m going to serve. Which means that every week, every month, in my season of life right now, I’ll be always asking the question, how can I serve God and His church even more than I did last year? I don’t need a title to do it. I don’t need a title to do it. I’ve shared my own testimony with you, and I’m not saying this to like prop myself up or anything like that. For almost 20 years of my life, I devoted so many hours each and every week for the local church without any title. It’s fine. Never desired for it. And that was some of the most blessed years of my life. I’m telling you, don’t wait for someone to give you a title. Serve the church. Serve His body. Do whatever, even if nobody recognizes you. Do the things behind the scenes. God is watching. Those who labor for the Lord will love Him with more confidence, and they will grow in their faith. You know why? We’re only following the example of the one who has called us to service.

Look at Matthew 20:28 that we read today. The Son of Man did not come to be served. The Son of Man did not come to be lorded over. Who is the Son of Man? The God of the universe. He came to serve, diakonia, and to give His life as a ransom for many. If Lord of the universe came to serve us, is there any excuse for us not to serve others? Even today we sang about this, didn’t we, in the last song that we sang, and I just wrote it down real quick. The Savior knelt to wash our feet, now at His feet we bow. How do you bow at His feet? He is not literally here. One of the ways in which you bow at His feet is by serving His body, the church, in whatever capacity you can. God has given you breath in your lungs, you have strength, you have abilities. Do the little things. If you do the little things, He will entrust you with greater things in your life.

Remember this: it is only in Jesus that we learn what diakonia, or serving, really is, since He served us ultimately by dying for us. It is in Jesus that we really serve, that we really learn serving from. You don’t learn ultimate serving from looking at your pastor. He is only a very imperfect example of what it means to serve sacrificially. The most perfect example of serving sacrificially is the life of our Lord. And He laid down His life on the cross ultimately to show us that He came and He spared no expense when it comes to reaching us with His love and His eternal gift of eternal life. So we serve because we were so lavishly served. We love because we were so lavishly loved. We give ourselves away so freely because He did just that for us.

So we serve the church, we become whatever God wants us to be, because He became a man and died for us on the cross. I’ll end with this. I don’t know how many of you know the mission ministry known as The Navigators. It was founded in 1933 by an evangelist by the name of Dawson Trotman, who mentored one Navy sailor, Lester Spencer, aboard USS West Virginia, which was a warship that the US had during the second world war. Their efforts that they started on that ship, 135 additional sailors became believers through that ministry that started on that ship. And you know what the amazing thing is, that during the attack on Pearl Harbor, this ship went down into the sea, but not before many of those sailors had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ because of the work of this one evangelist. By the end of World War II, thousands of men on ships and bases around the world were learning through The Navigators ministry, still going on very strong.

This man, an unassuming man, evangelist Dawson Trotman, was visiting Taiwan on one of his overseas trips. During the visit, he hiked with the Taiwanese pastor back into one of the mountain villages to meet with some of the national Christians there. The roads and the trails were wet, and their shoes became very muddy. Later, someone asked the pastor, the Taiwanese pastor, what he remembered most about Dawson Trotman. Without hesitation, the man replied, he cleaned my shoes. How surprised this humble national pastor must have been to arise in the morning and realize that a Christian leader from America, who had come there as a visiting missionary, had risen before him and cleaned the mud from his shoes. Such a spirit of servanthood marked all of his life. In fact, he died actually at the age of 50. You know how he died? He died just as he lived. He actually died rescuing someone, a little girl who was drowning in the waters. He rescued her, but he died. You know what that is? Service, serving others, living for others, even to the last breath, doing what God is calling them to do.

Worship team can come forward. The last couple of weeks, we have heard so much about the qualifications of elders and deacons, and none of us have reached perfection in any of these areas. We have a long way to go. But you know what constantly we are made aware of? Being a leader, being called to serve in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the most wonderful privilege ever. It’s such a privilege. There is nothing else that you do on this earth that has eternal value like serving Christ and His church. What you do at work, done with your life on earth. What you do at school, don’t have any eternal significance. It’s all for life here on earth. But what you do, not only within the walls of the church, but even in the streets, in your communities, in your workplaces with Christ on His mind and His glory, those are the things that you will revel in and joy in for all eternity. Then, including myself, we all will be wishing, oh my goodness, I wish I served the Lord, I wish I volunteered more, I wish I did whatever it took to serve Christ and His church. I pray that we will have that heart and desire, and let God prepare all of you to continue to grow in your knowledge of Him and to become leaders of the church in the days ahead.